Ground Defense Force
Mao-Chan


Chapter 7:
Project: Defense Barrier


June, Day X.
It was about three days since the 'Mouse Incident', as the Defense Forces referred to it now. Mao was in the Defense Force Target Range, standing before several targets painted with Cute Aliens' faces. She held her baton before her, almost in a praying position.
"Mao," came Rikushiro's voice over the PA, "concentrate on your baton. Utilize your Spirit of Defense to hit the targets!"
"Yessir!" shouted Mao, who then began chanting "Defense!" and she began to say it with more and more gusto as she chanted. After nearly a minute of chanting, Mao saw thar, to her amazement, one end of her baton was glowing a bright-white light. "Good job, Mao!" said Rikushiro's delighted voice over the PA. "Now, Mao, break the targets!"
"Yessir!" shouted Mao again, this time concentrating on sending the light on the end of her baton towards one of the targets. She was concentrating so much that she barely heard Miss Kagome shouting, "Chief of Staff, the space beam fired by Private Onigawara is unstable!"
Mao heard the space beam shoot out and hit something. Mao looked up expectantly, then yelped in dismay when she saw that all of the targets were OK. And that there was now a gaping hole in the wall above them. But, strangely, the ball of light was still on the end of her baton.
"Don't cry over spilt milk, Mao!" said Rikushiro, who had now ran into the room. "Try again! Keep trying till you can hit 'em with your eyes closed!"
And Mao did try again. But she was so flustered from her first failed shot that she missed completely. Suddenly, her baton began to act with a mind of its own, firing in every direction at random. More than once a blast would nearly hit Rikushiro, who would dodge in the nick of time and shout, "Hey, watch where you're firing, Mao!" But Mao had almost no control over her baton, let alone her aim.
After nearly a minute of uncontrolled chaos, during which Rikushiro hid behind one of the targets, Mao had completely obliterated the wall behind the targets, and all of the targets were perfectly fine. By this time, however, Mao had gained control of her baton and the space beam once more, and was preparing to hit the targets. "Get outta there, Grandpa!" she shouted towards Rikushiro.
"That's 'Chief of Staff', Mao!" corrected Rikushiro as he ran out from behind the targets and into the booth, where Miss Kagome was.
And so in less than a minute, Mao had controlled the space beam, and hit all of the targets.
"Good job, Private Onigawara," said Miss Kagome's PA voice, "You hit all the targets in exactly 93.2 seconds with an accuracy rate of 98%."


Later that day, when Mao left Ground Defense Force headquarters, she ran into Misora outside . Both of them still had their Type 2 Gear downloaded. "So, Misora-Chan? How did you do in Target Practice?" asked Mao. Misora seemed excited, "I hit all of my targets in 37.1 seconds with an accuracy rate of 94%, I say. How did you do, Mao-Chan, I ask?" Mao felt a twinge in her spine, and hung her head sadly. "Mao-Chan, what's wrong, I ask?" "I, myself, took 93.2 seconds to hit them all," Mao confessed.
"Ehh?! But why did it take you so long to hit them, I ask?" asked Misora, clearly befuddled that Mao could take so long. "I'll tell you on the way to Sylvie-Chan's target practice," said Mao, as the two turned towards Sea Defense Force headquarters. Hopefully, Sylvie-Chan will be slower than I, myself, was, Mao thought, That would make myself feel better...


"You hit all the targets in exactly 9.4 seconds with an accuracy rate of 100%. Congratulatons, Seaman Sylvia," said the Sea Defense Force operative to Sylvie. Mao just sat there with her jaw dropped. Sylvie did better than Mao did, and Mao was in the Defense Forces much longer than Sylvie.
Suddenly, Sylvie put her hands behind her head and yawned, "This is far too easy. I, the officer, feel bored." "You do?" asked the operative. At once, tears began rolling down Mao's face at this fact.
"Boring, boring, totally boring," said Sylvie, walking out of the Target Room. As she walked by Mao, she grinned mischieviously at her. Misora was just as flustered as Mao was, though Misora was not nearly as close to tearing up as Mao was. Misora took out a tissue in her pocket, and started wiping away Mao's tears, saying, "Don't cry, Mao-Chan. Sylvie-Chan is just rubbing salt on the wound, I say!"
But Misora's words didn't stop Mao from crying her eyes out. How could Sylvie-Chan have done better than I, myself, did? she thought to herself.


