Author's Notes
Hey guys, here's the first chapter for Iron Stratos.
Quite honestly, I did not expect people to want to read this, if you have read my notes at the bottom of prologue, I only started this because of writer's block and my friend's persistence. But since people want me to write it, so be it. I will write this in between writer's block for TaMi fanfic.
Without further ado, let's start the chapter!
=Chapter Start=
Part 1
Orimura Ichika sighed as he laid his head on the table, thankful that the desk was made of a metallic alloy that kept cool even in warm weather, thus retaining enough coolness to relieve his aching head that had plagued him since this morning. He was currently hiding out in the Student Council Room, with the windows open to let the sea breeze in. It was comforting to have the gentle breeze in the room and the soft sounds of the ocean nearby; he would not mind taking a quick nap here if not for the blasted paperwork in front of him.
The reason for him hiding was because of the major fiasco that started the moment he woke up. Ever since Sarashiki Tatenashi left the IS Academy to return to Russia for her IS repairs, Laura has been trying to sneak into his room every night despite his best efforts to lock up the windows, lock and block the door with a chair, and even tape up any nook and cranny that might suggest an opening. To his absolute embarrassment, he always ended up waking to the sight of a naked Laura curled up on his bed.
For that morning, he had to wake up to the sight of a naked Laura at his side and a pissed-off duo in the form of Houki and Charlotte. It took him roughly half an hour to run away before he could get to the classroom on time, only to be scolded by his sister in front of everyone and made to clean out the classroom for the next two days. After the lesson, he got hounded by Cecilia and Rin over where he would be eating his lunch.
That wasn't the only issue. Since Tatenashi needed to leave, as her personal maid, Utsuho Nohotoke went along with her to facilitate the IS repairs and tend to her needs, thus leaving him and her sister to effectively handle any of council's paperwork. That being said, he was pretty much the only person dealing with it, since the silly girl was going around taking naps and making a fuss.
Ichika sighed as he turned his head to the side. At least he had the comfort of being inside a quiet room without anyone bothering. Apart from the teachers, no one was to be allowed inside, so he could relax without the girls barging in and trying to hit him for whatever reason they think he was in the wrong in. And if the 'JiangJun' (1) did not come inside the room, he should be safe.
"You were thinking something rude, weren't you?"
"Smack!"
A voice followed by a smack in the head made Ichika sit straight up in his seat, nearly falling backwards from the momentum. In front of his desk stood his sister, Chifuyu Orimura, set with her famous frown as her default expression. She was carrying a small stack of documents under her arm and had the other hand placed on her hip.
"Seriously Orimura, do you intend to be a neet when you graduate?" Chifuyu asked while tapping her feet in annoyance. "No, I do not want that, Chifuyu-ne.. I mean Orimura sensei!" Ichika quickly changed the calling under the intensity of Chifuyu's glare. As the teacher of ISA Academy, she was very strict about the rules, and she made it very clear that everyone should address her as Orimura Sensei.
"So why are you here? I thought you were at a meeting." Ichika asked while reshuffling the paperwork to make room for her to lay her stuff down. "I was at a meeting, one that took a lot longer than needed." Chifuyu sighed while shaking her head. "Honestly, all these meetings are getting too frequent for us to get any work done."
Ichika nodded to show his sympathy. For the past few days, the teachers had been getting involved with sudden meetings, some which took up the whole day. Because of that, most of the students were asked to do maintenance on their individual units, or like Ichika whose unit was damaged, either continue repairs or help out with other areas. For his case, he was effectively the one in charge, not that was helpful, since he was still under the "Loaning of Orimura Ichika to Every Club" (Honestly, what was with the naming?), so every club was clamouring for him to come to them. It was only thanks to Chifuyu's "lecture" then they more or less got themselves organized, thus having a waiting list.
Chifuyu continued talking, unaware of the thoughts in his head. "But this time round, something turned up that required every one of us involved in IS Academy. Seems like some big-shot is coming over to Japan for a while, and that person wanted to visit IS Academy along the way. Not to mention there are others who are tagging along for the ride."
'Honestly, such a pain' She added without reserve.
Ichika quirked an eyebrow at her blatant remark about the person visiting. Only she could say that about someone without some form of consequence, being one of the strongest IS fighters around. Really, he would not be surprised if she were to say something that rude right in the IS Council's face, and be able to get away with it.
"SMACK!"
