Aldnoah Zero The Knights of Earth

Chapter 7

Motives

A/N: Sorry this took so long, I hope you all enjoy

-Wadatsumi, Mess Hall-

The instant that the speech was finished and the TV screens blinked back off again, Annette wore an expression that was simultaneously betrayed and heartbroken. 'Oh grandfather, how could you do this?' she wondered while desperately trying to keep tears from falling down her face. It almost felt as though her whole world was falling apart right in front of her. She wanted to help bring peace to the people of Earth and Mars but now it seems she just restarted the war that should have ended almost ten years ago. She may as well have fired the first shots herself.

Already conversations started to pick up as people began muttering to one another about what could possibly be the worst news described to them. "A formal declaration of war huh?" Inko muttered to herself nearby.

After what had happened the last couple of days there was no fear in her voice, instead there was something more akin to weary resignation. However Annette had barely heard her speak, she was so caught up in her own thoughts, hoping that everything that had happened the last couple of days was some kind of a horrible nightmare that she just could not wake up from.

She was so engrossed in her own mounting despair that she almost jumped in surprise when one of the other soldiers in the mess hall propped up against one of the support girders speak up "Kid please, the war never ended for these people. Everyone on Earth just pretended not to notice is all," he explained before continuing on "Just like that old fart said, that princess' death opened our eyes to the truth."

With that having been done the man looked down into a small coffee mug that he had been holding and downed the warm liquid carried within it.

"That's not true!" Annette blurted out almost without thinking causing everyone in the room to turn their eyes towards her. The brunette "She wanted to be a bridge of peace between Earth and Vers!" she declared. Marito looked like he was about to speak again when there was another bark of almost mocking laughter coming from one of the entrances to the mess hall.

Annette turned to see Marcus with a humorless smile on his face "Please, that girl was nothing more than a political puppet for her grandfather, and now with her death he got more out of her than he ever thought possible, a perfect martyr to resume his precious war. It would shock me if he even bothered to remember her name at this point."

Marito turned his head to look over at his comrade "Well this is something that they've always wanted, some 'righteous cause' that would let them pull out all the stops," he said practically spitting the words 'righteous cause'. Inko looked over at the man with a worried look on her face "Are you saying that the Martians sacrificed their own princess?"

The veteran pilot then turned his head from Marcus to Inko "It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, the Martians have been looking for any excuse to start the war back up again. In fact I'd be willing to bet good money that her grandfather or one of his friends were the ones who arranged for the princess' demise."

It looked as though some of the others were going to question the pair further on their thoughts but before any of them could really say anything one of the crewmen, more specifically, Captain Magbaredge's XO, one Kaoru Mizusaki. She then spoke up as loud as she possibly could without shouting "Can I have everyone's attention please? The colonel and the captain need everyone in the briefing room immediately!"

-Wadatsumi, Briefing Room-

It had taken several minutes for the refugees to make their way over the briefing room and a few more for all of them to finally finish taking their seats, each of them wondering why exactly they had been brought here although several theories were whispered amongst them. They didn't have to wait long, as the second that the last of the refugees had taken their seats Colonel Braddock stood up from his seat and wore a solemn look.

"I know that there are a lot of questions floating around this boat ever since we evacuated the Shinagawara. 'Where are we going?' 'What will happen to us?' 'Are our loved ones alright?' I wish that I had some proper answers for you, truly I do but for right now we must focus on one singular objective. Survival. For the time being we must work together, as fellow brothers and sisters in arms because while I truly wish that there was another way, our situation calls for me, to as of this moment declare that each and every one of you are drafted under the Conscription Act. As such you are all now members of the military and while I know that there are many of you are bitter about this, consider this, now you will have the chance to avenge the friends and family that have fallen at the hands of our enemy, the ones who are responsible for all this suffering."

The refugees looked at one another for a few seconds and while they seemed somewhat reluctant to become soldiers but the majority seemed to be almost eager to get back at those that had started this war while others seemed to be more resigned to it. Much to Marito and several other members of the crew's surprise there didn't seem to be anyone who showed signs of resenting Braddock's rather blatant usage of the Conscription Act.

