Disclaimer: Vandread is not mine, it is Gonzo's.

Vandread: The Unknown Soldier (Revised)

Chapter Two: Standoff

Location: S.D.S Artemis, Main Deck

Meia immediately dashed towards where she heard the gunshots, with Jura only a step behind her. The gunshots had come from the Barnette's last known location. It took her a few moments to get over there, and when she got there, she was somewhat shocked at what she saw. Barnette was on her knees, holding her stomach, and a black, armored figure was standing over her, pointing a gun at her head.

"No! Barnette!" Jura screamed as she drew he saber and charged the black figure. The figure noticed her, and turned his attention from Barnette to meet this new, rapidly approaching threat. He raised his gun and took aim at her, but before he could fire, Jura knocked it out of his hands with a swing from her saber. The gun clattered when it bounced off the wall and onto the ground. Determined to keep him off-guard, Meia raised her right arm and fired her laser ring. Her aim was dead-on, with both shots hitting him high in the chest, knocking him slightly back.

As the figure regained his footing, she noticed that neither of her shots had penetrated the armor. Jura attacked again, and with what surely would have been a decapitating blow, but the figure raised his right arm and let the blade strike his armored gauntlet with a loud clanging sound. In an unexpected move, the figure grabbed a hold of the blade and yanked it towards him, forcing it from her hand. Meia barely saw the kick that struck Jura in the stomach and knocked her off her feet.

Still gripping the blade, the figure flipped it around to where he had a grip on the handle. He charged to her left then bolted to the right in a feint. She aimed her laser and fired again, but hit nothing. The figure was right next to her, and using Jura's saber, he took a swing at her, but she ducked just in time to see the blade flash in front of her face. It wasn't one of those clumsy swings an amateur would do, but that of a professional. This person apparently knew how to swordfight as well.

"He fast!" she exclaimed as she dodged another strike, this time ducking under and using her momentum to shift behind him. She kicked him in the back of the knees, which buckled and he fell to the deck, dropping the sword in the process. She jumped onto his back to pin him down and pointed her laser at the back of his head.

"Who are you and why'd you attack us?" she demanded as she pinned him to the ground.

"Why would I tell you, pirate?" he spat. To Meia it sounded like he'd just said a curse. Were pirates really that bad wherever he came from? Almost immediately after he answered, he used his weight to knock her off of him. He then grabbed her arm and pinned her to the ground, and she could feel her arm starting to hurt. She managed to look up into his faceless visor, and suddenly half the visor seemed to shatter. There was a loud bang following immediately after, and he released his grip on her arm and staggered back. She got up to see Barnette shoot him a few more times, and he almost fell off his feet, but managed to stay standing, clutching the shattered side of his helmet.

Barnette walked over to him to deliver the final shot, and that was a mistake. The figure suddenly lashed out and knocked the gun from her hands. He then grabbed her injured left arm and twisted her around, pulling her arm behind her back and shoving her forward. She lost her balance and fell forward onto the deck. As she struggled to get up, the figure picked up her gun and put it to her head as she got to her knees. Slowly, his finger started to tighten on the trigger.

"Captain Aidan Mercer, I command you to stand down!" commanded an unfamiliar female voice.

Slowly, he eased up on the trigger, and lowered the gun. He then brought it up and ejected the magazine, and pulled back the slide to eject the round already in the firing chamber. He tossed the gun in Barnette's direction and it clattered against the deck. He turned to the woman who told him to stand down, who had just started walking his way. He unhooked something at the collar of his suit and removed his battered helmet. He walked over to where his gun was on the ground and picked it up, helmet still in his left hand. Holstering it, he walked over to the violet-haired woman.

The man known as Aidan Mercer had short, dark brown hair. He was what could be known as handsome, except a cross-shaped scar that marred the left side of his face. When she saw his eyes, they were a cold, steel gray. He began to have an argument with the woman, apparently unconcerned with the blood running down the right side of his face.

