Hey guys! Sorry about the delay in posting, things have been happening and I did't have much time to finish this chapter. Anyways, enjoy!

4 Hours Earlier

Hayate woke up to the sound of his comm going off. Grunting, he looks at it, not concerned as to the reason why it was going off.

"Ugh, I swear I set this thing to silent, so why does the damn thing ring after I try to go to sleep?" He thinks to himself. Getting dressed in his regular uniform, he taps it, opening the channel to whoever was calling him.

"Alright, who's bright idea was it to call after I went to sleep?" He asks to the person on the other end of the call.

"Sorry to interrupt your beauty sleep, Hayate, but we have a serious problem. Head down to the bridge. Now." A familiar female voice responds.

"Oh shit, sorry Mirage." Hayate makes a mental note to ask who was calling him before he says anything.

With that, he heads down to the bridge, where all of the pilots of Delta Platoon are gathered. Hayate looks at the holographic display next to the Ernest's chair and notices that there are lot more dots on it than he normally sees.

Arad walks up to him and says, "I see you've noticed our little predicament."

Hayate looks back at him, his face serious. "Is this what I think it is?"

"If you're thinking that what we have here is an air fleet's worth of fighters escorting enough Destroids to cripple the Elysion then yes." Arad responds without a hint of humor in his voice.

"If these guys wanted Mikumo alive, they'd probably have a shuttle in there somewhere, but from the looks of it, they're only here to attack. And they really mean it." Mirage muses, before pointing something out. "Wait, why is NUNS attacking us now, of all times? Also, why are they just hanging back outside their effective weapons range?"

"Those are good questions, but for now we should just focus on alerting the rest of our forces, and preparing for an attack." Ernest states, his voice showing no emotion whatsoever.

"Right. It looks I'll be commanding the platoons we have available. Chuck, Mirage, Hayate. You three suit up, it looks like we'll be in the air for a long time, so I'll make sure the techs equip all platoons with all the extra kits, alright?"

The three sound off simultaneous "Yes sirs" before running off to prepare for the fight.

"Should we notify the members of Walkure that we're about to engage?" Arad asks, almost forgetting about them.

"Notify them to get to the bridge, the safe room was damaged during the battle a couple weeks ago and we haven't gotten around to repairing it." Ernest responds, working out multiple scenarios in his head.

"Understood." Arad says, reaching for his comm. Before he can call any of the girls, an explosion rocks the bridge, sending shock waves through the ship. The holo display showing the positions of the enemy fighters and Destroids crackles and dissipates. Ernest and Arad look at the display, then at each other, dread filling them both.

"Did they just knock out-" Arad says.

"-the scanner array?" Ernest finishes his thought.

"Shit!" Arad runs off toward the hangar to ready up, forgetting about the calls he was supposed to make.

Meanwhile,

Chuck and Mirage had just finished putting their suits when the explosions nearly knocked them off their feet. Hayate runs in, concern written all over his face.

"They're firing the Destroids' cannons while they're flying, and they managed to hit the Elysion's scanner array!"

"How do you know they hit the scanner array, and how do you know that they're firing in the air?!" Chuck and Mirage ask at the same time.

"The tracers came from the same elevation as the bridge, so unless there's ground as high as the bridge, they're shooting from the skies! Also, the shells hit somewhere close to the bridge, what's close to the bridge that's important besides the sound system for Walkure's broadcasts?!"

Chuck and Mirage look at each other, panic in their faces before they grab their helmets and run out the changing room. Hayate grabs the nearest mechanic he can find and tells him to ensure that all the other mechanics know to outfit all Siegfrieds with all of the possible extra kits before he runs off towards his Siegfried. Luckily, Hayate's request was already made redundant by Arad's order to outfit all fighters, and being what it was, Delta Platoon's fighters were already equipped and ready to fly. The three pilots hop into their respective fighters and take off. As they take off, they notice that they already had support from the nearest NUNS garrison. Nightmares in the standard khaki color scheme were seen flying around engaging other Nightmares, which they all notice have black and red color schemes as opposed to the others.

"Has anyone considered the possibility that we're not under attack by NUNS themselves, but by pirates with their technology?" Hayate asks, barely dodging a red and black fighter as it strafes him just as he takes off.