The man then explained that several other crewmen would be reviewing any possible skills that each might have in order to determine where they might be able to best work on the ship. For people like Doctor Soma Yagarai it was obvious as to what sort of job assignments they would be given. After all a man skilled in both surgery and psychology was difficult to come by in times like these and he would be most useful in any sort of a medical scenario.

When it came to some of the younger civilians such as Annette or her sister Edda things were a little bit more complicated. The interviewer was Captain Magbaredge's XO and she was trying desperately to find any sort of skill that either of them might have that would be of use to the crew. "So Annette, what is your level of training for a Kataphrakt?" she asked curiously.

When that came up Annette and her sister actually looked quite nervous about the whole thing "Well, I actually have no real experience inside a Kataphrakt, I have a weak constitution you see and couldn't get any training." When she was finished explaining that part, Mizusaki looked somewhat disheartened. It seemed as though neither of the two had any useful skills. Still though maybe they could be useful at something.

"Well there are still plenty of things that we can have you do outside of Kataphrakt combat…" The conversation began to trail off and Annette looked over to her left and saw that Inaho was already being handed a pilot's jumpsuit and to his left was Rayet who couldn't stop clenching and unclenching her hands the instant she heard her interviewer ask how she wanted to defend her homeland from the Martians.

Annette looked at the girl with a sympathetic expression. She had heard about how Rayet had lost her father during the attack on Shinagawara. She wanted to do something, say something, anything to help relieve some of the pain that she must be going through but for the moment she would have to keep her mouth shut. Perhaps later she could talk to her, at least offer some kind of an olive branch of sorts.

-Wadatsumi, Hanger Bay-

For the last couple of hours, Calm Craftman had a look of someone who was still in the anger part of the grieving process. After his interview for a position on the ship he was surprised that he hadn't been given the opportunity to become a pilot like Inko and Inaho. Instead he wearing a mechanic's jumpsuit and was sitting on a munition's crate, pouting like a kid who had been put into time out.

"Why in the hell am I a maintenance worker instead of a pilot?" he all but demanded.

Inko sighed dispassionately at the display her friend was giving. He had been at this for nearly an hour after being given his posting orders from the higher-ups. At this point she too annoyed with Calm to really do anything be as blunt as Inaho would be in this situation. "You practically flunked out when it came to piloting remember? You have one of the worst accuracy ratios in our entire class. Besides the reason they put you into the maintenance corps is because you scored through the roof when it came to engineering classes."

At that Calm looked surprised and a little bit defensive "But…okay fine I get it," he said with a small huff "But how in the hell am I supposed to waste those bastards if I'm stuck in a hanger all day and night?"

Inko rolled her eyes and looked like she was about to respond when everyone heard the sound of echoing footsteps coming towards them "Don't be so gung-ho," ordered a familiar voice from nearby. The group turned to see their training instructor Lieutenant Marito making his way towards them.

When he got close to the trio, they noticed that the lieutenant wasn't carrying his flask like he normally was and looked somewhat irritated by that fact. "No one's seen any real action in almost ten years and the majority of those who did are dead. That includes the Martian side, so just about everyone is a virgin at this point." When he said this he was looking directly at Calm who became more and more uncomfortable as Marito spoke to him.

"Not all of us," declared Inaho almost stoically while Calm looked at his best friend with an exasperated look and wondered if Inaho knew what he was implying when he said that. Inko however was more resigned than anything else when it came to Inaho who was as blunt as ever. "You survived that war too didn't you?" Inaho asked.

Marito just gave his student a shrug "Not according to the official scorebook. The Tanegashima Report that I wrote was buried by the higher-ups."

Inko's face twisted into a quizzical expression "The, Tanegashima Report?" she asked, curious as to what that might be and why she had never even heard of it before now. Inaho didn't even glance in her direction as he continued to look directly at his combat instructor "It was where the fragments of the moon first fell during Heaven's Fall."

Marito put his hands in his pockets, if only to keep them from shaking so much as he recalled the memories of that horrible day. He then walked past them and started to make his way towards the line of Kataphrakts that were in the scaffolds "Yep…but something else came down to Earth long before the moon did." He looked up at the orange Sleipnir that Inaho was so fond of piloting.

