Second segment, where I prove once and for all that I have absolute no idea of how to write anything military.
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"That was some quick thinking, Takamachi."
Vivio looked up from her holoscreen and was met with the sight of Rhen and his team. Soaked, miserable and in dire need of showers, they were alive and a rush of relief surged through her chest. Being Rhen's superior, one would normally had expected the older man to address her properly in front of other officers. The Hounds however were surprisingly slack regarding titles. There were lessons no class could teach and stripes only your fellow officers could grant you. For them, respect meant sacrifices and capable decisions in the face of real fire. Vivio had paid her dues early and to be called her surname was a huge improvement from 'brat-in-command'.
The rest of the squad flopped down beside them in varying degrees of exhaustion. Vivio was pleased to see that none of hers had even been hurt, though there were a few scratches that would need medical attention. They sat by the loading bay in the temporary TSAB base, consisting of no more than a score of tents and supply crates, crammed together on mud ground that could as well have been a swamp. Everyone was quiet for a few moments to catch their breaths. A worker in the bureau's uniform walked by, cursing over a bunch of missing water tanks.
"We should have gone for that." A young woman by the name Kvick said. "See how long they'll keep blasting each other if the water runs out."
"They'll probably just squat and drink each others' piss to spite you. Let them kill each other for all I care." The man who spoke was in his late twenties. Harley was a big man from the northern continent, a Mid-Childian purist by ideology and a patriot according to himself; or in Rhen's words, a splendid arse and a narrow-minded bastard. Vivio liked him least of the six though his marksmanship had saved their hides more than once.
Harley smacked a hand to his cheek, crushing a mosquito the size of a large butterfly. "Shit!" He exclaimed. "Tell me why we're still on this piece of crap planet again?!"
"Because you guys were late, and the kid here didn't want to leave until the whole team had been accounted for." Kvick chuckled and nodded in Vivio's direction. All of them glanced at their young commander appreciatively. It was an odd quirk but they knew Takamachi liked to bring her soldiers back herself, one by one, dead or alive. Their missions often took precedence over their lives and they knew there might come a day when Vivio would be forced to sacrifice them for the sake of success. They had seen her do it before and knew she would not hesitate when given cause. None questioned her decisions. They knew their commander would be there to bring them home.
"Still doesn't mean I have to like it." Harley went on, grimacing as he spat at the ground by his feet. "Wet and hot like a whore's cunt, and infested with pests too."
"You would know about that, wouldn't you?" One of the other men jabbed, snickering.
"Hey what can I say, I've never denie—"
"Shut up, Harley. No one wants to hear about your whores." Kvick snapped, though her voice lacked her usual sharpness.
"Oh yeah? Says who?"
"I do," Vivio spoke up, interrupting before the exchange blew up into a full-scale argument. Plus, she could really do without hearing about Harley's women. "Harley and Kvick, go and fetch us some water and provisions. The next ship won't be for another hour or so."
The rest of them let out a sigh when the two left, still bickering between themselves. Harley had a defiant swagger in his stride but the man was a soldier and knew how to follow command. Rhen sat down beside her, shaking his head of dark hair.
"I swear, sometimes it's like we're commanding a bunch of greeners fresh out of boot camp."
"It's the adrenaline. It takes awhile before the battle-high to ebb." She replied, her lips curling upwards slightly in an attempt to a smile.
"Nice work on the tactics today. The last move to simultaneously blow up their power-hubs will cripple both sides for some time. An incident as serious as that will pretty much end up on the negotiation table; in all, nicely done. You pulled a Yagami on them." He commented, not noticing the faint blush that crept into Vivio's face at the mention of the name. "I take it the bureau wants no winners here after all."
Vivio nodded faintly. "Likely, a full blown guerrilla war would take months if not years. This planet is just too important a supply station for the trade routes. If that were to happen, a tenth of Mid-Childa would starve. With our mission done however, they're not likely to be able to go on for much longer."
"Meaning we can go hooome!" One of her men sing-songed merrily, stretching his arms towards the sky. "Girls, here I come!"
The rest of them broke into wide, understanding smiles. The mission had not been long but intense and taxing on a psychological level. While Vivio did not understand the underlying hatred that gave fuel to the conflict, she had regrettably seen the results. None of them had slept much during the past days and considering the scenes of burned villages and other atrocities that was perhaps a blessing.
"This place does a fine job of reminding one of that one's alive and need to live a little." Rhen agreed.
