The Last Officers

Chapter 1: I Hate the Polizei

By JagdPanther

The metallic blue Oakley sunglasses on Chris's face slipped forward a bit when the car jerked to a stop. "Thanks. Why don't you do it again in case the guy you almost hit didn't have a heart attack the first time?"

"Shut up," responded Chris's pseudo-partner. So Kenji had been a little distracted while driving to the restaurant. It happens. At least he'd noticed he was drifting towards the curb in time to stop. "Here you go." Kenji pulled forward from his stop a bit and parked the car in a spot.

"Thanks for the lift. I'll see you tomorrow." Chris nodded to his partner and got out of the car. He sprinted across the street, beating some traffic in the process, and walked slowly towards the Crown Game Center. For the past few months, he'd essentially been stalking his sister. He knew where she frequented, and this was surprisingly one of them. It was odd, he thought, that'd she be here. She wasn't the kind of girl to go regularly to an arcade/eatery. Maybe she was gathering intelligence on the Inner senshi. Oh, well. She never ceased amazing him. He stepped inside and began scanning for his sister. Today he'd reveal his presence to her. She didn't know that their parents had ordered Chris to watch over her. Chris was surprised that his parents, despite how "cool" they were, let his teenaged sister just gallivant off in Japan like this, that was until he found out that he was the secret stipulation. 'I cannot believe that I agreed to this. Well, actually, yeah, I can. I just… Crap, whatever.' He located the girls. They were sitting at their usual table, and not out and about the arcade consoles. 'This makes things easier. It just seems that the girls would piss the hell out of her. She's usually so mature. Well, um, not as mature as thinks she is. She's actually really immature.'

Chris approached the table. His sister's back was to him. 'Good.' He snatched a chair from the table behind the one the girls were at and plopped it next to their table. As he did so, he caught the tail end of a question by Usagi.

"…do you wear that cross? Isn't that a Christian symbol?"

Ten'ou Haruka couldn't answer because she was too busy looking shocked at the sight of her brother sitting down next to her. Chris looked at Usagi. "You're asking the question in the wrong manner. She's Roman Catholic, like me." He turned to Haruka. "Why DO you wear that? You're even less of a practicing-Catholic than I am. It doesn't seem very 'you.'"

Michiru was the first to react. "And who exactly are you?"

Chris extended his hand. "Christopher Rivera. Pleased to meet you. And you are?"

"Kaioh Michiru. How do you know that about Haruka? Are you a former boyfriend, perhaps?" Michiru was concerned over how this Caucasian guy could possibly know anything about her significant other.

Chris grinned before returning his eyes to his sister. "You didn't tell them that I existed, did you? Ahahahahahaha!" He laughed quite loudly while Haruka sank back into her seat. For the first time ever, the girls saw Haruka lose her macho outer covering and be honestly abashed and vulnerable. "This is high quality. What else did you fail to mention?" He smiled broadly. "Well, for your information," he said, turning to address the other girls, "I am Haruka-chan's older brother." The table, which was already dead silent, began feeling like a black hole as the girl's expressions soundlessly shifted into ones of utter confusion. "And obviously she is embarrassed about being my sister, so she didn't tell you about me. I'm hurt, Haruka. I really am." Despite his words, he continued to smile. 'Humiliating your little sister in front of all her peers is SO fun!' he thought.

It took just a second, but he looked around the table and quickly took a mental snapshot of each girl's face, matching it against a corresponding mental snapshot of each Sailor senshi's face. 'Wow, that's odd. I wonder why more people don't recognize them. There's got to be something more to this. I'll have to investigate this discretely. Maybe they know why.' The only two senshi of the Sol system missing from the table were the senshi of Pluto and Saturn. No one here had seen Saturn's current form. Setsuna already knew Chris was here, anyway. They weren't co-conspirators for nothing.

"Why are you here, Chris? How long have you been here? How'd you know I was here?" Haruka's tone became angrier as the questions kept coming.

