Disclaimer: Gonzo owns Vandread. All music copyright to their original owners.

Vandread: The Unknown Soldier

Chapter Thirteen: Memories, Part One

Location: Infirmary, Nirvana

“Surface wound on the head, several lacerations along the right side of his body, and at least three broken ribs, and it appears he’s lost a lot of blood as well,” Duero stated as he examined Aidan. “We’re going to have to stabilize his condition, immediately.”

Meia stood outside the room that Duero was operating on Aidan. She was worried a little bit on his condition, as Duero said it wasn’t good. That was reckless of him, she thought. He dove in at the last second to stop that fighter from attempting to finish her disabled Dread. That move looks like it might cost him his life, as his mecha struck by a fighter at full thrust was not something someone voluntarily did. She winced, she saw what was left of his Striker, there no lower half to speak of, the right arm was also gone, and the shattered cockpit was stained with a good deal of his blood. Apparently she owed him, and she hoped that he’d lived, because she hated owing people. Although that wasn’t the only reason she wanted him to live through this…

Drifting on the edge of unconsciousness, Aidan could not feel anything. He fought to stay awake, but the pull of the drugs he’d been given, as well as the fact that he’d been fading in and out of consciousness begged to differ. It wasn’t long before he was completely out, and the resurfacing of old and painful memories emerged…

Age: 10

A young Aidan sat cowered in his mother’s arms, scared of the alarmed shouts all around him. His father was next to him, trying to comfort him. The transport ship shuddered violently, taking several hits from the attacking Earth forces. The Earth forces had penetrated the front-line, and now were attacking the various transport ships at the rear. Aidan saw a warship collapse in on itself as it was shattered by heavy fire.

Then the ship he was on took another violent hit, and there was a sickening screech, as an entire section of the room they were in basically was torn away and air was rapidly sucked out into the vacuum. He felt his ears pop, and he reached for something to grab onto as everything was being sucked out the ship. Aidan watched in horror as his parents were thrown out of the ship like rag dolls, and he tried to reach for them but was held back by a pair of strong arms, which pulled back behind as an air lock slammed shut. Through tear-filled eyes, Aidan looked up to see it was one of the soldiers that saved him from his parents’ fate.

Age: 12

Located almost in the middle of nowhere significant, the military training base stood out like an eyesore. The base consisted of several structures, mostly nothing more than gray rectangular buildings that were built to withstand damage from heavy windstorms, some exceeding speeds of two hundred kilometers an hour. There were three primary structures, the barracks, which housed the trainees and recruits, the vehicle hangar, where the jeeps and armored personnel carriers were held. The final important structure was the training facility itself, which consisted of all the necessities that were needed to train it’s recruits. Outside there was an expansive area which consisted of obstacle courses, firing ranges and a recreation area.

Aidan walked out of the briefing room, where the commander of the base officially welcomed the newest batch of recruits, no draftees. There wasn’t much say in for most of them, which were around Aidan’s age. It had been two years since his parents perished in the final Earth attack. For some odd, unknown reason, the Earth forces withdrew, leaving the Solaris system. It puzzled many, but they were grateful that Earth decided to leave. He had mostly gotten over the death of his parents. He was given a choice, join the military, or spend the rest of his young life at the orphanage.

He had no desire to spend the rest of his childhood in some rundown orphanage, and if he joined the military, he would at least being doing something productive. Besides, it was not like it mattered, because he had no home anyway. The decision was also influenced by the fact that he could take his vengeance out on Earth for the death of his parents, if Earth ever decided to return. He was jolted back to reality when he accidentally collided with someone.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” a young girl said. She had raven black hair that went halfway down her back.

“No, it was my fault, I wasn’t watching where I was going,” he said sheepishly. “Oh, my name is Aidan,” he said, extending his hand.

“Sakura,” she said as she shook his hand. “Nice to meet you.”

Age: 16

“Hey, Aidan!” Sakura, who now cut her hair to just above her shoulders, called over to Aidan, who was in the middle of target practice. Aidan and Sakura had become good friends over these last four years.

Having just finished emptying the handgun’s magazine into the target dummy, Aidan laid the now empty handgun down and turned to face her. “Hey, Sakura, what are you up to?” he replied.

“Guess what?” she asked.

“What?” was his only reply.

“Come on, guess,” she insisted.

“Okay, I give up. What do you want tell me?”

“I passed the test to apply to become a Striker pilot,” she finally said.

“Good for you,” he said, genuinely impressed, as it wasn’t easy to become a pilot of one those combat mecha. “I couldn’t bring myself to pilot one of those things.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Too complicated, I’ll just stick with the infantry,” he answered.

