A young lady with light pink hair was lying horizontally on the bed, with only a thin cape wrapped around her bare skin. She was the one whom they call "Louise of the Void," otherwise known as Louise Francoise; only a few high ranking officers of the royal army knew of this secret.
It was now the end of the year, the second week in the month of Wynn. Going by Halkeginia's climate, it was the equivalent of autumn... It was not considered very cold in the tent. It's was because of this that she could dress so seductively without the fear of catching a cold. On a simple bed, consisting of a piece of cloth draped over straw, Louise bit her small finger, and sulked indignantly. Louise sat up, and hugged her knee. This gesture of hers had a cuteness akin to a goddess'. With her feelings immediately written on her face, Louise could not completely hide the uneasiness in her heart. Beneath the cape was nothing more than her skin. Why was this? Because Louise could only wear pajamas when she slept; so since she 'forgot' to bring her nightgown, she had to replace it with a cape and said that if she were wearing her panties, she would not be able to fall asleep. Although the sexy and cute pose from Louise was full of an irresistible charm...She couldn't help but think it was a pity that the other person in the tent took no notice of it.
As a female officer directly under Her Highness's command, Louise was assigned her own personal tent. In the military port of Rosais, buildings resembling hostels were rare, so tents were put at every stop. Such treatment was equal to a general's, but since Louise's legendary magic element 'Void' was considered to be a weapon of last resort, it was perfectly normal.
Inside the tent, illuminated by a magical lamp, was a simple bed made up of a piece of cloth covering some straw, a foldable dining table, a small cabinet for clothing and accessories and a bell for ordering the accompanying soldiers. In the battlefield, items like that inside a tent can be considered "luxurious".
In a corner of the tent, Zero was staring blankly in front of him.
"Hey, Zero." Louise called to her familiar. But there was no reply.
Louise sat up, and called him again. "Hey, I'm going to sleep soon. Come here, quickly."Although Louise was red in the face as she called him, there was still no reaction. "It's already past ten. We'll have to be up early tomorrow morning to inspect the front lines. You'd better sleep now."
Even so, there was still no reply from Zero.
This familiar of Louise, who came from another world, was now sitting crossed-legged on the floor, his face full of depression. He had been like this since a week ago. When Louise recalled the battle which caused Zero's depression, she felt a dull pain in her heart.
A week ago, the combined armies of Tristain and Germania successfully occupied this port-town of Albion. As the main force of Albion's armies were not lured to the northern port-town of Dartanes, there were over thirty-thousand defenders in Rosais. The battle could have been long and arduous but Zero had insisted on being dropped by Axl's dragon into middle of the city. Zero dropped like a stone into the center of the massed troops from a staggering height, and proceeded to make himself known. The battle if it could be called that was short and brutal. During the end of that short battle an infuriated young fire mage tried to blast Zero with his strongest spell. Unfortunately Zero was too fast to be caught by such an attack, even if it would not have done him much harm. As Zero finished off his opponent he heard the screams. Turning he saw at least seven houses fully engulfed in flames. He ran over to them, attempting to get as many out and to safety as possible... But no matter how fast he moved, he couldn't save them. In the end, only three would survive the burns and smoke inhalation. Nine children that couldn't have been older than seven had been doomed to die slowly, even with the attempted help of the water mages who came too little, too late after his assault. After hearing the medics giving the status on the civilians, his heart sank... They said that the best that they could do was help to ease the pain...The price for this battle's success...was the blood of children...
Louise observed Zero, and pouted her lips. Of course, it was a sad thing that had happened, but… During the landing battle, there were sacrifices as well. War definitely brings death along with it. If every death was mourned, there would be no end to it. In Halkeginia, there were wars almost every single year. For Louise, although death was something sad, it was also something very close to her in her mind. Louise stood up. Under the dim glow of the magic lamp, the room was rather dark. Under such conditions, even if the cape didn't cover certain areas, her body would still remain unseen.
Louise crossed her hands in front of her, as if hugging herself, and held the hems of the cape tightly. She walked up to Zero, who was staring at the blank tent walls and said, "Cheer up, alright. "
Zero grunted lifelessly. "But, I can't help it. After all, it happened right before my eyes. It was my fault. I should have taken the attack. It wouldn't have done much damage... Derflinger could have absorbed it... Although they say it was for the success of the mission, still..."
