Sorry about the short chapter, but my creative streak is drying up a bit. I don't feel like I need to explain why. Either way enjoy.
The group walked down the ramp onto the docks with Kyon cracking her neck and limbs. "Thank hell that's over," she said. "I hate politics,"
"You think you're the only one?" Davies asked as he cracked his own neck.
"That was so tedious," Pina muttered. "But I'm impressed with the lack of squabbling,"
"Yeah that's due to the aggressor war," Itami said. "Most if not all of the politicians you met are former EDF soldiers. Granted, most of them are higher ranked, but there's a strong sense of duty with them. They got tired of having politicians argue about policy and more, so when they got into politics there was an unspoken deal made. All will listen, questions and arguments come later. In their mind the greater good of humanity trumps all other concerns," he looked to the Fujin. "It's also the reason why military service is now more of a requirement to join up,"
Pina nodded in understanding. The empire was similar, but it was clear to her that the EDF and UN were taking this role more seriously due to the Aggressors. While she couldn't imagine what the war was like, she could see how it affected them all. That affect translated into a mentality to put the greater whole first, not themselves. It wasn't for all, the Arabian Republic woman proved that, but it was clear that they were trying at the least.
Before anyone could say anything two people in blue vests ran up, panting as they did so. "Kyon, finally," one said.
The Sargent looked to them with wide eyes. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Look at the time," the other man said and Kyon did.
Her faced turn to confusion before she screamed in realisation. "AHHHH THAT'S THE TIME?" she asked. "I need to go bye!" she said before running with the two men in toe.
The guests just watched with a shocked look while the two EDF soldiers just shrugged. "So, she's late to prepare, not much of a surprise," Itami muttered.
"Well, it did go on longer than expected," Davies added. "Anyway, we need to get these guys to Shibuya,"
"Good point," the lieutenant said as she turned to the girls. "Ok, who's up for a bit of shopping?" he asked.
The seven looked to him with an interested eye. "Shopping?" Hamilton asked.
OOOOO
The group stood in awe as they looked up at the towering buildings with the neon lights and people bustling around. They drank it up and moved around the different shops seeing what they had to offer. There was a library with these shops which Pina and Rory were interested in. The receptionist pointed them to history and religion while Itami stood by to make sure nothing happened to them. The two read to their hearts content as they had time to.
"This is interesting," Rory muttered as she read.
Pina looked up from her own book. "What is it?"
"During the aggressor wars, the worlds religions of the time tried to comfort people, but due to how many were dying many of them lost faith," that made Pina wince. "Many of them turned away from Gods, this was mostly due to the inaction of their Gods,"
"I assume some thought it was an unfair test," Pina added.
"Yes and no, some did but others came to the conclusion that God didn't exist," Rory clarified making the princess' eyes widen. "From that other religions came to be, Jediism seems to be the most common. From what I can tell, it was from a movie series called Star Wars. It was very popular, and during the war the religion became more mainstream. God based religions started to decline while spiritual ones were going up. With one exception, the War Cult,"
"That sounds similar to your religion," the princess said quietly.
"Yes, but not in the way you think. The cult is only seen within the EDF, they don't worship any Gods. Instead they pledge themselves not to yield in battle and gain a place in Valhalla and Elysium. The resting place of warriors and heroes. Listen to this: By the Gods of war, I will not yield, I may fall, but by my honour may my sacrifice in battle not be in vein,"
"The I fail to see how it's a proper religion," Pina said.
"Religion isn't always something that can be seen, sometimes it's more subtle," Rory said. "I have travelled though our world many times, met thousands of religions. Sometimes it's easy to see, other times it could just be simple belief. It's not always structured the same say, and the beliefs can be understood as just simple nature,"
Pina wasn't convinced but got the gist of what the oracle was saying. She didn't respond and instead looked back at the book in front of her. While she wanted to learn more about the aggressors, she figured that learning more about this world's history would provide insight
Nearby the others were investigating what this new world sold. Hamilton and Leiei looked at the electronics section, they were very interested in the laptops that people seemed to use. But given the lack of tech the Empire had; Hamilton doubted that she would be able to buy one. So, she just listened in to the different aspects of this worlds technology not even pretending to understanding.