Suddenly, Dita came up to where this awkward event was playing out. Apparently, sensing she might be another threat, Aidan quickly drew his gun and aimed it at her. Dita jumped slightly back, frightened for a moment that a stranger would shoot her. He noticed her cower and lowered his gun, this time keeping a grip on it. Meia watched him warily, because he still could be a threat. Suddenly, she remembered about Barnette and Jura. Jura, who had been knocked unconscious, was just beginning to regain consciousness. Barnette was still struggling to rise after he had shoved her to the deck. She went over and helped Barnette to her feet.

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BC watched as Parfet went over the main computer terminal down in the engine room, and considered for a moment. She didn't like the fact that this ship appeared almost out of nowhere and it was unknown who it belonged to. The only information they had found so far was the apparent name of the vessel as well as some kind of insignia.

"It's no good," Parfet shrugged. "The entire ship's data core appears to have purged by some kind of virus, and the data that remains is so corrupted that I don't think that I can salvage any of it."

BC nodded and brought the communicator up to her mouth. "Captain, the ship's data core and memory banks have been purged or corrupted, we are unable to find anymore information about this ship or it's origin. The only things we do know are the sword and shield insignia painted on it's hull and the ship's name, Artemis."

"Very well, continue your search and report if you find anything," came the Captain's reply.

"Understood," BC confirmed.

Meia's voice came over the communications link a few seconds later. "Meia here, we found a couple of survivors, and one of them wasn't happy to see us. He surrendered, but he says there are no more survivors. He appears to be a soldier."

"What's your location?" BC asked.

"Wait a second," she replied. After a short pause, she came back on. I think we're on the main deck, not too far from the bridge."

"Stay there, we'll be up there in a minute," BC said.

"Understood," she replied.

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Aidan stood right beside Maria with his arms crossed as he watched two more of these pirates approach them. He hated being told what to do by people who were decidedly not military. She had him remove the magazine from his handgun. The armor was an advanced design recently developed by the Solaris Defense Force, and he'd be damned before he'd let one of these pirates touch it. The black armor was moderately thick and the only exposed areas were the joints.

"And who are you two?" the woman with silver hair asked.

"I'm Maria Shakov, and this is-" she was interrupted by Aidan's reply to the question.

"Aidan Mercer," he replied stoically. "Rank, Captain. Soldier of the Solaris Defense Force."

She nodded and glanced over in the direction where the green-haired woman was helping the blonde one to her feet. "Looks like you put up a fight."

He allowed himself a smirk when she said that, but said nothing.

"Okay, I have a lot of questions to ask you," she said. "We noticed this ship was heavily damaged, was it Earth that attacked you?"

Aidan let out a short, sharp laugh. "No, it wasn't the Earthers that did this, it was our own people."

"Your own people?" this time it was the blue-haired woman who asked.

"Yes," he said as he made eye contact with her. "We are in the middle of a civil war."

"Are you the captain of the ship?" the red-haired girl interjected.

"No, I'm what you spacers refer to as a ground-pounder," he replied.

"This ship appears to be dead, I'd like to salvage anything of use off of it," BC said.

"Good idea," Maria said, "Captain Mercer can help you."

Aidan was about to protest, but apparently they were outnumbered and in an unknown system. Cooperation might be the best thing, considering he was going to have to keep this young woman who can think she can tell him what to do because of who her father was, alive. "Fine, I give my word that I will not instigate any conflict with members of your crew, provided they do not start anything, and will help recover anything salvageable."

It took a few moments for that one woman to answer. "Very well," she said. Then she gave out orders to the rest of them to recover anything they could from the areas she assigned them. Then she turned to Meia. "I want you to go with Captain Mercer and recover as many weapons from the armory as possible. And keep an eye on him."

"Understood," Meia replied as she aimed her laser ring carefully at him. "Lead the way."

Aidan started walking down the corridor, at a normal pace, so she wouldn't think he'd try anything. He knew they had to get down to one of the lower decks that the armory was on, and he gave his word he wouldn't do anything, and if nothing else, he was a man of his word. He glanced back at the woman, who was still pointing her laser ring weapon at him.

