Vandread: The 3rd Generation
Chapter 2: The Suspicion
"What the heck?! What's going on? What's the alarm for and where is everyone going?!" Kiata was referring to the alarm that went off during supper. "What do you think about this, Max? Wait...where is, Max?" Kiata quickly turned to Gen, who, in turn, pointed to his right at the window where Max had his face pressed against the window.
"Awesome," was Max's only reply to the site he was seeing outside.
"What are you talking about? What is awesome?"
"Look out the window genius," retorted Gen as he continued to eat his beef steak.
"Gen don't mess with me. I just meet you and you are already pissing me off. I won't hesitate to kick your..." Kiata stopped short after looking out the window to see the massive battleships outside. But, while this unbelievable site was about to play in from of them, what was happening on the battle field was another story.
"I thought we beat the Red Pexis! What the hell is going on?!" shouted Hibiki as he ran through the hallways of The Nirvana to the hangar. Alongside him was Meia, who had just acknowledged his question. Behind them were Jura and Dita.
"I don't know exactly who they are. Do you think they may be stray enemies from a Separate fleet of warship?"asked Meia.
"But it wouldn't make sense for them to move without their power source. The Red Pexis gave them their energy so without it shouldn't they stop?" Jura added to the conversation while trying to catch up to Hibiki and Meia.
"When will the bad aliens stop being stubborn?!" cried Dita behind in last place on the way to the hangar.
"Well, whatever they are we'll just destroy them just like the old ones!" shouted Hibiki at the entire group as they entered the hangar. The foursome immediately split up to go to their ramp spaces and prepare to launch at a very unexpected battle.
"Everyone stay alert, don't let your guard down! A- and B- Teams provide cover for the Nirvana until you see the situation getting serious then leave to join the battle! C- and D- Teams scout the enemy and on your leader's command turn back to cover the Nirvana while switching position and shooting back at the enemy as you regroup with the Teams!"
"Roger!" shouted the teams as they dispersed from the hangar and out to the battlefield only to stop on the attack at something strange...the enemy hadn't so much move from it's position or deployed it's fighters.
"What's going on here . . ." Barnette said to herself.
"AH!!!!" was the sound of Seth, one of the two females on Tarak. She has red eyes and long black hair. Around her stomach and right arm she had open wounds. Her body is covered with a long white t-shirt. Her eyes open furiously as she hold on to her head her nails pulling on her hair. "NO!!!!" The ten year old girl fell to her knees, her body glowing, gripping the sword at her waist. Chidori the second woman on Tarak tried to console Seth.
"Please be careful. Calm yourself. You're pushing yourself too hard."
"AH, I . . . can't, ARG . . . give in to it . . ." Her eyes opened wide as she screamed out loudly in the room. Chidori, unable to do anything had to cover her ears and look on in sadness and despair. Max was still against the window looking though nothing was happening at the moment and his face of excitement was now slightly less excited.
Gen stared over at Max as he began to start eating from Kiata's food. He already had eaten all the food left over from the crew and everyone else.
"Max, sit your stupid ass down. Can't you see that they aren't fighting yet? Gosh, I hope you're not the more intelligent of the two of you. Kiata's already pretty dumb." Kiata glared at him and then noticed he was eating her food.
"Why you dirty, good-for-nothing bastard! You're eating my food!" Gen said sarcastically,
"Oh, this was your food? Hmm." He thought for a minute.. "Didn't see your name on it." Kiata walked over to him and put her middle finger, pointing in his direction, in her food and spelled her name. "Oh, this was your food."
"What the hell do you mean was?!" Gen took another bite.
"I don't think finger- fucking your food would be a good idea, so I'll just eat it." Kiata took her food from him and looked at him evilly. She ate her food as he stared.
He sighed. "You know monkey's aren't really allowed on this ship." She punches him in the head before her food falls onto the ground a moment later from the blast to the window. Both Gen and Kiata cry over the food on the ground. Suddenly, the enemy warship came to life and sent out many of the cube types to attack the dreads. Several got past and tried to attack the ships directly.
