Aldnoah Zero Knights of Earth
Chapter 6
Declarations of War
Disclaimer: I don't own Aldnoah Zero, there lawyers you happy now?
A/N: I Know this is mostly a filler chapter but I hope you enjoy it regardless. Please review and give me your thoughts and criticisms.
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-Mars, Vers Capital City Olympia, Royal Palace-
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Without a doubt the Vers Royal Palace was perhaps one of the most impressive buildings ever created on the surface of Mars. The palace was massive, easily dwarfing all of the other structures in the entire area. Parts of the outer architecture had a Romanesque theme to it almost beckoning back to the days where Roman Emperors had some of the most extravagant halls. Inside the building were halls that would not look out of place at a Renaissance era palace as the halls were full of various paintings, sculptures and other pieces of artwork that had been bought from Earth.
The throne room was perhaps the most ornate part of the palace itself. The room itself was big enough to fill well over a hundred people and still have enough room for them to move around in. Ordinarily the emperor would conduct court in this rather massive room during most hours of the day.
At the moment though, the entire room was completely empty save for four individuals. One was Rayregalia Vers himself, sitting on his throne with all the air of an experienced yet somewhat weary ruler, to his left were a pair of highly trained and trustworthy bodyguards, while in front of the Vers Emperor was a member of the Vers Intelligence Division.
Right after the death of Princess Asseylum the Intelligence Division had immediately gone into investigating her death, an investigation that ended before it could even begin with the reactionary invasion by the Orbital Knights. Any at all evidence that those who managed to kill her may have left behind was most likely destroyed in the ensuing fighting and those responsible had either been killed or had used the chaos to escape justice.
The Intelligence Division had been completely outraged by the actions of the Orbital Knights and had requested that the Emperor of Vers call a ceasefire so as to at least allow them to investigate the death of the Princess. That was nearly twenty four hours ago and the man in charge of the division, Chief Agent, Custener had just been called to speak with the Emperor in person. The officer had just now entered the throne room and once he was close enough, knelt before his liege and lord and waited for the Emperor to address him.
"Chief Custener. You have made a very bold and some might argue, foolish request of me to offer a ceasefire to the Terrans for the assassination of my granddaughter. Why is this?" The old monarch's voice had an almost gravelly tone to it as he spoke making him seem slightly more intimidating than his age would suggest.
Chief Custener continued to kneel as he answered "Your Grace, there was no real attempt to even make an investigation into her highness' death and no evidence was gathered that the UFE government was even responsible. True it does appear as though security was rather lax given the ease in which her highness was murdered but it was possible that a Terran terrorist group was responsible or…" Custener trailed off hesitant to continue what may be considered a near treasonous thought.
Emperor Rayregalia cocked a brow "Continue Chief Agent Custener," he bade. Custener looked reluctant but eventually told him his thoughts, "It may be possible that a Vers group may be behind the assassination." At that startling revelation, Rayregalia's bodyguards looked as though they were about ready to pounce and violently "escort" him from the emperor's presence. However Rayregalia slowly lifted his hand, signaling for them to stand down. "That is a serious accusation," Rayregalia's gravelly voice declared.
Custener felt sweat start to gather above his brow and said "I know, and I don't make it lightly but there were groups of individuals who were very, bitter towards the Princess' decision to try and foster better relations with the Terrans and have repeatedly declared that it would be far better to simply take the planet for the glory of our great nation. Of course this is all mere speculation on my part, any real evidence went up in smoke when the Orbital Knights launched their invasion."
"Do you mean to suggest that members of the Orbital Knights may be part of this invasion then?" asked Rayregalia "If so then you have much nerve, the Orbital Knights have served me faithfully for the last decade and a half."
Custener looked even more nervous and quickly decided to clarify himself "I don't mean to suggest anything your Grace, just that the sudden invasion prevented any sort of an investigation from being conducted."
While Rayregalia was willing to admit that the head of the Vers Intelligence Division made very valid arguments, Rayregalia could not initiate a ceasefire at this time and conduct an investigation. If he were to do so then it would show that he had very little control over the Orbital Knights who invaded the Earth in his name and that of Princess Asseylum. Besides he had no real reason to doubt any of their true loyalties, after all they had sworn absolute loyalty to him, in exchange for being able to utilize the Aldnoah technology and he could easily take away that privilege away from them if they proved to be treacherous.