"The Martians showed up first." When that was mentioned everyone payed even closer attention than they had earlier. Marito took his right hand out of his pocket after it had stopped shaking and placed it on the Sleipnir's metal frame "We had to go after those monster Kataphrakt's in tanks that were already obsolete by comparison. We were completely wiped out. Right about the same time, the Hyper Gate on the moon went out of control and exploded and those Martian fucks were wiped out in the resulting cataclysm, leaving no trace of physical evidence. My report was made out to be the ramblings of a lunatic written in utter horror."

At that Calm looked confused by his instructor's words "But it was the truth," he said "Mars' Kataphrakts are way beyond what Earth's current technology can produce." At that point Marito just shrugged "In any event the result is the same. Because we don't' have Aldnoah drives, we have almost no advantage in combat when it comes to those special Kats they use."

While it was true that Inaho and the others had managed to take down two of the more powerful Kats the Martian's liked to use, they had almost no chance against them when it came to a fair fight. In fact it was far more likely that they would get themselves killed if they tried that. It was a truly sobering thought.

At that Inaho thought to himself 'Well if that's the case, then I guess we'll have to continue fighting as unfairly as possible.'

-Count Cruhteo's Landing Castle, Hanger Bay-

Count Cruhteo of the Orbital Knights was not a happy man by any stretch of the imagination. In the last forty-eight hours he had watched the princess he was supposed to protect be completely slaughtered by the people of Earth and then he had lost numerous Kataphrakts in the taking of the city, including Sir Trillram and Vlad. His failures weighed deeply upon him and on several occasions he had been tempted to go to his quarters and pull out a glass of wine and drink it away.

However he was an Orbital Knight and despite this he would not sink to the level of some lowly Terran by drowning his sorrows in drink. No! He would learn from his mistakes and ensure that they were repeated as he regained his honor. He would avenge the princess by locating and punishing all those who were responsible for her death.

The Orbital Knight shook himself from his musings. Now was not the best of times to become melancholic or filled with vengeful wrath. He had a duty and he would see it fulfilled as best he could, even if said duty was something that was as boring as what he was doing now.

Currently Cruhteo was overlooking a technician working at a terminal that was attached to a series of cords that ran into the cockpit of the Nilokeras' ruined remains. The technician was one of the best aboard his landing castle by far and had proven himself capable at his job many times over. He had called him up a short time ago and informed him something odd in regards with the Nilokeras' computer systems.

"What do you have for me Technician Styles?" Cruhteo asked. The technician turned to look over at Cruhteo and offered a quick, yet polite bow. "My lord, we have only just managed to get into the Nilokeras' blackbox but I've encountered something very, very strange."

It seemed as though that was the word of the day at this point, considering everything that had happened recently. With the way the technician spoke it was clear that he had no real idea on how to explain this to his superior. However at this point Cruhteo didn't care what the news was, all he wanted was the truth, no matter what it was.

"Well, out with it man. What have you found?" The technician looked at the console and the other technicians using it for a moment and then back at his liege lord "We've found normal transmissions as can be expected but there are a number of heavily encrypted transmissions as well that go to and from the Nilokeras."

Okay that wasn't what Cruhteo had been expecting and it only opened up even more questions than it answered. So the Orbital Knight decided to ask the most obvious question available to him "Is it possible to decrypt the transmissions?"

The hesitant look that he received was even more of an answer than the explanation he received "My lord, this level of encryption it, it's something that I've never come across in my entire life. Whoever created this clearly didn't want anyone finding out about what was being said. Trying to decrypt this would be like trying to tear apart this landing castle with a sledgehammer and a crowbar, I couldn't' even tell you who he was talking to. I will try of course but the likelihood of gaining even the smallest iota of information anytime soon, is remote at the absolute best."

Cruhteo pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration at the lack of progress "Very well then, make any and all attempts to decrypt the information from the blackbox. I want to know the instant you have something, anything."

Technician Styles gave a respectful bow before Cruhteo turned to leave the hanger bay.

