Heya guys! I want to sincerely thank anyone who read the prologue, which I published by mistake without posting the actual beginning of the story. I'm a noob at this whole fanfic thing.
As a note, I had to make an edit to the prologue where I accidentally used Kay's name by mistake. My bad. Anyhow, I kinda introduced a pairing to the story. While I have no plans to make this a fluffy or overly romantic story, I want to do something with it later in the story.
As always, any views and comments are greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

So, I suppose that the whole ordeal of June began on a Tuesday morning aboard the Columbia, the city-ship on which we lived. The bright blue sky was obscured by a haze of light grey clouds that hung low in the sky, giving the mid-morning light a slightly depressing vibe. I shook my head gently as I began to walk, my boots making a slight grinding against asphalt as I dragged my feet along the walkway towards the fringes of the deck. My clothing felt heavy that morning, so much so that I felt the need to squirm and shrug my shoulders every so often just to feel more comfortable walking.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I reached the sealed hatch that led under the deck, and I let my hands stroke the cool dulled copper handles for a moment before I turned it to release the hatch. I was met by a slightly warm gust of air to the face, and I had to reach to my head to keep my cap from flying off my neatly braided hair. I climbed into the hatch and planted my feet firmly onto the thick steel cross bars of the ladder before I swung the hatch shut above me. I was suddenly surrounded by only the warm artificial glow of the electric lights of the interior, and I couldn't be happier. As I child, I found no appeal to being below decks. With age though, I do admit to having found the appeal to the feeling of having a confined space to look at. Topside, the world just seemed so... Lifeless and empty beyond the deck.

I allowed myself a small smile as my boots touched down onto the steel floor of the G-12 corridor, my route to work on days where we were being assigned to missions. For the past three months I had been on assignment in the shooting range, training volunteers how to operate weapons for the first time. While I can say it was a... Relatively safe position within the confines of the military wing, it was not what I wanted to do for any extended period. The corridor was a rather narrow one, and one of the less traveled routes around this portion of the ship. Typically, the types of people I met in this walkway were those who had professions within the propulsion or power departments of the ship. I decided to whistle a bit as I walked down the empty corridor towards the vehicle bays in the rear of the ship. I seem to remember the tune being some pop number I had heard on the radio when my alarm went off that morning.

Eventually, I came to the large open doorway to the vehicle bays. The blast doors were only half open this morning, meaning they were probably moving munitions around the tanks. The knowledge that munitions were being moved sent waves of excitement through me. While I will freely admit that the prospect of going ashore does scare me, it also excites me. The chance to be out in the world, where there is more than just vast expanses of empty sea and the smell of salt water was exhilarating.

I suppose I should introduce myself very quickly. My name is Hikari. Iam a sergeant in the Columbia's military wing, and I lead a small squad within the department's Advanced Recon Team, or ART. I'm one of the older members of the group, so I am typically expected to lead the newer recruits as they gain their own experience away from the ship.

"Hikari!" A voice called out to me as I stepped through the blast doors. Thank goodness it wasn't Alisa, I didn't ever like meeting her first. It was usually a roll of the dice as to whether she would be in a good or bad mood at any given time when I showed up.

"Good morning Captain." I said, nodding my head at her gently as I began to make my way towards the row of parked Sherman tanks within the vehicle bays. "I guess it is reasonable to guess we are taking out the Shermans for whatever this assignment is." I said with a light chuckle as I came to a stop beside the armor officers from my unit near their tanks.

"Damn right we're taking them out! Only four though, the council wouldn't let me take more for a scouting assignment." My blonde commanding officer, Kay, said as she patted the side of the sand colored hull of the nearest tank. "And we've been over this Hikari. If we aren't in a briefing, it's okay to call me Kay. I don't think we have need to be too formal with each other around here."

"Sorry, just kind of a force of habit." I said, my face warming up slightly. "Anyhow... As much as I enjoy talking to you Kay, I was told to come here for my assignment this morning." I said, tilting my head at her slightly. I was quite anxious to see the orders. I was almost certain I'd be going ashore with Kay and the others, but there was always a lingering doubt that they'd take me as the years went on.

