Disclaimer: As it stands, I don’t own Vandread, nor will I ever, but I do claim all characters, equipment, ships, weapons, mecha, etc. that I created for this and my other stories.
Author’s Note: Finally, the long awaited sequel to The Unknown Soldier. This one is entitled A Renewed War, and guess what? It has war! But seriously, this one won’t be updated as frequently as the revised version of The Unknown Soldier was. The reason for this is because I am coming up with the content from scratch, as opposed to having to revise a currently existing story. But I will try to update this as frequently as I can, hopefully at least once a week.
Vandread: A Renewed War
Prologue: Reassignment
Location: War Memorial Cemetery, Solaria (Capitol City), Solaris
“Damn, I don’t like the cold,” Aidan Mercer muttered as he walked across the snow covered walkway of the cemetery. It had only gotten colder in the last few days, with a steady snowfall covering the ground the day before. On Solaris, winter started a few months before what was considered ‘standard’ on the Earth of long-ago. He shivered internally again as another cold gust of wind blew by him. Even wearing a long overcoat and gloves couldn’t completely shield him from the cold.
Another reason for him to dislike winter was the fact that the scars on his body started to act up whenever there was a rapid change in temperature. The worst seemed to be the one on his left arm. He paused and reached down into his pocket and pulled out the identification tags that had belonged to Sakura, a person whom he had fallen in love with but was later killed by a terrorist bomb. That was three years ago. He stared at the tags for a moment, then put them back into his pocket. He started walking along the pathway again, thinking over the events of the past few weeks.
Pretty much the entire EDA had been wiped out or captured, and whatever remnants that were left were being hunted down by the Solaris Defense Forces. A new government had been installed, with Maria Shakov elected to lead the new Solaris Republic. He thought it kind of strange, only because of her age. She was normally too young for a political appointment, but these were strange times. The military was also going to get a major overhaul, and chances are he was going to be reassigned.
And what of the people he had met? He had come across a group of pirates when the ship he was on was jumped into a system that wasn’t its destination. That was due to the damage the ship sustained before it jumped. He currently was acting as bodyguard to Maria Shakov, who was now this nation’s leader. At first, he had attacked them, believing their intentions to be hostile. He’d later learned that was not true. They accepted him and Maria onboard their ship, and later decided to help fight the EDA, although only really after an incident with an assassin.
And a person in particular he had gotten to know better than any of the others from the ship called the Nirvana. Her name was Meia. He did not completely know why, but she seemed to remind him of Sakura. He stopped his train of thought when he saw someone standing near his destination, obviously a woman by appearance. It took him a few seconds, but he recognized the person standing there.
“It’s been a while,” he said to the person.
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Location: Dread Hangar, Meia’s Dread
It felt good to be back in a familiar place, Meia thought. After all she had experienced in that last conflict, it felt good to be back in her element. She was no ground soldier, she was a pilot. She had adapted rather quickly to the task, but that was given to necessity. As her Dread had been captured, she had no choice to join Aidan and a couple of special forces teams on a mission to recover it, as well as data, then destroy the place. They had pulled off the mission, but at a significant cost. One team almost completely wiped out, and half of Aidan’s team wounded or killed.
Luckily, both she and Aidan had made it out alive, and most of Aidan’s team as well. Her thoughts strayed a little bit while she was checking the controls in her cockpit. She really wanted to test her craft out after it was through with maintenance, but due to Solaris military forces still on alert and limiting travel near the planet, she couldn’t do that right away. The only way she was if she got express permission from the higher-ups in the military, and chances are they would deny her request. So the test flight could wait.
“Hey! Dear Sister!” Misty called from the deck, several meters below.
“What is it?” she called back, leaning slightly over her cockpit to see Misty.
“It’s time for lunch!” Misty called back. “You comin’ or not?”
“Give me a minute,” she replied as she checked over her fighter’s controls one more time.
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Location: War Memorial Cemetery
Upon hearing his voice, the woman turned around, recognition, as well as a little bit of surprise on her face. “Aidan, is that you?”
“Yes, it is, Andrea,” he replied. “How’ve you been?”
“I’m fine,” she replied. “Did you come here to pay your respects?”
“Yes,” he replied. “I guess we had the same thing in mind.”
“Where’s Sakura?” she asked. “I thought she’d be with you.”
Aidan couldn’t completely hide the look on his face when she mentioned Sakura. “She… passed away three years ago.”
“Oh,” she replied, shock on her face. “I’m sorry… I didn’t know.”
“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I understand.”
He noticed a little girl hiding behind her mother’s legs, seemingly shy around the stranger her mother was talking to. Hs tugged on her mother’s coat and pointed to him. “Mommy, who’s that?”
“That’s Aidan, dear,” she replied, looking down at her daughter, Alexia. “He’s one of Daddy’s friends.”
“Daddy’s friend?” Alexia said, still looking up at him shyly. Her father’s name was Dirk, and he had died almost four years ago, in the Battle of Augusta. After saving Aidan’s life at the cost of his own, Aidan had buried him in the city. As the city of Augusta was razed from orbit, signs of his grave no longer existed. The grave here was more of a memorial to him.