Rikushiro rushed to the Defense Force Strategies Room. Kagome had something important to tell him, something about a 'new defense strategy', so Rikushiro made best possible haste to the Strategies Room. When he got there, he saw Kagome, as usual, standing before the TV monitor that displayed slide-shows, motion pictures, and the like. Rikushiro took a seat in the front row; he wanted the best possible view of the strategy that Kagome had in mind.
"Please begin, Miss Kagome," Rikushiro said.
"Yes, sir," said Kagome. "This is a new strategy involving the elementary school Ground Defense Force member. This strategy is called 'Project: Defense Barrier'. Now, will you please turn your attention to the screen behind me?"
The lights dimmed, and the screen showed a slide of Mao firing a space beam at a cat-like Cute Alien, which was crying.
"The space beams fired by Private Onigawara and the other elementary school Defense Force members are apparently very powerful. However, our computer simulations show that if the beams are directed at the Cute Aliens, it could look like an act of bullying," the slide changed to one of Mao being yelled at by various people, "and the public outcry and ultimate demise of the Defense Forces will be inevitable. However..."
The slide changed to one of the three elementary school Defense Force members surrounding the same cat Alien. "...if all three elementary school Defense Force members form a triangle around the Cute Alien, they can fire their space beams in a triangular formation and secure the Cute Alien for further transport."
The slide changed to a similiar one, but there was now a broad beam of light traveling from the ends of the girls' batons to the ends of the one next to them, forming a triangle of light. The Cute Aliens had a speech bubble over it, saying 'Oh no, I can't move!'
"And so the Cute Alien can be captured while maintaining its cuteness and minimizing damage to the surrounding area. This is 'Project: Defense Barrier', sir," said Kagome as she saluted. I hope he likes it. I racked my brains tryin' to come up with a strategy, thought Kagome.
Rikushiro, with his hand cupped over his chin, said, "I get it. It's crystal clear to me. It is no wonder to me that you could concieve of such a brilliant strategy, Miss Kagome."
"Thank you, sir," Kagome replied. Thank goodness he likes this new strategy. I thought that he wouldn't like it since 2nd Lieutenant Tsukishima and Seaman Sylvia are involved in it.
"However..." said Rikushiro, standing up and walking up to the slide-show projector. "...I don't like the fact that involves all three girls. Is there no way for Mao to defend on her own?!"
"Ja, even wizzout such a project-plahn, my Zylvie is perfect!"
"Well, at least my granddaughter doesn't need seeing glasses!" said Rikushiro, looking up at Sorajiro and Adalbert, sitting in the back row, then turning back to Kagome. "How long have these two been here, Miss Kagome?"
"Well, they've been in here since before you came in here, sir," said Kagome, shaking slightly. She was trying not to get Rikushiro too angry. He had to watch his blood pressure, after all.
"We don't need a combined strategy against the Cute Aliens," stated Sorajiro, "The Sky Defense Forces and my little Misora are all Japan needs to be protected." He raised Okita-San, his caricature doll. "Right?" he asked it. He squeezed Okita-San in agreement.
"But, sirs, the Cabinet has already approved of the plan, and incorporated it into the dispatch orders." Kagome knew she would regret saying this the moment the words slipped out of her mouth. At once all three Chiefs of Staff turned to her, eyes closed almost to the point of slits. "What?" the three of them hissed.
Then all three of them leaned toward her shouting, one after the other, "Well, tell them the plan is no good!" "Well, at least my granddaughter is number one," muttered Rikushiro, a smug grin plastered on his face.
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but my Misora is number one," retorted Sorajiro. "Zylvie is wahn-derful!" said Adalbert in response. This caused all three Chiefs of Staff to lose their cool and their smiles, and they shouted at each other, "My granddaughter is clearly number one!"


Yuriko and Chinami were watching Mao, Misora, and Sylvie again. Yuriko had no idea why; they had gotten all the information they would need to play on Mao, Misora, and Sylvie's weaknesses.
"Chinami-Chan," asked Yuriko, "why are we still watching Mao-Chan and her friends? We already got the information on them that headquarters asked for."
"Because, Miss President," Chinami snapped, "headquarters was attacked!" (Author's Note: This is where the AU comes in.) Yuriko was shocked. "Really?! By who? What'd they take?" "That's the thing, Miss President. These invaders, strangely enough, only took our information on Onigawara and her friends. As for who, well, read this newspaper clipping," and Chinami handed Yuriko a newspaper clipping from the Cute Alien Newspaper, The Squeakly World News. It was written in the Cute Alien language, but Yuriko could read it, being raised for almost ten years of her life by Cute Aliens.

CUTE ALIEN DATABASE ROBBED!
Much to the shock of our leader, Galaxy the Great (142 years old), a battalion of strange aliens attacked the Cute Alien Database yesterday and stole information from it. Four Cute Sentries set to guard the information were killed by these unusual invaders, whom a survivor described as "shadows with flaming eyes", before going insane and having to be put to sleep.
"This is outrageous," said Galaxy the Great in an interview earlier today. "These unexpected attacks are uncalled for. These invaders must be completely devoid of emotion. We shall track down these aliens, intercept them, and terminate them."
Strangely enough, the only data stolen was the information collected by Yuriko Oozora and Chinami Noki (both 17 years old) on the Light of Kusanagi-Sama-wielding Defense Force girls, who already captured a number of our forces. For what purpose, we can only guess.