Boze, Chuka and Panache where checking out the clothing. They rarely saw such finery outside of the nobility. This whole city was just amazing that they couldn't fully fathom the wonders it had.
As the sun started to set the group made their way to a bus that was waiting for them. "Where to next?" Hamilton asked, her eyes sparkled with anticipation.
"To a concert," Itami said.
"Oh good," Bozes said. "Finally, a bit of culture,"
Davies raised his brow. "Do you know what a concert is?"
"Someone singing on stage?" she asked.
Itami shrugged. "Sort of, you see but you are going to need these," he handed them some ear defenders. "They'll help with the sound,"
That made them raise their brows in confusion but slid them into their ears anyway. The buss arrived at a large building and the group were taken to a vip balcony what gave them a good look at the stage. Their eyes widened as they saw hundreds, if not thousands of men and women standing in front of a stage. Each one of them was dressed in very bizarre clothing that shone in the spectrum of multi-coloured lights. Before anyone could ask anything, the lights turned off.
"Tokyo!" someone yelled with the voice of a dragon. "Are you ready to rock?"
The crowd below cheered in response with an almost defining volume, that the group were happy that they had those ear defenders in.
"Then let's welcome the ladies of danger! The beauties of the skies! THE JET ANGELS!"
Seven women then landed on the stage in the super hero pose. They stayed like that for a moment before standing and waved at the crowd. Pina stared at the women in front of her. While they wore the jet armour of the EDF, they also wore some of the flashiest outfits she had ever seen. She could see Kyon with them before remembering that comment she made about being a singer.
Back then she doubted the claim but now, she wondered what kind of music they would play. If the people were any indication, it wasn't 'normal music'. the group was made up of seven women of young to mid-twenties. But they have to be of age to join the EDF, about 18 years of age.
"Who are they?" Leiei asked.
"Well you know Kyon," Davies said as he held up his fingers and countered the other six members. Let's see… there's the main singers Jade and Elisabeth, Natasha and Aurelia on the guitar, Kyon on bass, Yukari on drums and Amber on piano,"
Before anyone else could ask anything, Elisabeth spoke up again. "In honour of Queen, as today marks when their last member died, we're going to start off this concert with a bang! If your up there Freddy, this one's for you!"
One of the guitarists then started to pluck the strings on her instrument and the others soon followed.
"Here we stand, here we fall," Elisabeth started.
"History won't care at all," Jade continued.
The group just watched as the idol band played. The meaning behind this move was a simple one, the EDF weren't just there to fight, they were there to keep humanity going. Despite the politics, despite the problems they faced, they are the face of humanity and they were going to do everything in their power to protect it.
After four hours the concert ended and the group returned to the hotel. But their blood was still pumping from what they witnessed. By the time they got to sleep, it was morning.
OOOOO
During the 2nd aggressor war, western China wasn't much of a target. This led to people evacuate to the western areas to find shelter. Due to the low resources of the area, the EDF largely ignored it but kept up supplying the region. But due to the area being ignored this led to warlords taking over and hording the resources. This wasn't due to negligence on the EDF's part, but to the lack of manpower that they had at their disposal.
The small settlement was set between several hills with only a one way in or out. The rich soil area allowed for crop growing and with an abandoned Chinese bunker nearby allowed this small community to expand. But the area was controlled by a warlord who didn't much care for anything but his own power.
Lebedev Zhen watched as scientists worked on a green en-gem. They wore orange hazard suits as crushing en-gems happened to be highly toxic as they released a gas that turned lungs into little more than swiss cheese. They had to be careful or they'd die. Lebedev watched as a man walked out of the room still dressed in the hazard suit.
"Sir, we have still work to do," he said. "But we can turn it into an aerosolised form. It's just going to take longer,"
"What about the weapon?" the half Russian asked.
"We've ran the tests, it will work. But it's still going to take time," he said.
"I want them ready by the time we have those hostages," Zhen said.
"We will sir, but we are going to need targets, resources and more," the scientist said.
"You'll get them," the Warlord said. "By this time next week Neos China will be born,"