“I have duties to attend to,” he said. “Good luck piloting one of those things, and I‘ll see you later,” he said as he departed.

Age: 17

“Are you ready?” Aidan asked as he went into a defensive stance. He had on a simple tank top, a baggy pair of gym pants, and a pair of padded gloves.

“As I’ll ever be,” Sakura replied as she mimicked Aidan’s stance. She was dressed similarly.

They both stood an equal distance apart on the sparring mat. With quickness and fluidity, Sakura lunged forward, putting Aidan almost immediately on the defensive. She landed a series of blows that he mostly blocked, and he countered with a punch that threw her off-balance. Taking advantage of this, he hooked his right foot around her ankle and pulled towards him. She fell onto her back, and he leapt forward and pinned her to the mat with his strength.

“Do you give in?” he asked, holding her to the mat.

Her reply was in the form of a knee to his stomach, he instinctively released his grip, and in a split second she was on top of him, holding him to the mat. Her chest was pressed against his, and he could feel her body heat as she stared down at him.

“The real question is, do you give in?” she asked, a grin on her face.

He grinned, and tapped his left hand on the mat a few times to signal his defeat. She got up off of him, and offered a hand to help him up. He accepted and she pulled him to his feet.

Age: 18

“Up, up, up!” The Sergeant ordered.

The lights snapped on, and Aidan immediately got up, he didn’t sleep all that well anyways. The barracks was filled with noise of barking orders and clamoring alarm. He rolled out of his bunk and got to his feet.

“Move it, people!” the Sergeant shouted. The barracks began to fill with sounds of lockers banging open and shut. Aidan pulled his uniform from it’s locker and put it on. He doubted this was a normal inspection, they were heading into battle. He slammed his locker shut and joined the rest of the soldiers, who were heading down the passageway that lead to the armory. Once he got into the armory, he came up to the armorer.

“Mercer, Aidan. Eight-four-zero-five-three,” he said

“Here’s your weapon, Mercer,” the armorer said. “Draw your spares and your armor, down the passage. Aidan proceeded down the passage, grabbed the spare magazines for his assault rifle. He also donned his armor, which consisted of a flak vest, shoulder, elbow, and knee pads, as well as his helmet.

With steadiness, Aidan and the rest of the soldiers moved to the armored personnel carriers that awaited them. He climbed into the nearest seat that wasn’t taken. After all twelve soldiers were in the armored hovercraft, it sped off for a destination Aidan didn’t know of.

“Where do you think we’re heading?” Derek, one of the soldiers with Aidan, asked from next to him.

“I know as much as you,” Aidan replied as the hover APC took a sharp turn.

Several of the APCs sped down a road in the city of Augusta. Just then, a stream of fire came out of one of the buildings, the slugs catching the skirt of the APC, the APC leaned downward, and the front slammed into the concrete, the APC kept rolling until it slammed into one the buildings, engulfing it and the front of the building in a large fireball. The other APCs slowed down and disgorged their cargo of soldiers.

After disembarking from the APC, Aidan and several of the men with him headed for the cover of the nearest building. One of the them wasn’t so lucky though, the weapon that took out the APC earlier tracked into him, cutting him half. The battle had been like that for the last few weeks.

“We need support fire, dammit!” yelled one soldier as he fired several more rounds at the enemy. Several seconds later the tree that the soldier was using for cover was shattered by a grenade, filling him with shrapnel.

“Son of a bitch!” he heard someone yell before another explosion shook the ground. The overturned hulk of a hovercar he was using as cover was covered in dirt.

“I need help over here…” he another one of them yell before taking a laser bolt to the brain.

He glanced up and over at one of the burnt out buildings, and noticed a single soldier perched in one of the windows on the fourth floor.

“Sniper!” he yelled, as a few more ducked for cover. Another unlucky soldier lost half of his head when a searing laser bolt struck him in the head. The body fell right next to him, but he hardly noticed as he fired his assault rifle into the building window, hoping to hit the sniper. He didn’t hit the sniper. A second laser bolt, this one aimed at him, barely missed, leaving a burn mark on his helmet. He keyed his communicator.

“Striker Two! We need fire support, sniper on fourth floor of the third building over.

“Roger,” came a familiar voice from the other side. A gray and black Striker unloaded several rounds into the corresponding building, and effectively taking care of the sniper with high-caliber rifle fire. No fire came out of the building after the smoke cleared.

