Hey guys! As I said last chapter, these chapters are more likely to be more spaced out, and are more likely to be noticeably longer than the previous chapters. Expect more chapters like the previous chapter. Anyway, read and review!
Mikumo woke to the sound of distant explosions, although it would probably be more accurate to say that the vibrations of the Elysion's hull woke her up. When she sat up, she noticed that Shiro was readying his weapons, more precisely, his sidearm was in his hand, and one of his swords in the other. Mikumo gazed at the blade in Shiro's hand. It was fairly long, Mikumo guessed it was around the length of his arm, and it was straight, its shape representing one side of the Aerial Knights' swords. It also glowed faintly, light blue emanating from the entire blade. Shiro looks over to Mikumo's bed, noticing that she was already awake.
"Good, you're already awake." He says, his voice low and serious.
"Doubt anyone could sleep through all this. What's going on?" Mikumo asks, the distant explosions getting slowly but noticeably closer.
"I haven't the slightest clue, I didn't think anyone would come for you so soon." His eyes narrow, as if focusing on the sounds outside. "You should get changed, preferably something that you wouldn't mind running in. I think trouble is much closer than we think."
Mikumo moves but hesitates. She glances at Shiro, uncertainty clouding her thoughts.
"What's wrong? You don't have clothes?" He asks, not noticing her body fidgeting under her blankets.
"Umm, might I preserve my modesty, especially since I don't think you're leaving this room?" She asks, somewhat annoyed by his lack of attention towards her feminine needs.
He glances at her before completely turning his head the other way before saying, "I can't, but if I haven't shown that I intended to make any sort of move towards you while you were sleeping, I certainly don't understand why you can't trust me right now."
Finding that once again, she couldn't argue with him, she quickly went over to the closet that was provided for her, she went through the rack, looking for something that she would be comfortable in, all the while trying to fulfill Shiro's requests for her attire. She found a black mid sleeve shirt that fit her snugly, and found black shorts that came around her mid thighs. Instead of getting her regular white low heels, she opted for brown ankle boots, as they were the most optimal for running. She grabbed a pair of mid thigh high socks to cover her legs for the most part.
Keeping her voice low, she says, "I'm ready. What's our first move?"
"I've tried to reach the bridge, but communications are too hazy to understand anything. I think our visitors have some sort of jamming devices in place. Normally, what I'd do is take you to a more secure location." He hesitates before continuing.
"But?" Mikumo asks, predicting the opener to the potential problem.
"That normally involves a considerable amount of risk, and while I'm certain that you can handle yourself to an extent, there's too much at stake for me to risk that. You're too important to let you fall into enemy hands."
Mikumo considers his words before asking him, "Why do you care about me so much?"
Her question takes him off guard, as his head, which normally only turned enough to see a person in his peripherals, he turns to face her, his face both surprised and serious.
"Well, you're obviously not an ordinary important person-"
"What does that even mean?"
He sighs before holstering his sidearm and sheathing the sword in his hand.
"You're not the first person I've been hired to protect, but unlike my other clients, who were generally the children of wealthy businessmen or politicians, you're capable of many things, things that I never thought were possible. Things that I have no doubt someone with a twisted mind would force you to do. So if you're asking why I'm so intent on seeing your safety, it's because: A. I don't want the whole universe to come to an end because I got sloppy and some greedy dirt-bag got a hold of you and figured out how to abuse you, B. I take my contracts very seriously, and your case is no different, in fact, you're even more important, and C.-" He pauses, uncertain of how to continue. Before he can continue, there is the sound of voices very close to the walls and the door to her room. The voices are low enough that a normal person wouldn't have been able to hear them, but Mikumo, having all of her five senses enhanced, notices them instantly. What surprises her is that Shiro seems to have heard them too. "These walls are two inch thick metal, how did he hear them?" She thinks to herself. Before she can finish her thoughts, Shiro's hand gently but firmly pushes her towards the back of the room. He softly tells her the signal he'd use when she was clear to follow him. She notices him standing near the door, his body leaning flat against the nearby wall.
"He's well-armed, but can he really-" She thinks.