"Oh! Well, I'd give them to you, but..." She looked around the vehicle bay for a moment. "Well, I don't have them. I remember meeting with Alisa, Naomi and Chikako earlier... I had the folders there, but..." She gave me a bright smile, which made me roll my eyes gently.

"I can wait, I don't have anything better to do." I said with a slight shake of my head. I couldn't help but crack a small smile. She was a fine leader, but at times she got caught up in the excitement so much that she could end up forgetting to do small things here and there. I leaned against the side of the tank we were standing beside and I let out a short sigh. The sounds of mechanics testing engines, and the clatter of machine gun cans being moved around were floating around behind me as the tanks were prepared for operation. "So, can you at least tell me if I will be going ashore with you guys? I know I'm assigned to you again, but I'm not sure if my age puts me out of consideration." I asked after a few moments of quiet.

Kay turned to face me and beamed for a moment, before she gave me a single nod. "What? Of course you're coming with us. I need someone to be the mama bear for two of my new rookies." She said, giving me a wink.

"I'm sure you do." I said with a chuckle. 'Not that I mind that one bit.' I thought to myself as I glanced to the ceiling of the vehicle bay. "I'm glad you're taking me with you again. I'm running out of chances to go back."

"I'm glad I get to take you. Veterans are few and far between after what happened in Russia." Kay said with a sigh.

We let ourselves fall silent once again, both of us not willing to speak of the unpleasant memories we had from several years prior. I began to feel uneasy and was about to go for a walk when I caught a glimpse of slightly grey hair come through the blast doors. Soon we were approached by a pair of women who I was also quite familiar with.

"Good morning Lieutenant Naomi, Lieutenant Alisa." I said, pulling myself off the Sherman I was previously leaning against. Naomi simply nodded at me, and Alisa shrugged at me for a moment.

"Good morning Hikari. Sorry Kay had to keep you waiting here. She forgot the folders in the offices." She said, handing me a folder quickly. "That's the mission details. Read it and understand it." She said as I took the folder from her. I nodded and gave them a small bow.

"Excuse me ladies, but I am going to retire for the time being to study my assignment." I said, before I turned and began to make my way back to the corridors of the ship.

"Be back here by nineteen hundred! That's when we are going to be issuing gear out for the mission! We leave tonight, after dark!" Kay called to me as I slipped out of the blast doors and back into the corridors of the ship.

I slumped back against the chair in my apartment with a frustrated groan. I threw the folder towards my bed and let the papers flutter all over the ground.

"What the hell is this? Did we learn nothing!?" I shouted, spinning in the swivel chair as I looked up at the ceiling. 'This is going to end up being just like Russia...' I thought to myself, closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.

Now I guess context would be nice... So, let me explain what happened in Russia.

It happened in the late spring around four and a half years ago. We had been assigned to go ashore as the leading squad along with a scout detachment from the Carrier-City Kiev to survey the area around the city of Vladivostok and secure the peninsula so that the main force of salvagers could go in and begin taking what they could from the town and naval base.

Our detachment was assigned to the eastern end of the peninsula and secure less dense residential areas surrounding the city. At the time I was thanking the heavens that the Russians hadn't developed the east as heavily as they could have. However, it turned out that was the undoing of our team.

Just as the salvage teams began to land at the naval base, we were ambushed from the woods outside the town. It ended up turning into the bloodiest engagement any ship to our knowledge has participated in.

Twenty-one dead, seventeen wounded and two Shermans completely obliterated. The Kiev's detachment didn't fare much better, with thirteen dead, twenty wounded and a T-34/76 and SU-85 destroyed. We never tallied the death count of the raiders, but it was much higher than ours. However, the mission ended up being a morale killer for us all. Many of the volunteers in the ART transferred to the salvager teams, and seventeen people never came back to the team due to their injuries.