"All things considered, I strongly believe these are pirates, but most pirates I've encountered don't have the latest VFs, much less Destroids." Mirage responds, blowing off a red and black fighter's wing before dodging two more fighters behind her.

"But that raises the question of how these pirates got a hold of NUNS weapons and how they did so without them noticing." Chuck adds, coming up behind Mirage and shredding one of her aggressors' engines, the explosion forcing the other to wave off.

"Should we go easy on these guys?" Chuck asks, shooting a fighter in gerwalk mode so that its leg unit exploded, sending it plummeting toward the ocean.

"I don't think so. They certainly aren't going easy on us." Mirage responds, knocking out a fighter's engine, rolling to dodge a volley of missiles launched at her.

"I don't think we have the luxury of choosing, at least not right now." Hayate notes, shredding a fighter until it explodes before blasting another into bits as he proceeds to chase a Destroid. He manages to disable its cannons, but before he can destroy its missile launchers, four fighters charge him, forcing him to back off. In the resulting chaos, the damaged Destroid manages to get away, much to Hayate's dismay. As the fighters chase him, he manages to turn on them, destroying two of them before engaging the other two. As the other two gain on him, blue tracers clip one of the fighters' wings, sending it tumbling into the other fighter, causing them both to explode. Hayate looks on to see a fighter with a blueish green wing trim fly past him, blasting a pirate's fighter into bits before hearing Arad on the comm.

"Don't hold back against these guys! We confirmed that they're pirates, not soldiers of NUNS! At this point, it doesn't matter how they got the weapons, right now they're trying to breach the Elysion! The T-point barriers are holding back their attack, but it won't last long!" Arad yells through the sounds of machine guns and explosions.

Hayate and the other members of Delta Platoon turn around to see a series of explosions near the under arm of the Elysion, and on the ground, at least four Destroids with their guns pointed towards a part of the ship covered by a fading green circle. Despite the Elysion's anti-air defense batteries being online, it wasn't powerful enough to faze the Destroids, as any anti-air turrets that were in the vicinity of the area the Destroids were aiming for were either destroyed or in the process of being destroyed. Despite being hammered by multiple rounds from the garrison Nightmares, the Destroids didn't even bother to return fire to their attackers, leaving the task to nearby pirates. Hayate and the others rushed as fast as they could toward the positioned Destroids, hoping to stop or at least delay the damage the Destroids were inflicting on the Elysion. It would prove to be in vain, as the moment they got within striking range, the T-point barrier dissolved in a flash, and before anyone could react, two of the six Destroids fired their main cannons simultaneously. The resulting hole was large enough to be seen from their current position. Moments after, an aircraft with a geometric body zooms past Delta Platoon and the Destroids, its destination painfully obvious to everyone. Soon after, all of the Destroids, save for the one that Hayate partially disabled, scattered. Arad tasked each member of Delta Platoon, along with at least four garrison fighters, to find and destroy the Destroids, or at least, disable their primary cannons. Hayate, deciding to delay the order, instead flying as fast as he could towards the strange bodied aircraft making its way to the gaping hole in the Elysion's hull. Like their previous efforts to stop the hull breach, Hayate doesn't get very far, as he gets blocked by at least six pirates, forcing him to back off. Begrudgingly, he blasts most of the pirates out of the sky before chasing after one of the Destroids. He destroys a Destroid by hitting it from behind with the beam cannon mounted in his Siegfried, igniting its ammunition. Arad also manages to destroy another Destroid, hitting it so many times that the wings fell apart, sending the heavy ordnance carrier plummeting to the ground. Afterwards, the remaining Destroids re-form squadrons, being protected by a squadron sized element of Nightmares. The problem lie in the fact that the pirates weren't skilled enough to take on either Alpha Platoon or Beta Platoon, much less Delta Platoon, but because there were so many of them, the difference in skill was much less significant. Despite this, Delta Platoon managed to destroy a third Destroid, leaving just three on the field.