"OUCH! What was that for?" Ichika rubbed his head while wincing. "You were thinking rude thoughts again" Chifuyu waved her attendance file up and down while saying that. Honestly, what was with the women around him?! Every single one of them seemed to know what goes through his mind! Maybe he ought to consider getting some microchip to block out his thoughts, because at this rate he was going to suffer big time!
"So I guess the meeting is wrapped up more or less?" Ichika asked carefully. "Well almost" Chifuyu gave another sigh of tiredness. "We were just discussing about the security for the visit before the break. Last thing we need is a repeat of Phantom Task or the Golems attacking us while the big-shots come around."
Ichika frowned at that thought, being reminded of those attacks. Phantom Task had not appeared for quite some time, not that he was not grateful for that happening, but not hearing any news put a bit of strain on him, making him feel he needed to watch his back at every turn. Not to mention the fact that those Black Golems attacked the academy twice for some mysterious reason known only to the person who sent them.
His expression must have appeared on his face, as Chifuyu placed a hand on his head gently. "Honestly, stop worrying about it." Chifuyu ruffled his hair a little, displaying a rarely seen comforting smile on her face. "You should worry more about finishing this paperwork, from what I heard, you are pretty much doing this whole thing on your own." Chifuyu cocked an eyebrow while saying that. "Yeah, since the top 2 members are in Russia, while the other one is not helping much." 'Most like taking a nap', Ichika thought privately.
"Well, better hang in there." Chifuyu turned to walk towards the door. "If that matter of the big-shot gets finalized, you will be getting a lot more paperwork within the hour" Chifuyu smiled at the sight of Ichika slumping on the desk at the thought of having more paperwork. At the rate he was going, he would need to pull of an all-nighter before he can be cleared of it. "Well then, see you later" Chifuyu said as she opened the door to walk out.
Ichika sighed while raising his hand wearily. He was so going to need some extra strong caffeine for this, and maybe some aspirin to help sleep better. As he got up, he heard a clatter and turned to see a document slipped out of Chifuyu's arm and hit the floor.
"Ah, you dropped something" Ichika took a glance as he picked up the document. It seemed to be an official document regarding certain incidents occurring roughly 2 weeks ago, but the thing that attracted his eye the most was the photo attached to it. It showed what looked like an IS Unit speeding away to the sky, but the design was rather peculiar.
His initial thought was whether it had something to do with the black Golems that had attacked IS Academy. But a quick glance cleared that doubt; the black Golems were threatening and, well, 'black', and their designs was that of overwhelming strength and fear inducement. The one in photo was totally their opposite; this unit was coloured military-grey with shades of green, and had a jet pack with wings at its sides. Its design was more streamlined, and though he could not see the face, with what he thought was thrusters at its feet, Ichika felt it was made specifically to fly. Which made the name shown at the white frame of the photo appropriate, "Raptor".
Further thoughts got broken by a chill going down his spine. Lifting his head slowly, Ichika was greeted with the sight of a very angry Chifuyu staring at him while tapping her foot. "You do realize that is classified documents, right?" Chifuyu gave a rather dangerous smile while staring at Ichika like a tiger looking at a particularly fat rabbit. Ichika gulped audibly while nodding his head so fast, one could almost see the blurred lines at the sides. He was going to get it for sure!
"Right then, considering you are injured, I guess I won't give you more cleaning duties." Chifuyu said that with her eyes closed. Ichika felt his heart lifting a little. Does this mean he is safe?
Then Chifuyu opened her eyes again, revealing a glint that sent his heart plummeting to his stomach. Then again, he was wrong. "Instead, why don't we settle with you handling the preparations for the upcoming sports fair? Get the plans out by tomorrow afternoon." With that, Chifuyu grabbed the document and walked out of the council room, closing the door behind her just in time for Ichika to snap out of his stupor and digest the situation.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Part 2
"Are we ready to go?" the men nodded to the guy who asked that question.
This group of 10 were at the airport cargo area, moving some luggage onto the luggage truck that would be going to a nearby private jet. At first glance, they seem to be regular workers doing their job while chatting with each other. But on closer inspection, one might notice some of them had odd looking tattoos running the side of the necks, another had an odd number of piercings on his face, and the person who was apparently in charge had half his face burned and a scar on his left eye.
"Sergeant Fenix, what is the situation with the target?" The man with the scar turned to one of the members who had a tattoo on his neck. "The target in question is well and on the way, General Gregor" Fenix saluted the general while giving the report, looking a little odd with the green jumpsuit he had on. "Also, the target is travelling with 3 others, so there won't be as many guards as we thought, since the plane capacity can only take so many with the secondary targets coming along."