Her thoughts were cut off by a loud popping sound. The door opens, revealing a figure wearing a black and red combat uniform who was also carrying a rifle. All in one fluid motion, Shiro grabs the man by the arm, pushes him against the wall, twists the gun out of his hands, and smashes his head into the wall. Mikumo didn't have time to ponder the identities of these men, as moments after, Shiro rushes out the door. The sounds of brief melee combat ensue, followed by the sounds of guns dropping to the ground. A shot goes off, but it sounds suppressed, as if the barrel of the gun was forced into someone's body. There is a brief groan, followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. There are grunts of various tones, followed by the sounds of weapons hitting the floor. Mikumo holds her breath, her mind conflicted over whether to be worried for Shiro or to be worried for herself. Against better judgement, she moves toward the door in an attempt to better understand the situation. She didn't make it far. Right as she neared the door, someone grabs her from her right side and pins her to the wall. She feels one of her attacker's hand clasp around her neck, causing her to gasp for air. The attacker's other hand pins one of her wrists to the wall, causing her resistance to wain further. In a burst of adrenaline, she kicks her attacker in the stomach, causing his grasp on her to fade, if ever so briefly. She capitalizes on this moment, using her free hand to rip his arm away from her neck and using all of her strength, she punches him square in the chest, sending him staggering away. Just as she moves to knock him unconscious, a gun sent from beyond her field of vision smashes into his head, his body dropping to the ground. She looks over to see Shiro, with at least ten bodies on the ground behind him. He picks up the gun and places it in his jacket before looking at Mikumo, his face hard.
"I thought I told you to move only when I gave the signal." His voice is stern, and if Mikumo didn't know any better, she'd think he was being condescending.
Mikumo, upset by his tone, responds, "How was I supposed to see a hand signal if you were outside and I was inside?"
"I would have said something to tell you that it was safe to move. I wouldn't just leave you guessing, Mikumo. I need you to trust me, otherwise I can't do my job without having to worry about you."
"Why, would you get paid less if I'm harmed in any way?" Mikumo blurts, before she could stop herself.
Shiro visibly stiffens before glaring at her, causing Mikumo to flinch at the sudden anger coming from her otherwise calm guardian. He quickly regains his composure before responding, "Much as I'd love to argue that I'm above the common mercenary, the mission comes first, and you are still in serious danger. If these guys have managed to get this close to you, then there's no telling what the status of the rest of the ship is. We need to find Captain Ernest or Arad, they'll know what's going on, or at least an idea of what's happening right now."
"I'm pretty sure we're being attacked right now." Mikumo notes without a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
"That's not what I mean, I mean are we simply being boarded, or is NUNS conducting a full scale assault on this location? I need more information, and arguing with you isn't helping at all. As much as I'd rather have you like me as opposed to hating me, your safety comes first, above all else. So please bear with me, if not for yourself, then for your friends. I'm sure they're worried about you."
At that moment, Shiro's comm crackled to life, the sounds of explosions and high-pitched whirring of engines in the background creating most of the audio for a few seconds before being somewhat replaced by Hayate's voice.
"Hey, Shiro! Hey! Can you hear me?!" Hayate's voice sounds distracted, although Shiro honestly couldn't blame him.
"Hayate, this is Shiro, I hear you, go ahead."
"Is Mikumo safe?! We couldn't stop all of them from breaking our defenses and breaching the hull! Most of them didn't get in, but a platoon-sized element managed to slip past us.!"
"She's safe, for now at least. We ran into a large squad of hostiles. Who are we up against?" Shiro asks, keeping a level head, much to Mikumo's amazement.
"It looks like a bunch of pirates, but they have military-grade hardware!"
"How did they manage to get enough firepower to break through a Macross-class warship's defense and supplementary defense squadrons?" Shiro asks, sounding more annoyed than bothered.
"Your guess is as good as mine, but that doesn't matter too much right now. It's pretty obvious that they don't know how to use it to its full potential, but they caught us off guard."
"Who's left besides our trespassers?" Shiro asks, guessing what Hayate was about to explain.
Hayate pauses, confirming one of Shiro's suspicions "There are six Destroids and two platoons worth of VF-171s , which normally wouldn't be a problem, except that in the initial attack, they knocked out the Elysion's primary scanner arrays, so we don't have a visual on their location, which is constantly changing due to the fact that they're moving after a few shots at a time. On top of that, their VF-171s are loaded with cluster missile launchers, so we can't get close to the Destroids we DO manage to locate." An explosion briefly interrupts the conversation.
"Are the ship's defensive batteries still operational?"
"Yeah, they're still firing at what they can hit. I haven't seen the main guns fire, but that's probably because most of our attackers aren't large enough for the beam cannons to hit."
"Do you know the status of the bridge or the the other members of Walkure?" Shiro asks, more than ready to move.
