Disclaimer: It is Gonzo that owns Vandread, not me.

Vandread: The Unknown Soldier

Chapter Three: Revelations

Location: On the Bridge of the Nirvana.

“Massive energy spike detected!” came Belvedere’s alarmed shout. “It’s coming from that unidentified ship!”

“What’s happening?!” Magno asked, fear creeping into her voice.

“The engines are overloading, and it appears they will explode, destroying the ship and everything around it.” Amarone stated.

“Ezra, contact BC and the others, and tell them to get off that ship immediately,” Magno ordered.

After several failed attempts, Ezra reported that magnetic interference from the energy spike is disrupting communications.

Then a massive ball of light erupted from the rear of the ship. It expanded until the entire ship was consumed by the massive amount of energy released. When the light faded, there was nothing left except for a few scraps of debris.

“Captain, the Commander reports that all of the boarding party and the survivors made it off the ship safely,” Ezra reported. Magno let out a sigh of relief at the news. But, there were several questions that were unanswered. She wanted to meet these survivors, so she could get those answers.

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Aidan watched from one of the shuttle’s view ports as the massive ball of light that used to be the Artemis faded into the cold, black abyss that was space. He continued to blankly stare out into space until an image of a young woman with shoulder-length raven black hair and striking green eyes flashed into his mind.

“Sakura…” he whispered as he clenched his fists.

“Did you say something?” a voice said from behind him. He spun around to see a man with long, black hair.

“No… it’s nothing,” he replied.

“The name’s Duero McFile,” he said as he held out his hand.

“Aidan Mercer,” he replied as he grasped Duero’s hand. From he what he could tell, this Duero was a medic, as was evident by the red cross on his jacket and he was only slightly taller than himself, maybe by a few inches.

“Tell me, why did you activate the self-destruct system on the ship back there?” he asked.

More questions? he thought wearily. “Operational security.”

“Operational security? Care to explain?”

Before he could reply, he felt a slight jolt as the shuttle docked with the large silver ship. He knew they would be disembarking in a few moments.

“I’ll explain later.” he said as he moved past Duero and picked up a couple of duffel bags.

A few minutes later, they disembarked from the shuttle. As they walked down the ramp, Aidan saw that pretty much the entire crew was assembled not too far from where the shuttle was sitting. It also occurred to him that almost the entire crew, except for a few, were women.

“Wow…” Maria said in amazement as she stopped at the bottom of the ramp. Aidan remained quiet as he reached the bottom of the ramp. He scanned around and he noticed an old woman was looking at him. She approached them and started to talk with the silver-haired woman. He glanced around to see the same dark-haired woman he attacked earlier glaring daggers at him. He looked back as the old woman turned to face him.

“Tell me young man, what is your name?” the old woman asked.

“Captain Aidan Mercer,” he replied flatly, his cold gaze locked with hers.

“Well Captain Mercer, there are several questions I’d like to ask you, but maybe you should head to the infirmary first,” she said, gesturing to the now dry blood on his face. “I’ll send someone to come and get you later.”

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Down in the infirmary, Aidan had insisted that Duero check on Maria first, even though he had what appeared to be more serious injuries. He had just finished checking up on Maria.

“Nothing serious, now let’s take a look at you,” he said as he looked over to where Aidan was standing.

“Fine,” he said as he punched a few buttons on his suit’s left forearm. The was a barely audible hiss as the armor depressurized. He reached up and unhooked the left arm at the shoulder, and he repeated the process on the right. After the suit’s arms were removed, he took off the torso armor, which had some damage. He then pulled himself out of the lower half of the suit. He was dressed only in a black tank top, a pair of shorts, and a pair of boots.

“Now, let’s take a look at those wounds,” Duero said.

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About half an hour later, after Duero finished tending to his wounds, Aidan was putting on some fresh clothes. He had on a black, sleeveless t-shirt, and a pair of gray fatigue pants. After he finished putting on his boots, he walked over to one of the duffel bags and reached in and pulled out his handgun. He checked it’s twelve-round clip of ten millimeter bullets. Satisfied, he holstered the gun and pulled a few more clips out of the bag. He put the clips in one of his belt pouches, then picked up a portable computer and strapped it to left forearm. He also took a familiar disc from the bag as well.

“Well, I guess I’m ready,” Aidan said.

“Good, I’ll take you to the Captain then,” Meia said as she walked through the door.

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Barnette was leaning against the wall of the meeting room while she waited with the Captain and the others for them to arrive. She was furious that she had been defeated and almost killed by a man. Only her quick reaction had prevented her from taking a bullet to the chest. She closed her eyes, open to open them a few seconds as the door opened and four people walked in. One of them was Meia, the second was Duero, then it was that violet-haired girl, and the last one was Aidan. She could feel her anger start to rise, but she forced it back down.

“So, Aidan Mercer, as you already know I have several questions I’d like to ask you,” Magno Vivan said, breaking the silence.

“I know, but before I answer any of your questions, I’d like you to answer one of mine. Who are you people?” Aidan asked.

“We’re a band of pirates from Mejale, and these three men are from Tarak,” she replied, gesturing to the short kid he saw onboard the Artemis, the doctor, and a bald guy he’d never seen before.

“Pirates, so I was right, you aren’t with any military.”

“Now, I’d like to know where you and this nice young woman are from,” Magno said.

“We are from a planet called Solaris,” he said as he pulled a data disc out of his pocket. ”May I?”

When she nodded he inserted the disc and began typing. The holographic projector in the center of the table came to life as it projected a spherical image of the solar system they were currently in. He keyed in some coordinates and the star map was replaced by the image of a rather dull, gray-blue planet.

“This is the planet Solaris, as you can see, it isn’t much to look at. There are two continents, one of which is a wasteland, the other contains the majority of the population,” he pointed to it on the map.

“What I want to know is, why was your ship so heavily damaged and why did it appear in this system,” BC interjected.

“The ship, which was called Artemis, was heavily damaged trying to escape from a rogue fleet. Her mission was to deliver a particular person to the remainder of our fleet, which was located at a point well hidden from the enemy. As for ending up here, I guess the coordinates were thrown off when the ship was damaged, I don’t know exactly.”

“And who was the person she was supposed to escort?” Magno asked.

“She’s in this very room right now,” he replied. “She is the daughter of the late Prime Minister Cedric Shakov of the Solaris Federation.”

“Wait a minute, you said you were attacked, was it a fleet from Earth?” Hibiki blurted out.

“No, it wasn’t the Earthers, but they had something to do with it.”

“Then who was it?” he asked.

“It was our own people, they attacked.us,” he replied. “A large group of our people believed that the right thing to do was let Earth harvest them. They were prepared to let Earth take them away, but our military resisted the attacks from them, and then one day their fleet, flagship and all, left the system for some undetermined route. They ended up blaming the government for the departure of the Earth forces, and instigated a rebellion. We are currently in the middle of a civil war.”

A long moment of silence followed, clearly everyone in the room was surprised at some level at what they heard.

“Why would they do such a thing?” asked Jura.

“I don’t know for sure, I’ll never be able to understand those fanatics. They assassinated the Prime Minister and carried out a very well planned coup de tat. I was on board the space station the same time as him and Maria. They planned to assassinate Maria as well, but I stopped them and escorted her off the station. That is all I know for now.”

“Okay, your story seems a little far-fetched, but I believe you are telling the truth,” Magno said. “It seems you are stuck with us for a while, then. You can stay, provided you don’t start any conflicts, I heard about your fight on board that ship.”

“Of course, you have my word,” Aidan replied.

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Well, there’s Chapter Three for you. Please Read & Review.