As he left Cruhteo's mind was a whirlwind of thoughts as he tried to figure out what was going on. What was going on here, what was Trillram doing using such advanced encryption to speak with someone in private? More importantly, just who was he talking with that required such a level of secrecy? This whole situation was a quandary resembled some of the things he had seen back at the emperor's court, where everyone would be involved in their own petty schemes and power-plays.

Cruhteo was so caught up in his thoughts that when he exited the hanger and into one of the corridors he was paying very little attention to what was around him and as a result was quite surprised (read: nearly jumped out of his skin) when he heard a hesitant voice call out to him. "M-my lord?"

Immediately Cruhteo turned around and saw Slaine all but kneeling in front of him in a truly groveling position. It was a position that Cruhteo knew that most took with him when they were either overly formal or they were simply desperate. Given the way in which the boy spoke, it was probably the latter.

Cocking his brow in curiosity Cruhteo looked at the boy with a neutral expression and asked "Slaine, to what do I owe this, display?"

Slaine kept kneeling and didn't meet Cruhteo's eyes. "My lord I wish to infringe upon you a request. I heard that you are sending scouts to locate those who escaped Shinagawara and I was hoping that I could be part of the search."

Well that was something that Cruhteo hadn't truly been expecting to hear, but then again he wasn't quite sure what Slaine wanted. However this wasn't something that Cruhteo would give, not without knowing more information first "And why should I allow you, a lowly Terran to take part in such an important task?"

For a moment Slaine shook as his nerves overtook him but quickly recomposed himself. "My lord I know that I am unworthy of such a task, but I want to do something to help, anything to make up for my failures. I am a more than competent a pilot and if I go out, at least you won't have to risk any Versian pilots."

As much as Cruhteo hated to admit it, the boy's request had at least some merit. Besides as much as Cruhteo hated to admit it, Slaine had proven to be a decent pilot when the need arose so he perhaps he could be of some use. For a few moments Cruhteo appeared to be considering it but given that neither could see the other's face, Cruhteo couldn't see the look of utter anxiety that completely covered the boy's face.

Eventually after several long moments of consideration, Cruhteo gave his answer "Very well." At that Slaine actually looked up, in near stunned disbelief that Cruhteo was actually granting his request. Once he realized that he was showing Cruhteo disrespect, Slaine immediately averted his face from him.

"T-thank you my lord!" he said graciously "I shall leave at once."

-Wadatsumi, main deck-

Asseylum didn't know how long she had sat there on the flight deck of the Wadatsumi among the various supply crates that had yet to be taken down into the main decks looking out at the endless expanse of blue that was in front of her. However, considering that the sun was now much closer to the western horizon than it had been earlier it was clear that some time had passed.

This wasn't what was supposed to happen. Asseylum's visit here was supposed to be the first part of a long term plan to promote peace and cooperation between the people of Vers and Earth. Instead now it seemed as though the war that was supposed to have been long over with had just started back up and now, now she was being used as an icon by her people to justify it. She never felt so utterly wretched in her life before now.

She was broken out of her thoughts by the sound of footsteps coming towards her. She turned her head and saw that Inaho was making his way towards her, with that same stoic expression on his face. When Asseylum saw him she smiled slightly "Hello Inaho, what are you doing?" she asked.

Inaho held up a datapad which was showing some of the files on the Areion "Researching the new machine I'll be piloting." Asseylum seemed somewhat confused by that "What do you mean?" she asked. Inaho passed her the datapad and allowed her to examine the datapad's contents for a moment or two. Asseylum had never in her life looked at any sort of mechanical schematics and so had no idea what she was even looking at.

As she looked however Inaho explained it "The machine I've been using is used primarily for training and now Colonel Braddock wants me to pilot one of their newer models, the Areion." Asseylum blinked a couple of times "What's wrong with that?" she asked passing the datapad back.

Inaho pressed a button on the datapad and a picture of each of the UFE's mecha appeared on it. "The Areion is a newer machine, and it has better armor but that also makes it heavier and therefore slower than a Sleipnir. The Embarr is even more heavily armored in order to accommodate the heavy weapons it uses and is even slower than the Areion."

Asseylum still seemed somewhat confused by the explanation "Is that such a bad thing, wouldn't the heavier armor keep you safer?" she asked. Inaho shook his head "In a more conventional battle yes. However the weapons that the Orbital Knights use seem to all but bypass whatever armor is put in their way. Speed and maneuverability are more useful in this case and the Sleipnir is much more maneuverable than either the Areion or the Embarr."