Eventually Rayregalia spoke, this time it was with a tone of great authority "I will make an announcement to both my people and those of Earth within the next few hours, that is all."
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-Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle, Communications Room-
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Count Cruhteo, one of the most highly decorated members of the Orbital Knights was standing in front of a rather large orb that showed the face of the undisputed leader of their order, and one of the few people that Cruhteo called friend, Count Saazbaum. The count had contacted the Cruhteo in order to get an update in regards to his progress in the Japan region. Cruhteo had of course given him all information that was relevant "Tokyo and most of the surrounding areas are now under our complete control. And Shinagawara where our beloved Princess Asseylum was murdered has also been conquered."
A familiar pleased smirk appeared on Saazbaum's face "That is excellent news." He declared but then decided to move on to other matters, "Incidentally, where is Trillram, I would have expected him to try to deliver this news himself in an attempt to gain more glory. Is he still out trying to make a name for himself on the battlefield then?" Saazbaum asked somewhat amused.
With that having been said Cruhteo's expression darkened considerably. "We lost all contact with Trillram a few hours after he entered Shinagawara. Eventually we sent out Ser Vlad along with several platoons' worth of Orcus support Kataphrakts, we lost contact with them as well and shortly afterwards some disrespectful ruffian had the audacity to launch a meteor bombardment into my territory. As of now I'm sending in search and rescue teams to locate Trillram and whatever may remain of Vlad and his forces."
Saazbaum allowed an expression of barely suppressed outrage to come over his features 'How could this have happened? I gave Trillram more than enough warning about the bombardment.' The leader of the Orbital Knights forced himself to regain his composure and spoke "I see, well I'm certain that Trillram is fine, after all the Nilokeras' defenses are effectively impenetrable. As for Ser Vlad, I admit I knew little of him but from what I did know is that he was a proud and honorable warrior. He will be sorely missed."
The pair closed their eyes and were completely silent for several seconds to show at least some respect towards those who had died in battle. After keeping silent for a few moments the pair decided to get back to some rather important matters "On that note however, I would appreciate being contacted by Trillram as soon as you ascertain his status."
Cruhteo wasn't entirely sure why his old friend would want to speak with Trillram seeing as how the pair had never really interacted with one another. However it was no matter what the reason, the leader of the Orbital Knights wished to speak with Trillram and Cruhteo would see to it that it would happen. "Of course Saazbaum, I shall make sure that Trillram contacts you the instant we manage to get in touch with him."
Saazbaum looked as though he was about to leave it at that and return to his own agenda aboard his Landing Castle when a thought suddenly occurred to him "Before I leave, might I ask one more question of you Count Cruhteo?" he requested. Cruhteo gave a polite nod "Of course, what do you wish to know?"
The next question however through Cruhteo for a loop though "Who was the individual that brought Trillram to the battlefield?" Cruhteo cocked a brow at the question, wondering why the leader of the Orbital Knights was even interested in such a thing "It was Slaine Troyard, is there a problem?" he asked while noticing how Saazbaum was starting to stroke his chin in thought for a few moments before turning his attention back to Cruhteo.
Saazbaum shook his head and turned his attention back to Cruhteo "Nothing, I was simply curious." Something told Cruhteo that it was more than that but he didn't press his old friend for any more information on the matter, at least for the moment.
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-Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle, Hanger Bay-
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Slaine Troyard had thought that he had been prepared for anything when the war against the UFE and when he had left an Orbital Knight to die on the field of battle. He had been wrong, so, so completely wrong. The reality was much different than anything he had seen in historical documentaries.
At first they had just brought in what was left of Orcus support Kataphrakts, some of which had been crushed, blasted to pieces or just outright reduced to smoldering wrecks. That wasn't too bad, at least until they started to try and pry open the cockpits. From there things became nearly vomit inducing. Bodies, or rather pieces of them were pulled from the wreckage. Each and every face, had expressions of pure terror, agony and pain, or rather, those that did have facial features did at least. Even those that had some of their faces burned off still managed to convey expressions of pure agony.