"Four Cute Sentries were killed?" Yuriko gulped. "Yes, I'm afraid so, Miss President," said Chinami, who was shocked as well. "And Cute Sentries aren't exactly easy to take down, either," said Yuriko, shocked that there was death on the Cute Alien home planet.
"What shocks me most, Miss President," said Chinami, "Is that these invaders supposedly killed the Cute Sentries without a second thought. I mean, Onigawara and her friends, at worst, would knock out Cute Aliens. To know that there's some alien race out there that has no problem with killing Cute Aliens is scary."
And both of them resumed watching Mao and her friends. Mao currently had a large tire tied behind her by a rope that went around her waist. Though Mao usually ran slow, she was running slower than ever with the tire tied to her.
"Poor Mao-Chan..." muttered Yuriko. Chinami must have heard her, because she said, "Don't sympathize with them! They are starting to display more of the powers of Kusanagi-Sama than we anticipated! Whether they're the Ones Chosen by Kusanagi-Sama or not, they're still a threat to Operation: Japan Collection!"
"So, do we have to get our information again, Chinami-Chan?" asked Yuriko. She didn't want to seem odd, going up to Mao and her friends, asking for more pictures. But Chinami smiled wickedly, "No, Miss President. Quite the contrary. Fortunately, I saved all our data onto a separate disk, and Jirocho is delivering the data to headquarters as we speak. I even sent a request to the top to start a full-scale attack."
"What?!" said Yuriko. "A full-scale attack? You can't be that desperate, can you, Chinami-Chan?" Chinami turned, an annoyed look on her face. "It's not that we're desperate as much as we want to overwhelm the Defense Forces."
BEEP! BEEP!
Chinami pulled out her cell-phone, and spoke into it, "Yes. Chinami Noki speaking... Really? That's good to hear. Okay, talk to you later. Bye," and she hung up. "Good news, Miss President. Headquarters is moving forward with a full-scale assault. The first Cute Alien trained for this will arrive in Japan in just an hour or so."
"Oh," said Yuriko, as she turned back towards Mao and her friends. Forgive me, Mao-Chan, thought Yuriko. Little did she know she wasn't the only one thinking that.


Meanwhile, in the Ground Defense Force Control Room...
"Chief of Staff Onigawara! A Cute Alien capsule has been detected! It will land in Japan in just an hour!" shouted Kagome. Rikushiro ran over. "Put it on the monitor, Miss Kagome!" "Roger, sir!" and when Kagome saw the dimensions of the capsule, she gasped, paling in the face. "What's wrong, Miss Kagome?" Kagome could hardly get the words out, "It appears this Cute Alien capsule is 125 times bigger than all previous ones! It has a width of 47 meters!"
"What?! An Alien that's both Cute and big?" shouted Rikushiro. "It appears that way, Chief of Staff! Either that or an army of Cute Aliens! This seems too big a job for Mao-Chan alone."
"If you're hinting that I should ask Sorajiro and Adalbert to use the Defense Barrier," said Rikushiro, "I can't!" "Why not?!" asked Kagome. "Because I know that Sorajiro and Adalbert will never agree. They are stubborn," and Rikushiro pointed at himself, "And I am stubborn, too!"
Kagome sweatdropped, "Chief of Staff..."


"Mao-Chan, over-exercising is bad for you, I say!" said Misora worriedly. As always in gym class, Sylvie was sitting off to the side, her glasses on. "Misora-Chan's right, you know. Moderation in everything all the way is the way to live."
"I know that, Sylvie-Chan," said Mao in a strained voice. "But I heard of a 'Defense Barrier' at Defense Force headquarters, and it involves all three of us. I, myself, don't want to be the weak link!"
"But Mao-Chan..." but Misora knew that when Mao started something, she would keep it up until she succeeded. The school bell rang.
"Well, see you tomorrow," said Mao after a few minutes, untying the tire and running towards Defense Force headquarters. She didn't run any faster than before. After about fifteen minutes, Mao arrived at the Ground Defense Force's Control Room.
When she got in there, she immediately saw Rikushiro and Miss Kagome discussing the Defense Barrier. They didn't realize that Mao was there.
"I don't care if the Cabinet ordered all three out, I'm not using the Defense Barrier!"
"But Chief of Staff, what you're doing could get us in a lot of hot water!"
"That doesn't matter, I'm not gonna ask Sorajiro and Adalbert for help! That's the last thing I'd do!"
"I'll go by myself," said Mao, walking up to them. They looked over at her, slightly startled.
"Because I'm a Ground Defense Force member. But before I, myself, leave to defend, I want to know what this Cute Alien's like," said Mao, walking up to the computer Miss Kagome was standing at. When she saw how large the capsule was, she felt fear for the first time since her first dispatch. Finally, Mao said, "It's seems a little scary, but I'll still go to defend!"
Rikushiro smiled, "That's the defense spirit, Mao..."
"Be careful defending, Mao-Chan," said Miss Kagome, her eyebrows lowered in worry.
"I, myself, will. I always am," said Mao. Mao saluted, and said, "Type 2 Ground Gear...download!"