Sorry. I would talk more about it, but... I'll save it for later.

This mission, to my horror, somehow sounded even worse. We were supposed to land in a large city on the coast of the old United States and secure it. That was all well and good, something we'd done before. However, for some reason, our orders included making our way further inland to scout out several abandoned nuclear power plants for potential fuel supplies for the carrier. The plan was for us to go up to a hundred miles inland... Outside of the range of quick reinforcements. We'd be alone.

To add to the hell was the fact that we had to leave tonight, five days earlier than expected, due to incoming inclement weather on the ocean predicted the next afternoon. The packet stated that the mission could not be further delayed due to a spotting of one of the hostile carriers on the sea nearby.

'THIS IS SUICIDE!' My brain screamed at me in absolute terror. If the raiders were as bad as they were in eastern Russia, what could it be like in the United States around one of the largest cities in the history of the world?

A billion different scenarios played through my head at the speed of light, each one of them seemingly worse than the one that preceded it. I groaned in frustration and slammed a fist onto my desk. I think everyone on the ship knew that the fuel situation was becoming dire on the ship. Seventy years at sea with a finite supply of nuclear fuel meant that we would have to find some eventually. I honestly never thought they would be this desperate to find fuel as to send a light scouting team to find it for them...

With a long sigh, I stood up and shook out my legs. Regardless of whether I had reservations or not, it was too late to back out now. Well... While that wasn't necessarily true, the choice was go, or rot in prison for the rest of my life for desertion so...

I reached for a small pouch I kept on my desk. I unzipped it carefully and peeked inside. A pair of black eyes looked back at me from inside, and I cracked a smile. Call it childish, but my prized possession was a small stuffed cat that I had bought some twenty-five years ago. I think everyone brings little bits of themselves with them on these missions. Being so far from home and consistently in danger of dying really made us miss home more than I'd ever imagined it would back when I volunteered in the military wing. My smile faded slowly as I zipped the pouch back up and stuffed it into my pocket.

'Well, I guess it's time to go...' I thought sadly, as I began to walk slowly towards the door to my apartment. 'Wish me luck.' I said silently, waving a hand to my room before closing the door and locking it up tight.

I'll skip over my trek back to the vehicle bays. Let's just say the sky was still depressing and the corridors were still empty.

I looked at my clock as I approached the familiar blast doors to the vehicle bay, smiling as confirmed that I was early to the planned meeting with my team members, and the equipment issuing. Speaking of issuing, I needed to go retrieve my combat gear from the armory again. It's been months since I've been able to use it, since the range isn't exactly a hot zone for gunfights. I hope my body armor still fits comfortably. My uniforms all still fit so I didn't really see how it wouldn't... But such were the thoughts of my brain.

When I made my way into the vehicle bay, things had kicked into overdrive. Cranes were hauling crates of ammunition onto trucks at the end of the room, and ration boxes were being lifted into several more trucks by teams of mechanics who were rushing to get the scrambled mobilization finished. I sighed lightly and shook my head. They all looked so... Enthusiastic about their jobs. I envied them, honestly. With all the nerves... I wish I could have said I was excited about what was to come.

It didn't take long for someone to break me out of my silent observation mode by a hand that shook my shoulder rather excitedly. I made a... Rather embarrassing noise before I turned to the offender with a slightly red face and a scowl.

My gaze was met by a fairly short redhead with brown eyes beaming at me happily. "Hello! Er... I mean hello Sergeant!" She chirped happily, bounching on her feet excitedly. "We're here to meet our squad leader! Which... That's you, right? I mean, you meet the description that the lieutenants gave us, so it must be you right? Slightly old looking, but pretty cute brunette with bangs... Yeah, I think that has to be you!" She offered me a hand to shake almost immediately after her rapid assault by words.

'Wow... This girl talks a mile a minute...' I thought as I took the offered hand and shook it slowly. "Er... I'm Sergeant Hikari, if that's who you're looking for." I said awkwardly as I watched the girl rock back and forth on her feet as she shook my hand.

