These words echoed as the journalist in the TV questioned. On verge of the 3rd world war, an incident happened, turing the world's attention to another matter; aliens has started invading Earth.
At first, it felt like a big prank and no one really believe it until the Alien started sending their hi-tech weapon against humanity in order to decimate them. Each countries tried to fight back as hard as they could but the invaders were just too strong. In the end, a peace agreement was signed between the countries so they could fight together against this common enemy.
That was when the project "Hope Bringer" was born. Realizing that the Alien's technology was far too advanced, the richest countries started to fund researches to develop biological weapons and that was when the superhuman individuals known as "Athenas" in honor to the Greek goddess.
[-x-x-x-]
"Daughter, I presume that you are old enought to know about this." the old man spoke as he was sitting in a seiza position. In front of him sat a young teen girl in her 16s. She had long black hair attached in a high ponytail. "You might have realized that you are not like any other child."
"I am aware, Father." the young girl seriously answered. She had a stoic look on her face. "I understand that I have to fulfill my duty as the heiress of the Satou clan."
The man was silent for a moment as he closed his eyes. "Our clan has served the royal family for generation. As you know, Aliens started attacking us 18 years ago. Our way of responding was to create stronger weapons, that was when you were born."
The girl nodded. "I got words saying that I am an "Athena", Father."
There was a moment of silence until the girl's father finally spoke again. "You will soon have to depart to humanity's vanguard base - the moon - soon and will have to fight the invaders alongside the representatives from other countries." the opened his eyes and stood up. "be proud, Hinata, as this will greatly favor our clan's name! If the need arises, die with honor protecting our country's clory!"
"Yes, Father!" without any hesitation, the girl nodded and bowed her head. "I swear on the Satou clan's name that I will fight bravely and will drive away these invaders, even if it costs my life." the only response she got was a nod before the man left.
[-x-x-x-]
Hinata sighed as her father left her room. She knew that she was not a normal girl as she started developping her senses faster than everyone else and had very good physical abilities, even compared to gifted geniuses. She knew this day would come and readied herself.
The girl was born in the country of Japan, a country filled with proud people who would die for their belief. On one hand, she was glad to be part of such a great community, but on the other hand, was a little jealous of the others as she didn't have any freedom of her own.
Accepting her fate, the young teen prepared her stuffs and decided to meditate or train. Three days laters, several men in white suits arrived at their dojo and her father told her to follow them. After that, their group went to the national airport and straight toward a remote island with a rokket ready to be launched on it.
"Starting today, your code name will be JP-01." the woman wearing a white blouse said as soon as she entered the building near the rokket. "We will launch you to the moon where humanity's base is. As you don't need to breath air anymore, you should be able to like there without any issue. Make sure to not get into unnecessary fight as we won't be able to come to your rescue."
The girl nodded her head. "Understood, ma'am."
The woman's expression changed into a sad one as she looked down. "To be honest, I find it very unfortunate that we have to send children to fight for us... but this is our last hope. Please be careful out there, Satou-san."
And with that, she was given a military uniform composed of a knee-lengh green skirt and a white skirt. Her adventure then started. The rocket was launched and after few hours, she managed to land on the moon. As the woman said, she didn't need to breath at all and didn't event need a space suit.
As soon as she arrived however, she was welcomed by several people at the mentioned base. It was a large town with several buildings and there were anti-air batteries atop the buildings, probably to attack any incoming forces.
"Hello and welcome JP-01," the tall blonde woman warmly welcomed. "I am Rebecca Smith, codename; US-01 and I am the oldest "Athena" here. You can talk to me whenever you have any issue."
"Understood, ma'am."
The taller young woman smiled as she patted the girl's shoulder. "No need to be that reserved. We are all in the same situation so let us threat each others like family members. Looks like the war will take a while so let us get along well."
"Understood, ma- I mean US-san."
[-x-x-x-]
After quickly exchanging information, the duo decided to have a little look around the base. There was not that many plants except the ones inside the buildings where some artificial gardens were made. On the outside, despite the town being large, the sky was mostly dark due to the lack of atmosphere and the neighboorhood felt very quiet.
The two of them then ran into another blonde young woman who was checking on several riffles in a hangar. "Heya Anne!" US greeted the other woman who turned toward them and smiled. "This is Anne Smith, a cousin of mine from Canada. Her codename is CA-01."
