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Vandread: The Unknown Soldier (Revised)
Chapter Seven: Suspicion
Location: Conference Room, Nirvana.
"Say that again," Magno Vivan said, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Like I said before, I believe one of your new fighter pilots may not be who she seems," Aidan said as he repeated his earlier statement.
"Do you know this for a fact?" BC asked with her arms crossed.
"No, just a feeling," Aidan replied, looking over at BC.
"If we don't have proof, we cannot act upon it," Magno said. "Do you know her name?"
"Her name, I believe, was Reika," Aidan replied.
BC accessed a terminal and brought up a list of the new Dread pilots, she scrolled down until she came to the name 'Reika Kiyaga.' She brought up her profile, and asked, "Is this her?"
"Yeah, but I don't believe that is her real name," Aidan said as he crossed his arms.
"Why do you believe that?" Magno asked.
"Because it is the nature of the spy to take on different identities to keep themselves hidden," Aidan replied.
"So you're saying she's a spy?" Magno asked incredulously.
"Perhaps, but my point is that her name might not be actually hers," Aidan said, uncrossing his arms.
"So what would you suggest we do about it?" BC asked.
"Just to keep an eye on her, that is all," Aidan answered as he headed toward the door.
"And what if you're wrong?" Magno asked.
"If I'm wrong, then you can just forget that I ever brought it up," he replied as exited the room.
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Reika sat on her bed, lazily tapping at the keys of her small noteputer. She had nothing to do for the last half hour. She was waiting for a message which had yet to come, and not even running Dread simulations seemed to relieve her boredom. She continued tapping at the keys until a message popped up on the screen.
"'Bout damn time," she said as she noticed it.
The sender was tagged as unknown, but she knew who it was from. She opened and saw that it was encrypted, so she opened a decryption program and let it go to work. It took a few moments, and then she was finally able to read the message.
The first part of the message read, 'Proceed at your own discretion.' The second part read, 'Do not reply, delete this message once finished.'
After she read it, she deleted it and erased it from her notepaper's hard drive. She smiled to herself as she shut down and closed her noteputer. Her mission had just begun…
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Flexing the arm of his Light Stealth Type Powered Armor, Aidan made sure that it did not jam up or was damaged in any serious way. The Light Stealth Type Powered Armor, named 'Geist,' was the latest development in Solaris Powered Combat Armor. This was one of the lightest armor, which meant that it could only withstand small-arms fire and some laser-based weapons. The armored suit was only slightly larger than a normal human, and it's weapon selection was limited to mostly infantry weapons. As was per standard, the armor was equipped with an internal medical pack that integrated with the sensor mesh that the soldier wore. The medical pack could inject painkillers, adrenaline, or any other forms of drugs that were necessary in case the wearer sustained injury.
Unlike the heavier models, the wearer had to support some of the weight of this one. The most important and unique feature, however, was the optical camouflage system built into the suit. It used special electronic dampeners that masked it's infrared signature, and it's armor was coated with a special mimetic coating that helped redirect light that helped make the armor almost completely invisible when the system was activated. The helmet, in which the visor was still shattered, had a heads-up display that allowed for enhanced targeting and detection capabilities. Unless damaged, the entire suit was pressurized and sealed, allowing the wearer to operate it in the vacuum of space.
He had refused assistance from a nerdy-looking woman with glasses that went by the name of Parfet, to help repair any damage to the suit. First of all, she didn't need to know how this powered armor worked. Second, the technology used in it was classified and she had no right to find out. She definitely wanted to know more about the optical camouflage, but he had refused her request. He still didn't trust most of these people completely, and he saw no reason to let her know.
Suddenly, a tall, blonde woman walked into his field of vision. He immediately recognized her as the one who'd attacked him with the saber on the Artemis.
"It looks as if you're getting prepared to go to battle," she said to him, looking at the armor he wore.
"It may appear so, but I'm just performing maintenance," he said, not bothering to look up at her as he adjusted his left arm gauntlet. "What do you want?"
"Well," she said in a somewhat seductive voice. "There's something I want you to give me."
"And what would that be?" he inquired, his tone showing no interest.
"I would like for you to help me make a baby," she said bluntly.
"What!" he replied, caught slightly off-guard by her bluntness. Who the hell does she think I am? I barely even know her and here she's asking me to do…
"So, will you?" she asked, expecting the answer to be yes.
"Do you have any idea as to what you are asking?" he asked upon quickly settling a neutral mask over his face.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she replied, irritation creeping into her voice as she placed her hand on her hips.
Aidan sighed. "I thought so." He paused for a second before replying. "Oh, and my answer is no."
The woman apparently fumed, then stormed out of the men's quarters, nearly running over Bart as she went.