"I can't get in touch with the bridge, although in the passes I managed to fly by, the bridge seems intact, and there aren't any signs of fighting, as for the members of Walkure, I'm almost certain that they're on the bridge, if not, they're in their safe room in the center of the ship."
"We were in Mikumo's room when our guests made their entrance, so we're pretty close to the bridge. We'll be heading there first. If anything significant comes up, contact me through my comm, chances are the comms array was also hit in the initial attack."
"Roger that. We've located two of the six Destroids, I leave the safety of Mikumo and Walkure to you."
"Got it. I leave the skies to you."
With that, Shiro and Mikumo ran as much as Mikumo could towards the bridge. However, Shiro took Mikumo for a detour, as he headed for his quarters, where his equipment was. Mikumo became confused as to why they were getting sidetracked from their current objective.
"What are we doing here? I thought we were going to head for the bridge?"
"We were, but I've been thinking about why we can't contact the bridge while we were on our way." Shiro responds as he walks toward the strange box, which had circuit-like lines that faintly glowed orange all over it.
"And?" Mikumo asks, not following his thought process.
"What if the bridge was already taken over by the pirates?" Shiro asks, his tone more serious than earlier.
"It would explain things, but what can we do?" Mikumo asks, uncertain as to where he is going with this.
Shiro ponders as he presses the box's smooth and featureless surface. The box's surface splits open, revealing various firearms, ranging from two large guns that had belts of ammo to a long rifle with an almost disproportionately large scope mounted. Shiro takes none of these, opting for another sidearm that was fairly large for a sidearm. Mikumo realizes that the sidearm is identical to the one Shiro was holding when she woke up. He takes his swords off his back and goes to the back of the box. A rack of swords silently appears, the blades suspended in mid-air by an unseen force. All of the swords look almost identical in shape, save for size and width of the blades. The two that Shiro took off his back seem to be in between two pairs of swords on the rack. One pair is noticeably wider and longer, with a rounded edge instead of a straight edge like the other two pairs of swords. The other pair is slightly shorter, but is considerably thinner, most likely for more maneuverability and ease of access, Mikumo reasons. Shiro grabs this pair of swords, but before he places them on his back, he takes his loose, grey jacket off and replaces it with a form fitting black one that is visibly padded and has a black metallic plate on the back. He takes his sidearms and places them at his belt, one on each side, with a clicking sound they snap onto his belt. He then grabs two small packs with belts on them and attaches them to his thighs. Finally, he places the swords on his back, both of them attaching to the metal plate on his back with a low hum. He tosses something to Mikumo, who catches it with curiosity.
"It's a comm, I assume you know how to use it?"
She nods before placing it in her ear.
"If you're gonna go out on your own, at least let me know so I can chase you down," He says, without the slightest hint of humor in his voice.
She shoots him a look that's half a glare and half a pout.
He suppresses a smile.
"Are you ready, Mikumo?"
"What's our plan?"
"Given that I'm under orders to not leave you alone whenever possible, you're coming with me to the bridge, but under no circumstances are you to engage those guys directly, alright?"
"What am I supposed to do then? Watch you like some damsel in distress?" She responds, still not willing to bet treated like one.
"I would prefer if you didn't needlessly endanger yourself. Especially more so given the high probability that the Captain and his officers are being taken hostage."
"The Captain can handle himself."
"His officers can't though, and I've talked to him enough to know that he wouldn't act in such a way that might get them killed, not if he can help it."
She sighs before saying, "Alright, I see your point, I won't do anything until it's clear, ok?"
"I appreciate that. We also don't know the statuses of the other members of Walkure, so we'll have to be careful."
With that discussion over, they headed straight to the bridge, encountering no resistance whatsoever. It seemed, to Shiro, that the pirates/bounty hunters split into two groups, one take the bridge, obviously, and one to kidnap Mikumo, which also obviously, failed. As they neared the bridge, the two saw that the door was bent inwards, leaving a sizable gap in the middle. Shiro pulls a small datapad from his pocket and begins tapping it. As Mikumo leans in, she sees a layout of the bridge.
Curious, she asks, "What's this for?"
He doesn't look up as he responds. "I'd like to figure a way out for us to get in without using the front door, but other than this maintenance hallway that connects the bridge to a server room, I don't see another way in. Not to mention, the door from the server room to the bridge is pretty open, no doubt anyone that doesn't have their ears jammed full of earwax will hear us coming through that door. If we had another trained member of security, we might be able to-"
His thoughts were cut off by the sounds of combat coming through the two person sized gap in the door leading to the bridge.