Then there were those that were still alive. Some of the few surviving Orcus pilots had been burned, either mildly or severely, others had lost limbs while the lucky few managed to escape with only a few cuts, bruises and maybe a slight concussion. However the number of those that were "lucky" could be counted on one hand. Soon screams and moans of pain began to fill the hanger as the medical personnel began to try and get the wounded onto stretchers to be taken to the Landing Castle's ample hospital.
Upon seeing (and smelling) the dead and the wounded, Slaine felt the urge to run to the nearest bathroom or, failing that, the nearest trash bin to void the contents of his stomach through his mouth. However to the boy's credit he managed to hold it back and instead all but rushed into action and made his way towards the area where the wounded were being helped.
The blonde haired boy made his way towards the nearest medical officer that was barking out orders at some of the other medics as well as those that had volunteered to try and help. Slaine had no more duties for the day and decided that his time would probably be better spent at least trying to aid the wounded.
As Slaine got closer to see if he could ask one of the medics if he could try and help some of the wounded, he felt one of the medical officers grab his hand hard "You! I need your help now!" The man all but yelled amidst the pandemonium that was gathered around him. Slaine immediately went to the man's side and soon found himself by a wounded Orcus operator who was bleeding rather badly from a wound in his side, while there were a series of burns that were all over the right side of his body.
The medical officer began to bark orders at the young Terran "Put pressure on this wound now we need to keep him alive until we can get him to the sickbay!" he yelled. Slaine did as he was told and put pressure on the wound and all but ran alongside the gurney, continually putting pressure on the partially bandaged wound, despite that blood was beginning to seep through the bandages.
As they continued towards one of the many sickbays that the Landing Castle was equipped with, the wounded man lying on the gurney began babbling about what had happened ruing the battle "That, that Orange monster just slaughtered him, slaughtered Vlad like he was nothing."
Slaine looked over at the medical officer who paid the soldier no real heed "It's the blood loss he's delirious and in pain we need to get him to sickbay now!" Slaine nodded and as they continued down the corridor. As they did the soldier continued to scream about how the "orange monster" was heading southwest and that Cruhteo had to be told at once. Slaine had no idea who or what this "orange monster" thing was but if it was the same Kataphrakt that destroyed Trillram's Nilokeras then there was a pretty good chance that the princess was with him. Slaine's eyes widened for a brief second as he realized that there was also a very good chance that the pilot of the "orange monster" also knew who the princess was as well.
As Slaine continued to help the medical officer escort the wounded man towards the sickbay section of the Landing Castle he wondered how he could find out where the Princess was.
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-Pacific Ocean, Wadatsumi, Captain's Office sometime later-
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It had been almost fourteen hours since the Wadatsumi had finally left port at Shinagawara and since then the captain of the ship was itching to get a few answers from Colonel Braddock. When she had been ordered by the good colonel to take a detour to an unknown location out in the middle of nowhere off the coast of the Japanese mainland for vague reasons, she had almost wanted to protest. Her first priority was to get the civilians to the Echo Airbase where they would be taken to the Novosibirsk safe zone.
Instead for the past several hours they had been going in a direction that the good Colonel had ordered them to go in. Every now and then they were ordered to alter their course somewhat and they were never offered any idea as to where they were going, only that they would "be informed soon enough".
While Magbaredge knew when she joined the military that she would have to obey orders and not be given an explanation as to why she had to do this particular assignment and under normal circumstances this would have bothered her. However these were most certainly not normal circumstances. At least now it seemed at long last that she and the rest of the ranking officers would be getting some answers as to where they were going and perhaps what they would be doing when they finally arrived there.
Standing in front of Magbaredge was the only other occupant in the room; Colonel Braddock himself who had a neutral look about him. While Magbaredge was initially going to involve all the ranking officers onboard in this little conversation, Colonel Braddock had been very insistent that this conversation remain as confidential as possible.
"So are you going to tell me what exactly is going on now? Earlier you mentioned that this place you wanted us to go 'contained one of the keys that would end this war,'" said Magbaredge. While the captain's tone was neutral her patience was beginning to wear thin. Colonel Braddock gave the captain an apologetic look "Unfortunately, due to the extremely sensitive nature of the project in question I can't give you all the information yet. It's one of the reasons I had us changing course every couple of hours, we had to do what we could to shake off any possible tails."