"What about the Dyaus, it seems faster and more maneuverable than the Sleipnir." Inaho nodded "That's true, it could run circles around the Sleipnir but its main problem is that its controls are too sensitive for me to use. If I were to try using a Dyaus in combat I would end up pushing the controls too hard and would probably end up crashing into a building or something."

Asseylum had to keep herself from giggling at the thought, even as Inaho started to look over at the endless expanse of blue before them. For a time they just sat there in silence, simply looking at the view "It really is beautiful," she declared.

Inaho turned from the view to look over at the incognito princess and asked "Is a blue sky unusual for you?"

Asseylum gave a small nod "On Vers, there are too many storms to truly see the sky, and when you do its more of a sickly yellow than anything else."

"And this is the first time you've been to Earth correct?" Inaho asked. Asseylum nodded again and looked out at the expanse of blue with a sad smile "Yes, the birthplace of mankind. The land blessed with so much air and water that they refract light and make the sky and sea appear blue."

Inaho blinked at that before turning to her "That's not right," he stated bluntly. He began to press some buttons on his datapad as he continued "The blue sky isn't caused by diffraction, but through the effects of Rayleigh scattering." Asseylum got up from her seat and looked directly at Inaho.

"But Slaine said it was caused by light diffraction," she insisted.

Inaho simply passed her the datapad again, showing the file that talked about the reasons as to why the sky was blue "The sky is blue from Rayleigh scattering, clouds are white from Mie scattering," he explained "Your friend was wrong."

Asseylum looked somewhat disheartened that Slaine was wrong but she didn't think that Inaho meant any real harm by correcting him. In fact she was more than just a little bit curious about what Inaho had just spoken of "Um, Inaho, do you think you could tell me some more about what Rayleigh is and why it scatters?" she asked.

Much to the princess' surprise Inaho's lips started to lift upwards slightly. She noticed that this was one of the few times she had ever seen him truly smile and she had to admit, it was nice and although she didn't know why, she felt better seeing him smile. Asseylum also noticed that as Inaho began to explain how Rayleigh worked, that his smile didn't falter at all.

Unbeknownst to the two teens, there were a pair that were watching them from a short distance away and had heard every word they spoke.

Marcus has a small smile on his face as he and Yuki watched the scene unfold in front of them. It wasn't often that Inaho expressed himself like that around others. In fact it had been quite some time since the last time he had truly expressed a smile at all. It wasn't that Inaho was an emotionless husk, he just had a very difficult time truly expressing himself. It made sense though, Inaho was diagnosed with Autism when he was very young. Of course he was also extremely intelligent, alarmingly so. He outpaced his own teachers on most subjects and there had been more than just a few of them that tried to get him to skip grades outright.

However Inaho's parents –and eventually his sister after she became his legal guardian- had always refused to do this. Inaho needed to socialize with people his own age and if he was to simply jump ahead he would only find himself becoming even more socially isolated. That was something that no child should have to deal with.

"So I take it you approve of her?" asked Marcus to his comrade-in-arms. Yuki just gave a small chuckle as she continued to watch Inaho and Annette interact with one another. "Well, I still need to give her the good 'ol scary big sister interrogation session, but I think that I'll wait until things have…calmed down before then."

Marcus gave a small chuckle "Just make sure I get to watch. After all, I've always found 'scary big sister' Yuki to always be pretty entertaining."

Yuki gave her friend a playful punch to his side with her good arm for that comment.

Marcus looked out the endless expanse of blue in front of him. At least there was one good thing that was happening lately.

On another section of the Wadatsumi's main deck was a man who was also sitting down, looking at the vast expanse of blue seas out in front of him. In his hands he had a pair of dog tags that were from an old friend. When he held them out to look at them, Marito reflexively reached for the flask he almost always had on hand; only to curse when he remembered that doctor Soma had confiscated it under orders of Colonel Braddock.

Marito began muttering to himself about troublesome superior officers when he heard the sound of footsteps coming in behind him "You know I heard that the military isn't exactly fond of people complaining about their commanding officers behind their back."