Hibiki smiled.
"Finally, I can kick some ass!" He launched forward and started attacking all the enemies that were coming his way. Dita and Meia were destroying the enemies around them as they flew back and forth.
"Why did they start back up like that?" Barnette thought to herself as she and Jura went forward wiping out all the enemies in front of them. It was rather strange that the ship waited so long to start attacking. It was enough time to actually get into the earlier stated formations, and it wasn't something that just happened out of the blue.
"I wonder what's going on with these things. That's never happened before." Meia stared at the warship once she was clear of the enemies. She went onto her communicator. "Team A, check out what's going on with that warship and Hibiki, it's time for us to combine."
"Say what?! Already?! But you just sent them to investigate the warship. Whaddaya need me for?!" Meia's glared at him in her vid-com.
"Now is not the time to question me! That was a direct order!" Meia flew near him before he had a chance to decline it.
"Geez. What a spoiler . . ." The two combined into a silver dragon machine that headed toward the warship.
"Team A, report your findings." Meia said in a loud tone.
"It's only enemies and we can't see anything different about this ship," reported a member of the dread team. After hearing what the team stated, Meia nodded and she and Hibiki went in for the kill. Around them all the enemy fighters were still coming while teams A and B were continuing to attack. "Move out now!." Team A left the area around the warship as the dragon dread when for the middle of the ship destroying the entire thing by going straight through the other side.
"That should make sure this ship doesn't come back," Hibiki said to himself. Meia shifted her eyes back to the explosion. Something was very wrong with everything that had just happened. Why the hell had the ship not attacked and then just turn back on like that like nothing had happened. She thought about it over and over as they approached the Nirvana.
"That . . . was . . . AWESOME!!!" exclaimed Max as Hibiki came back their way. Kiata and Gen were still staring at the food that had been wasted.
"Thanks. What the hell are they doing?" Hibiki asked as he saw them crouched over the food. Max shrugged and sat down. Max asked Hibiki what was going on out there on the field. Hibiki wasn't quite sure himself. The only thing anyone could guess was that it could have been a trap. That normally didn't happen. Even though it wasn't a trap, Meia told everyone to be on extra alert if it happens again.
"Man, so you guys actually have to fight that thing? Wish I could go out there and fight. Much better than being in here with those too.
"Is that so?" A tall lady with green hair walked into the room with a metal stick in her mouth. Gascogne, as many called her eyed the new kid. "You must be the kid from Earth. No one dresses like that anymore." She looked around and saw the girl. "And you must be the Earth girl. And that guy," she said pointing a Gen, "must be the intruder everyone was talking about. This family just keeps getting bigger and bigger, doesn't it? Kid," looking back at Max, "you can work down in the registry room if that's ok. You won't be in the action per say, but we make deliveries out there in the heat of the battle." Max smiled a bit.
"You think I can do it? I'd be happy to. I'm a quick learner. Please." Max looked at Gascogne sadly hoping he actually could work in the registry room and go out to do shipments of supplies to these things he'd never seen before.
Gascogne smiled.
"Well, you seem pretty eager for someone from Earth. Of course, you'll have to learn about the dreads, the pilots, and the supplies."
Max sighed.
"Why do I have to learn about all those people? That'll take forever!" He seemed to be complaining. "Can't I just watch them make delivers and find out from that?"
"We'll see . . ." There is a long pause as they look at each other. Max cheers a bit as he is accepted into the registry.
"Hey, so where is this place and can I check it out now so I can get used to it?" Gascogne nods as they walk off out of the mess hall.
"By the way, I'm Gascogne."
"Hmm, well I guess that leaves just you and me Kiata. Maybe we should get some alone time while we're at it?" Gen smirked as he teased her and wound up making her blush.
"Don't even think about it." She knew she was blushing and she turned her back to him only to have him wrap his arms around her teasingly.
"Well, I guess you're right. With a butt this small I don't think you can do anything." He backed up as she tried to hit him.
"You know what? You can go fuck yourself."