Sometime between the destruction of the second and third Destroid, all communication between fighters and the bridge was lost, and Hayate was contacted by Shiro, who mentioned that he had Mikumo in tow and that he was unable to contact the bridge. When Hayate reported this to Arad, the latter simply stated that they should focus on the mission, opting to trust their newest operative instead of worrying about how well he would perform, much to the former's displeasure. Hayate made fly-bys close enough to the bridge for him to be able to see through the orange tinted glass. He observed no signs of battle, although his instincts told him something bad had happened or was in the process of happening. For this reason, Hayate always picked his engagements near the bridge, for the sole purpose of staying close to the bridge. Somewhat inconsequentially, Mirage also stayed close to the bridge, as she was undeniably his wing-man (or wing-woman.) The battle raged on for a couple more hours before the pirates' numbers waned, and it seemed that the pirates would retreat. However, once it appeared that the pirates were being cornered, they all rushed toward the bridge, catching the garrison forces and the Elysion's forces off guard. Most of them would not make it to the bridge, as their over-aggressive push made them easy targets for the anti-air batteries. Four made it, and just as they leveled their weapons at the orange tinted glass, Hayate and Mirage pincered them, destroying two and destroying the other two's weapons before destroying their leg units, causing them to crash into the Elysion. It was at this point that Hayate received a call from the bridge. Expecting the worst, he spreads the call to everyone in Delta Platoon. To their surprise, they don't hear a pirate making demands on the line.

"Hayate? What's the situation outside?" The familiar voice of a bodyguard sounds through Delta Platoon's shared comm link.

"Shiro? We thought the bridge had been taken by pirates?" Hayate asks incredulously.

"It was." Shiro responds, completely nonchalant.

"So, are you being held hostage?" Mirage chimes in.

There was no response for a few minutes, and the group feared the worst, before the holo screen appeared, displaying a bundle of pirates tied together, and the bridge crew, in addition to Walkure were visibly unharmed, save for Ernest, who had yet to regain consciousness, and Mikumo, who was sitting up against a wall near Shiro, who was holding the camera, before he focused it back on Kaname, who was sitting next to Mikumo.

"Does that answer your question, Mirage?" Shiro's voice sounds again, no emotion in it whatsoever.

Mirage sighs before answering in a half sarcastic tone, "Yes, Shiro, it does."

"Good. I assume that you guys have taken care of the pirates?"

"We've either shot down or disable all of the pirates' fighters, but there are still three Destroids out there." Arad notes, concern in his voice.

As if summoned by being mentioned, three Destroids appear from the nearby cloud bank, diving head first towards the Elysion's bridge.

"Well, I think I found our missing Destroids, Captain." Chuck states, half joking, half serious.

"Then let's take care of them before they manage to do what I think their about to do." Arad says as all the nearby Siegfrieds and Nightmares open fire on the three charging Destroids.

The Destroids, being what they were, soaked up damage like nobody's business, and seemed to absorb bullets and rockets no problem. In spite of this, two were destroyed fairly close to the Elysion's bridge. However, the third one charged right through one of the Elysion's Siegfrieds, shattering the orange tinted glass with no trouble at all. It landed in firing position, and Hayate noticed that it was the one he managed to cripple, as it only had one cannon that was in one piece. However, it leveled its cannon at the members of Walkure, completely ignoring the bridge crew. Everyone gaped in shock for two reasons: behemoth aimed its massive cannon straight at them, and two: Shiro didn't look fazed at all, instead, he pulled out one of his sidearms and leveled it at the Destroid, no trace of emotion on his face. The next minute didn't go the way anyone thought it would, least of all, the pilot of the Destroid. An explosion shocks the bridge, and as the members of Delta Platoon looked through the smoke, the aftermath was anything but expected.

The Destroid that had leveled its cannon at Walkure lie in pieces on the floor of the bridge, warped by what appeared to be an internal explosion. The members of Walkure, while completely unharmed, were in total shock. They had expected to get blown to bits, along with their bodyguard. Instead, they sat there, in a mix of shock and awe of the man who had destroyed the Destroid in one shot, from a handgun. Shiro holstered his handgun the same way he sheathed his swords; efficiently and quickly, making no attempt to be flashy. He then turned around to look at the members of Walkure, who simply stared at him. He walked over to Mikumo first, making sure that she wasn't harmed any more than she already was. She simply looked at him, her eyes wide with surprise. Noticing her silent state, he gently nudges her shoulder. The act snaps Mikumo out of her shocked state, as she jumps at his touch, and in doing so, jerks her legs back, sending waves of pain through her leg. She cries out in pain before Shiro steadies her, checking her bandage to see if her wound had reopened. Surprisingly, he sees that it has already started to close up, the hole in her leg noticeably smaller than an hour or so ago. Mikumo's voice seemed to have snapped the others out of their trances, as they look around for a few seconds, as if they thought they were dreaming. Minutes later, a Siegfried bearing the Grim Reaper's insignia hovers in, landing right in front of the destroyed Destroid. Hayate hops out, not even deploying the arm to shorten the distance from the cockpit to the ground. He lands, looking around before he runs to Freyja, who after seeing him, starts running to him.

