I enjoyed writing this chapter. I'm really starting to like the non-Azumanga characters I created.

Kaorin: Oh! So, now they're better than me!

Jay: (grin) You're good for some things...

Kaorin: Like?...

Jay: (whistles) C'mon baby, make it hurt so good...

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The Admiral's lips turned down and Lieutenant Colonel Reese noticed this.
"What's with the frown?", he asked gruffly.
"I'm going to head back to the medical tent. I need to talk with those kids"
"You're not gonna stay and watch the show?", Reese asked motioning to the stealthily advancing Special Forces troops that were nearing the crippled alien vessel.
The Admiral shook his head and hopped out of the truck. "Suit yourself.", Reese shrugged.
The Admiral was followed by ten hand-picked soldiers that served as his personal bodyguard. As they walked the Admiral glanced into the sky. Night was nearing and time seemed to be advancing quicker due to the copious amounts of dark smoke that still hung on the breeze.
'This is really a shame.', the Admiral thought.
Tokyo had been such a grand city. Reduced to rubble and with a population of next to nothing it truly was a shame to see. He cursed himself that he couldn't have come sooner. No matter if he couldn't help it, he was supposed to protect people. "Sir!", the chorus of voices broke his thinking. Two guards outside the flaps to the medical tent stood in salute. He saluted in return.
"Can we help you, Sir?", one asked.
"I'd like to speak with some of the kids that were brought here.", he responded.
"Sir, many are too injured to speak but there are some you can talk to. Right this way"
The shorter of the two soldiers escorted the Admiral and his personal guard inside the tent.
The Admiral stood aghast at the scene within. He had been to hospitals in times of war and was nearly overcome with grief at the pain aLieutenant Colonelnd suffering. This time it seemed to hit him even harder. Row after row of bloody bodies laid out on cots. Attended to by military nurses and doctors. None that he could see were out of their teen years. Most of the wounded were mangled. One girl nearly had her entire arm sheared off. Another had a bloody pit where her left kneecap should have been. He walked past one cot crowded by a team of doctors and nurses that were struggling wildly to assist a patient.
The girl's brown, feathered hair was plastered to her scalp with sweat. Most of the right side of her head was a mass of coagulated blood and broken bone. The doctors administered CPR and intreveinous drugs. But to no avail. The heart monitor broke into it's death wail as the medical professionals came to the realization that nothing more could be done. They simply pulled the white sheet up over the tanned girl's face.
The Admiral shivered a bit inside. He hated having to see the carnage.
"Right here, Sir.", the leading guard said and motioned to a ground of kids, wounds patched, sitting and eating at a set of folding tables. "Thank you.", the Admiral nodded.
"Right there,", the guard motioned to an Asian, uniformed soldier that was speaking with the teens. "That's Corporal Takamura. He'll translate for you ok, Sir"
"Yes, thanks again.", the soldier saluted once more and left the Admiral to speak to the children.
Corporal Takamura took his place beside the Admiral as he gazed over the less injured of the bunch.
"Hello, I'm Admiral Kipling of the British Royal Navy.", he waved.
The kids each gave him a small smile that they mustered from the depths of their tired bodies. Except for one girl, who waved back like nothing had happened at all.
"How are ya?", Takamura translated the girl's words.
"I'm fine. May I ask you all a few questions?", the Admiral asked politely.
Takamura translated back to the teens and they each stopped their eating and nodded in approval.
"Ok, then. Is everyone that was with you here right now? Is there anyone else we should know about?", he asked.
The girl, who's eyes seemed like deep pits of brown raised her hand.
"Nah. Tomo, Yomi and Yukari ran off to fight with tha aliens. Then there's poor Chiyo-chan that stayed with some of tha hurt ones back at tha shelter"
Takamura translated and the Admiral stood in shock.
"Shelter!? Where"
"Ah...back there.", the girl waved her hand in the general direction of where the battle had taken place.
"Yea, there's a shelter with some of the wounded in it back near that alien ship.", one of the boys of the group said.
The Admiral turned back to his assembled guard unit.
"I want this girl to escort a medical team to this shelter she speaks of and I want everyone inside back here in twenty minutes! Got that!?", the Admiral ordered.
"Yes, Sir!", the commander of the guard answered with a salute and had Corporal Takamura escort the girl along.
"Should I bring mah gun? I liked shootin' mah gun, tho I think I hurt someone, I hope they're ok. I didn't mean to hurt no one. I was just followin' everyone and 'Bang! Bang!' I think I shot somebody. It was wierd...", she was heard to say as she was taken away.

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The Special Forces team's resident mechanics expert had just finished cutting through the rear of the craft with a high-powered torch. A hole was left large enough to be entered single file.
The man gave a sigh and lifted his welding mask, signaling the commander to speak into his radio.
"Sir, we've breached the hull. Entering on your orders"
Lieutenant Colonel Reese shifted the radio in his hands.
"Clear to go.", he spoke.