"What, you thought mom and dad would just let you, a teenaged girl, live here in Japan all by yourself? Yeah right. They sent me over here to make sure that you don't get into any trouble. You're still a U.S. citizen and a minor. You have to have a legal guardian if you're on a minor visa. I am that legal guardian. I'm not a Japanese citizen, either, but I can act as your local guardian since I'm military." Chris looked back to the rest of the girls. "Anyway, pleased to meet you all. And you are?" Chris started with Makoto, seated next to him on the other side of the table from Haruka. He went counterclockwise until each girl had introduced herself.

"Chris, you still didn't answer my questions," growled Haruka. She was incredibly frustrated at her privacy having been violated in such a manner, and by her own family, no less!

"You still haven't answered my question," he jibed back.

Ami was the first to speak to the discrepancy in appearance of the supposed brother and sister, since Michiru was still overcoming the revelation that Haruka had hidden something from her. "Um, excuse me, but do you mean blood siblings?"

Haruka and Chris answered in unison, "Yes."

She still wasn't convinced. "But Chris-san, you're Caucasian and have an American name, whereas Haruka-san is Asian and has a Japanese name. How is that possible?"

"Don't ask," they again answered in unison.

"But…"

"I'll explain it later." Once again, word for word in unison. Both then sighed and pulled out their wallets, producing pictures of their family. Sure enough, there were younger Chris's and Haruka's standing in front of two adults.

"Yes, they're brother and sister all right," Ami conceded, bashfully.

"You don't need to watch over me. I can take care of myself."

"Oh, that's debatable. Doesn't matter, anyway. Whether you like it or not I'm staying here in Tokyo. I've been assigned here by the Army, anyway, so I can't leave even if I wanted to. You're stuck with me." He stuck his tongue out at her. "Besides, I haven't seen you much in the last 3 years. You've been on this side of the big lake too much! I want to spend some 'quality time' with my sister." He made air quotes with his fingers around "quality time."

Haruka switched to English. "Don't bother me. I am perfectly capable of living without your support. Why I want to live here rather than America is of no concern to you. Just leave me be."

Chris answered in Japanese. "Again, debatable. Where's your money coming from? Oh, that's right, our parental figures."

"Shut up."

"Make me."

"Oh, real mature."

"What, like you are? Hah, yeah right. I wonder what kind of impression everyone here has. I should compare their ideas against what you're really like. Besides, we haven't spent any time together since I rotated back home from Malden. You're my little sister after all."

"You served in Malden? What did you do?" That was Rei. She tried to keep up on current events for her International Relations class at TA. And she wanted to try and break up the little family feud everyone was watching go back and forth.

Chris nodded. "Yes, I was an infantry platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division. My platoon was one of only three platoons to serve from the very first day of the conflict all the way to the end. That was eight months of pure hell, too. Nothing like it in the world." Chris purposely added the last part to see what if any reaction came across the vaunted Sailor senshi, especially the Inners, each of whom had died once before and then been revived by the Silver Crystal. There was only a slight reaction on their faces, but anyone could have attributed that to the imagery. They did each exchange knowing glances, though, as if to say 'Yeah, we know.' 'Yeah, they know what combat is like all right. And that's good. They need to build upon those experiences so that they can succeed in their new mission. Their previous endeavors will pale in comparison to this.' Setsuna and he had already discussed initial thoughts on what was going on, with heart crystals being stolen and all. The outlook didn't look so good.

Michiru spoke next. "You said that the Army reassigned you here. But there aren't any American combat troops in or around Tokyo."

"This is true, and that's the strange thing. I was assigned to Station Tokyo to be a NATO intelligence analyst, which in itself is rather strange because this is the Pacific, not the Atlantic. Also, I'm not an intelligence analyst by training so I am not sure what is going on. I have my suspicions, but I have yet to actually tell my father that he was clever to burn some favors."

Rolling her eyes, Haruka quipped, "Because of me?"

"Yeah, I figure you're the reason. But I have no proof so at this point it's all just speculation." Chris motioned to a waitress. "Can I get a cup of black coffee? I don't need cream or sugar." The waitress smiled and nodded, shuffling off to fill the order.

Minako made a face and spat, "Blech, I hate coffee. How can you drink that stuff?"

"Oh, don't worry. In time you'll learn to like it. I have yet to meet someone that doesn't eventually start drinking the stuff. I started really early, like around 12. My mom didn't start drinking until after I was born."

"Gee, I wonder why."