"Goddammit, is she doing what I specifically told her to NOT do?" Shiro's thoughts raced as he rushed through the gap, drawing one of his swords as he did so.
The moment he arrived inside the upper level of the bridge and saw that there was no one, he sprinted down to the stage, only to see four pirates on the ground unconscious. His attention quickly turned to Mikumo in a brawl with one of the pirates' leaders, identifiable by the upside down military rank on his helmet. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees the members of Walkure and the bridge crew, all tied up and muffled/gagged, save for Captain Ernest, who is slumped against the wall, bleeding. He doesn't relax, knowing that he'd have to save Mikumo quickly in order to save Ernest. Another pirate appears behind Mikumo, and before she can react, he strikes her in the back of the head. She falls to the ground, not unconscious, but as she tries to back away from the two, the one she was fighting with originally shoots her in the left leg, causing her to cry out in pain. Before they can do anything else, Shiro, with all his strength, pushes off his leg, leaping towards the two. He doesn't hold back. He lands in front of the one with the gun, and in one motion, kicks the man square in the chest so hard his helmet visor cracks, sending the man flying into the wall with a smack. Seconds after, he slices the other man's rifle before he can fire, subsequently hitting him in the head with the flat side of his sword, incapacitating him.
Seeing as how the others were incapacitated, he places his sword on his back and rushes over to Mikumo, who is in pain. He gently but firmly pushes her leg flat on the ground before ripping off part of her sock to treat her wound. He notes that the bullet didn't go all the way through her leg. He takes some gauze and a small bottle out of his chest pocket, squeezing some of the bottle's contents on her wound. She must have been trained, at the very least, to not move when being treated for serious injuries, because her shoulders tense and she lets out a sharp cry of pain, but doesn't move her leg. After a few seconds, he presses a portion of the gauze tight over her wound, saving the rest for the Ernest, if he could be treated. He then rips off her left sleeve, tearing it down the middle on one side to wrap around her leg. He pulls it tight, causing her to yelp again, although she seemed to be in less pain.
"We're going to have to get his out later, but we need to attend to Captain Ernest very soon. Can you hang on for a while?"
She nods, visibly strained from the ordeal, before leaning against him.
Satisfied with her not being in any imminent danger, he picks her up, careful not to hurt her, and carries her over to where the members of Walkure and the bridge crew are tied up. They look at him with mixed expressions. Freyja, Makina, and Reina look noticeably frightened, although Shiro couldn't discern if it was him or their captors. Kaname and the bridge crew look at him with an understanding but nervous expression. Ignoring their looks, he gently sets Mikumo down and walks over to Kaname and cuts her loose. She takes off the tape that covered her mouth before speaking.
"I'll get the others loose. See if you can treat the Captain." He nods, handing her a knife from his back holster before walking over to the Captain.
"How bad are his injuries?"
"He was shot in the lower right abdomen, normally a person would be dead by now, but since he's Zentradi, he's been able to last longer, but I don't want to push the limits of his survival." She responds as she cuts Freyja and Reina loose. Reina runs over to a datapad on the ground, and Freyja walks up to Shiro, her face fearful but determined.
"Do you need anything, Shiro?" She asks, her voice a little shaky.
He looks at her before focusing back on Ernest's unmoving body. He notices that he is still breathing, but is labored. "If you know where the first aid kit, please get it. I don't think I can treat the Captain with what I've got left."
She nods before running up the stairs that lead to the upper level of the bridge.
"Hey, Kaname?"
"Yes?"
He looks at the unconscious bodies of the pirates/bounty hunter. "Can you tie up those guys, it would be bad if they woke up, much less got away. Unless you'd prefer to treat the Captain."
She glances between the pirates and Ernest's body. "I'll take care of the Captain, please take care of them."
He suddenly snaps to attention, his head swiveling towards the sound of a gun cocking. The pirate that Shiro kicked into a wall levels a handgun at Shiro and fires. A second sound rings out, just moments after the gunshot. The result was shocking to everyone on the bridge. The pirate leader suddenly found himself looking at Shiro, who was visibly unharmed and had a sword in his hand that wasn't there previously, before noticing that there was a hole right next to his head. Shiro's expression, while still remaining calm, made it clear that the next attempt the man made on anyone's life would cost him dearly. The others couldn't do anything but gape at what had just happened, or what they thought had happened. Mikumo, in spite of her enhanced senses, could barely grasp what had just happened, although she was fairly certain of one thing: her bodyguard was most certainly a force to be reckoned with.