Gregor nodded at the reply. That was good news for them, since they only needed to worry about those guards that would accompany their primary target. All they have to do was to take them out, and then they can hijack the plane. With luck, no casualties would have to happen.
"Okay, let's go over the plan once more." Gregor addressed the men in front of him. "The four of you are to take over the plane once the crew make a shift change at Dallas airport" He pointed at the 4 men with pony tails. "You guys are to try and get it to the appointed spot"
Turning his head, he said "The three of you are on standby with the other plane, in case we get anyone chasing after them in the air." The three including the man with piercings nodded to acknowledge. "And the two of you come with me to Japan for interception in case the original plan does not work out." Gregor turned his head towards Fenix and the other person. "So, any questions?"
One of the smaller soldiers brought up his shaking hand. He stuck out a little among a group of confident soldiers, with his shoulders bought together at the sides and his face a sight of nervousness. Gregor rolled his eyes and asked. "Yes, what's the problem Stan?" Stan jumped a little before voicing out his thoughts. "Erm, I don't mean any disrespect, but what if one of the security personnel is an IS representative? I know that they probably won't come after us unless it's an emergency, but if there's one on board, what should we do?"
"Don't worry about it, Stan. After all, we have this bad boy to handle those girlies" Gregor pointed his thumb over his shoulders towards the bulky suitcase that was on the ground. He had every reason to be confident; dubbed "Corruption Overload", the device inside the suitcase was considered something too dangerous to be used near IS. Developed by a small firm a couple years back, the original idea was to shut down any rogue IS Units during experimentation of new models, using specific radio waves to target the system. But during its trial run, it did more than target rogue IS; it effectively took down every single IS Unit within a 2 mile radius, leaving them unusable for a few days, which was detrimental for any IS Representative. Even more so, as investigations showed that there were some who were effectively stuck in their IS Units for a few hours, one of whom was flying just a few feet above ground, ended up in the hospital for broken legs.
Because of its effects, the IS committee voted to have the technology destroyed and all its records completely. But General Gregor caught word of the technology, so he sent a few of his men to steal the prototype and some of the plans to try and reverse engineer it, thus leading to the suitcase version, which was a significant improvement, given the prototype was roughly half the size of a small room.
"Even if they are trained to deal with threats without IS, I'm sure they can't handle tight quarters and the threat of getting knocked out of the plane." Gregor said with a wave of the hand. "Any more questions?" Again, Stan brought up his hand, this time even more slowly and trembling furiously. "What now, Stan?" Gregor growled as he glared at the soldier who looked ready to pass out. Even his fellow platoon mates stepped back a little at the current spectacle. Stan better had a good reason to keep questioning Gregor's plan.
"What do we do if they came after us?" the subordinate stammered out that question under the glare of his leader. He did however hit a raw nerve with the others; some of the guys looked at each other nervously, while a couple of others gripped their equipment bags a lot tighter without realizing it. They had all heard about the recent attacks by the mysterious units, courtesy of their contacts from the associated regions. Even Gregor had heard about it from his dealer from South Dakota, that the unit that took out the terrorist cell was able to subdue two IS National Representatives and several F-22s without getting damage. It would be problematic if those units appeared.
"There should be no problems with that." Gregor replied back with a straight face. He needed the group's morale to be high in order for the mission to succeed. "Firstly, those units haven't appeared after all this time, despite other incidents that have occurred. Secondly, they should be similar to IS Units, so that means they can be affected by our equipment." With each word he said, the men seemed to gain a bit more confidence back inside them. "And furthermore, there is no way anyone knows about our operation. Unless you guys messed up and mentioned it to anyone?" Gregor glared at them to see their reaction. To his satisfaction, they all stood rigid and shook their heads. This was how real men should be; the way things were meant to be done before the accursed IS came along and turned the system upside down.
"Sir" Gregor's thoughts were interrupted by Fenix, who was checking his handheld device and holding his earpiece. "The target has just arrived at the entrance, and looks like her companions are just children. There are only two guards with them" Gregor's expression became grim with seriousness, his men also steeling their faces; even Stan's face undergo a dramatic change, from a nervous wreck to hardened soldier.
It was time to launch the operation.
=====Author's Notes=====
(1) JiangJun - General
Hope you enjoy this chapter! I will try to upload another soon!