"Freyja!"

"Hayate!"

She practically jumps at him, and he catches her without hesitation. He squeezes her, uncertain of whether he was dreaming or not.

He didn't even realize that he was borderline strangling her until she rasps,"Hayate, its-its ok, - I'm fine."

He releases her enough to let her breathe, but he didn't let go of her, his blue eyes gazing at her emerald eyes. He pulls her in close, surprising her as his lips met hers. Freyja, while caught off guard, quickly relaxes into the kiss, passionately kissing him back. They stay like that for a couple minutes before one of the Walkure members clears her throat, either because it was getting awkward, or because there were more important things to attend to. They separate, begrudgingly, as Shiro walks up to Hayate, his face serious.

"Are there are more pirates that we should know about?"

Hayate looks between the destroyed Destroid and him before answering. "Unless there's another wave of pirates that we haven't detected, that-" he motions to the destroyed artillery unit "is the last of the pirates."

With that, the members of Walkure and Delta Platoon exchanged their respective stories of their experiences, with every member of Walkure confirming each others' suspicions about the superhuman feats that Shiro pulled off. Meanwhile, Arad managed the reorganization of Chaos' forces and Shiro, along with the ship's medical team, took and treated Ernest and Mikumo, respectively. Fortunately, because of the first aid that Shiro and Kaname performed on Ernest, the latter was expected to recover very quickly, two weeks, at most.

Mikumo, on the other hand, was not so fortunate. Her body's healing ability, while amazing, actually made things more difficult for the med team, as the wound on her leg had almost closed by the time they got her to an operating table. Because of this, they had to do it while she was somewhat conscious, as when they tried to do it while she was heavily sedated, her body healed even faster, to the point where the tools almost got stuck in her leg. Shiro insisted on being present for her operation, for a number of reasons. One of them was that the doctors operating on her both were sent by NUNS on the basis that the Elysion's medical team wouldn't be able to properly operate on her, which, to Shiro, was complete bullshit. Another reason was that said doctors were incredibly suspicious; while their credentials checked out, them personally, as people, were totally unlike any of the doctors he had ever met. Lastly, although he told no one this, he found himself worried intensely about Mikumo; he didn't know why, but he knew that something inside him was gnawing at him to not leave her side. Shiro was a man that trusted his instincts above all else, and he didn't think that now would be the right time to start trusting someone else's orders just because there bigger elements in play. And thus, Shiro watched in the operation room as the doctors operated on Mikumo. What bothered Shiro and the others was that, in their observations, the doctors seemed to care little about people which, as a doctor, was probably one of the more important qualities. A soft, barely audible cry of pain snaps Shiro out of his thoughts. His gaze snaps towards the operating table on which Mikumo is lying on. Her face is contorted in pain, which makes Shiro scan the various pieces of equipment in the room as a question runs through his head: "Shouldn't the doctors be using anesthesia to at least attempt to numb the pain?" After a minute or so of scanning the room, he doesn't see any type of medical equipment that resembles a vapor dispensing machine. In fact, he doesn't see any gas tanks anywhere. Not even an oxygen tank. His eyes dart towards the doctors and Mikumo and he quickly notices something that he should've notice before: Mikumo is strapped to the operating table. His mind working overtime, he looks at her exposed leg and sees that the wound is already patched up, a small bowl next to her leg containing a single round. He turns to look at Mikumo's face and realizes that she's looking right back at him. Except, instead of being in pain, her face displays only one thing: fear. She didn't say anything, Shiro realizes, because she couldn't. He focuses on the "doctors" and sees that out of the four present, three are filling injectors while the fourth one is attaching needles to them. Mikumo's body is visibly limp, and her head lists in Shiro's direction. He realizes that she meant to turn her head that way as the last action of her free will, that she wanted him to notice her. He turns, walking toward the fourth "doctor," who has his back turned to Shiro. He's about to insert the first needle into Mikumo, who can't even turn her head the other way. Without hesitation, he grabs the man's arms and wrenches the needle out of it, eyeing the substance in it suspiciously.

