Disclaimer: I don’t own Vandread.

Vandread: The Unknown Soldier

Chapter Eight: Wolf in the Fold, Part One

Location: Men’s Quarters

Lying on his bunk, Aidan stared blankly at the ceiling, contemplating what Meia had said to him earlier that day. She heard about Aidan’s suspicions concerning a particular Dread pilot named Reika, from the Captain. She told him several weeks ago she had a dream where a faceless woman killed several of the crewmembers and almost her with a weapon Meia said she could not recognize. It was disturbing, to say the least.

So, it is possible this Reika is from Solaris, or some other planet, he thought bitterly. But why does she seem so damn familiar?

He continued to contemplate on that until the distracting noise of someone snoring loudly reached his ears. He tried to think, but he couldn’t concentrate. He looked around and saw that it was Bart. That moron is as annoying asleep as he is awake. He resisted the urge to pick up something and chuck it at him. He laid his head back and closed his eyes, and it wasn’t long before he was asleep as well.

BC went over the footage again and again, and it wasn’t pleasing. The footage was taken from a hidden camera in engineering, and it caught on tape the black and red haired Reika doing something at a computer terminal. Due to the angle of the camera, it didn’t show what she was doing at that console.

This isn’t good, what is she doing there? BC thought.

After viewing the footage a few more times, BC came to a conclusion. She probably was stealing information about the Paksis Pragma. And possibly the data on the Vanguard and the three Dreads. Then again she could be doing something else.

“I’m going to have to inform the Captain about this,” BC said and shut down the data reading unit.

Aidan stood in the conference room along with Meia, the Captain, BC and Gascogne. He stared at the footage as it was playing.

“So what do you think she is doing?” asked to anyone in general.

“She probably was stealing information on the Paksis Pragma, Nirvana, and the Vandreads,” BC reported.

“Perhaps,” Aidan replied, but I don’t think that is what she is doing.”

“Then what else do you do you think Reika is doing?” Gascogne asked.

This time it was Meia who answered. “She might have uploaded a virus or something similar.”

“That’s exactly what I thought,” Aidan said as he paused the recording and zoomed in on the noteputer she was holding. “That noteputer says uploading, so she’s not downloading anything.”

“So what exactly is she uploading then?” Magno asked.

“Like Meia said before, she is probably uploading a virus of some kind into the ship’s main system,” Aidan said.

“So we should initiate a search through the main system to try and locate it before it takes effect,” BC said.

“That’s what I’d do,” he replied.

“So what do we do about Reika?” Meia asked.

“I’d like to speak with the young woman,” Magno said.

“Is that wise, Captain?” BC protested.

“Don’t worry I’ll have two security personnel escort her, and Aidan could stay here, too, as it might concern him.” Magno replied.

She stood quietly over the bed where a bunch of equipment was laid out. There were several throwing knives, a few daggers and a needle pistol, as well as a few clips of ballistic polymer for it. The name Reika Kiyaga was a cover, she’d killed the real person with that name and took her place. Now she was about to carry out her mission, to assassinate Maria Shakov, daughter of the later Prime Minister of Solaris. She was going to kill her and anyone else in the way, activate a virus that would shut the ship down, and then she’d escape via Dread fighter to a small waypoint where she would be picked by a friendly vessel.

There had been a slight problem, the woman named Jennifer found out just a few minutes ago. She was silenced, her neck broken. Time to get to work. She removed her Dread pilot suit and put on some form-fitting leather pants, as well as a tight-fitting t-shirt. She put on a jacket that was specially made to hold concealed weapons, mainly her knives. She inserted the knives in their slots in the sleeves, and put the small dagger in it’s sheath at the small of her back. She picked up the needler, and charged it.

The one she carried was made on Solaris, it was small and compact. Needlers were a particularly nasty weapon. They fired hundreds of tiny needle-like flechettes shaved from an ammo block of polymer. She inserted it into it’s holster inside the jacket. She finished dressing and as she was about to make her move, she heard several knock on the door. She put on a normal face and opened the door. She saw two security guards standing in the doorway.

“Are you Reika Kiyaga?” the brown-haired one asked.

“Yes, is something wrong?” she replied.

“No, the Captain would like to speak with you,” the other one with short orange-red hair said.

“The Captain, what does the Captain want with me?” she innocently asked.

“If you would come with us, please,” the brown-haired one said.

“Alright,” she said as she walked out into the corridor.

“This way,” they pointed, and she proceeded as they took up positions behind her their laser rings pointed at her back.

Have they caught on to me? She casually put her hands in front of her and presses a button on what appeared to be a watch. Change of plans.

Barnette casually walked down the corridor as she saw one of the Dread pilots being escorted by a couple of security personnel.

Probably taking her to the Captain, she thought.

Her and the pilot made eye contact as they crossed paths, and Barnette got a chill when she looked into her eyes. They were cold, ice cold. She continued walking away from them. She had no idea of what was going to happen very soon.

Aidan leaned against the wall of the conference room, eyes half-closed as he waited for the guards to escort this Reika here, if that was even her real name. He just stood there, waiting until something jolted him up. He remembered the explosion that killed Sakura, no wait is was something before that. Just before the explosion, he was walking towards the barracks, and he crossed paths with a young woman in a blue and black jumpsuit. She had short black hair, with a red streak. It was then that he realized who she really was and what she was here for. She was going to kill Maria.

“Dammit!” he cursed as he bolted out the door, gun in hand, just before all power in the ship died.

Just as the power died, the two security guards were caught off guard by what just happened. Taking advantage of this, Reika did and about face and hooked her foot behind the red-headed guard’s knee and tripped her. Before the brown-haired one could act, she drove a fist into her stomach. She doubled over with a gasp, as Reika drew her needler.

“Say goodbye,” she said to the brown haired one as she pulled her closer and pressed the needler against her neck. She squeezed the trigger. The needle-like flechettes tore through her neck and out the back, spraying the area with blood. She collapsed, holding her throat as blood continued to spurt out.

“Damn you!” the other one said as she fired her laser ring. Reika knocked her arm to the side, throwing the shot off mark.

“I’m only doing my job,” she said as she lined the needler up to her and pulled the trigger twice. The razor-like darts tore through her and she collapsed in a pool of blood.

“Now it’s time to find my target,” she said as she moved on.

Finished.. FYI- Every time I typed flechettes, spell check changed it to falsettos. Part Two of Wolf in the Fold up next.