Magbaredge looked as though she was about to say something but Braddock held up his left hand in a placating gesture and continued. "But I can tell you the location of where we'll be headed. Once we arrive, I'll explain all the details I promise."
From there Braddock pulled out a small piece of paper and a pen and began to write down what was probably a set of coordinates to their destination. When Braddock handed her the piece of paper he had an almost apologetic expression on his face "This is our destination and we need to get there as quickly as we possibly can."
Magbaredge curiously took the piece of paper in hand and looked at it for a moment before her eyes widened considerably. When Braddock saw the expression on the woman's face his features softened somewhat "I can assure you that this isn't some sort of sick joke and I promise that the instant that we arrive all details will be given to you."
The writing on the paper was the name of a remote island that was the location of a very, very personal tragedy.
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-Wadatsumi, Sickbay-
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A few minutes ago, Lieutenant Marito was called into the Wadatsumi's sickbay by Doctor Soma Yagarai. Marito wasn't exactly sure why but he was more than certain that it wasn't to chat over drinks like they would with Marcus after their work day was finished at the Shinagawara Academy. No it was more likely that it was something much more important judging by the doctor's look after Marito walked in, it obviously wasn't a social call.
Still though Marito couldn't help it if he let out a few remarks "So you're setting up your shingles on a boat now eh doc?" Of course, Doctor Yagarai was less than amused by those kinds of remarks "Look, Lieutenant I've got enough on my plate right now, so let's say we cut straight to business." With the way that the doctor spoke it was clear that it wasn't a request. Yagarai reached forwards to Marito's chest pocket and pulled out the flask he always had on him. Marito looked down and had a feeling as to what Yagarai was going to do with it but was still irritated when he saw the doctor take his booze and put in a small drawer before he proceeded to lock it up.
Yagarai saw the look that Marito had on his face which almost looked like that of a kicked puppy, the former highschool doctor at least had the sense to look slightly apologetic towards his friend. "Sorry Lieutenant but Colonel Braddock's orders, no drinking while we're in this war. He want's everyone at one hundred percent."
At that Marito began to rub his temples in frustration. Alcohol was perhaps one of the few things that help him deal with some of the, issues he had when it came to bad memories of the first Martian Invasion over ten years ago. "And how does he expect me to be at once hundred percent if I can't even have some form of booze?" he asked incredulously.
Yagarai shrugged "You know he has access to that particular report on what happened on that island right? Maybe this is his way of making you stop running?" Marito started to grit his teeth in irritation. If Marito wanted to drown out the memories of his friends getting butchered by the Martians with booze then he'd drown those memories with booze!
"It's not like I went and asked for his help," Marito grunted irritably as he pulled something out of his pocket. Yagarai recognized it as a pair of dog tags and saw that the name read "John Humeray" and then looked up at Marito who had a sad yet faraway look in his eyes.
Yagarai sighed and really wished his friend/drinking buddy would get a very simple fact through his head "What happened wasn't your fault Marito. You eased his suffering."
Marito sighed before putting the tags back in his pocket. He got up and then started to make his way towards the medical bay's exit and said "I really wish that I could believe that, I really do." Marito placed his hands in his pocket and felt the dog tags in his hands once again and felt a crushing sense of guilt come over him. It was his fault, because he should have been able to prevent Humeray's death in the first place.
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-Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle, Cruhteo's personal office-
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For what felt like an eternity Count Cruhteo had been going over reports made by several of the reconnaissance units that had been sent out after the meteor bombardment on Shinagawara. They had already recovered a number of surviving Orcus pilots and debriefed those that were conscious enough to be debriefed as most of the survivors that had been brought in had either died or were too doped up on pain medication and sedatives to be of any help. Those that were still alive had told of the ferocity in which the Terrans had defended the docks and how they had killed most of the Orcus units that had accompanied Vlad after he ordered his men to charge at the enemy defenses until they were brought low.
Cruhteo wondered what in the hell he had been thinking when he allowed Vlad to take several platoons worth of Orcus support Kataphrakts when he sent him to the docks to prevent the Terrans from escaping the city. While Vlad had been a very competent warrior and pilot in his own right, he had never been much of a tactician as most of his plans were to simply charge the enemy until one side was dead. The man either didn't realize or more likely simply didn't care that the Orcus units didn't have the same level of durability that the Orbital Knights customized Kataphrakt's did and so were more likely to be destroyed in combat even by the inferior Terran models.
