Disclaimer: I do not own Vandread.
Vandread: A Renewed War
Chapter Seven: Decisive Action
Location: Solaris Military Headquarters
Meia kept stride with Aidan as they walked down the hallway where the Lt. General’s office was located. He didn’t appear as worried about the current situation as she was. Why would he be? It wasn’t his home or his war, yet he was willing to divert from his mission to help them out. She wasn’t sure why he’d decided to help out, but was grateful for it anyway. Now she just hoped they could convince this General Albrecht, his commanding officer, whom she had met before during her stay on a Solaris warship.
After she had been shown the video message from Rebecca, she didn’t know what to think. She knew that were the hardliners, the ones that didn’t even want to consider peaceful relations between the two nations. She just couldn’t bring herself to think that Mejale was behind the first blow, striking the Tarak flagship in such a manner. And the following result was a war. A war that no one in her home system was safe from. Which meant that they had to get back and try to put a stop this war, before there was nothing left to save…
“We’re here,” Aidan said, bringing her back from her thoughts. He then pressed a button next to the door, and spoke his name and rank.
“Enter,” came the following reply.
After they both had entered, the man named Albrecht stood up as Aidan saluted him, and returned the salute. “I thought you were on a mission, Commander. What could be so important that you had to come here to discuss it with me?”
“Lt. General, I would like to propose a revision concerning my current mission orders,” Aidan said in reply to Albrecht’s question.
“Revision?” Albrecht inquired. “What kind of revision?”
After a glance from Aidan, Meia took that as her cue to speak. “This,” she said as she handed him the disk.
He accepted the disk, looked it over for a second, and inserted it into the terminal at his desk. Both of them stood there, quiet as he watched the contents of the disk. After the message was over, he took the disk out of the terminal and handed it back to Meia. “And how exactly does this concern the Solaris Republic?”
“After close examination of this information, sir,” Aidan said. “I have reason to believe that Earth is somehow involved in starting this ‘war’.”
“What he means, sir,” Meia spoke up. “Is that we all have reason to believe Earth instigated this war to destabilize the alliance between Tarak and Mejale-”
“In preparation for an invasion, huh?” Albrecht finished, his hands steepled. “This is serious indeed.”
“Therefore I would like to request that my orders be revised to help investigate this incident, and to find if it has any connections to Earth.”
After several seconds of thought, Albrecht came to a decision. “Very well. Since technically, it falls under the parameters of your current orders, I hereby authorize you to do as you see fit in the field. After all, that’s kind of what it means to have an independent command.”
“Thank you sir,” Aidan replied.
“You are dismissed,” Albrecht said. Aidan saluted, then turned to leave, followed a few seconds later by Meia.
Albrecht watched them leave, and then turned back to the paperwork a person of his rank always seemed to have to do, until he was interrupted by a beeping noise from his terminal, indicating he was being called. He tapped the receive button, then spoke up. “This is Lt. General Albrecht, what is it?”
“Sir,” the woman’s voice said. “We have just received an encrypted message via laser-com, and it‘s addressed to you. Shall I send it to your office, sir?”
“That will do,” he replied.
“Yes sir.”
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Location: Grand Council Chamber, Tarak
To say that the entire council of the Tarak elders were in a state of confusion was an understatement. The head among them, Jin, more commonly referred to as Lord Grand Pa, had summoned the Prime Minister to figure out just what was going on.
“So, Prime Minister, how is this little war of yours progressing?” he asked with a hint of contempt. He didn’t like the whole idea of going to war without finding out who exactly was behind the attack in the first place. Waging war blindly because of the actions of one person seemed a little extreme.
“It is going rather well, Lord Grand Pa” the Minister replied unfazed by the scorn in his voice. “The women have been completely caught off-guard by our first series of attacks.”
Before the Minister could go on to further explain the details of the war that he seemed a little too eager to start, he changed the subject somewhat. “So, have you found out exactly who was behind the attack on the Todoroki?”
“Not yet,” the Minister said. “But I have my best men on it, they will find out soon enough.”
Not likely, since a few hours after the attack, you decided to wage an all out war against the Mejaleans, Jin thought. You could have contacted the Mejalean government and worked with them to find the terrorist responsible, but you can’t seem to give up your blind hatred of the women. It’s as if you were wanting this kind of thing to happen.
“That will be all, Prime Minister,” Jin said, dismissing the man with a wave of his hand. He was seriously thinking about replacing the man, but it was too little too late for that. He just hoped that the perpetrators behind the crime were brought to justice, in this life or the next.
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Lord Grand Pa, you are too old and senile to understand the full picture of things, the Minister thought as he exited the council chamber. Your thoughts have been clouded by your third-class son and his ‘pirate friends’. You fail to understand that the women are a race that can never be trusted, not now or ever. The only way is rid this universe of them. That is the only way…
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Location: Men’s Quarters, Nirvana
“What would drive the leaders of Tarak to go to war so quickly?” Hibiki asked Duero, who was sitting on his bunk, reading one of the many books he had.