The Striker turned and advanced down the street at a full run towards the embattled troops. He knew the pilot of that particular Striker was Sakura. He noticed two people bolt out of the shelter of one of the buildings, closing with the Striker, before he could react, one of the soldiers planted a satchel charge on the leg of the Striker, and jumped down off of it. Aidan caught him with a burst of rifle-fire right when he hit the ground. Five seconds later the charge went off, mangling the leg of the several meter tall Striker. It slammed into a building and landed on it’s back.

Careless for his own safety, he bolted out from his cover and headed over the downed mecha. The other soldier started to plant a satchel charge on the cockpit hatch. Aidan dispatched of him before he could arm it. The dead body fell off the Striker with a barely audible thud. He climbed onto the battle-scarred mecha. He forced the hatch open, and looked into the cockpit.

“Are you alright?” he asked her, extending his hand.

“Fine, just a little dazed,” she replied as she took his hand. He pulled her out of the cockpit, and she drew her handgun from it’s holster at the small of her back.

“Let’s get moving,” he said as he jumped off the wreck and onto the ground.

A small squad of soldiers searched a building for potential hostiles, and Aidan and Sakura were among them. They were about to clear a room, and one soldier was about to kick in the door. Just as he tried, the door seemed to explode as several bullets blasted through it, sending the soldier back onto his back. The other soldiers kicked through the remains of the door and gunned down the man on the other side of the door.

The soldiers quickly swept through the room, along with Aidan and Sakura. What they saw in the room surprised them. Huddled in the corner, were several children. Sakura approached them, lowering her weapon. The children stared up at the soldiers with defiance. She attempted to talk to them, to try to get them to warm up to her. Out of the corner of his eye, Aidan saw a flicker of movement out the window.

“Get down!” he yelled as he grabbed Sakura and yanked her down. Several seconds later an explosion shook the building, and their room specifically. When Aidan looked up, he saw a few of the soldiers were on the ground, most likely dead. When they looked over to where the children were, he noticed they weren’t there. The section of the room where they were hiding was gone, completely obliterated.

Several months had passed since the start of the battle, with no end in sight. There were a massive amount of casualties on both sides. Aidan was one of the few survivors of his unit. Leaning against a grounded APC, Aidan looked over to Sakura, who was sitting on top of the carrier.

“Those children…” she trailed off.

“There was nothing you could have done,” Aidan said.

“I know, but-” her reply was cut off by the sky turning a crimson red over the city, which they were no longer in. They watched as several spears of light came down as if some angry god unleashed his wrath upon the city. In a few seconds, two-thirds of city of Augusta lay in rubble and ash.

Age: 19

(BGM: Serenity- Godsmack)

After washing up, Aidan heard a knock on his door, he hooked the towel over his arms and walked over to the door and it slid open to reveal Sakura standing there.

“May I come in?” she asked.

“Sure,” he said and shifted position to allow her to enter.

“I need to tell you something,” she said hesitantly as she sat down on the bunk. He sat down next to her.

“Go ahead,” he said, even though he had a gut feeling it wasn’t something good.

“Well, I’m being transferred,” she said.

“That’s it?” he said. “That isn’t so bad.”

“You don’t understand, I’m being transferred to the space division.” she said. “ I’ll be leaving tomorrow. We may never see another again after tomorrow.”

The reality struck Aidan like a sledgehammer. He knew that he’d be transferred, but probably to another infantry unit. He came to the conclusion that he could not be without Sakura. She took his hand and held it. They looked into each other’s eyes. Aidan noticed that in her green eyes that she wanted something. They kissed, and he gently pushed her down onto the bed.

Aidan walked down towards the barracks, intent on telling her goodbye one last time. He casually walked past a tech. She was a woman, with black hair almost as short as his, although it had one distinguishing feature. There was a red streak running through it. He nodded and proceeded on. Noticing Sakura, he started to jog towards her. Suddenly the barracks exploded, throwing Sakura to the ground. He immediately ran to her fallen form, but before he could get there, the force of a second explosion threw him off his feet. Suddenly a sharp pain shot through his left arm, looking over, something had slashed his arm open. He was bleeding badly.

Forcing himself up, he staggered over to Sakura. She was lying face down in the dirt. Using his remaining strength, he turned her over and found that she was still alive, though barely. She was bleeding badly as well. He held her, ignoring the pain that lanced through his arm. She lifted her hand and stroked his cheek, and said something, but no sound came out. The life in her eyes slowly faded away.

“Sakura, stay with me! Come on!” he said to her lifeless body. He felt tears falling down his cheeks, but before long he fell unconscious from loss of blood.

Still more to come. Read & Review.