Just as how Zero had comforted her before, Louise felt that this time, it was her turn to comfort him. But, she didn't know how to go about doing it. Louise squatted, and sat back-to-back with Zero. "That... Although you may find me cruel for saying this... Compared to the deaths of those people, what makes me sadder is to see you being so depressed. Although I shouldn't be thinking like this, facts are facts. However, maybe because…you are my familiar and were by my side, I really felt very sad."
Zero slowly turned his head, and stared quietly at Louise.
"Death may sadden people... But that was not your hand that did it. It was an Albion soldier... Willing to sacrifice their people for honor, for their pride. That's why we're here. Children died at Tarbes, and they died here... At the hands of their own people, right? This is one reason we have to stop them..."
"Do you mean what you say... regarding this?" He felt that something was amiss when Louise started talking like this.
"Of course not, but we have to. We're now at war. You know that far better than I..." Louise's right hand let go of the hem it was holding, and gently patted Zero's helmet, now that he has turned around.
Zero shook his head, "That's not true. There are rules... There have always been rules. Even Sigma never purposely targeted children... Yes he wanted to destroy humans as a whole, but even he had some form of decency before he went totally insane...Civilians are not supposed to be caught up in the specific battles. Combatants are supposed to fight combatants..." Instead of calling it an unbearable pain, it was more of the inability to forgive. To die for the mission, to die for honor. That would have been fine. But to die just because you were trying to live in your home...He couldn't imagine the horror they must have felt at all.
As Louise looked at Zero's forlorn face, she felt terrible. The things she had just said were not lies. Although she felt sad for those who died in the fire started by the enemy mages, they had died for the victory of their country. Louise, who had grown up receiving the education of the nobility, and Zero, who had been a warrior since creation: there was an obvious rift between them. Louise felt pain seeing Zero's blank face. Compared to mourning the dead, she had a greater desire to heal the pain of the living. Louise thought, What should one do at a moment like this? How does one comfort a boy who had been hurt? And...If it was that maid, what would she do? She used just a little bit of her imagination. She would... use the warmth of her body! It's all that commoner can come up with. On this train of thought, she suddenly became angry. That... that sort of thing... She could do that too!
But, in the back of her mind, Louise shook her head furiously. This means I've accepted him... He'll understand that, won't he? She hugged Zero tightly, her face crimson-red. She thought, "What am I doing?" The incredible thing was that her heartbeat was quickening. Her racing heartbeat seemed to be dissolving the cruel atmosphere of the battlefield. Despite all this, Zero was still depressed. Was it still not enough? Is simply hugging him tightly not enough? Hoping that he would pucker up didn't mean that she liked him or anything. However, if a familiar was like this, it would affect missions in the future, right? Louise intended to try her best at imitating Siesta. She was trying hard, even putting aside her noblewoman's pride. She remembered what she was wearing now as she drew closer. Underneath the cape was her skin. Louise took a deep breath. It's only a tiny bit. If doing this could comfort Zero a little, isn't it worth a try? Her mind raced with a flurry of thoughts. How can you show others your body when you're unmarried? If you treat him like familiar, that's still alright. But what are you doing now? If he sees it, there will be trouble! You'll have to marry him, those are the rules. I want to marry.. I want to marry? Marry who? Zero...Her brain began to fry, as if it was about to explode. Zero stared at Louise in her current predicament, his eyes emotionless and flat black. Louise had to choke back a sob. Even Louise was feeling down now, she really wanted to heal this wound of Zero's. Louise grew more and more confused; her brain was really going to explode soon. Just as she was loosening her grip on her cape...
The tent flap opened, admitting Roll who had a smile on her face. "I haven't seen you at a meal since we got here, so I came to check on you Zero. Is everything alright?"
Zero didn't respond.
"Zero, what's wrong?" Roll asked as she knelt down next to him. She nearly gasped as she saw his flat black eyes.
Louise stood up drawing the cloak tightly around her once again, her face still flushed. "Its the children that died... That he couldn't save..."
"What children that died?" Roll asked with concern clear in her voice.
"The ones involved in the fire..." Louise murmured.
"What are you talking about? Sure the water mages thought they were going to die but that's because they didn't understand how burns and smoke inhalation actually effect the body. With my direction we were actually able to save them. They're still recovering, but they'll be fine." Roll assured the girl.