"There's no need for that," he said, gesturing slightly to her weapon.

"Why should I believe you?" she replied. "You tried to kill me and a few of my pilots."

"Because I gave my word that I wouldn't, and that was because I thought you to be an enemy," he said. "Our ship was boarded not long before we arrived in this system, so I was under the impression that you were here to raid the ship. After all, you guys are pirates, are you not?"

"How'd you figure out?" she asked.

"Well, it was pretty easy considering one of your pilots wasn't wearing a uniform, so I knew you weren't with any military," he replied as he stopped in front of the armory doors. "And no civilians would have a warship or a squadron of fighters under their command. But you don't act like pirates. We're here."

"How so?" she asked as he typed in the access code to the armory, and there was a hiss as the doors started to open.

"Well, for starters, most pirates would shoot first and ask questions later, and they rarely take prisoners. So if you were like the pirates I've faced before, you'd have killed me already."

Then, the doors jammed halfway, locking in place and refusing to open any further. Aidan typed in the code again, but nothing happened.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"It's jammed," he said as he slammed his fist against the panel, breaking it. He walked over and grabbed a hold of the door and began to pull.

"Meia, was it?" he asked. "Could you give me a hand?"

"Alright," she said as she walked over to the other door and grabbed a hold of it.

As if on cue, they both pulled on the doors, which started to move, but strongly resisted. Then suddenly, the doors just opened, throwing Meia off-balance. He caught himself, and reached out and caught her before she fell. Her eyes locked onto his, and for a moment he thought back to some of his past memories. He helped her to her feet, and promptly let go of her.

"Thanks," she said quietly.

"No problem," he replied as he turned and walked into the armory.

Aidan looked into the armory, which housed almost enough weapons for a small army. Some were missing, probably taken by the ship's marines to defend it. There was rack upon rack, of rifles, shotguns and various other shipboard weapons. Most of the weapons were models that were used so they would not penetrate the bulkhead and decompress the whole area. He walked over and picked up a bullpup assault rifle, one where it had the ammunition magazine behind the handgrip, instead of in front. He turned to Meia.

"This is a Solaris Arms SA23 'Raptor' Automatic Rifle, standard issue weapon for the Solaris Defense Force." He knew they wouldn't be able to take every single weapon with them. After they had finished packing up several of the weapons, Aidan lifted a couple of duffel bags, as well as one slung around his shoulder. He saw Meia pick up a couple more, and it appeared she was having very little trouble lifting them.

"We should get these to the shuttle," she said.

"Not yet," he said. "We still have a few more places to go."

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About fifteen minutes later, they arrived at the bridge. Aidan had stopped by his quarters and grabbed some clothes and what few personal effects he had onboard. When they entered the bridge, a pungent stench filled the room. She could place it as only one thing, the stench of death. When she looked over at Aidan, he appeared not be affected by the smell. He set his bags down and walked to the center of the bridge. He nudged aside a dead crewman with his foot and reached down and grabbed onto to something and pulled it up out of the floor. It was cylindrical in shape, and to Meia it appeared to be some kind of computer terminal. He began typing in something, and a computerized female voice sounded throughout the bridge.

"Voice Identification Required."

"Mercer, Aidan. Rank, Captain. 4th Special Forces Detachment, Death's Grenadiers."

"Identification Confirmed. Authorization Code Required."

"Alpha-Delta Niner. Zeta Mark Four."

"Authorization Code Confirmed. Self-Destruct System Activated. Vessel will self-destruct in T-minus fifteen minutes."

"What have you done?" she exclaimed. "Deactivate it now!"

"I can't, only the ship's captain and his second-in command have that capability," he replied.

"Then how could you activate it?" she asked, starting to feel a little worried, but not showing it.

"I was given authority because of mission security," he replied.

"Mission security?" she asked, a little puzzled.

"I'll explain later," he said as he picked up the duffel bags. "Don't you think it's about time we got off this dead hulk of a ship?"

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Revised Chapter Two complete. Feedback appreciated.