Mao was standing in the elevator leading down to the hangar where Miikun was parked. She was filled with anxiety, as she had to defend against a Cute Alien that was over 45 meters tall, alone. Well, not quite alone. Doesn't matter, thought Mao, I, myself, will defend all the same!
DING!
The elevator doors opened, revealing the hangar. It was a sparse room, with a few things scattered here and there. A tool box here, a wrench there, and Miikun in the middle. Mao walked over to Miikun, a smile wide on her face. She hadn't used Miikun the past few defense missions. Not since they first met, actually. But Mao always came down to make sure he was never lonely.
Mao said to Miikun, "Miikun, let's defend together again, okay?" Miikun nodded its turret, and Mao giggled. "Let's go defend against the big Cute Alien!" said Mao as Miikun rolled out of the hangar onto the road leading to where the Cute Alien was due to land. Suddenly...
"Mao-Chan!"
Mao looked up, and saw Misora, in her Type 2 Flight Gear, sitting on the wing of Hayate. "Mao-Chan," she said again as she floated down, "Getting the drop on us is no fair, I say! I want to defend with you, Mao-Chan, I say!"
"Misora-Chan, thank you," said Mao, a tear of joy in her eye. Both were happy that they didn't have to defend alone.
"I, the officer, am here, too," came a voice below. Both Mao and Misora looked down; Sylvie, in her Type 2 Marine Gear, was clamboring up onto Miikun. Apparently, she was wearing her contact lenses in place of her glasses, as she always did in defense missions. "Well, it looks like we're all here, doesn't it?"
"Yep, it does!" said Mao. The three elementary school Defense Force members joined hands, and Misora said, "Together, we shall activate the Defense Barrier and defend Japan from the giant Cute Alien, I say!"


"Chief of Staff! Look. They want to defend together," said Kagome, pointing at the monitor. To her surprise, Rikushiro nodded in agreement. Sorajiro, Adalbert...


With your granddaughter being so persuasive... thought Sorajiro.


...how can you say 'no'? thought Adalbert.


"Private Onigawara will commence this defense operation!" Mao said dramatically to no one in particular. "With my two best friends, Misora-Chan and Sylvie-Chan, I, myself, will defend fiercely for everyone!" Misora and Sylvie nodded in agreement.
"Private Onigawara, the defense operation has been canceled. Please return to Defense Force headquarters immediately," came Miss Kagome's voice from Mao's clover.
"Why is that, Miss Kagome, I ask?" asked Misora. "Because the Cute Alien capsule's orbit was off, and it left orbit of Earth, shooting back off into space."
"It left Earth?" Mao thought out loud.
"It passed us by, I ask?" Misora asked. While they said this, Sylvie took out her contacts and replaced them with her glasses.
"Well, that means only one thing: Defense mission succeeded," she said matter-of-factly.
It took a moment for this information to sink in, but when it did...
"We did it! We managed to defend, I say!"
"Hooray for us! Hooray for us!" And the three began a chorus of giggles.


Chinami and Yuriko stood before the TV, still dumbfounded that the giant capsule was offcourse. "Wow," said Yuriko, simply too stunned to think of anything. "Fortunately, that capsule had retro-rockets," said Chinami, slightly miffed. "All capsules over 10 meters wide have them. It'll be back at headquarters in no time."
"But won't they send that Cute Alien again, Chinami-Chan?" asked Yuriko. Chinami turned toward Yuriko, saying, "Of course not, Miss President. Wouldn't that be a tad predictable? No, they'll send a different Alien next time... I can assure you of that..."

TO BE CONTINUED...

( Note: Coming next Tuesday on FanFiction.Net, an Evil-By-Nature fanfic: The Story of Kusanagi-Sama: War of the Gods. It is a micro-series set during my MaoChan novelization. Now, the only reason I'm writing it at all is to introduce heroes (and villians) in MaoChan: Volume 2, a continuation of the MaoChan story, set after my novelization. Be on the lookout!)