Disclaimer: I do not own Vandread or anything related to it. But all of the stuff created for this fic is my intellectual property.
Vandread: The Unknown Soldier (Revised)
Chapter Fifteen: Before the Storm
Location: Infirmary, Nirvana
With a start, Meia woke from where she was sitting. She was exhausted from the battle, and she had apparently dozed off. She wondered, for a brief second, where she was, but quickly remembered. Then her attention quickly shifted to that of the person who was lying on one of the beds. Noticing that he was awake, and looking in her direction, embarrassed her slightly. How long was he looking at me?
"Oh, so you're awake," she said abruptly to cover her embarrassment.
"Yeah," Aidan replied, levering himself, with some difficulty, into a sitting position. "Are you alright?"
This question caught her slightly off-guard. "Am I? You're one to talk."
"Hmmhmmhmm- ugh!" Aidan laughed lightly, then grunted in pain as his injuries protested against the rapid exertion of breath. "I guess you're right."
"Why… did you do it?" she asked.
"Huh?" he replied, not getting her meaning.
"Why did you… why did you intercept that fighter that was bearing down on me?" she asked once again. "You put yourself in a lot of danger by doing that."
"I'm not really sure why," he replied. "I just did it on impulse, I guess."
"On impulse?" she asked, then sighed. "You're a reckless idiot, you know that?"
"I guess I am," he replied to her comment with a grin on his face.
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"Damages were quite extensive," BC said, reading the damage report. "Especially to the starboard arm of the ship. That last missile hit tore a gaping hole in the hull. I have Parfet currently overseeing the repairs."
"What about casualties?" Magno Vivan asked, concerned for her crew.
"Twenty-three dead, about half of those Dread pilots," BC replied. "Thirty-five wounded, including Aidan Mercer."
"I'd say we got off lightly, this time," Gascogne commented. "If they attack us again, we could be in for a lot worse than what we got."
"What I want to know is, what in the world was that ball of electricity?" Magno said.
"Perhaps Aidan might know," BC suggested. "We could ask him."
"Speaking of him," Magno said. "What's his current condition?"
"Duero reports that he is in stable condition, and has just recently regained consciousness." BC replied.
"I think I'll have to pay him a little visit," Magno said. "So we can hopefully figure out what that weird weapon was, and possibly a way to counteract it"
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The loud crack of gunfire sounded in the confines of the room. Her fear suddenly escalated, why would there be gunshots? She found out the horrible reason why in just a few seconds. She hurried to where her father last was, and saw him lying facedown on the floor, with a dark red liquid pooling underneath him. Blood…
She screamed out to her father, but he was obviously dead. She looked up with horrified eyes to see the two soldiers that were supposed to be his guard, standing over her and her father's still corpse. One of them with a rifle in his hands, and pointed it at her head.
"Don't worry," the soldier with the rifle said with an evil grin. "You'll be joining the bastard in a few seconds."
She closed her eyes, screamed, and waited for him to fire. There was the sound of a gunshot, but she didn't feel anything. She opened her eyes to see the other soldier pitch forward onto his face. A ghost-like figure stood behind him. The other soldier made the mistake of turning to meet this threat, and was shot just as he pulled the trigger.
The result was the now dying soldier convulsively clutched the trigger, emptying the magazine into the wall and up to the ceiling as he fell. A few of the bullets shattered the overhead light panels, dimming the room and sending sparks shooting everywhere. The lights now flickered, and she looked up to see a ghostly image appearing to solidify right in front of her eyes. The black figure was clutching a pistol in it's hand. Frantically, she picked up a pistol that was lying on the floor next to her. She raised it and pointed at the approaching black figure.
"Get away from me!" she screamed as she closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. The sound of the shot was deafening at this distance. Then, when she opened her eyes, the figure was holding her arm up, and it had sent the shot she fired into the ceiling.
"Dammit! Get a hold of yourself! I'm on your side!" the figure said. He reached up and tapped a stud on his helmet, retracting the visor up into the helmet. She looked to see a pair of gray eyes staring back at her.
"Who… who are you?" she asked, shaking from the rush of adrenaline.
