"Yawn, what's taking them so long?" Davies asked as he sat next to Itami, who was currently engaged with a new manga.
"They probably stayed up watching tv," he replied.
That made the American groan in annoyance. But that didn't last long as the lift pinged and the girls exited.
"It was soo cool!" Chuka said her eyes glowing. "The enemies and how the humans beat them!"
"I admit, it was quite entertaining," Leiei agreed.
"What are you two talking about?" Bozes asked glowing red. "That bed scene was inappropriate!"
Kyon smiled. "Well, that's kind of the standard for older films," that made Bozes go even redder.
"What is wrong with you people?" she yelled earning a few eyes in her direction.
"What's going on?" Davies asked as he stood.
"We watched Starship Troopers last night," Kyon replied. "Stayed up late to watch it,"
"Ahh," Davies nodded. "Good film,"
Bozes was going to say something but Pina held her back. "Kyon said that the EDF took inspiration from the film," she said. "What in particular would that be?"
"Uniforms, weapons and militarised style," Itami said as he put his manga away. "When the EDF first formed, there was a requirement for being unique so new members asked what style they would like for the organisation. Starship Troopers was the one people pointed to, despite the Fascist style of the uniforms. But when more nations joined up, the uniform had minor changes to allow for different nations to be represented," he shrugged. "You'll see soon enough, come we need get moving,"
He led them onto a landing platform where a transport aircraft was waiting for them. Pina, and the others were still a little nervous as they boarded. Once they were strapped in securely, the aircraft took off and climbed higher and higher into the sky. As it did, the newcomers looked outside in amazement. Despite the ruins, they could clearly see how big the city used to be. But soon the sight of the Fujin filled their view.
The underside was rounded but the top of it was flat like the airfield at Alnus hill. Deck guns were placed on the from corners in front of the runway and a tower at both sides. On the right side, next to the tower where four square shapes with a H in the middle of them. The transport aircraft flew in and landed on one of them. After a moment the square descended into the hanger.
"What's happening?" Leiei asked.
"As you ascend higher, the air becomes so thin you cannot breathe. And the due to the cold temperatures, you'd freeze to death," the co-pilot said as he emerged from the cockpit.
"Understandable," Pina said making eyes look to her with surprise. "The Imperial Wyvern Knights need to ware extra padding due to the colder air that you get as you get higher. Heat may rise, but it disperses the higher you get,"
"Well given those knights," Itami muttered. "It makes sense that you would be aware of that,"
That made Pina smile, for once she got one up on the EDF. Suddenly there was a jerk as the transport stopped. The co-pilot then began to help people out of their harnesses as the ramp lowered. Once out of their harnesses, the group walked out of the transport and followed Itami to the main hall. They walked down a corridor that had a line of people on both sides dressed in EDF blues. But these people didn't wear the standard uniform, and even then, the uniform that they wore was different between them.
The soldiers stood at attention with an assault rifle in hand and didn't make a move as the group walked past. "Who are these people?" Hamilton asked.
"The EDF Honour Guard," Davies answered. "One of the Elite of all EDF personnel,"
"If they are EDF," Leiei began, "Why don't they wear your uniform?"
"Because they represent the different nations that they come from," Kyon indicated to a man who wore a bit fur hat and a blue buttoned up coat. "This gentleman," she gave him a nod and the man just blinked. "Is from the United Kingdom, he's part of the Grenadier guards. The soldiers who protect their Royal family," she then indicated to the man next to the Guardsman who wore a similar uniform but without the big hat. "As for this gentleman, he's from the Kremlin Regiment from Russia,"
"So, all of these people are the Honour Guard from their respective countries but their ware their own uniforms?" Hamilton asked.
"Yeah," Davies answer with a small smile. "It's meant to keep their national identities, but show that we are united,"
As they talked Rory looked to one of the Grenadier Guards with interest. She wated to touch the uniform, but if these guards were anything like the Honour Guard where she came from, touching would be a big no regardless of the reasons. It took all of her will power to turn away and follow the others as they moved on into the main hall. As they entered Pina looked around at the large circular room with a sense of familiarity and awe. It reminded her of the senate in a way, but it was clearly different.
The room was set up in a half-circle set at different levels. Facing the levels was a long table with several chairs along it and microphones on top. As the group walked to the large table, the others looked at the stands and could see the names of the different nations being displayed. Flags hung behind the chairs to also represent the nation in question. Others soon began to walk in and take their seats at their respective nation's places.