"Yuuuuuuuuuuup! That's who I'm looking for!" She said happily, waving her arms around wildly as she let me go. "I'm PFC Eiko! I'm your brand-new marksman!" She said with a giggle, before she turned around to look at the girl who... Well, she was there a moment ago? Before I could question whether I had seen something or not, she managed to let out a whine that would put a sad puppy to shame. "Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrchieeeeeee!" She squeaked, marching over to a stack of crates along the back wall of the vehicle bay.

After what I can only describe as an 'animated struggle', the short redhead managed to not only subdue the taller bluenette, but also pick her up and drag her back over to me forcefully. This one looked much more afraid to say something than her counterpart had, though to her credit she also reached out a trembling hand for me to shake.

"Um... My name is Archie." She said, letting me shake her hand as opposed to shaking it herself. "Er... I'm a grenadier... I look forward to working for you..." She was quiet, and it was kind of adorable the way she avoided eye contact like it is the plague. She reminds me of myself from middle school still to this day.

After the awkward initial introductions, we actually got to speaking. Turns out they were both from the same high school as me (the ship had... I think five high schools), Saunders Girls High School. Archie... Didn't really contribute, but I learned they both volunteered for the military wing because Eiko wanted to see the world outside the ship, not dissimilar to myself. Archie apparently refused to let her go alone, because "She would be like a puppy off the leash if someone wasn't there to keep track of her."

I kid you not. That is probably the only thing she said the entire time we waited for the quartermaster to call for us.

I named our squad 'November' after my favorite month of the year. Right around then, the weather gets cool, but not too cold, and the leaves from the trees are all gone already so there's no worry about leaves flying around in my face.

Once we were lead into the armory, we ended up having to get the girls fitted for body armor for the first time, so my issuing was put on hold. I will admit that I didn't mind it, as it gave me more time to check over my equipment. My M249 was in perfect working order, and somehow, they'd made sure that the scope was still in decent working condition.

Eventually, we finished our issuing. All I needed to be issued seemed to be an extra armor plate and rain gear on top of the typical rations and survival equipment. Meanwhile, the girls got piled high with pouches for their belts and vests, combat packs, canteens, magazines, helmets and all the extras like flares and chemlights. Archie handled it all well while Eiko...

Well, I don't need to go into details, but she just freaked out at everything she was given. It was comical at least.

After that, I dismissed them to go and prepare their gear in the recreation room before I stored my gear beside the Shermans and took a seat atop the engine compartment of one of the tanks to lean against the turret and relax until I could speak to one of the officers. There were some things I needed to talk to them about...

I remember waking up in a daze while sitting on the tank, kicking my legs back and forth slowly. I assumed at the time I was sitting atop Kay's tank, as it was the first in the row. Unfortunately...

"Hey! What are you doing on top of my tank your moron?!" A voice shrieked at me from the entrance to the vehicle bays, waking me from my nap.

'Figures I would sit on top of Alisa's tank... What's the big deal?' I thought to myself as I gained my bearings, an audible groan escaping my lips as I looked to the ceiling. "Lieutenant, it's not bothering anything. Why is it a big deal that I am up here, exactly?"

"It's bothering me! Get off my tank!" My officer shouted, shooing me off the tank. I rolled my eyes at her but obeyed and got down to stand beside the shorter brunette. She grumbled out something I couldn't hear, before she looked to me again. "I'm so pissed off by all of this. Does it not seem like we are about to go straight to our deaths?" She asked, her face still contorted into an upset expression.

I nodded as a response to her. "Yeah. It sounds bad... I'm wondering if we really are in a desperate enough situation to warrant this... Absurd mission."

"If what Kay told us is correct... They're worried that the current fuel supplies won't last more than another ten years. If you consider that the Kiev is in a similar situation... Pretty soon we might have to fight another round of resource wars against not only the raiders, but other ships as well. Only way to avoid it is to get the resources before the others can fight over it." I looked over at her briefly and noticed that her face had turned to one of worry and possible panic.