"Captain Aidan Mercer, Solaris Special Forces," the soldier responded as he took the gun from her shaking hand. "I was supposed to escort both you and your father to the Artemis, but it looks as though they beat me to him. Luckily you're still alive."
"The Artemis?" she asked, still in a state of shock due her close brush with death.
"A warship," he replied. "We need to get there before this whole place is overrun."
She looked back over to her father, and tears started to streak down her face. She couldn't help but cry upon seeing the horrible truth in front of her. Aidan came over to her and pulled her to her feet.
"There was nothing you could have done," he said as the visor lowered back into place on his helmet. "You need to be strong, if nothing else, for the memory of your father. I was in a similar situation once."
"You were?" she asked, starting to regain control over her emotions.
"Yes, he replied as he glanced down at the wrist computer built into his armored suit. "Crap. We need to get going, now."
Forced out of her painful memories by a rap at her door, Maria turned her attention away from her thoughts. "Who is it?" she asked meekly, her knees drawn up to her chest.
"It's me, Ezra," came the reply. "You must be hungry, so I brought you something to eat. May I come in?"
She was about to respond negatively, but a slight growl in her stomach made her change her mind. I guess I need to eat sooner or later. "Okay," she replied weakly.
She heard the door slide open, and Ezra walked in with a tray of food in her hands. Noticeably absent was her daughter, Kahlua. Ezra walked over to where she sat on the bed, and sat down beside her. She then went back to a normal sitting position and accepted the tray from Ezra.
"Where's Kahlua?" she asked, trying to start a conversation.
"She's with Dita right now," Ezra replied.
"Oh," she said, glancing down at her food.
"You know, Dita was just trying to help you," Ezra said after a moment's silence.
"I know, I was just… I was just in a bad mood," she replied. "After all that happened. I'm sorry."
"Dita's the one you should be apologizing to, not me," Ezra said in her usual, kind-hearted voice.
"I'm such a coward," she stammered, putting the tray on the bed.
"Don't say such things," Ezra responded, putting a hand on her arm, trying to comfort her.
"But it's true," she said, trying to hold back tears. "I was the same way when Aidan rescued me from the soldiers on the space station, and later, from the assassin."
"But you are not a coward, you are strong," Ezra said. "Otherwise, you wouldn't be here today."
"I just don't know anymore," she replied, no longer able to hold back her tears.
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As he reviewed the footage again, Aidan did not like what he was seeing. At the doctor's order, he still had to stay in the infirmary, due to his injuries. Personally, Aidan knew he could still move around, even with these injuries, but, the doctor's was adamant about it. The small computer in his lap showed the last few minutes of the battle, from the perspective of the Nirvana. It showed the expanding of some weird, electrical field that knocked out the various special weapons these pirates had, granted to them by the Paksis Pragma. He suspected, them confirmed it in his mind, that he knew what had caused this.
"Do you have any idea as to what that is?" Magno asked.
"I have an idea," he replied. "I think it's called the P.N. Device."
"P.N. Device?" BC asked. "Care to explain what that is?"
He hesitated at first, as he knew that was a secret weapon, before he came to the realization that the E.D.A. had the only effective prototype, and they were the enemy. He then took a breath, and then started to explain what he knew about it.
"Paksis Nullification Device," he said. "It was a weapon developed from captured Harvester data, meant for use against the Paksis Pragma, which is used by the Earth forces. As you also have the Paksis, it has been used against you."
"So, a weapon developed to fight against Earth, which was captured and now used against us. Wonderful," Magno said after listening to Aidan's short explanation. "Do you know anything else about it?"
"Unfortunately, I do not," he replied. "As it was a top secret weapon for use against warships, and I'm just a ground-pounder, I don't know any more specifics."
"Now, the only question that remains is why they have not capitalized upon this advantage, and attempt to destroy us," Meia, who had been quiet until now, said.
"If you ask my opinion," he said, referring to Meia's comment. "I believe the commander in charge of that task force is overly prideful and arrogant. He probably believes, that since he has beaten you once, he can easily beat you again, so has determined that you are of no threat to him. Again, this is just my opinion."