Shiro spins his sword in his hand once before sliding it onto his back, all in one fluid motion. He then walks over to the man, taking a pair of restraints that the man had on him, and restrains his arms behind his back. The pirate leader doesn't resist. When he was satisfied, Shiro drags the man to general vicinity of the other pirates, throws all of their weapons in a pile and begins tying them up, using the restraints they all had on their persons. A few regain consciousness and begin to struggle, but a simultaneous look from Shiro and their leader strongly suggests that they stop resisting.
After he was certain they wouldn't or couldn't attempt anything, Shiro turns around and looks toward the sound of running. Freyja comes back with a massive first aid kit in her arms, visibly exhausted. She proceeds to set it next to Kaname, who has yet to stop Ernest's bleeding, although it has slowed considerably. Shiro walks over to Kaname, who asks Shiro if he can re-position Ernest's body so she can properly tend to his wounds. Shiro nods, and proceeds to grab Ernest's shoulders, ready to move him. The whole scene, had it not been for the fact that Ernest was seriously wounded, would have been comical, as Shiro, despite being fairly tall, was overshadowed by Ernest three times over. Despite their obvious difference in size, Shiro was able to move Ernest's unconscious figure into a lying position without dropping him, although the action visibly strained Shiro. After Kaname treats Ernest to the best of her abilities, which Shiro mentally noted, were actually superior to his. Shiro then taps his comm piece, attempting to contact Hayate or Arad, with no success. The others try to contact the members of Delta Platoon, with no luck. He tries again, with the same results before looking at Reina.
"Hey Reina?"
"Yes?"
"You are an electronics and information specialist, correct?" His mind is a whirlwind of thoughts, although his expression reveals none of this.
"Yes. Why do you ask?"
"I need to know if it's possible for someone to set up a communications jammer for a particular area, say the bridge, for example."
She responds by typing on her datapad for a few minutes before responding, "It's down, we should be able to communicate with the rest of the ship and the pilots outside now."
Shiro had met considerably proficient electronic warfare specialists in his lifetime, but he had to admit, Reina easily outclassed all of them by a long shot. He can't resist a smile as he replies, "Well, that didn't take you long at all."
"Of course it didn't, who do you think I am?" She responds, smiling back.
"Umm guys?" Freyja's voice turns everyone's attention to the glass window of the bridge, surprising everyone except for Shiro and Mikumo.
"I believe there's supposed to be some sort of battle going on right now, unless I'm mistaken." The purple-haired member of the bridge crew states blankly.
"There is, we can hear it, but for some reason we can't see it from the bridge." Mikumo says, wincing as she shifts her body to look more clearly through the bridge's window.
"Reina?" Kaname asks, "What's going on right now?"
Reina doesn't look up from her datapad as she replies, "I'm not sure, but-oh wait, here they are."
"Here what is?" Shiro asks, not enjoying the pronoun game that Reina wasn't aware that she was playing.
"Someone rigged multiple projectors all over the bridge, and they're projecting an image of the bridge on the window to make it look like nothing's happening."
"I'd ask if you've found them, but judging from your tone, I assume you've already found them?" Kaname asks.
"I've found all ten of them, but half of them are on the ceiling level or around that height, and unless someone's a really good shot with a rifle, we're gonna have to suspend ourselves from the top of the bridge."
"Can't we just destroy the bottom half of projectors?" Freyja asks, not wanting to have to hang herself from a large height.
"We could, but that would only reveal the bottom half of the bridge to the pilots outside. And given that they're probably flying above the Elysion itself, I doubt that they'll notice anything."
"We could just contact them and tell them our situation." Shiro states.
Everyone stares at him, mentally scolding themselves for forgetting that they restored communications and the whole plan would just make more work for them than what was necessary.
"I suppose we could." Kaname says, sighing.
With that, they called Arad and let him know what had happened on the bridge, and confirmed the safety of everyone on the bridge, except for Ernest, who had fortunately stabilized.
Sorry about the delay guys. Also, this chapter was even longer than the last one, and I have no clue when they'll stop getting longer, so I apologize for that. Also, even though I stated in an earlier chapter that I wouldn't give next chapter previews, this chapter didn't really explain enough, so the next chapter will cover how and when the attack started, as well as Hayate's POV, mostly. Anyways, as usual, read and review!