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"Auxiliary power is nearly ready, Sir.", said one soldier.
"Excellent, is everyone in position?", asked Captain Remlin.
"Yes, Sir. Arrainged as ordered"
The Captain nodded in approval in the near darkness. The two hundred soldiers that formed the crew of the prison barge were aligned along the tiered catwalks that ascended up the walls of the craft. From there they could see any entering force from below. The Captain stood on the highest catwalk, floor three of the cell blocks.
All was silent for a moment, then came the first report.
A lance of crimson light broke into the dark air from one of the soldier's rifles on floor one. It spattered to the ground and extinguished. This was followed by a round of loud automatic fire from the bottom floor of the ship.
'They're here.', the Captain thought with a smug grin.
Laser light erupted into the air and was met by a grisly scene of death on both sides of the conflict.
Maroon coated soldiers dropped, struck by a bullet, from the top floors and plummeted to their doom. He could see that the enemy had taken up cover behind a large protruding part of the ventilation system. A massive series of pipes that ran up and over the bottom floor.
"We outnumber them, use the supply rooms for cover! All of Floor One I want to try and move down and push them out of cover! Go!", the Captain barked into the radio.
He could barely be heard over the crackle of gunfire and screams of the wounded.
The soldier next to him was struck by a stray bullet square in the jaw. Remlin could hear the man's bones crack before he pitched over the railing, trailing blood.
This caused the Captain to jump back in horror and surprise. He bolted past cells of screaming prisoners as he took cover in the nearest supply room.
He was alone there. Or so he thought.

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"Why are we still standing here?", Tomo complained.
"Because there are men with guns out there!", Yomi growled back.
"Shut up! Both of you!", Yukari said through clenched teeth.
The had pressed themselves between a set of boxes in what looked to be a supply room of sorts. A nice hiding place. At least for now.
'Snap'
"Whatwasthat!?", Tomo asked quickly.
"Sounded like...", Yomi began.
'Bang! Bang'
"Holy crap! They're shooting!", Tomo said.
Yukari peeked her head around ther corner of the box and quickly retreated back.
"They're shooting at someone down below"
"Wow! Is it cool!?", Tomo asked.
"Who cares!?", Yomi said angrily.
"Well, I think...", Tomo began but was interrupted by a new form come to join their 'party.
It was a man. Average height. Dressed in a well-kept maroon uniform with piebald patches along the left breast pocket. He stood aghast at their presence.
While the man still stood in awe Yukari quickly grabbed at him and put him into a painful looking headlock. The man began screaming and flailing about.
"Ascots! Tie hands and mouth now!", Yukari commanded.
Tomo and Yomi did as ordered as untied their uniform ascots from around their necks. Using these, they managed to bind the man's hands behind and stuff his mouth with cloth enough so he could not cry for help. All he could do was kick and he wasn't doing a very good job of that.
Yukari had the man's alien pistol, which she quickly located in a holster by the man's side, pointed square at his temple.
"So, ya feelin' lucky punk?", she asked with a grin.

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The inside of the shuttle shook with the friction of atmospheric entry. Lord General Kimril sat in his plush chair, sipping a fruity concoction as he watched the planet below approaching quickly.
"Should be making planetfall in ten minutes.", said the pilot as he switched off a few lit buttons on the cockpit console.
"Good. Put down near the enemy. I want to show them how a real commander works.", Kimril's yellow iris clicked as if counting off the minutes.

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Her mother embraced her with more fervor than she had ever felt before. She hugged back, just as happy.
"I knew you could do it Kaori!", her mother praised.
"I never believed in myself, Mom but I did it!", Kaori said back.
Tears streamed from her face as she buried it in her mother's soft shoulder. She had worried. But now, all was right with the world. She knew her parents were ok and, in the end, that was all that mattered. "Well, maybe not all...", Kaori thought.
"I love you, Kaori.", her mother said.
"I love you too.", Kaori responded as they pulled from the embrace of one another.
As their eyes met, Kaori stood in shock. The face of her mother...was not that of her mother.
The long, flowing, ebony hair. The dark, brooding eyes. The soft, cherubic smile. This was not her mother!
"S...Sakaki-san?", Kaori asked, feeling her heart skip more that one beat.
Sakaki simply smiled and pulled Kaori closer. Closer. Kaori could feel her body heat up. Her face drenched itself with sweat. Her lips invoulentarily formed into a pucker.
Then it all dissolved back into the blackness. And Kaori was one more Alone.
Adrift on the tides of the Universe.

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Yea, I know this ending seems to be dragging on, but...I hope you're having as good of a time reading as I am writing.

-peace-

-Jay