Disclaimer: As you all know, I don't own Vandread.
Vandread: The Unknown Soldier (Revised)
Chapter One: Encounter
Location: Outside the Magnetic Storm. On the edge of Tarakian/Mejalian space.
Vibrations shook her Dread as several shots from a cube-type enemy battered her shields. Meia cursed silently under her breath as she brought her fighter in a turn that would allow her to gun down the enemy that shot at her. She blasted it into several hundred pieces with her Dread's lasers once she acquired a lock. She turned left to avoid a shot from one of the larger enemies that opened fire on her. She shifted her controls and it brought her straight at her attacker. Several missiles streaked out from her Dread as soon as she had a lock. The enemy ship buckled and exploded as several high explosive warheads detonated against its hull.
Just a few weeks after that final battle that saved both Mejale and Tarak, they had detected a large amount of enemy stragglers near the magnetic storm. Hibiki and the other men had been recalled from their trip to Tarak to assist in the mission to hunt them down and destroy them. After all, the crew of the Nirvana had the most experience in fighting the Earth forces, so it was chosen to hunt down and destroy them. She had no qualms about that, and they'd receive no mercy for what they had done to countless millions. They were now in the process of wiping the last of them from this system.
"That's the last of them!" Dita cheerfully shouted over the commline as the last enemy cube was destroyed. Hibiki didn't participate completely in this mission, due to the fact that his arm was still broken.
Meia relaxed back into her seat and let out a sigh of relief. "Good, now let's return back to the Nirvana."
"Copy that," Dita and the others replied.
As she turned her Dread back around and started to make her way back to the Nirvana, something caught her eye. As she looked over to see what it might be, a bright flash filled the area around them as a large ship suddenly stretched into reality.
"What in the world is that!" Jura asked over the commline to no one in particular.
"I don't know," she replied as she headed towards the ship. "But we're going to find out."
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"Captain…"
"Captain…"
"Aidan…"
Aidan slowly returned to consciousness after hearing a woman's voice. His vision blurred, he looked up to see a young woman with dark, shoulder-length hair, backlit by the red glow of the emergency lights.
"Sakura…" he muttered as he attempted to lift himself up. He collapsed back to the deck as he realized his left arm had refused to move. He felt only a slight linger of pain, as the painkillers injected into him were starting to wear off. From the way it looked, his left arm must have been dislocated. He forced himself into a sitting position, and then to a standing one. His vision started to clear, and he noticed the woman who had spoken was Maria, not Sakura.
After he managed to get his feet firmly planted on the deck, she let out a sigh of relief. "Good, you're okay."
He ignored her as grabbed a hold of his left shoulder with his right hand and forced his shoulder back into its socket. A wave of pain surged through his arm as feeling came back to it, but was quickly suppressed by another injection of painkillers. The sound of him putting his shoulder back into place made Maria cringe as she heard it. He flexed his arm for a couple of seconds, to make sure it was okay, then went over and picked up the laser rifle he'd dropped when he was knocked unconscious.
"Come on," he said, motioning for Maria.
"Sure," she replied, following him down the corridor. "Where are we going?"
"To the bridge," he said quietly.
They continued to walk for a few minutes, Maria following silently behind, until they got to the mangled doors that lead to the bridge. Apparently the doors were damaged in an explosion, and wouldn't open. Aidan backed slightly away from the doors, then knocked them down with a solid kick. The doors hit the ground with a loud bang, and they walked into the bridge. Once she stepped foot in the bridge, she covered her mouth and became white in the face. She turned away, sickened by the sight in front of her.
The bridge pretty much lay in ruins, and a good portion of it was slicked with blood. Several bodies lay in twisted or huddled heaps on the floor, although some were slumped over control panels. The fresh smell of death ranked throughout the place, and she nearly threw up. She looked over at Aidan, who had settled his face in a grim mask. He apparently noticed something, and walked over to it, stepping over a body as if it were nothing more than a log in his way. He knelt down by what appeared to be the body of the Captain. He laid there, face down, with a pool of blood around his head.
"He's dead," Aidan replied flatly, stating the obvious.
He got up and walked over to the communications console. Slumped over the console was a young woman about the age of nineteen, the same age when Sakura… He banished the painful memory before it even materialized in his mind, and pushed the corpse aside and checked the console to see if it still worked. It appeared to be in working order, and he decided to try and send out a distress signal. He took off his helmet and set it down on the console, and grabbed the headset and put it on. He started to broadcast a message, and after a couple more tries the console fried and shot sparks into the air.
"Dammit!" he cursed as he took off the headset and threw it down. "It doesn't work." He looked out the view port to notice the large silhouette of a silver ship in the center.
"What the hell…"
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As she took another pass around the ship, Meia scanned every major detail she could find out about it. By the several gun ports that ran the length of the vessel, she knew it was a warship. Judging by the several scorch and pockmarks, that it had seen battle very recently, and apparently was on the losing side. The most distinctive detail she saw on it was a large insignia painted on the side of it. The insignia showed a silver, armored knight's gauntlet grasping a double-edge sword in front of a blue and black shield. Underneath the insignia was the designation, S.D.S Artemis.