"I get all that... But... I'm scared. I've never been sent out on a mission like this. Even Russia wasn't... Whatever this is." I said with a sigh.

"I don't know how Kay is so positive about all this... It seems like she's almost confident we will be okay. I know we have been trained for this, but..."

"It's just a plain dangerous decision." I finished, shaking my head. "Where is Kay? I want to talk to her before my squad shows up... I want to know what our plan is. I can't wait until we are at a briefing on the beach." If I waited until then... It'd be pointless. I couldn't just... Accept what was happening. The ship had always taken the safety of its occupants as the number one priority... For the safety of our team to be severely jeopardized like this... It didn't seem right.

"Kay is in the offices getting everything in order before we deploy. If you're going to go in there, don't say anything stupid." Alisa said, looking to me with a firm gaze. "And don't do anything stupid either. I still remember what you did during our last training exercise."

"Whaaaaat?! I would never! That was an accident!" I shouted, my face beginning to burn. "I thought we agreed we weren't going to bring that up! Like, ever?!"

Surprisingly, Alisa managed a short laugh at my expense. "How can I forget you falling off a tank onto Kay?" She asked with a snort. "Especially since you kissed her like she was your prince charming or something when she kind of caught you."

"It was an accident! You know what, screw you!" I shrieked like a child, before I turned away from her and stormed off towards the offices. I heard her cracking up behind me as I covered my red face with a hand.

"That'll teach you to lounge around on my tank idiot!"

One day I'm going to get her... I don't know how, but I'll do it.

I guess I wasn't really paying attention as I walked down the halls of the ship... Not that I was particularly worried since nobody used these corridors, but I certainly should have paid more attention. My lack of attention got me a free one-way ticket to my ass on the cool steel floor and a red mark on my forehead.

As I rubbed my forehead, I heard the wheel turn on the opposite side of the door immediately before I was blasted with a rush of cool air as the door opened. Well. Cool air and hysterical laughter.

'Fuck me...' I thought, rubbing my forehead gently with my eyes closed. I knew that laugh... I'm never going to live this one down I bet. "Kaaaaaaaay." I whined, hoping nobody else was around to see what happened to me. "Stop laughing. It hurt."

"I'm sure it did!" She said with a snort. She took a deep breath before letting out a sigh. "What am I going to do with you?" She asked, reaching a hand down for me to take. I groaned and took the hand, dusting off my butt with a hand as I stood up. "So, I'm guessing you didn't come down here to fight the door... What's up?"

"I came to talk to you about the mission..." I said, trailing off at the end. I forced myself to avoid eye contact with the blonde office due to my continued embarrassment. God damn it I needed to get over this... I swear I act like such a child.

Kay let out a long sigh at those words. "Hikari... You're not here to try and talk me out of going too, are you?" She asked, giving me an exasperated look.

"Well... Not exactly, but I really just wanted to hear from you what is going to happen..." I said nervously, looking up to meet my commander's eyes. Honestly, I just wanted to hear her tell me it was going to be okay. As silly as it sounds, I was seeking someone to tell me that we had some sort of plan to stay safe and soothe my fears.

"Ugh, come on inside." Kay groaned, yanking me into the unit's office space roughly before sealing the door behind her. I squeaked for a moment as I was jerked rather forcefully, but I calmed myself as I stumbled into the offices. "So, what do you want to know Hikari?" She asked, jumping up to take a seat at the secretary's desk at the front of the office.

I fumbled with my thoughts for a few moments, and I stepped back to lean against the door. "Well... I'm worried Kay. We were notified of the assignment a week ago, and now we are being told we must deploy the day the brief was supposed to happen. I'm worried that... We have had insufficient time to prepare, and we are... For lack of a better term, not capable of doing something like this." I said, taking deep breaths while I spoke. This was my time to let out my concerns. Soon, I would be paired with two young soldiers, and I couldn't let myself lose my cool with them. They would need all the positivity and protection that I can provide.