The reinstated Warrant-Officer saw his old friend/doctor Soma making his way towards over to where Marito was sitting. As the man got closer he saw that man had a relatively serious look on his face. He gestured to the man's empty hand and said "Are you still trying to get a drink in?" Soma asked, having noticed that Marito had every so often reflexively reached for a flask that was no longer there.

Marito scoffed in an attempt to hide an old pain "Not for me this time. I was drinking in the memory of a friend." To emphasize the point, Marito raised his left hand to show the dog-tags that were there. When Soma saw them he saw the name "Humeray, John" along with a serial number.

"I see," said Soma even as his buddy continued to speak "I know where we're headed. I heard a bunch of the higher ups talking about a notorious island being our destination. Only place like that out here is Tanegashima."

It was then that Soma truly understood why his friend had been reaching for the bottle more and more as of late. During one of his many drinking sessions over at the bar with his friend Marito had let slip the details of what had happened at Tanegashima. Especially when he had to shoot his best friend to prevent him from being burned alive. Over the last few years Marito had been taking mandatory therapy but it hadn't been completely helping him.

And now Marito was heading back to the place where he had watched his entire team and his best friend had been killed. It was little wonder he was trying to get as drunk as possible.

-Wadatsumi, bridge-

Nina Klein, a student at the Shinagawara Academy had just arrived at the Wadatsumi's bridge to man her assigned station at the Helm. There were other members of her school there as well each identifiable by the school uniforms that they were still wearing. Several of the crewmen had looked at each of them strangely as they weren't expected to have been wearing their school outfits rather than standard military fatigues.

When Nina began to steer the massive ship she began to realize just how lucky she was when she had been assigned as the ship's reserve helmsman. The sun was already setting at the sea and it was at the point where the rays of the sun were reflecting off of the ocean's waves, making everything appear red and orange. And Nina Klein could see it all through the reinforced windows. She marveled at the scene in front of her for several long seconds before she shook off her amazement and tried to focus on her duties.

To her left Captain Magbaredge's XO, Mizusaki looked at her with a serious expression "I know it's a nice view but right now you should focus on your duties."

Nina's face briefly flushed with embarrassment before started to focus more on steering the ship and the landmass it was steadily approaching every moment. As the ship continued its journey, Nina heard one of the other bridge crewmen speak up to one of his friends "So what is this island we're heading to?" he asked "I mean it's not on any of the maps."

"Maybe it was a mistake?" the other crewmen tried.

He first crewmen shook his head "Nah, if you look closely you can see what looks like some construction going on there. I'm willing to bet that it's some kind of blacksite and they just-"

The crewmen was unable to finish his sentence as Mizusaki looked over at them directly and said "If the two of you have time to talk then you have time to perform your duties."

It wasn't much longer before the doors leading onto the bridge opened and Colonel Braddock walked through, his face deathly serious. Following close behind was Captain Magbaredge. The instant that they finished walking through the door, Colonel Braddock fixed his gaze on the Comm. Officer and asked "Have you received any transmissions on any of the channels I told you to monitor?"

The comm. officer shook his head "There hasn't been as much as a peep sir." Colonel Braddock looked somewhat annoyed by the answer. Still though it was one he should have expected considering the situation in the world. The facility probably went silent to try and avoid detection. They wouldn't make contact with anyone outside their walls unless certain people gave them reason to do so.

Braddock walked over to the comm. officer's station "Hand me your headpiece," he ordered to which the officer obliged him but didn't see what the point was. For a few moments, Braddock fiddled with the frequencies on the communications equipment before he finally settled on one. Then he spoke into the mic "Attention Babylon, this is Morningstar authorization code: Rapture. Report status."

For a second there wasn't any response from whoever was on the line but surprisingly someone's voice came over the airwaves "We read you Morningstar this is Babylon; we count Fallen on our position. We remain Gospel, I repeat we remain Gospel."

Immediately Braddock turned to look over at Magbaredge with a steely look on his face and said "Order all hands to battle stations we have hostiles on that island!"

To be continued.

A/N: sorry this took so long to make, that's all I can really say without giving excuses.