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Vandread: The Unknown Soldier

Chapter Six: Engagement

Location: Uncharted Star System, 120 Light Years from Tarak/Mejale.

“What do you think is taking them so long?” Admiral Alexander Graff asked his Second in Command.

“I don’t know, sir, they probably took a lot of damage in the escape,” Commander Marcus Randall replied almost immediately.

“Perhaps, but it is possible the coordinates they had were off,” Graff said as he stroked his dark, well-trimmed beard.

“True, but it shouldn’t have taken them this long,” Randall replied.

Admiral Graff picked up his mug and took a sip of the bitter coffee. It was a soy-based substitute, as they ran out of the real thing a few days ago. He scanned the bridge of the S.D.S Dauntless, the fleet‘s flagship, and he noticed that all of the bridge crew were doing their assigned tasks. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder where Captain Cranston and the Artemis was. His train of thought was interrupted as a startled shout came from the sensor operator.

“Sir, multiple contacts have just entered the system,” she reported. “Sir, it’s the rebel fleet! They found us!”

“Dammit! Battle Stations, all Striker and fighter pilots, prep for launch!” the Admiral bellowed into the intercom. All over the ship, the activity tripled. Various crewmembers stopped what they were doing and proceeded to their stations.

“Bring the main engines online, and charge the weapons,” Graff ordered. The Dauntless, an Invincible Class Battle Cruiser, was one of the largest and most powerful vessels in the Solaris Defense Fleet. It’s design is rather blocky, but it boasts the most weapons of any ship in the fleet. Several gun ports started to charge up as it prepared to fire it’s battery of weapons.

“Aye sir,” the crewman replied and went to do as he was told.

“So it has begun…” Commander Randall said.

“Aye, that it has,” was Graff’s only reply.

“Hey, Mr. Alien!” Dita shouted as she ran up to Hibiki, who was just walking down the corridor.

“Oh, it’s you,” he said as she approached him with that always cheerful look on her face.

“Well, uh, I was wondering when you could come to my room for a visit,” she said as she glanced down, then back up. “You promised, remember?”

Blushing, Hibiki replied, “Well, I… um, I can’t right now.”

“Why not?” she asked.

“Well, uh… because I have something I need to do,” he replied.

“Aww… but you always say something like that,” she said, disappointment evident in her voice.

Hibiki started walking towards the men’s side of the ship, and once he got there, he noticed someone in the gym. He walked over to the doorway to get a better look.

The large, leather punching bag strained against a series of blows. Aidan did not pause in his assault on the bag as he noticed Hibiki walk up to the entrance to the gym out of the corner of his eye. He hammered the bag with several punches as sweat ran down his forehead and into his eyes. He blinked away the sweat as he continued pounding the bag.

“Hey, do you need a sparring partner?” Hibiki asked. “I’m pretty good at this stuff,” he said in a prideful voice.

Aidan stopped his assault on the bag and turned to face Hibiki. “Is that so?” he replied. He walked over and took a towel off its rack and wiped the sweat off his face. “Well then, put these on,” he said as he tossed Hibiki some sparring gear.

“Okay,” Hibiki said as he took his orange shirt off and put the padded gloves, boots and helmet on.

He followed Aidan over to the mat and they stood an equal distance apart. Aidan went into a defensive stance.

“Let’s begin.”

Hibiki charged forward and threw a right hook at Aidan who shifted slightly to his right and deflected his punch, and he tripped up a little bit. He quickly recovered his balance and turned to face Aidan.

“Is that all you got, kid?” Aidan taunted him.

“Don’t call me ‘kid’!” he spat back as he felt his anger rise. He sent several punches towards Aidan but he blocked every one of them. As Hibiki threw his last punch, Aidan grabbed his outstretched arm and swept his right leg across Hibiki’s legs, leaving him sprawled out on the mat.

“This is pissing me off,” Hibiki muttered under his breath.

“If your opponent has a short temper, take advantage of it,” Aidan said as Hibiki got back to his feet.

This time Aidan went on the offensive, sending a series of punches that knocked Hibiki off balance, and he fell onto the mat. He got up, only to take a kick to his left arm that knocked him down again, this time almost knocking him off the mat.

“You’ll pay for that!” Hibiki yelled as he charged yet again.

“You know, I used to be hot-headed like you, before I officially became a soldier,” Aidan said as he dodged Hibiki’s charge, and hooked his foot, tripping Hibiki, causing him to fall yet again. Hibiki got to one knee turned to face Aidan.

“You don’t know anything about me,” Hibiki said, his voice full of anger.

“You’re right, I don’t know very much about you, but I still can kick your ass,” Aidan said with a smirk.

Hibiki got up and charged, but this time he went in low and tackled Aidan’s legs causing him to fall to the mat. He cocked his fist and pulled it back preparing to pummel Aidan’s face. But, before he could the air was knocked out him, and doubled over, holding his chest.

“You’re too slow kid,” Aidan said as Hibiki gasped for air.

“No hard feelings, eh?” Aidan said as he helped Hibiki to his feet. Aidan grabbed a couple of towels off their racks, and tossed one to Hibiki.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Scott Hawkins was in the middle of a pitched dogfight with fighters from the rebel fleet. He strained against the G-forces that threatened to push him into oblivion as he did an incredibly sharp turn to avoid the missiles locked onto him. His fighter was the SF-21 Lightning, a sleek, fast fighter with forward-swept wings. His flat black fighter shuddered violently as the missiles exploded next it. He noticed a rebel fighter fly into his sights, and he lined it and brought his weapons to bear.

“Gotcha,” he muttered as he fired several armor-piercing rounds from each vulcan cannon mounted on either side of the fighter. Several rounds tore into the hapless fighter, as he kept on the trigger, firing until the shots managed to track up and smash through the cockpit. The fighter veered off to his left, it’s pilot dead at the controls.

“Scratch one bandit,” he announced into his helmet-mounted mike as he searched for another target. He found one, and attempted to lock his missiles onto the speedy fighter, but the enemy pilot seemed to be one step ahead of him, as it evaded his attempts. He finally got a lock and let loose with several missiles. The enemy fighter disintegrated as the explosion engulfed it. What he realized was the other fighter led right into the guns of an enemy warship.

“Damn,“ he cursed as he attempted to avoid the barrage of missiles and lasers, but it was no use. One of the lasers struck the rear of his fighter, coring through the rear of it and causing the engines to explode. He franticly grabbed the ejection handle, which would eject the entire cockpit. He pulled, but it was too late, as the fighter burned up, and him along with it.

Heading back to his quarters, Aidan casually walked down the corridor. He unconsciously rubbed his left arm, where there was a long, jagged scar that ran down from his shoulder to just above his elbow. He had gotten it in the explosion that took the life of Sakura, the only person he deeply cared about. He noticed a pair of dread pilots walking down the same corridor as him, only going the opposite way. They seemed to be talking about something amusing, as one of them was laughing.

The one on his left was a young woman with long teal hair. The other was slightly shorter, and also had really short, black hair. The one that got his attention was that a single lock of her hair was a dark red. They both stopped talking and looked over at him. He simply nodded to them as they walked by.

Although something was nagging at him, one of those women seemed familiar, the one with the short hair. Something about that woman was definitely familiar, he just couldn’t place it.

What is it? Why does she look familiar? he asked himself, he didn’t know for sure, but it started to bother him. Maybe I should inform the Captain, or the Commander, he thought as he continued walking.

Well, here it is, Chapter Six, don’t worry, in the next few chapters, things will start to get interesting.