"Alright," Magno replied., and then turned to walk out, followed by BC.
"And, Captain?" he said before she could exit.
"Yes?" she replied as she turned her head to look at him.
"I apologize for the comments I made earlier," he said, referring to the argument after the whole assassin debacle.
"You don't need to apologize," Magno replied, a smile creasing her lips. "We were all a little edgy then, and I understand that you have had terrible sacrifices in your lifetime. We've all lost our share of friends and loved ones."
She then turned and walked out of the room.
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Still, it doesn't make sense. If I were them I would've pressed my advantage and finished them off.
That thought was plaguing Meia for the last few days, for she didn't know why they didn't even bother to send any scouts, let alone an attack force against them while they were performing repairs. I guess we should be grateful that they aren't bothering to attack.
There was really only one thing she could do, and that was find out where they were and why they weren't attacking. Even if what Aidan had said was true, that still left that fleet as a large threat to the safety of everyone on the Nirvana. She got out of bed and changed into her Dread flight suit. She was going to go scout for herself, so at least she could get a few of these questions answered.
As soon as she was dressed, she exited her room and made her way to the hangar where her Dread was kept. She climbed on one of the lifts and made her way up to the cockpit. She deftly made her way into the cockpit and ran through the startup sequence. Placing her hands on the controls, opened the hangar by remote and launched out into space.
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Even though his injuries still slightly bothered him, primarily his broken ribs, he was now healed enough that he could return to his quarters, if you could call them that. Aidan was lying on his bed, contemplating on what Sakura had said.
"There is someone else, even though she doesn't completely know it yet."
"Dammit," he muttered. "What did she mean? Did she mean Meia?"
Seeing as he couldn't sleep, and the fact that it was completely silent for once, as Bart, the ship's helmsman, wasn't snoring. He heard the sounds of footsteps in the corridor. Granted, they weren't very loud, but sounds carried at night, and he could easily hear these. He glanced at his chronometer.
"Now, who could that be this late at night?" he asked himself silently. Only one way to find out.
Levering himself into a sitting position, he shifted and got off the bunk. He quickly put on his clothes and crept out into the corridor. He got out there just in time to see Meia, take a turn, moving out of his view. He silently followed her.
Now, what is she doing at a time like this? That question was answered when he saw her enter the hangar and board her fighter. What is she planning to do? Crap, she's going out to recon the area, probably to locate the E.D.A. fleet by herself. If they spot her, it'll be over before it even would begin.
Deciding to accompany her of his own free will, he bolted for the hangar where the Vanguards were kept. It was also where the Strikers were kept, due to there similar size and profile. He quickly climbed the gantry to the cockpit of the single remaining machine, as the other one was pretty much only useful as parts. He strapped himself in and started up the machine. On his way out, he grabbed a long-range rifle, and a combat shield, and then launched from the catapult.
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Nothing yet, but she was confident that she would find them before everyone else woke up. She wanted to be sure where their enemy was, so they could figure how and where to respond if they renewed combat. She checked her sensors one more time, and a noticeable blip appeared on it. It was a friendly, as denoted by it's green color. And the scanners confirmed it to be humanoid in shape.
Is it the Vanguard? She brought up the view from a rear camera feed, and saw that it was blue and black, not the gold color of Hibiki's machine. She immediately figured out what it was and who was piloting it. Aidan…
She toggled on her communications system, and set it on the frequency that her squadron used. She knew Aidan had the same frequency set on his machine. "What are you doing out here?"
"I could ask you the same question," came the reply as Aidan's face appeared on the video monitor.
"You're still recovering from your injuries," she said. "Head back to the Nirvana."
"I'm sorry, but I can't comply with that command," Aidan replied.
"And why is that?" she asked.
"The answer is simple," Aidan replied with a grin on his face. "I couldn't just leave my commander all alone out here without backup."
"Alright," she replied, returning the smile. "I guess I lost that one."
And with that, she slowed her Dread slightly to allow the Striker to keep pace with her.
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I need to get this done, so I can start on the sequel. Thanks for the feedback, guys.