Zero looked up at hearing that. "They're alive?" His voice contained a hint of desperate hope.
"Yeah. All of them seem to remember a glowing angel clad in red armor. I wonder who that could have been?" She asked, as she crossed her arms.
Zero sighed in relief, then shook his head. "Damn it. They shouldn't have been involved like this. We've done the exact same thing here as they did in Tarbes."
"No, they fired that spell, not you. You went to save them. They purposely killed our people. You went out of your way to save their people." Louise disagreed.
"That's right," Roll agreed,"With the regenerative powers I've seen from the water mages none of them will even have lasting scars. You managed to save everyone from the fire."
"Huh..." Zero murmured gently.
"See? You saved them. Their own people set their house aflame and you still were able to save them. So please cheer up now." Louise begged.
"Yeah, not that our own medics didn't nearly cause as much damage as the mage who started the fire... Did you know they still treat burns with oils here? Such a stupid and outdated technique. It does far more damage than just leaving it alone... Which is another reason they thought that they were all to die. Its almost maddening dealing with all the things these people seem to think works. Its slow going, but I'm finally getting them to listen to me. Mainly because I keep saying I should call you in for a second opinion..." Roll said in exasperation.
"I'm not exactly a doctor Roll..." Zero commented.
"You're closer than any of the mages. They can regenerate people with magic but because of that they've not actually looked into the base causes of problems or how the human body actually operates. They don't even understand the concept of preventive medicine." She sighed as she shook her head.
"Well, this is the equivalent of the dark ages..." Zero replied.
"Dark ages?" Louise wondered aloud.
"A time back in my world's history when science was unknown, people believed in magic and did stupid things like what your medics do... Mostly to the harm of the people being treated." Roll commented.
"Is our world really that bad?" Louise asked curiously.
"Not really bad, just backwards. Why do you think I make issue of it so often? I mean the fact we're on a floating continent that is constantly losing water but never runs out of it is just stupid enough that it doesn't make any sense at all!" Zero answered, ranting again at just how little sense the continent of Albion actually made.
Louise just sat there silently listening to Zero, before she yawned. "Sorry... I'm tired." she said as she pulled her cloak around herself and laid her head on Zero's leg.
Roll looked on, feeling some jealousy, then said to Zero,"You should really come down and see them. We've given that group of civilians tents and food, but to meet the 'angel' that saved them would be nice for some of them that are still recovering."
Zero smiled as he looked at Roll,"Yeah, I can do that."
At the same time, he felt that Louise, who had already fallen asleep on his lap murmured incomprehensibly in her sleep.
"She's certainly made her intentions clear enough, hasn't she?" Roll said with some displeasure in her voice.
"Yeah, she doesn't seem to really understand I'm not really a person." Zero agreed, then shook his head. Let her sleep now, allowing Louise to continue using his leg as a pillow as he thought again on everything. "I was able to save them though. I'm glad."
"That's why you really are a person Zero. You just aren't human." Roll said with a smile as she sat down next to Zero and gently leaned on him...
***Break***
The Tristain and Germania united army landed in the port-town Rosais, which was located about 300 leagues south of Albion's capital Londonium.
Upon landing, the allied forces expected an enemy counterattack. First of all, land units formed a circle around Rosais.
Yet… Albion made no counterattack.
The Supreme Commander of the united army, De Poitiers, lost the momentum to invade. Their strategy assumed the enemy would attack after the landing. The "decisive battle" was to happen near Rosais, where it would let them destroy the enemy's largest army in one blow and march to Londonium unopposed.
They planned for the campaign to finish in three weeks,… essentially, before Founder Brimir's Advent Festival, or "New Year's Day". In other words, they had prepared for a quick, decisive battle.
This strategic failure could not be helped now. A large amount of food was necessary to maintain a large army of 60,000 people, not counting the crews of the ships... To recite strong spells, specific medicine (especially Water element-based healing medicine) is needed, along with war materials like bullets, gunpowder and cannons. And it all had to be carried from their own country to the army in the front.
Fighting a long war in the enemy's territory would be nothing but a nightmare. Besides, Tristain's size and economy made such a long war impossible.
Albion's main army successfully retreated from Dartanes, and barricaded itself in the capital city Londinium.
The enemy army avoided fighting a decisive battle; after Albion's air force received damage beyond imagination, and lost control of the sky, the Albion army abandoned counterattack tactics hoping to win by attrition.