“I don’t know for sure,” Duero replied, glancing up from his book. “But one thing’s for certain, but it might be that some of the higher-ups are a little less trusting of the women, and saw this as the perfect opportunity to attack the women.”
“But it makes no sense,” Hibiki said. “The Harvesters are still out there, and I bet they’re just itching to pay us all back for what we did to them.”
“And now would be the perfect time, as both nations are locked in a war that would leave them wide open to attack from an outside force,” Duero stated flatly.
“Dammit,” Hibiki cursed. “Can’t they see that that is not the correct path to take?”
“I’m sure some do,” Duero replied. “But I only hope that we get there in time to do something about it.”
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Location: Landing Pad Seven, Solaria Spaceport
Aidan could feel the harsh cold blow into his face as walked across the pad to the shuttle. The weather had only gotten worse these last few hours, affecting his mood slightly. He wasn’t a superstitious man, but he believed the weather wasn’t a good sign. He’d just hope that they could take off before the storm got worse. His feet crunched in the snow as he walked at a brisk pace. It looked as though the crews hadn’t bothered to clear the snow from the pad. Not that it mattered, as the high-speed shuttle didn’t require a runway to take off. The only matter was the shuttle needed to use the catapult to clear the atmosphere.
He reached the shuttle, and he knew Meia was only a step behind him. He knew she had to be freezing, because she had never experienced a snowstorm on Solaris. The winds typically got up to at least sixty kilometers an hour and the temperature tended to get into the negatives, especially at night. Chances are her home planet had never experienced this kind of harsh weather. Once he got the hatch opened, he extended his hand, and helped pull her into the shuttle against the wind. Once inside, he quickly closed the hatch, cutting them off from the freezing temperature. He set the bag he was carrying down and took off his coat.
“How can you live in that?” she asked his incredulously.
“Well,” he replied as he sat down in the pilot’s chair. “You tend to get used to it when you’ve lived here your whole life.”
He looked out the cockpit as she was taking off her coat. Visibility is lousy, and if weather reports are correct, this is only the start of the storm. I don’t think we’ll be going anywhere anytime tonight. He picked up the headset, deciding to at least confirm his suspicions. “Control, this is Shuttle Two-Four-Two, request permission to take off.”
“That’s a negative, Two-Four-Two,” the controller responded. “All flights are cancelled until the storm clears up.”
Knew it. “Well, seeing as how the weather is, the control tower won’t allow us to take off,” he said as he removed the headset, then his handgun from his holster and set it down on the console. “We’ll probably be here all night. You might as well get some rest. There’s a bunk in the back of the shuttle.”
“What about you?” she asked.
“I’ll be fine up here,” he replied. “I’ll monitor the reports and keep track of the weather conditions. I’ll let you know if and when we can take off.”
“Alright,” she replied. “But you should get some rest as well.”
“Don’t worry about me,” he said as he picked up his handgun. “I’ll be fine.”
He watched her head towards the back of the shuttle, then turned his attention back to the weapon in his hand. Due to his status as a military officer, and that this was a military craft, he was authorized to carry it onboard. He pressed the release catch on the gun, ejecting the magazine out of the weapon and into his other hand. He blankly stared at the magazine for the better part of a minute, then after realizing it, put the clip back into the weapon, clicked the safety on, then put it back into the holster on his uniform belt. Before long, he himself fell asleep, the muffled howling of the wind the only sound he could hear.
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What is it about him? Meia thought as she stared up the ceiling. She couldn’t help getting the image of him out of her head. She could clearly tell that he was exhausted, even though he tried to hide it. In spite of that, he volunteered to stay in the cockpit. She knew that he was a relatively complex person, with all that happened to him in the past. There was probably a lot on his mind right now, and it would be best to leave him alone.
“I just can’t seem to understand men,” she muttered seconds before she fell asleep.
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Location: Bridge, Ikazuchi II
“All checks are complete, sir,” the bridge technician reported. “Everything is performing at optimum efficiency.”
“Very good,” the Minister acknowledged. “Head to the fleet at cruising speed.”
“Aye, sir,” the helmsman replied. “Proceeding to assigned position in the fleet.”
The Ikazuchi II was nothing more than the new section completely overhauled to include what was lost when the old section of the ship was stolen by the female pirates. Originally, Lord Grand Pa wanted the old section recovered after they learned that it was still intact and functional. Now, he considered that part of the ship nothing more than garbage, seeing as it was ‘tainted’ by women. The only way to redeem the name of the proud ship was to design it to be able to take on any ship, no matter what it was. This new Ikazuchi was just such a ship.
It outgunned anything currently in the Tarak fleet, and no doubt outgunned anything the women could come up with. He had managed to pass a plan that would allow his forces to invade the Mejalean half of the system, to end the threat they pose to mankind for good. It was only a matter of time now, before this war would be over, and he would be victorious…
Little did he there were forces out there that posed an even greater threat, and some were even right under his nose.
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Sorry for the wait on this one. I’ll more than likely have the next up much faster. And, before you ask, no, I have not given up on my other Vandread fic, The Perfect Weapon. I am currently in the process of rewriting it, and it will be up in the near future along with a new chapter. Hope that gives you enough to look forward to.