Chris simply shook his head at his sister. "Why do you have to be so hostile? What did I ever do to you?"

"That's not the point. You're invading my life. I don't need nor want this, especially not now." Haruka was flush with anger.

"Aw, how cute. You're flushed. Look, get over it. I am not too keen on spying on you, either. But I have my orders from mom and dad. They're worried about you, as am I. You're young in a foreign country. Yeah, you may be able to take care of yourself, and no matter how much you want your complete independence, you're not able to achieve it quite yet. Don't make this any more difficult for either of us. I could just become very autocratic and control your every move. You know I can, too." Chris reached over and patted his sister on the head, much to her chagrin. "I know you hate this. Just let it go, all right? Please. I don't want you to be angry."

It was when Chris reached over that Minako's eye caught a glint of light off of a metal object inside Chris's jacket. "What the hell is that?" she blurted out in English, not wanting to sound like an idiot in front of her friends in case she was wrong. "Is that a gun?"

Chris shot her a confused glance, not sure what language he'd just heard. "You speak English?"

"Yes."

"Uh huh. Well, you speak it with a very nice accent. You must have lived in London."

It was Aino Minako's turn to be confused. "How can you tell that just by how I talk? Yeah, I lived there for a few years."

"Accents are very telling. Londoners have different accents than people from Dover or Cambridge, etc. People who learn English in London tend to pick those traits up even more. Anyway, yes, this is a gun." Despite the fact that only four people at the table could understand the exchange, it continued in English. The only other English-speaker besides Haruka with a good enough grasp of the language to understand was Michiru.

Confirming her suspicions, Minako went back to Japanese. "Why are you carrying a gun? Those are highly illegal in Japan."

"Ah, yes, I know that they are. I don't feel safe without one, though. Makes me feel very naked to not have one." Chris smiled, but killed it when he saw that no one took the joke. "I'm a police officer, that's why. Part of the reason I am here is because the Army has assigned me to train the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's special operations units up to a respectable level. Your police force's special units are terribly weak. I'm teaching them things that I thought they'd already know. And in addition to that, Metro's investigations division is really shorthanded, so they have me helping out there."

"Uh huh." Minako wasn't pleased. She'd liked foreigner until she'd found out who he was working for in Japan. "Forgive me, but I hate the police. I just don't like them. Bad experiences." Not everyone was being hunted down by the London police, like Sailor V.

Chris laughed. "That's quite all right. I hate the polizei, too. I'm not too fond of them. I'm just following orders, like a good soldier. My superiors in U.S. Army Special Operations Command tell me to work with them and I have to say yes."

"The polizei?" asked Makoto.

"That's 'police' in German," answered Ami.

"I don't think that a good soldier is necessarily one that strictly follows orders blindly. I think it's a soldier's duty to question their orders to themselves to make sure that they're ethical orders. Questioning their orders aloud is damaging, but not if the order is wrong. Illegal orders are damaging to the whole system." That was Minako's inner leader coming out. She had strong views about how soldiers should serve, especially since she took her job as a senshi so seriously. She'd given up so much in her life for this, and someone who tried to tell her something about soldiers that she didn't agree with was in for a nasty lashing. The sight was extremely rare, and her friends around her were inwardly horrified to see the bubbly, constantly-giggling Minako become so vile.

"I fully agree with you, Minako-chan. That's a very intelligent observation. I was sort of spoofing 'orders' by what I said. Trust me, I don't agree with every order I am given. I'm what's considered a 'renegade' soldier by many officers because I actually happen to be very unorthodox. During the war I had a track record of disobeying orders that I believed would get my men killed and not accomplish anything. I could've easily been court-martialed except that my superior's superiors relieved them and let me off the hook because they agreed with my actions. That having been said, I think that in most cases, disobeying an order is incredibly destructive to the military command process. If everyone was disobeying orders whenever they felt like it, nothing would ever get done and a lot of people would die."

"I would guess so. That's the problem with the military, though. It attempts to disregard all human emotions and assume that everyone can make decisions like a robot. I guess the mission always theoretically comes first, but how many soldiers have survived conflicts only on that?" That last jibe was Minako's personal jab at Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus, whoever they were. Minako didn't like their "only the mission and screw everything else" mentality. She would unhesitatingly sacrifice herself for the Princess, but only if giving her life was the absolute final resort. Always exhaust every option before exercising the most destructive one, she thought.