But because expectations went down the drain and physical damage did not occur, constructing positions and preparing for a decisive battle became pointless. The allied forces wasted food and manpower for a week and a half. The allied forces had not planned for anything but a quick decisive battle, so they only brought a food supply for six weeks. But now it became necessary to carry food and gunpowder from their own country by ship. For the two countries that organized the expedition army with the very limited finances available to them, the situation was worrisome to say the least. By the eighth day after the landing, a tense atmosphere surrounded the future invasion plans.
The air base in Rosais began as the Royal Albion Air Headquarters before turning into the Sacred Albion Republic Air Force Headquarters, and had finally become the Tristain-Germania United Martial Army Command Base. These walls of red brick had changed masters three times in one year. A great hall on the second floor was where history was made.
The Supreme Commander of coalition forces, General de Poitiers, sat at the round table on the central seat. He listened to two opposing opinions.
First one came from Germanian General Marquis Handenburg, who insisted, while shaking his fist and white mustache, upon a quick, decisive battle.
"Let's march! March! March! We have food only for four and a half weeks. Make a detour at a fort on the way and march straight to the castle! Anyway, let's aim for Londonium. Fortunately, we control the sky. We have to end the war before Founder Brimir's Advent Festival, for morale will drop after advent festival!" It seemed like Germania's General insisted upon advancing like a flame.
"Ending before the Advent Festival is fine, but I wonder why there are no such short war stories in Halkeginia's history?" Wimpffen, Chief of Staff, objecting coldly stared through the pane of his glasses.
"Then, we'll be the first," Marquis Handenburg said and gave a piercing glare to Wimpffen.
"By circling Londinium, we would expose our back to their castles… We can't act without strategy. Moreover, if we start marching, the supply lines would be left behind. Without supplies we would end up in a deadlock. Although it is troublesome, we should proceed carefully, step-by-step. We should advance by capturing fortresses and castles along the way."
"Capturing fortresses and castles would inflict too much damage! Supplies? We only have to take over Londonium before Advent Festival!"
"As the Marquis said, we control the sky, right? So the damage upon capturing will be kept to minimum. Londonium taken over by the Advent Festival? That's nonsense!"
Marquis Handenburg exclaimed with a face full of contempt,"…this is Wind-element thinking, wind that evades obstacles in its cowardice."
"As if Fire-element thinking, which hastily burns itself out, is any better."countered the other general.
The two men glared at each other.
"Courage is what cowardly Tristains need to be taught." Handenburg shouted at the smaller man.
"There's nothing to be learned from barbarians!" Wimpffen called back hotly.
They both pulled their wands out at the same time. Supreme General de Poitiers stepped in between them. "We argue too much! Marquis! Marquis! Show your legendary Germanian courage on the battlefield! Wimpffen! Stop disgracing yourself!" At last, they both calmed down, looking for all the world, like scolded school boys. "For now we have to admit that the first plan, beating Albion's main forces and then advancing to Londinium, getting Cromwell's head, and raising the white lily's flag in Whitehall, failed. but completing the war according to plan is still possible."
After overthrowing the Albion's revolution government, they would rule in the name of Henrietta. Of course, part of the territory would be ceded to Germania. Afterwards, the remaining survivors of Albion's royal family would be searched for and placed on the throne of the territory under Tristain's rule, thus reviving the monarchy. This was to avoid any possible revolutions that would happen because of them being seen as an 'occupying army', so once a suitable noble with royal blood was found, the throne would be passed to him. De Poitiers shook his head, trying to brush off these thoughts. It was not the time to think about it. Right now they needed to think how to annihilate the enemy. De Poitiers bit his lip. He knew his promotion depended on this. If he could win this war, he would be promoted to Field Marshal. Everything could have been easily settled by one decisive battle… De Poitiers felt a grudge against the Albion army. Why would Cromwell barricade himself in Londonium? They could never have predicted this. What could the man be thinking, what about facing ministers, nobles and the public's opinion? Just what was he counting on? Momentarily lost in thought, he noticed the allied General and his Chief of Staff looking worriedly at him and announced their new strategy himself. "…there is no decisive battle anymore, but the plan must be executed anyway. We have to take over Londinium and the Emperor's palace, Havilland, and raise Her Majesty's flag there. Now, it would be too dangerous to attack Londinium directly. And capturing castle after castle could take decades."