"Why when I can just play around with you?" Gen laughed a little when she stormed off flipping him off as she walked away. "Any time you're ready!" Dita was still around them and her eyes were sparkling as she stood beside him. When he noticed she was right beside him, his eyes twitched slightly from seeing her expression. "Uh . . . may I help you?"
"What does that word mean?"
"Uh, what word?"
"Fuck!"^-^ Dita smiled and her eyes were closed. "Mr.. Alien, what does that word mean?" Gen backed up a little bit.
"You've gotta be kidding me. You really don't know what that word means?" She shook her head and still looked at him waiting for a answer.
"And what does this finger mean?" Dita held up the middle finger and pointed to it. "You said, 'anytime you're ready'. What will she be ready for?" Gen sighed and closed her finger down on her hand with his easily and tried not to hurt her but she winced a bit.
"It's only meant for those who already know what it means." Gen closed his eyes as he spoke, and, when he opened them again, he saw a gun to his chest. "Now what? Oh it's that girl from before. What do you want this time?"
"What do you think you're doing restraining her like that?" a very defensive Barnette questioned.
"Look, lady, I didn't do anything so you really should back off and let me be." Barnette raised the gun from his chest to his head.
"Unfortunately, prisoners can't roam free. From now on, I'll be taking you everywhere you need to go." Gen sighed and shrugged as he followed her out and toward the cell where he was suppose to sleep.
"Just my luck to get caught." He mutter to himself and thought, 'I was so close to figuring out how to capture that other Pexis'.
"We cannot allow the prisoners to just prance about as they please. They need to be under constant surveillance." Meia added on to the already started discussion about what to do with the two males and the female. "Even if two of them are from Earth, it still does not dismiss the fact that they are still prisoners and do not belong on this ship."
"Damn, when the hell do you shut up about prisoners? Technically I'm still a prisoner, but I walk around wherever I want. I've been on this ship so long that I've become a part of it. You just don't like new comers do you?" Meia started to say something but then Parfait interrupted them.
"Gascogne has already accept the young boy, Max, into the registry and he doesn't seem like he'll do anything wrong. They can't be treated like enemies just because they weren't formally accepted into the Nirvana crew. It doesn't make since to punish them in such away."
"That may be so, but what do we do with the one who snuck aboard the ship? Certainly we cannot allow him to be free and do whatever he wishes. We don't know how long he has been on this ship, how he got on the ship, or whether he is a spy or not. We really don't even know how Max and Kiata got aboard this ship either. How do we know they are somehow survivors of Earth and have something to do with the harvest?"
"That's a very interesting question, Meia," Magno begins, "but what is your reason to assume that these two people are playing dumb about being from the time when the Earth was destroyed and named unlivable and not from the year 2010?" Meia was silent for a long time. "Give it a rest until we finish the rest of the meeting. Now, Ezra, you said that you weren't able to find any enemy signatures on the radar even though the ship was in our sights and that the signatures didn't start until about two minutes later when the ship was stopped and the dread teams were in position to attack, correct?"
"That's right." At this point in time, Ezra's baby was in her arms asleep. They weren't talking softly, but her baby had gotten used to hearing all the sounds. "There was just the one enemy warship when it first entered our radar. That's when the alarm sounded."
"Don't the people who are trying to harvest us think that waiting so long to attack us wasn't a very good idea?" asked Jura as she leaved over just a little as her boobs started bouncing. "Surely they didn't think we would just attack the ship, right? But still it questions the real purpose behind what was really going on with that ship. It just went dead and then it comes back online? It makes no sense."
"Like I stated earlier, how do we not know that Max and Kiata didn't have something to do with it? They could have allowed the harvester to know they were on board, gave them enough time to allow us to get in formation to learn information on us, and then send out the enemies once they thought they were safe?"
"Meia, don't you remember anything? When that guy Rabat came onto the ship, he was working for Earth and led them to us. He hightailed it outta here as soon as he could because the harvester would have taken him, too."
BC nodded.
"That's right. So what gives these two people the strength to control this ship and stop it from taking theirs? Besides, the way they reproduce is different as they stated when they first arrived on the ship. How could a man and woman from Earth who reproduce in that manner need reproductive organs from other men and women?"