Of course Count Cruhteo could have simply had one of the other Orbital Knights under his command to make their way towards the Shinagawara docks but they were already securing areas outside of Tokyo. By the time that they managed to at their destination it would have been far, far too late to prevent the Terrans escape as they would have been long gone by the time any other force arrived in the area.
The blond haired noble pushed the thoughts of Vlad's death on the battlefield and returned his focus to the pilots who managed to survive the entire debacle. One of the most disconcerting reports he had gotten was from one of the survivors who saw the entire battle himself. He claimed that a pair of Orange Kataphrakts engaged the Argyre and managed to fend it off long enough for the UFE's main evacuation ship to arrive. When that happened the Argyre was bombarded by heavy caliber sniper fire and then surrounded and destroyed by units that were falling back to reinforce their lines.
Up until now Cruhteo hadn't seen any Earth made Kataphrakts that were capable of standing up against an Orbital Knight's machine. Were these orange Kataphrakts some new kind of weapon that the Terrans had constructed? If so then were they powered by Aldnoah Drives? It was the only real explanation that he could think of as to why the Terrans were able to hold back against Trillram's Argyre long enough for it to be overwhelmed by hostile reinforcements.
This line of thought was put on hold as Cruhteo's attention was diverted by a beeping noise coming from his desk's built in intercom. Cruhteo pushed down on the answer button and said "Report." There wasn't even a pause as the individual on the other end of the line spoke up "My lord we have found lord Trillram's Kataphrakt as you requested."
That got his attention. It seemed as though they had finally managed to get into touch with the bootlicker. That man had better have had a damn good explanation for his lack of communication for the past several hours. "I see, I hope that he had good reason that he didn't respond to any of my summons."
The soldier on the other end of the line didn't respond for several seconds, and when he did his response managed to shock Cruhteo to the core "My lord. Lord Trillram, he-he's dead." For several seconds Cruhteo was at a loss for words. Trillram's machine had the ultimate defense, there was no way it could be penetrated by a Terran weapon. Could he have been caught in that meteor bombardment as well? "What? How?!" demanded Cruhteo.
The response was not something that Cruhteo wanted to hear "We aren't entirely sure how his defenses were broken my lord, but it is clear that the Nilokeras was brought down by enemy weapons fire and not a meteor bombardment." That was impossible the dimensional barrier the Nilokeras was equipped with was proven to be completely impervious to any form of weapon. There had to be some sort of mistake.
Cruhteo pushed the talk button again "Are you absolutely certain that this is the case?" he asked, dreading the answer. If the Terrans had some kind of weapon that could bypass the Nilokeras' dimensional barrier then what else did they have hidden away? After all the most dangerous enemy was a desperate one and the Terrans were clearly getting more and more desperate.
This time the reply was quick and to the point just as the soldier had been trained "My lord with all due respect I have seen damage resulting from a meteors and weapons-fire many times and this is clearly the latter. We're bringing the Nilokeras along with its data recorders back to the Landing Castle for analysis and you can see the damage for yourself."
"Very well, I expect you to report in the second you get the Nilokeras' remains back to the Landing Castle." There wasn't even a pause as the soldier gave an affirmative and was dismissed by his lord. Perhaps now Cruhteo would finally get some answers as to what had happened.
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-Wadatsumi, Access Corridor-
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It had been several hours since the battle at the docks and Marcus eventually found Inaho Kaizuka who was walking one of the access corridors heading for the Mess Hall for breakfast. Hours earlier Marcus wanted to try and speak to the group or at least Inaho about going after that Martian Kataphrakt on their own. Of course by that time they had already been debriefed by the captain who had actually applauded their efforts and was planning on putting the group up for commendations for their actions. Hell even Inaho's sister congratulated them with a big dumb grin on her face (of course it was obvious that she was doing that to hide her own concern for her younger brother).