"Nice to meet you, CA. You can call me JP."
"The serious type huh?" the Canadian woman placed a hand on her chin before turning back to the riffle. "Nice to meet you too but I am afraid I cannot afford to chitchat today as I need to make some maintenances. I am really sorry."
The American girl chuckled. "Do not sweat over every detail." she then turned to Hinata. "She tends to apologise a lot so don't worry about it too much. I guess it's just her Canadian blood."
The younger girl nodded. "It is noted."
After that, the two of them walked away and soon came across a tanned-skin young girl who was carying some large shells with ease. She stopped in front of the duo. "Well hello, US! Is this the newcomer?"
The Japanese girl thought this girl was rude but decided to not pick a fight. The blonde woman just laughed. "Yes, she is JP and will be joining our forces starting today." she then motioned to the shorted individual. "This is ZA-02, our representative from South Africa."
"02?"
The two others looked down at that question. The one to answer was ZA. "The first models are always called 01 but in case they fall in battle, we have to make backups and that is where we came from. Basically, you are changed into a new individual if the original "Athena" is defeated."
The Japanese representative nodded at that. She knew that this war was perious and has readied herself for the worse.
"What are you doing standing there? Can't you see that you are blocking the way?" a voice came from behind ZA and they turned around to see a young looking woman who had long raven hair attached in a pair of buns. She was also wearing the military uniform, the same as the one the others were wearing. "I can't believ you capitalists, always trying to monopolise everything."
"Geh! It's CN again." the younger girl grimaced as she walked away.
The girl called CN had a look at the newcomer and looked down at her. "So, they finally decided to send their representative after 18 years. Talk about incompetance."
"Hey, quit it already, CN. You know well that her country was demilitarized and they only recently started making researched few years ago." US defended the newcomer.
"Hmpf." the other girl scoffed. "I am CN-13, and yes, we already lost 12 individuals because we are fighting will all our strenght compared to these lazy people."
The three remained silent after that and as CN was about to walk inside the building, JP stopped her by grabbing her wrist. "I am saddened to hear about your comrade but they died fighting for what they believe in. We shall also fight in order to get an honorable life."
"Let me go." CN shook her off. "I don't need your morals. I only fight for the great People's Republic. I don't care about what happened to your imperialist country."
"Geez. She is so annoying." US complained as the girl walked away. "Please don't hate her too much. We have differences due to our original countries' relationship but we are all comrades so we should try to make up." she tried to calm herself down before finally forcing a smile. "A-anyway, let us check the others!"
The duo walked away and toward a large building. Inside it, they met several new individuals. "Hello everyone! We have a new friend."
The other girls stopped their activity and turned to the newcomer. Said girl just gave a polite bow. "I am JP-01 and it will be my pleasure to fight alongside all of you."
The first to answer was a short girl wearing a sari over her uniform. "Nice to meet you JP, I am IN-02, your Indian tech support."
US smiled happily. "IN is very reliable. You can count on her for anything."
The girl sitting beside IN rolled her eyes as she had an unamused expression on her face. Unlike the other girls, she had a cloth on her head to hide her hair. "I am PK-03, from Pakistan. I will try my best to help but I am not confident I could tolerate any haram thing you might do."
"PK is a little grumpy at times but she is not a bad person." US commented.
"I am IL-01 from Israel." Another girl introduced herself and got an angry reaction from PK and another girl also wearing a cloth on hear head but this one also had a longer skirt and long sleeve.
"I will never aknowledge the existance of your country! You unrightfully robbed Palestinian land and called it yours."
"You're the evil one, always threatening your neighboors with nuclear weapons while refusing to legalise basic human right." IL countered.
"Calm down, you two!" US yelled and the two looked angrilly at each others before making a small 'mpff' sound. The American woman then sweated as she turned to JP. "This one is IR-25 from Iran. She is not forcefully evil but he country can be troublesome at time."
"25?"
"Do you have a problem with it?" the other girl raged as she glarred dagger at the newcomer.
"I-I am sorry, I didn't intend to hurt your feeling or anything."
IR continued to glare at the girl for a moment before looking down. "My country is not very willing to take part in this war alongside its enemy so as soon as one of us get along with a 'foe', they will request us to be sent back to earth so we could be disposed of."
"So unfair." IN commented. A moment of silence followed.