By now there were several questions running through her head. Questions like: 'Where did it come from?' 'Who did it fight?' 'Was it the Earth fleet?' And the final question, 'Were there any survivors?' She activated her communications system.
"Captain, I'd like permission to board the vessel and search for survivors," she requested.
"Granted," came back the reply. "But hold on a minute, I'm sending over some help."
"Understood," she acknowledged.
As she passed by what appeared to be the bridge of the ship, she thought she saw someone standing near the view port.
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As Aidan saw the silver fighter make a pass, he started to think. That fighter didn't match any known model or configuration employed in the Solaris Defense Force or the rebel military. Whoever it was, they would soon board the ship, and that would make things worse than they already were. He wasn't about to take any chances.
He turned around and faced Maria. "We're going to have visitors."
"Who are they?" she asked.
"I don't know," he responded.
He walked over to the central computer on the bridge and attempted to activate it. Surprisingly, it still worked. He picked up a data disc and inserted it into the computer. He brought up every file that pertained to the history of Solaris, technology, weapons, etcetera, and downloaded them onto the disc. It took him a few minutes, and he took out the disc as soon as he was done. He then began to insert a virus that would purge almost every last piece of information stored in the database.
Once he was finished with that, he unsung his rifle and fired his three remaining shots into the computer. There was a shower of sparks as the computer was completely fried. Satisfied, he inserted the disc into a special pouch built into his suit. Discarding the rifle, he picked up his helmet and walked over to Maria. He put a hand on her shoulder, trying to help calm her down.
"I want you to stay here," he said as he walked past her. "And stay out of sight."
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"I'm going to go greet our guests," he said as he put on his helmet.
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As she slowly walked down the corridor, Meia glanced briefly into one of the rooms, but saw no one. To her it felt like an abandoned ship, as it appeared no one was left alive onboard. So far, the few crewmembers they'd found were already dead.
"All this death, who could have done this?" she quietly asked herself.
"Did you say something?" Jura asked.
"No," she replied as something caught her eye. She quickly walked over and saw another dead body, and this time it was a woman's. She appeared to have been shot in the back by a laser weapon, and there a pool of blood underneath her. She turned her over to see a look of horror on the dead woman's face.
"Oh my…" Jura gasped as she clasped her hands over her mouth.
Meia wanted to do the same, but instead locked her face into an impassive mask. She had to be the strong leader type that everyone saw her as. Then she noticed the bodies of what appeared to be soldiers. One lay face first on the ground with a hole in his back. The second was leaning against the wall with a shattered helmet. Mercifully, she couldn't see inside the helmet, not that she wanted to.
What happened on this ship?
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Aidan slowly walked down the corridor, not wanting to draw any attention to himself, yet. He knew the intruders were somewhere on this deck, and it was only a matter of time before he found them. He continued to move forward until he heard a noise. Stopping dead in his tracks, he tried to determine where it came from. He flipped up a panel on his forearm and pressed a few buttons until the word 'Optical Camouflage' appeared. He pressed the activation stud and his suit seemed to blend in with its surroundings, becoming almost completely invisible. This wasn't foolproof however, as he could be picked up on advanced detection equipment and could be seen as a distortion if he moved rapidly. He thumbed off the safety to his handgun and grinned. The intruders would learn why he had earned the codename 'Spectre.'
He moved closer to the noises, which he knew was the sound of someone walking down the corridor. He crept closer to the corner and looked over to see a scantily-clad young woman walking down the corridor. He noticed that she appeared younger than him, but that hardly registered in his mind once his gaze fell down to her waist. She had a firearm in a holster on her right side. She's probably searching for survivors, little does she know, she's going to find one.
She's not military, she must be something else, a pirate. As the thought dawned on him he aimed his weapon down the corridor and activated the laser sight. The red dot centered on her chest, and his finger started to tighten on the trigger.
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Barnette cautiously walked down one of the many dark corridors of this warship, searching for survivors, if there were any. She continued to advance down the corridor, but stopped in her tracks. It suddenly felt like she was being watched, she looked around but saw no one.
"Hello…" she said, "Anybody there?"
That was when she noticed the little red dot on the center of her chest. She knew what it was, it was a targeting laser for a gun. She immediately dove to her right as the sound of gunfire echoed in the corridor. She winced in pain as the bullet grazed her left arm. She freed her firearm from its holster as quickly as possible, and fired in the direction of the where the shots came from, but she neither hit nor saw anyone. Then the air appeared to come violently to life as a ghostly figure moved rapidly towards her.
"What the hell is this!" she blurted out, her fear starting to manifest itself.
She fired again, this time aiming at the ghostlike figure, and to her surprise, actually recoiled slightly from the hits. It was then she figured out that this wasn't a ghost, but something else. Her shots didn't stop the figure as got closer to her. She attempted to fire, but her hand was knocked away, sending the shot bouncing off the side of the corridor wall. Before she could react any further, she felt a sharp pain to her abdomen as the air was knocked out of her. She fell to her knees, dropping her gun as she clutched her stomach in pain. Once she could breathe again, she looked up to see a black figure slowly reappear in front of her eyes. The armored figure was now pointing a gun to her head.
"Identify yourself," the figure said, it's voice cold and impersonal.
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