"Is that your how you old dogs admit that you want a woman?" The younger man needled.
"Maybe. I do have a wife to go home to, unlike some young mutt who'll have to snoop around to impress some girl with his latest set of scars."
Vivio was at moments like this glad that Rhen was under her command. The man was a competent leader, a good officer and a cheerer who kept everybody's spirits up. He was an invaluable asset when Vivio's own mind needed to be as sharp and ruthless as a blade.
"How about you, commander Takamachi?" The young man asked shamelessly, and Vivio remembered that beneath all the grit and water, she was still a nineteen years old girl with the looks to match.
Vivio did not flinch at the question. She rarely spoke of her lovelife but that was a detail to the integrity of her command rather than shyness of the subject. She wasn't an overtly private person but her relationship was also a matter of safety for herself, Hayate and their immediate family. Those were things she could never afford to be careless about.
Hayate was just too fierce a general and to bright a politician to not have attracted enemies both at home and off-planet. She commanded too much power and held too much of the public's attention through her firm, yet humanitarian ideals. One word in the wrong ear and there could be consequences. All it would take was a staged act of terrorism or any failure on her part, and this terrified her. Vivio would not become a mark of Hayate's undoing. She refused to.
At one point of her life, Vivio had believed that her mamas lived the absolute expression of devotion and that there could be no comparison to the determined, unyielding love her parents pledged to each other. None who had heard their story could deny that destiny might have played a hand in how Fate and Nanoha had fallen in love. For most, theirs were considered the ultimate form of the emotion but having been with Hayate for so long, Vivio was no longer so sure.
There were a great many forms of love after all, and she was only beginning to catch the small glimpses of the world Hayate was building as a leader while she quietly offered herself to Vivio as a woman. It was a quality to the brunette which the child in her had never known. Shamal had once explained it ever so carefully when the girl found it hard to put her observations into words.
Hayate loved too much.
Unlike her parents who gave themselves only to each other, Hayate had devoted her heart to the wellbeing of them all and to do so she gave the one thing the three aces all had in abundance. Hayate gave of herself. She poured her whole being into the work which would always be endless, receiving nothing back but brief political triumphs and fickle shakes of hands. One might have called the general a cold careerist but as Vivio grew older, she came to see the intensity of Hayate's sense of duty. Most importantly, she saw how very hard Hayate tried to be there for the two of them as well. She saw the despair and the devotion, and the blonde loved her all the more for it even if Hayate's efforts might one day break both their hearts.
No, their relationship was no one else's affair, which was why Vivio shook her head slowly at her soldier's question.
"That's my own business. Keep in line, officer." She said neutrally, but matched her words with a glare that made the young man flinch.
"Yes sir." He mumbled apologetically, looking down.
Much later, when they were all showered and seated on a cruiser vessel which arguably smelled as badly as the planet it had departed from, Rhen found Vivio in the engine room where she was typing up her report. Throwing her a can of lemon soda, the soldier leaned up against the wall casually.
"You do have someone at home," he said noncommittally. "The pheromones are literally leaking all over you."
Vivio nearly spat out her drink. "That's disgusting Rhen!"
"We're Hounds remember, we like a little grit. But I am right, aren't I?"
"…so what if you are?" She replied, annoyed.
He held up his hands in front of him defensively as if trying to deflect her glare. "I'm not gonna pry kid, just saying that your attitude's making the gossip worse."
Vivio took a long sip from her soda before answering. "I thought we were supposed to be hounds, not bitches."
"Small difference when it comes down to the bite." Rhen grinned, showing teeth. "But male hormones aside, the guys have a point."
"Do share, I don't see it."
"I don't know why you're so reluctant in sharing what you've got going, and frankly, I don't care. Who my commander knocks with is hardly my business and I intend it to stay that way. My words of advice though, don't get to snippy with the ones to ask. We ask because we care, Takamachi, not because we want to sell your life to the press. Hounds run in packs you know." He said, waiting for Vivio's reaction, and then sighed when she made no move to answer. "Look, whoever you're with, just make sure that you bed them long and good when you get home. At the end of a mission like this, it's really all that matters."
Vivio opened her mouth but found no words to that. They chatted amicably for a while until Rhen decided to turn in for the night. Vivio stayed up and typed on, trying to keep her mind focused and away from a certain brunette. She thought about Rhen's last words but kept to herself that it was exactly what she intended to do.