"What was that all about?" Bart asked as he barely avoided her.
"I have no idea," he replied as he clenched and unclenched his armored glove.
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Casually walking around the ship's garden, Maria glanced up into the sea of stars that filled her vision overhead. It was becoming a habit for her recently. She enjoyed the peace and calm that came with a stroll through this place. It was a place of serenity, a place where she could get away from all the war and death that seemed intent on haunting her. It was a stark contrast with the rest of the ship, which was gray and dull compared to the lush green of the plant-life and the stream flowing through the center of it.
She plopped onto the bench that was located near her and once again her vision trailed up to the stars in the sky, numerous and uncountable. Nirvana… Paradise, seems like an appropriate name.
Hard to believe it's already been a month since we first arrived here…She still had the lingering desire to return home. But she feared there would be no place for her to return, that she would be found and killed. As it was now, she wouldn't mind if she ever went back. She got up off the bench and started her walk back to the quarters they'd provided her.
Little did she know that someone was watching her from the shadows… and no, it wasn't Paiway, but someone else. The shadowed figured promised that all the death would catch up with her, before moving back into the shadows and completely out of sight.
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Duero read the information at his computer console intently. It was information pertaining to Solaris. He had acquired it from copying the original disc that Aidan had. He knew it was underhanded, but he knew Aidan didn't totally trust him. He had frequently circumvented, avoided, and blunted his questions when it concerned where Aidan had come from.
He just got finished reading the data on Maria Shakov, the daughter of the late Prime Minister Cedric Shakov. He was assassinated just before Maria was evacuated off a space station by none other than Aidan Mercer. The file also had all of her medical records, which he knew could be useful at a later date. After he finished with her file, he opened military service record of Aidan Mercer.
The file contained a somewhat current picture of him as well as a brief history of him before he'd entered active service. The file said he was orphaned at the age of ten after the final attack by the Earth forces in the Solaris system, twelve years ago. That made him the age of twenty-two. Two years later he was put into a military academy, and stayed there until age of sixteen. At that age, he entered active military training, aka boot camp.
A year later, he entered active service in a combined-arms unit known as the Seventy-First Solaris Dragoons. About that time the E.D.A. started to openly revolt, staging attacks at multiple locations across the planet. His unit was called to suppress the attacks at the city of Augusta. What surprised him was that Augusta was the city that Aidan had mentioned destroyed when he first provided information. After three weeks of brutal street-to-street fighting, the remnants of the Seventy-First were pulled out and the city was razed by an orbiting warship.
A year after that a large portion of his unit had been destroyed in a terrorist attack, apparently in retribution for their actions in Augusta. The perpetrator of the attack was never found. Aidan was wounded, but survived and requested a transfer to Special Operations. That was when the data about him came to an end.
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Sitting in the open cockpit of his Striker, Aidan searched the computer in his lap, performing maintenance. The control systems were a little off, and the targeting system veered a little to the left. The Striker currently was in a kneeling position, with a gantry running up and just below the open cockpit. He was distracted by the sound of someone climbing up the gantry to where he was. Then he saw a red-haired girl peer into the cockpit.
"Oh, it's you, Mr. Soldier," she said. It was a nickname she had given him. He had told her not to call him that, but getting her to do that seemed impossible.
"Do you want something?" he asked as set the computer aside.
"Have you seen Mr. Alien?" she asked.
"You mean that kid, no I haven't seen him around," Aidan replied.
"Well, thanks anyway," she said as she left.
He went back to work and noticed that the camera feed and sensors had started to act up again. He checked the computer, and then climbed out of the cockpit. He climbed up onto the shoulder of the machine, and removed an access panel from the side of the machine's head. He began to check the wires and conduits, rewiring them when necessary. He failed to notice someone climb onto the gantry, until they spoke up.
"Hey, Aidan, can I talk to you for a minute?" the person asked.
He looked down and saw that Meia was the one who asked. He climbed down off machine and onto the gantry. "Sure, what's on your mind?"
"I spoke with the Captain about your suspicions concerning one of the Dread pilots," she said after a few seconds.
"What about it?" he asked.
"Well, I've got the same feeling that something isn't right," she replied.
"If I may ask, how'd you get that feeling?"
"Well, it all started with a dream I had…" she replied.
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Meanwhile, while everyone else was asleep, the person known as Reika was up and about. She was in the engineering section of the ship. Satisfied that no one was around, she pulled out a small noteputer, and plugged it in to an engineering terminal. She then activated the small computer and brought up a program. A few seconds later a bar appeared across the screen, and above it, it said 'Uploading.' A few minutes later, it had been finished, and she unplugged the noteputer and exited the engineering section, smiling to herself.
It will begin very soon…
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