Rory watched as the representatives began to take places in front of the flags. But she noticed the different outfits that they wore. Some wore a suit, not quite like what the EDF wore but similar in style. Others wore something more exotic. There were also people who wore long brown robes as if they were monks. The monk looking people and the ones in suits had an even balance of people.
"What's with the robes?" she asked Itami.
"They are Jedi," he said. "It's one of the major religions,"
The Oracle nodded and made a mental note to look up at the religions. As they reached the table, they took their seats where they saw their names, but Itami hesitated for a moment as he looked at the name next to his.
"What's wrong?" Pina asked.
He gulped. "General Yagami is going to sit next to me," he muttered making Kyon and Davies' eyes widen. "He's known as the Hero of the EDF,"
That didn't mean much to Pina and her retinue, but it was clear he was a man who commanded great respect with the EDF officers. Itami sat and they waited for the rest of the other seat to be taken. A buzzing sounded and Hamilton yelped making people look to her. She sat at the end of the table facing something that hovered in front of her.
"What is that?" Bozes asked standing.
"That's just a drone cam," Kyon said. "It records both sound and images and send it to millions,"
"So that's how you get moving images?" Leiei asked and Kyon nodded.
That eased them slightly, even if they didn't understand it. Bozes sat down and waited. The hall was almost full now with over 100 people already sitting at their respective places. More drone cams flew around the hall, most of them trying to get a good shot at Chuka due to her being an elf. Soon all the seats where filled, excluding the one reserved for General Yagami which only made the EDF members on the table even more nervous.
As for the new commers, they were nervous as they didn't know what to expect. They had been told that this was more of a question session about the dragon attacks, but also what happened at Italica. They knew that they were going to get bombarded with questions, but that didn't make it any better. A group of people then entered from one of the doors, the lead man being in EDF blues. Everyone stood and as he passed them, he got a nod before they sat down.
Rory said nothing, but she could see that this man had seen more combat than any one had the right to. He wasn't old, but wasn't young either and carried himself with what seemed like the weight of the world. Her eyes then fell on his name tag, General Takuma Yagmi.
"So that's what a hero of the EDF looks like," she muttered earing herself a look from the others.
Yagmi took his seat and the conference began.
OOOOO
Bond sighed as he entered the highest point of the Tokyo HQ. As a backup, all nations had an EDF HQ that allowed for command and control if one of the Sky Fortress' fell. But there were always a few sections of the base decided to EDF intel. After the first Aggressor war, all intelligence agencies also faced the merge. But this one was less drastic then the others as they had to hand over a quarter of their agencies to the EDF.
However, the problem of integration still remained. The EDF had the same problems with the Intel groups as they did with the military. Office politics turned out to be a major factor with people from the different agencies trying to one up each other. Only when the second Aggressor war began did the integration fully take off. With an enemy to focus on they put their differences were put aside and they focused on countering the Aggressors.
After that EDF Intel was born. While there was still office politics, it was more about how to do things than loyalty. Bond walked down one of the aisles ignoring the most of the officers who were working on their own little project. Soon he stopped and found the cubicle he was looking for.
The occupant inside had her head laying on her desk while muttering something about deadlines. With intelligence officers, they were not required to wear a uniform, it was recommended to wear a suit to have a sense of professionalism. But this girl was just in her casuals. She had brown hair, glasses and a red jacket. Her computer betrayed her side job as Bond spied a work-in-progress art on it.
"Agent Aoi," he said as he gently shook her.
"Huh wha…" she said as she woke suddenly before noticing her boss. "Huh… Mr Bond?"
He smiled. "Your side job catching up to you again?" he asked.
"Ahhhh!" she screamed as she looked at her monitor and turned it off before looking to her boss with a coy smile. "Please tell me you didn't see that,"
"Depends if your interested in a little side project," he smiled. "Agree, and I'll forget it,"
"I hate you," she said as she turned her monitor back on and turned the image off. "So, what are we looking for?"
"Any radio traffic from China," he replied.
Aoi nodded and began to work her magic on the keyboard. Bond watched over her as she brough up recent radio chatter from China and Japan. The screen moved fast so he couldn't get enough information from them. But this is why Intel recruited her, she could read things and process them at a rate faster than others. A major skill for any intel officer to get as much intel as they need. It took a while but she soon had something.
"All of the radio chatter to and from Japan and China is standard, but there are a few that have their signals bounced," she said. "It's going to take time to see where they came from so, some information would be nice,"
"One of our ships detected an aircraft heading towards Japan. Focus on that," Bond said.
"Would you like that shaken not stirred?" Aoi smiled earning herself a disapproving look from her boss.