"Ugh. Hikari, come on. You know I always have a plan." Kay said with a roll of her eyes. "It's not like I'm planning to just go out and get us shot up, I'm not stupid."

"That's not wh-" I started to say before Kay decided to cut me off.

"Look. We are going to be as careful as possible when we do this. I am aware of the risk we are taking doing what we are doing. It's a long time, and a long way to go, without support so we are going to take it slow and steady. I have faith in all my team's abilities to do the job correctly. It's not like we have a choice but to have faith in our abilities. The ship is getting desperate, and word is that the Nuremberg is on its way here now. We either have to move now, or forever lose the opportunity to check one of the most promising coastal areas in the world." She glared at me for a moment, which I quickly averted my gaze from. The floor never looked so appealing as it did right then.

"Kay..." I mumbled, unable to say anything back. I didn't feel any better about what she said. I know the ship is getting desperate, I know that we are going to lose our opportunity if we don't go now... "I'm just afraid. I don't know what to think, or what to do. I'm being entrusted with the lives of two young people, but I'm not even confident I will be able to take care of myself on this mission." I said, before I took a long and shaky breath. We were both silent for a long while. I'm not sure if Kay was upset, or she just didn't have a response to me at the time. I didn't look up to see what sort of look she was giving me, I was too scared to think she was upset with me.

In...

And out...

In...

And out...

I began to go over my tried and true calming method in my head, as I breathed deeply in and out. Something I learned from an old veteran when I was a rookie on my first combat mission ashore.

"I'm going to go to the bathroom and get myself fixed up. I'm sure this is just nerves getting the better of me." I said after several minutes of silence, looking up to Kay for a moment to put on my best smile. I began to step sideways, my face never leaving the direction of my commander until I was near enough to the office hall to retreat to the bathroom.

When I arrived in the bathroom, I immediately placed my hands on the edges of the sink and leaned over it. I closed my eyes and began to breathe deeply again. Repeating my mantra in my mind so that I could calm myself. I focused on nothing but calming down. If I calmed myself, I could begin to push my concerns away... I had a job to do soon, and I couldn't do it if I was as broken up as I was at that moment.

In my spaced-out state, I never took notice of the bathroom door opening behind me. I remained in my hunched over position with my eyes shut until I felt arms wrap gently around my stomach. I stopped breathing immediately and froze, unsure of what was happening as I was snapped out of my daze.

"I hate seeing you like this Hikari." Kay said quietly from behind me, tightening her grasp around my waist. She rested her head on my shoulder, and my face heated up as I began to blush from the contact.

"Y-You're not supposed to do this when we are on duty... Or in public..." I muttered, looking up into the mirror to see my glowing face and my commander's head leaning against mine.

"I guess I'll have to bend the rules just this once. Don't tell anyone." She said, winking at me in the mirror. I coughed a bit and looked away from the mirror out of embarrassment. "We don't get to do this enough Hikari..." She said with a sigh before she rubbed her face against mine for a moment.

"No, but we can't exactly let people know about it... Not until I retire, which won't be long now." I said, moving my gaze towards her for a moment. "But when that happens, we are going to make up for lost time." I said, using a finger to lift her chin so I could kiss her on the cheek. I suddenly stopped and laughed weakly. "You know... Distracting me doesn't necessarily solve the problems I'm having..." I said, resting my head against hers again.

"At least it makes dealing with it easier than freaking yourself out until exhaustion."

"Fair enough..." I mumbled, frowning a bit. "Kay... I know I have responsibilities out in the field, but... If you ever need help, call for me. I'll protect you, okay?"

"Of course. I'll do my best to protect you too." She said, squeezing me tightly as we stood in the dimly lit washroom in the middle of the night. Soon, we would have to separate, and we wouldn't be allowed to be close for a long time. So... I wanted to just enjoy this moment a little bit longer.

As I said, I want to update around once every week to every other week. This doesn't count since this was supposed to be included in the initial publishing but I am a moron. Hope you enjoyed!