"Why is your suspicion not on our enemy who we know nothing about?" asked Magno, adding to the question that BC had before.
Meia thought a little then said, "We apprehended him after we found a small ship only good for one flight or maybe a few, but not very long distances. We have him in the holding cell and we're going to question him as soon as possible.. He knows more about living in this time than they do which lowers my suspicions that he could have controlled the harvester. Because the ship we found looked like it must have been an escape pod or something relatively close, we can only assume that he was trying to get away from somewhere or something. Until further notice, Barnette has agreed to watch him when he comes out to eat and escort him to relieve himself. This leaves us with one question: how did Max and Kiata get aboard since there are no other ships in the docking bay?"
"You should get a metal for being the most suspicious person on the Nirvana," Hibiki said looking right at her.
"Whatever the case may be, I will find my answers to how they got here and what are they here for. I request permission to investigate Max and Kiata thoroughly and report my finding to you directly. In the event that I don't see anything unusual or out of the ordinary for these two, I will end my investigation immediately."
"I think I'll decide when you end your investigation." Magno looked directly at Meia. "You have two months to figure out everything that you need to know about Max and Kiata. I will not allow you to continue your investigation if I do not see any proof within a month that these two who you consider possible traitors are in fact that. If you do find anything, I'll extend the research to three months and so forth. You will have two other members to help investigate because I don't want any mistakes on your part. The three of you must never be in the same location aboard the ship while on this investigation. You will report findings every week. Is that clear?" She watched as Meia nodded slightly disappointed that her investigation could be terminated so quickly. "Good. Now, to establish who you will be partnered with. I'll allow you two weeks . . ." Meia interrupted.
"There is no need to wait for me to choose who I'll be partnered with. Jura and Paiway are fine and I will begin immediately on my investigation."
"Then with that the meeting is closed." Everyone nodded and began leaving. When it was just BC and Magno, another conversation was brought up.
"Do you really think it was wise to allow her to do such a thing as soon as she gave way to the option?" BC asked in a concerned matter. Magno nodded and kept her hands on top of the cane she carried with her looking at the all in front of them as she thought for a little before responding.
"She did make very valid points and I just want to see what these two are really about. Of course, I wasn't going to allow her to do it by herself, though I'm sure if we just ask Kiata or Max at different times, they are sure to tell the same story. Why do you question my method?" BC smiled slightly and shook his head.
"I was just making an observation of her mind state in the matter."
"Hopefully, I did make the right choice."
" . . . and these are the missiles and guns. You think you got all that, Max?" Gascogne looked back slightly as he was staring at the equipment in awe. Max nodded and smiled a bit.
"So when they run out of ammo and missiles, they order it and you deliver it to them?" She nodded and turned toward him with her arms folded across her chest.
"That about sums it up. We also equip everything when they go into battle and unequip it when they come back in from the battle. We make repairs and sometimes have to get into the dread in order to fix functional problems like visual data or the vid-com they use to communicate. It's really complicated and you need to know how to handle it all. On top of that some of the pilots won't have you messing around with their ships. They would rather do it themselves. Some have orders that are already prepared because it's what they are used to. You'll need to learn these orders quickly because there isn't anytime to learn them all one by one and figure out what we mean when we say something, got it?" Max listen to everything that was being said in awe. There was so much he didn't know about in this time and he wondered if there really was a meaning to all of this that was going on with Kiata and him. He nodded and responded.
"Got it! I'm a quick learner like I said." He then repeated some of the main points she had stated and she was mildly impressed. She laughed just a little.
"Kid, you're gonna work out just fine here. Of course you'll be on clean up duty as well."
"I understand." Max and Gascogne were talking as they went back to the top floor.
"So I can come during the battles and it's fine, right?"
"That's right." Max smiles as he starts to walk out in to the hall but then remembers something.
"Oh, yeah. Does that other green-haired girl with the gun have a dread, too?"
"Hmm, you mean Barnette? Yeah she has one. Why?"