But Minako was being philosophical. That was worrying the others. Something was wrong. She was never like this. In fact, if anything, she was always misquoting something, remembering some event completely wrong, or just generally being ditzy. But what they didn't realize that this was Minako, their commander. She wasn't a ditz, she wasn't stupid, but she was an intelligent, fine woman and officer. She and Chris would have their deep conversations more and more as time went on. They were, after all, the last officers. They were it. There were no commissioned officers of the White Moon Kingdom military left except for them. And that bond would be what kept them together.

It was the Sailor Venus' job to lead the rest of the senshi and to protect the princess and heiress of the White Moon Kingdom. But whose job was it to protect the protectors, the princesses of the allied kingdoms? That job fell to Chris. It was the last standing order that he'd ever received from the Central Command Authority, which was White Moon Kingdom military-lingo for Queen Serenity. Protect them at all costs.

The outpost was somewhere that if you were stationed there, you knew there was a high chance you were going to see some action. That's why it had a high number of soldiers who were the gung-ho "I want to kick someone's ass!" type. But the majority of the soldiers there were the type that did not want to see any action. It wasn't that they wouldn't fight if they had to; it was just that they would prefer to never have to use the skills that they had trained for years to use. Death was constantly tugging at their side, but it was a job that they all knew they had to do to. Chris knew that better than most anyone at the outpost. He was one of the youngest officers there, but he was already on his third combat tour of duty. Chris remained sane by being a completely atypical military officer.

Chris sighed loudly to no one in particular. The paperwork on his desk was piled high and there was no end in sight. It was odd that someone considered a "renegade" officer was sitting at a desk doing the very thing he always joked about disregarding. Most senior officers considered him to be very disrespectful and disruptive. He was always out of uniform, he was always breaking the no-fraternization rules with enlisted personnel, he was always doing pranks, and many other things. But the senior officers could never do anything about the young lieutenant, or, rather, they didn't want to because they knew that Chris was by far their most experienced and best officer. He could lead a platoon better than anyone else on the base. Chris kept requesting to be reassigned back to the outpost because he knew that all the time he was there, one less green officer had to face deadly combat out here. He knew, quite arrogantly to some if they knew he thought it, that all the time he was here, more soldiers would be able to make it back home alive to their families. Hopefully.

It helped that no one knew who he really was. Chris considered what it'd be like if his superiors knew who he was. If they knew he was the Prince of Uranus, they'd never let him anywhere near the front, let alone this outpost. They'd always be too frightened that something would happen and they'd be blamed. They'd assign him some cushy job, too, and Chris would've hated that. He didn't like combat, but when he was fighting, he felt like he was useful. He felt like he had the power to make a difference. That's where his bravado came in. Chris was one of the loudest officers anyone had ever met. He always made up hair-brained ideas in combat and broke the rules. Anything, he always said, to get the job done with the least amount of casualties. There was no sense in completing a mission if everyone died doing it, because who'd fight the next time? Just as there was no sense in saving everyone if nothing was ever accomplished, because the enemy would just fight even harder next time.

There were plenty of drawbacks to being out here, though. There weren't many amenities of home. The entertainment was scarce, food was fairly bad, and the quarters were shoddy at best (not to mention almost nightly enemy raids), but at least they got good alcohol imported from Venus and Jupiter on a regular basis. The majority of the soldiers at the base were from the outer rim planets of Pluto, Neptune, Saturn, and Uranus, but there were a few soldiers from the inner planets. Chris had a few very good Venusian and Martian fighters in his platoon.