“Yes,” he replied, forcing himself to smile. “It’s nice to meet you, Alexia.”
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Location: Solaria, Solaris
“Come on, Mr. Alien!” Dita called behind her as Hibiki followed her down the street.
“I’m coming,” he replied with slight disinterest. “Sheesh, she’s a real pain sometimes.”
They were walking down one of the many streets of Solaria, the capitol city of this planet. As the Nirvana was in need of more supplies, Maria, now head of the government, allowed them all the supplies they would need. Dita volunteered to come along, and insisted that Hibiki do so as well. He decided he’d come along, if only to get away from the ship for a short period of time, as well as have solid ground under his feet again. While they were here, Dita wanted to go into the city, just to look around. She had dragged him along.
“Wow! Would you look at how big this place is?” she exclaimed, staring up at the buildings, some of which towered several stories.
He had to admit, the city was rather impressive, built to standards that looked somewhat similar to that of Earth in the early twenty-first century, but more modernized. He shivered again as another cold breeze blew past him. They were both required to wear cold weather attire, to prevent them from freezing. He had never really experienced this kind of weather before, and he was beginning to dislike it. He shivered, but it was mostly unnoticed as he was wearing a heavy coat.
He continued to follow Dita, who seemed to be preoccupied with the various shops and other places in this part of the city. He took his gaze off her for a few seconds, noticing a pair of people walking down the street. It was a man and a woman, and they had their arms around each other’s waists. He had expected something like this on a planet where men and women cohabitate, but he was still caught slightly off-guard by it. They both seem happy together…
He looked away from them, not wanting to be caught staring. He looked back over to where Dita was, urging him to catch up to her. “Come on! Hurry up, Mr. Alien!” she called.
“I’m comin’” he called back, flushing with embarrassment because of her use of that nickname. “And can you quit callin’ by that ridiculous name!”
It was then that another peculiar thought had crossed his mind as he looked up at Dita, but remembered the couple he saw earlier. Will we ever be in a relationship like that?
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Location: Nirvana, Docked with Space Station Gloria
“The repairs are nearly complete, Captain,” the well-built woman known as Gascogne reported. “All we’re waiting for now is supplies.”
“Very good,“ Magno Vivan, Captain of the Nirvana and leader of the band of Mejalean pirates, replied. It had been a few weeks since the end of the Solaris Civil War, as people were now calling it. “So, we will depart in one week. That gives enough time for the rest of the repairs and supplies.”
“Sounds okay to me,” Gascogne replied.
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Location: Solaris Military Headquarters
Back in uniform, Aidan strode down the corridor. Once he was back on duty, he received orders that he needed to report to his commanding officer. He straightened the collar of his uniform, making sure he was presentable. He did not exactly know why he was being summoned, but he had a general idea.
Due to the massive reorganization of the Defense Forces, he knew he was possibly going to being reassigned or transferred. It took him a few minutes to reach his destination. Once outside his Albrecht’s office, he noticed something different. So, he’s been promoted to Lieutenant General. Big surprise there.
“Captain Aidan Mercer, reporting as ordered, sir,” he spoke in concise military fashion.
A few seconds later the reply came. “Enter.”
The door slid open, allowing him to enter. Lt. General Karl Albrecht was standing up behind his desk waiting for Aidan to enter. He saluted his commander, and Albrecht returned the salute. Albrecht gestured for him to a take a seat, and he did.
“Do you know why I summoned you here, Captain?” Albrecht asked as sat back down.
“No sir, I do not,” replied, which was only half-true.
“Well, let me get to the point then,” Albrecht said. “I summoned you here for two reasons: the first is to award you the Medal of Valor for your actions during the final weeks of the war.”
“Permission to speak freely, sir,” Aidan interjected.
“Granted,” Albrecht replied after a couple of seconds, giving a slight nod.
“Sir, you know how feel about receiving medals,” he began. “I just don’t think I deserve it.”
“Yes, I know, but this recommendation came down from the Prime Minister herself,” Albrecht replied, handing Aidan the small box that contained the medal. “And it would dishonor her if you to not accept it.”
“Well,” he said, accepting the small box. “If you put it that way, sir.”
“Getting back on track,” Albrecht said. “The second reason I summoned you here, is you are being transferred, to a new unit.”
I thought as much. “If I may ask, sir, what unit am I being assigned to?”
“As of today,” Albrecht said. “You are being transferred to the Space Combat Division of the Special Forces. And you are being given command of a unit that will operating under my jurisdiction.
“What kind of unit, sir?” he asked, testing the waters. “Is it anything like my current unit?”
“No,” Albrecht replied. “It is in fact a much larger unit, something around the size of a battalion.”
“What!” he replied, hardly believing what he was hearing. My own command? After what happened in the last op, and they’re giving me an entire unit to command?
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Well, there’s the beginning for you. Let me know what you think. Also, expect the first chapter of The Perfect Weapon to be up Monday or Tuesday