At that point the lieutenant's desire to chew out Inaho and his friends for doing something so risky, seemingly without any sort of plan, started to dry up. Reluctantly, Marcus decided to sleep over it before he went and ranted at one of his former students about how they did something stupid. He had to remember that both he and Inaho were now the same rank -as jarringly surreal as it was- and that he couldn't just order the kid to not keep doing what he was doing.
Hell to make matters even more bizarre, now Inaho completely outranked his sister as she was still a Warrant Officer. It was actually kind of funny now that he thought about it. The roles had completely reversed and now Inaho could easily order his sister to do whatever he wanted and she'd have to go along with it whether she liked it or not. Any younger sibling in that kind of situation would probably exploit the living hell out of it. Fortunately for Yuki, Inaho wasn't the kind of person who would give embarrassing orders unless of course it would somehow win a battle.
When Marcus caught up to Inaho the boy looked over at him for a moment or two before he asked "Is there something wrong Lieutenant Marcus?" This was one of the few times that Marcus was glad that Inaho wasn't all that perceptive on social things. Marcus shook his head and decided that it would be best to show some honesty towards the kid at least for the moment "To be honest Inaho I was originally going to chew you out for doing what you did on those docks last night."
Inaho's expression didn't change, in fact it almost seemed as though he had been expecting that last bit but he seemed curious as to why he wasn't being chewed out by his former instructor yet "Why is that?"
With that question Marcus let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding in and explained "Well for one thing we're the same rank in this military I don't outrank you anymore despite the fact that I think that you and your friends rushed in without much of a plan-" but he wasn't able to finish when Inaho interrupted
At that Inaho tilted his head "But I did have a plan. I had Inko on the crane controls to slam a crate into the side of the Martian Kataphrakt's head, which would not only knock it off balance and then Calm and I attacked from different directions." he explained to which Marcus started to massage his temples.
"Alright so you did have a plan but so many things could have gone wrong with it, the bastard could have attempted to move around the crane instead of charging right next to it. He could have spotted your friend earlier and gone after him instead of you. All I'm saying is that you need to think of the consequences of one of your plans failing more often. I don't want to watch the kids I've been training getting killed on the battlefield because they did something reckless."
Inaho seemed to understand where his former instructor was coming from "If I keep worrying about my plans failing all the time I won't be able to get things done but I do intend on taking as many measures as possible to keep that from happening."
Marcus felt somewhat satisfied that Inaho had understood where he was coming from and while it wasn't perfect at least Inaho knew that he'd have to at least try to take measures to make sure that he and his friends would survive if the battle plan fell through.
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-Wadatsumi, Mess Hall a few minutes later-
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"So you both came all the way from Poland?" asked Yuki who was sitting across from that new girl Annette and her little sister Edda. Shortly after coming to the mess hall to get some food Yuki had spotted the girl and her little sister trying to get some grub themselves. Curious about the girls her younger brother had picked up, Yuki had invited the two over to her table and decided to ask them a few things. The two girls seemed a little bit reluctant at first but the two quickly started to open up about themselves.
"Yes I thought that it would be interesting to go out and see the world first hand so I decided to study abroad," Annette explained before her younger sister Edda chimed in "And I decided to come as well, someone has to keep her out of trouble after all."
When she realized what she had said, Edda seemed torn between feeling horrified and embarrassed. Yuki however just broke out into laughter, although it wasn't a laugh at someone's embarrassment instead it was more like the laughter of someone who went through something similar. Eventually Yuki stopped laughing long enough to catch her breath. However she almost started laughing again at the startled looks that
"I'm sorry, but believe it or not that was exactly what Nao said when several people approached him and asked if he would like to be transferred to a more prestigious school rather than Shinagawa Academy. He said point blank to those guys that he was: 'going to continue to attend Shinagawara Academy because someone has to make sure my sister wakes up early enough to get there on time.'" When Yuki remembered the looks on the faces of that school's recruiters when Inaho said that to them she had to keep herself from breaking out into a laughing fit. Sure it was a little bit embarrassing that his sister's sleeping habits was the reason that her little Nao didn't want to go to a more prestigious school but it was still funny.
Annette and Edda both looked at each other with bewilderment on their faces. They knew that Inaho was a rather, blunt individual but clearly this was something that was much more than either of them had expected. Still though they had only known him for little over a day so Inaho was probably a lot more than just the stoic kid they met on the road during the evacuation of Shinagawara.