"Just curious." Both Gascogne and Max hear two voices calling his name. Max turns around and looks and sees a different blue-haired girl with a ponytail running toward him. He laughed a bit nervously and put his hand on the back of his head. "Uh, ACK!!" Another girl jumped on him back, however, this girl was very light and he was able to regain his balance before the blue-haired girl reached him. "Uh who are you two?" The girl on his back had a frog bag object and she was speaking through it."
Ribbit. That's Misty and this girl here is Paiway. Ribbit." She started speaking from her own voice. "What are you doing down here? You're suppose to be upstairs with the other males."
"Hi, Max. I heard you're from planet Earth." She giggled a bit. "I'm Misty. So you do know about all the emotions and everything that girls and guys feel for each other?"
"Uh, yeah. What's your point?" Max raised him eyebrow. "Uh and can you get off me please?" Paiway did as she was asked, not because he asked but because she and Meia were not suppose to be near each other while she was investigating.
"Ribbit. Bye."
"Anyway, I was just making sure. Well I gotta run. Bye." Misty ran off after Paiway giggling. Max was a little confused as he looked at Gascogne who merely shrugged not knowing what had happened just now.
"Thanks for giving me the job and everything.. I appreciate it. Bye."
"Take care." She waved. "Smart kid. Hopefully he won't leave me like Hibiki did." She smiled. "Alright people. We still have three ships to fix."
"Yes Ma'am!" sounded the mono tone Crew.Max walked down the hallway trying to figure out what the heck was up with those two girls. He kept wondering what was going on. He shrugged it off and walked toward the prisoner's quarters where he would be staying with the other few males on the ship. He wasn't sure why but he had the strange feeling that he was being followed. As he turned the corner, he let his eyes shift toward the hallway he was just on. Meia and Paiway had a talk before she was walking down the hall. Paiway didn't think there was anything wrong with these two ending up here. In fact, she thought it was good to have them here. She thought that the one who Meia should have been investigating was Gen. It didn't matter that he was from their time. That was the reason that you were suppose to investigate him being here rather people who don't even belong in the same time. Meia didn't care. She tried to stay hidden as she saw Max turning. Hopefully she hadn't been spotted. Unfortunately, she was. Max sighed a bit, but continued to keep walking. He started staring at the floor wondering why she was following him. It was actually starting to creep him out. When he looked up he saw Dita coming his way.
"Oh, hi there Dita."
"Hello there, Mr. Alien. How are you?" He laughs nervously. "I'm good. Just ran into Misty and Paiway."
"Hey, do you know what fuck means?" Max blinked and stared at her.
"Who said something to you about fuck?"
"No one. I heard Kiata say it to Gen and she did this finger like this." She flipped Max off and he rubbed the back of his head and laughed nervously.
"Well, depending on how it's used, it could be insulting or it could mean that you want to mate with someone."
"Thank you so much, Mr. Alien." Dita finally realizes that Meia is behind him, however, Meia signals that Dita should stay quiet. "I'll have to cook for you sometime. Bye-bye, Mr. Alien." Dita runs off the opposite way from Meia. Max sighed and looked forward upset that Dita didn't say anything about Meia being behind him. She seemed like she was going to at first. He continued walking toward the room hearing Meia's light footsteps behind him. She should leave him alone and stop trying to stalk him. He looked up just in time to keep himself from running into Barnette and Jura.
"Hey. It's Barnette, right? Nice gun. It looks a little dull though."
"Hmm, you think so?" Barnette took out her gun and looked at it. 'Gotcha,' Max thought to himself as he saw the reflection of Meia in the gun. 'Why the hell is she following me and how come no one will say anything? Could it be that these people aren't as nice as we thought?'
"You're right I'll polish it really soon." Jura sighed as she looked at Barnette.
"Let's get outta here. It's a bit crowded. See you around, Max." Jura waved as they walked past him. She looked up and saw Meia and said lowly, "You really should figure out what your intentions should be..."
Plot Writer: Bennie
Story Writer/ Editor: C.C.