The last individual in the room tried to lighten the mood. "Now now, let us calm down and discuss like civilized people." She had long blonde hair and held a cup of tea. "Nice to meet you, JP. I am UK-01, I was born in Northern Ireland but spent my childhood in Scotland and then moved in England."
"Nice to meet you all." JP gave another bow and fell on the floor as someone pushed her from behind. She tried to stand up as soon as possible but someone else knocked her.
"Hey, what are you two doing? Isn't it impolite to push someone like this? And where are your apologies?" US grabbed the two young girls by the callar of their shirts and lifted them up.
"Sorry sorry." the one with short brown hair quickly apologised as she tried to get away from the woman's grip. Fortunately, JP managed to stand back up without any harm and US let go of the two of them. The brunette quickly introduced herself. "My codename is MG-01. I am from Madagascar and only arrived here one month ago. I am not very familiar with all these stuffs so I will try to avoid getting into fights as much as possible?"
"Madagascar?" JP questioned. "I've never heard of that country name before."
MG made a shocked look as tear appeared on her eyes. "But our country is about the same size as your country and you were as poor as us back in 1960. We even thought a brutal war in the Indian ocean yet you don't even know my country. This is so depressing."
"Well well, calm down, MG." the other girl with short brown har as well and wearing a sari above her unifort tried to calm her friend. "I am MU-01, from Mauritius. I also arrived here a month ago so I am still getting used to everything."
JP nodded. "I have heard that Mauritius has lovely beaches. I am honored to be able to fight alongside you."
At these words, MG fell on the floor in a dramatic way. "Awwww. I am so hurt, how come more people know about Mauritius and are not even aware of our existance. Even though our country is a very large island in the Indian ocean, with a population of 30 milions and a similar sice to Great Britain. This is so unfair!"
"MG-san...?" JP sweated as she didn't know how to react.
"Oh my, such a disgraceful display you are making there once again, commoner." everyone turned at the newcomer. This one had dirty ash blonde hair and was wearing lot of parfume to the point MG pinched her nose.
"There goes FR again." MU sighed while IN, IR, IL and PK turned around and continued their job at checking the computer monitors.
"L-lady FR, what a lovely day meeting you here." MG quickly jumped back on her feet and tried to fix her appearance as much as possible. "Weren't you supposed to be on day off?"
"I was but I forgot something on the office and you still haven't served my daily latte."
"B-but I have work today and." FR looked down at the girl and the later flinched.
"Do you remember how much money you borrowed from me?"
MG was quiet for a moment before nodding in defeat. "Y-yes, ma'am. I will cook your dinner and will wash your clothes during my lunch break."
"BDSM relationship?" JP questioned and US just chucked.
"These two have this weird relationship. FR-01 can be quite arrogant, but she is a very reliable ally. I do feel a little sorry for MG though but a debt is a debt."
FR smiled as she walked past the depressed girl. "Also make sure to hear the maid uniform I gave you the other day. It would be a waste to dirty the uniform the earthlings has made for us. Though, I think it is just a waste for the likes of you who are just good for licking our toes."
"Wait, FR!" The American girl stood in her way. "Aren't you overdoing it? We are all supposed to be allies. We shouldn't look down on our comrades like this."
"But I am only saying the truth, dear US." the shorter woman commented, the smile still on her face. "You saw it, right? Her first deployment was a total failure and she keeps breaking our equipment."
"But-"
"No but," the French woman walked past US, "in this world, the strong and smart live while the weak and poor have to crawl and hope to survive as long as they can. That is the law of the universe."
Unable to stand up to this arogance anymore, JP stood in front of FR. "As I thought I cannot accept this anymore. Forgive me, Father." She then processed to slap FR in the face and everyone else in the room was shocked.
A moment of silence followed and FR placed her hand on her now red cheek. "Do you have the slightest idea about what you just did?"
"I placed an arrogant brat where she belong to." the Japanese girl drily responded. "I challenge you to a 1-on-1 duel and if I win, you will have to stop that arrogant attitude of yours."
The French chuckled at the words. "You stand no chance against me." a whicked smile appeared on her face. "But I won't say no to another servant. Bring your challenge on and I will make sure to make your life a misery if I win."
"As you wish, but I won't lose."
US sighed as she tried to calm the two but nothing could change their mind anymore. "Come on you two, please make up! Remember, we are friends, families. We shouldn't quarell like this."