The Marquis and Chief of Staff nodded and frowned. De Poitiers showed the map that had been laid out on the table and pointed at the place between Rosais and Londonium.
"The City of Saxe-Gotha. An ancient town, and a favored tourist spot. We will take it over and turn it into the foothold for the capture of Londinium. We will leave 5000 soldiers here in Rosais to secure the supply lines and path for retreat. The remaining troops will participate in the capture with the support from our air forces. If the enemy's main army comes out, we will finish it with a decisive battle. If the enemy doesn't come out, with Saxe-Gotha secure and the supply lines for our own we'll be free to attack the capital while also cutting them off from resupplying themselves. "
The Marquis and Chief of Staff nodded. The proposal was a compromise, and though it was a noncommittal strategy, it wasn't bad. Saxe-Gotha was a big town. The crossing of all roads as it were. If it was taken, it would possibly be effective against other castles and towns. Even if the war was not settled before the Advent Festival, it would be easy to hold out longer as it was a big city with supplies. As they debated the strategy, someone knocked at the door.
"Who?" asked a guard.
"Me. Her Majesty's Court Lady, La Vallière." the feminine voice said from behind the large door.
De Poitiers signaled the guards to let her in, even though he wasn't particularly eager to let the girl take part in army business. But he couldn't treat her unkindly as she was Her Majesty's Court Lady and the user of the legendary Void. She still might be bothersome, considering her age and temperament... "Miss Void. We have prepared a gorgeous tent for you. Leave all the trouble to servicemen and take a rest. I will call you if you are needed."
Zero walked in after that was said, and shrugged."Considering that you're going to try and make plans, wouldn't it be better to have one of the people who you might need in here? Its not like she doesn't know her limits a little better than everyone else."
"Ah, I suppose you're right." the general conceded. The general filled them both in on the current plans that they had.
"General, may I make a suggestion?"
"What's that Knight-Captain?"
"Insert myself and Louise into the city, we'll create a distraction." Zero stated.
"Hmm... But that wouldn't be very safe..." the general said doubtfully.
"Don't worry. I can protect us. I was the agent who uncovered all of the spies Albion had arranged against us in Tristian. It isn't my true forte, but it isn't like I don't have plenty of experience in operations like that. I was the leader of the Shinobi corps. " Zero said with his arms crossed, a smug smirk on his face.
The general looked at Zero, his mouth open in shock. After he recovered his poise, he asked in a low voice,"That was you?"
Zero nodded"Yep. Easily done. I can slip us in at night, and then we cause a ruckus around the time your attack commences."
"With an illusion?" the general asked curiously.
"No, I think we should save that for the final battle. If we're going to lay siege to their capital I think... I've been talking with Axl and we have an awesome plan for that..." Zero replied with a smirk as he remembered talking to Axl about one of his favorite arcade games...
***Author's notes***
This fic has never gone dead yet. even when my computer died I still kept writing for it. It has slowed down at times as I've done original work and done D&D and Pen and paper stories for others to run, but as of now I've got up to chapter 48 roughly done(Up to 45 rough on site). Unfortunately all the proof reading and other crap slows me down so I only work on it in very short bursts. And considering I'm not very good at it, it is slow. Give me engineering problems, mathematics, or logistical problems or other things like that and I can figure it out really fast.
The timeline for Megaman X series is actually VERY long. The estimated time between the last disaster before the elf war was about 100-150 years before the elf war. With the fact that a great deal of humanity managed to make it to the shelters, that wasn't that bad of a death toll. Now, the fact that the reploids had to clean up the world was inconvenient at best, but with medical advances as well as the time frame from the colony crash to the Elf Wars is more than enough time for humanity to bounce back. Especially considering the other "big" disaster was the space station with repliforce. That didn't do even 1/10th the damage as the colony crashing, it was more of a "Lets get Repliforce and the maverick hunters to kill each other... and kill some humans while we're at it" type of plan from Sigma. So I'm going to stick by the numbers quoted. Even if more had died during the colony crash, the fact that they needed to build artificial island cities during the command mission series kinda shows some sign of growth. And if the population had been in true danger the governments of the world(Or the single one at that point) would have had some incentive programs for people who had children(very much like in japan). Hope that answers your question/explains my thoughts behind the numbers.