This outpost was the farthest out of the five major large outposts of the White Moon Kingdom. It was on a planet uninhabited by humanoid beings, but still key to the region. From this planet, any enemy of the White Moon could strike with little or no warning. But that's what the outpost was there for. Since it was so far out, though, when time for leave came around, soldiers couldn't go to the heart of the kingdom since it took too long. That's why Chris usually just went to Pluto. Other than his sister, Chris really only had frequent "royal" contact with the princess of Pluto. Chris was several years older than the next closest royal of this generation in the White Moon Kingdom Alliance, anyway. And they were all girls. As the first born of this generation of royals, Chris had received a lot of fanfare as a child. He had disappeared a few years before into the military and assumed a different identity to avoid any special treatment. Most people had suspicions that Chris was the prince, but he constantly denied it. He said that just because he was from Uranus and looked like the prince didn't mean that he was the prince. "Oh, here we go again. I am sick of this! It's just a coincidence! I don't even know the guy, jeez. Give me a break," was his usual response when someone asked.

The paperwork just wouldn't end. He had requisition forms, contact reports, leave papers to authorize, everything. He also should probably write a letter home to his parents and one to his sister. At least no one read his mail. That pointed directly to his royal roots.

Looking at the clock on the wall, Chris figured that he should probably break for now and go grab some food in the mess hall. He hadn't eaten all day since he'd spent most of it running a training exercise for the entire company. Before he could stand there was a knock on the door. "It's open."

"Lieutenant?"

"Hey Adonis. What's going on?" The young Corporal from Venus was on his second tour of duty. He had potential to be a great NCO, if not a commissioned officer, thought Chris. The leadership qualities were definitely there. He had the smarts to make it off this rock alive.

"Sir, the Colonel wants to see you."

"Did he say if it can wait or not? I'm kind of hungry."

"He said it was fairly important, so I guess you may not have time for that, sir."

Chris grumbled out a "well, damn" before nodding his head. "All right, thanks for the information, Adonis. I'll see you later, then."

"Your welcome, sir." Adonis saluted his platoon commander and then left to get some food himself. He'd been stuck running errands for the Colonel all day when he'd rather have been doing Chris's training exercise. He'd need all the knowledge he could get to survive.

Chris cleaned up his desk, exited his quarters, and locked the door before heading down the hall towards the administrative wing. He passed a fellow platoon leader in the hallway.

"Hey, Chris! You've got to come with us later to the Officers Club! They got a shipment in of this Venusian wine they've never had here. It's supposed to be absolutely incredible."

"I'll try, but I've got a ton of paperwork to do. Plus the Old Man wants to see me right now."

"Oh, what did you do this time?"

"Shut up," Chris shot back, smiling. "You know, contrary to popular belief, I am not always summoned for doing something stupid."

"Well make him wait, then, and at least come try some of the stuff now. You haven't eaten yet, I know."

"No alcohol on an empty stomach, and no, I can't. It's supposed to be something important and I'd better not piss him off by blowing him off after that stunt I pulled last week."

"Ah, you're going soft on, me, Chris. All right, you go to your 'important' meeting. I'll see you later."

Chris walked up to the door of the Colonel's office and knocked lightly.

"Enter," came the terse reply. He was always in such a cheery mood, Chris noted.

Chris opened the door and poked his head in. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Ah, yes, Lieutenant. Come in. I have some news for you." He waited for Chris to close the door and turn around. "You're being reassigned."

Chris's mouth dropped to the floor. "What?"

"Don't worry; it's not for anything bad. You're just being reassigned. This came in from General Command HQ today." The Colonel handed over a message.

The young lieutenant took the message from his commander and read it quickly. 'Report to WHITE ROCK on or about the 27th of this month for permanent duty reassignment. That's the codename for the Moon Palace. Why do they want me to report there? It doesn't say. Damnit, what is this? At least they're giving me two weeks of leave before I have to be there. I guess I'll put in to go home. I haven't seen my family in well over a year.' He grimaced and looked at the Colonel. "Sir, but I have four months left on my tour. Is someone going to replace me? You can't be short a platoon leader, not now."

"I know, I don't want to lose my most experienced junior officer, but I have to go with what command says. I'm sorry son, but that's just the way it is. Pack your stuff. You leave tomorrow morning. A replacement is on the way right now." He stood up and walked around the table, extending his hand. "You've given me a lot of grief, Lieutenant, but by damn if you aren't one of the best combat leaders that I've ever seen. It'll be a shame to lose you. Good luck in whatever they're making you do."

And with the handshake, it was sealed. Chris was no longer a frontlines combat officer. He was moving on to something else; something much different than he'd ever expected.

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