"What's in this needle, and why are you so intent on giving it to Mikumo that you have to strap her down like an animal?" Shiro asks, his tone both calm yet dangerous.

The man doesn't respond, his expression a mix between a glare and pained. The others look at Shiro, then back at each other. Shiro firmly pushes the two men on his side away from Mikumo, aware that the other two men opposite him are fiddling with the needles. One throws a needle at Shiro, who without even looking, catches it and sends it back at the man that threw it, unaware of the consequence that doing so would bring. The man makes a pained sound, his expression utterly horrified before his eyes start to bleed. He coughs up blood for a minute before slumping over on the floor. Shiro observes with a mix of horror and anger, although neither were visible on his face. The other three doctors look nervously at each other before glancing at Shiro, who picks up the needle that the doctor dropped when the former grabbed the latter's arm. He swirls the bluish green substance in the vial, uncertain as to what it was. A sound to his left draws his attention; one of the men has a needle in his hand, one filled with the same substance that Shiro has in his hand.

"If you dare throw that, you won't live to see the next minute." Shiro growls, his voice low.

The man looks at him before looking back at the first man that Shiro grabbed, most likely his superior, before throwing the needle. Shiro knew beforehand that the man's target wasn't him, and adjusted accordingly. He steps directly in front of the man's line of sight, catching the needle before giving the man who threw it a look that made certain he knew he was screwed. He throws the needle in his left hand at the man who threw it before throwing the one in his right at the man across the operating table, who drops the needle in his hand as he collapses to the floor. Looking back at Mikumo, he can see that the effects of whatever they were injecting or had injected into her were wearing off. She moves her head just enough for her to see him directly, as it's clear that any more would be too painful. He checks the table for any more needles. Finding none, he turns to Mikumo, smiling ever so slightly before putting his hand on her shoulder, his silent message understandable to her. She smiles back, and relaxes her tense body. Shiro turns as the last man charges him out of desperation with a knife in his hand. Shiro sighs before simply throwing his arm forward, not even bothering to draw his arm back for more power. The punch knocks the man back onto the floor, the knife skittering across the ground. The man tries to lunge for the knife, but Shiro kicks the knife away before grabbing the man by the neck and punching him in the gut. The man sputters and groans as Shiro pulls him up enough for him to make eye contact with the man.

He glares at the man before saying "Tell me everything. What you're forcibly injecting into her, and why. Now."

"And why should I tell you anything? You probably wouldn't understand half of what I'm saying." The man retorts.

"Because," Shiro says as he applies a little more pressure to the man's neck, "if you don't, I'll make it so that you'll beg me to kill you."

The man's bravado disappears into thin air as he quickly realizes that there was no way he could outlast Shiro in any way. He gulps before relenting, "Ok, fine, just please, do me a favor, and I promise I'll tell you what I know."

Shiro releases the man, dropping him on the ground with a thud. Turning around, he walks over to the still restrained Mikumo, who by now has regained some of her mobility, as evidenced by her squirming under her straps. He undoes the belts restraining her, watching Mikumo as she tries to her exercise her muscles. She goes a little too far, nearly falling over when she tries to take a few steps from the operating table. Shiro catches her, leaning her body against his. She looks up at him, her face a mix between relief and embarrassment as she relaxes her tense muscles. He sits her on the operating table before turning to the man who is still sitting on the floor.

"Alright, before you tell me why you're doing what you're doing, I need to know: Are the effects of what you injected into her permanent or life-threatening?" Shiro asks, having regained his composure.

"The only thing we injected into her was a muscle paralyzer, as we had to make sure she wouldn't move around at all during the whole operation."

"And the background behind this operation?" Shiro asks, not prepared for what he was about to learn.

"Well, you might want to sit down for this one. It goes way back, to before the Windermereans declared war on everyone." The man says, his tone both resigned and at the same time, troubled.

This chapter, as you all probably know, was slightly longer than the last. Like I said in the last chapter, I don't know when these chapters will stabilize, so to speak. In addition, the posting schedule is in the same situation as the length of these chapters. Anyways, I hope you keep enjoying this story. Read and review!