The pair watched as Yuki looked as though she was about to continue on with another story or ask the two something about themselves but before she could so much as utter a word, Inaho appeared by the table with that same neutral expression on his face and took a seat next to his sister "I was also going to tell them that if I left then it was likely that you would burn down the apartment the next time you tried to cook breakfast for yourself but I thought that might end up being too troublesome for me in the long run."
With that Yuki covered her face in both of her hands and stifled an annoyed groan "Why do you always bring that up Nao? That happened one time. One. Freaking. Time. And since then you've treated the kitchen as though it was some kind of holy temple and won't let me go anywhere near it." At that both Annette and Edda were barely able to keep themselves from giggling at the scene in front of them. In fact for a brief second Annette thought she saw Inaho's mouth twitch upwards in an attempt at smiling.
Inaho sat down next to his sister and decided that it would be best to try to placate her "Still though at least it's not nearly as bad as the time that Marcus was assigned kitchen duty in the school, it had to be evacuated because the food he was cooking caught fire, shortly before the rest of the kitchen." Somehow, Marcus must have heard that from sitting at another nearby table and looked directly at Inaho with his eye narrowed at the newly promoted lieutenant "Why is it that whenever someone wants to make their cooking seem better they always compare it to mine? I don't know why every stove I touch explodes when I use it, but could people please stop rubbing it in?" He begged.
Marito who was sitting nearby his friend gave a small smile and patted his friend's shoulder consolingly "Don't worry it could be worse, you could start a nuclear explosion when you use the microwave. At least that thing doesn't seem affected by whatever curse you were born with."
Yuki had the decency to at least look sheepish at her little brother's earlier comment while said younger brother still had on his almost blank expression "I'll try," said Inaho honestly while Marcus sighed but he had a small, almost amused smile starting to form on his face "I guess that's as good as it's ever gonna get."
Inaho's older sister turned to look back over at Annette and Edda "So I've told you a few interesting things about Nao and I, so why don't you tell us a few-" she started but before she could finish the sound of static filled the room as the TVs mounted from the mess hall's ceiling without warning, causing several people to jump in surprise. The screens quickly changed from nothing but white noise to a man wearing a Vers uniform who was sneering at the presumed audience.
Marcus immediately stood up and looked as though he was about to sound an alarm as it was more than possible that this was the precursor to some kind of an attack but before he could make a run for the intercom the Vers stooge on the TV started speaking "Attention all worthless Terrans, the great Emperor Rayregalia of Vers has seen fit to address you personally. I strongly advise you all to listen to his words carefully for they will seal your fates."
At this point everyone was paying rapt attention to the TV screen, for as far as anyone knew the Emperor of Vers hadn't made any sort of statement regarding his empire's renewed war with the UFE. Some of the refugees were hoping against hope that maybe this was some kind of call for a ceasefire, so that they would be able to stop running and hoping that they wouldn't be blown out of the water by a group of Martian aircraft or Kataphrakts. They would soon have their answer as the screen switched from the snobby looking Vers officer to that of an ornate throne upon which the almost decrepit looking Emperor of Vers sat.
When Marcus saw at him he felt his hands clench into fists in a silent rage as he really wished he could take an axe to the son of a bitch's face.
There was a delay of a few seconds before the figure on the seat finally decided to speak up "For the past several hours I have been completely silent on the death of my granddaughter and the subsequent invasion by the Orbital Knights. No more." There was a pause making several people wonder if he had intended that for dramatic effect "I hereby declare an official state of war between the Vers Empire and the Terrans of Earth and fully support the actions taken by the Orbital Knights. You and your kind have murdered the heiress of the Empire who came to Earth on a mission of peace. For this crime you are clearly unfit to rule the planet known as Earth and those who are your betters shall soon claim it in the name of the Vers Empire. Justice will be swift and merciless to any and all who resist the coming of the new order." With that the screen turned black again.
Up until a few moments ago the mess hall had been bustling with activity and conversation between dozens of people had since fallen so silent that one could hear a pin drop to the floor as everyone stared at the blank screen in shock and horror.
If war hadn't been declared before with the actions of the Orbital Knights then it definitely was now.
To be continued.