Embers of Hatred(Violence/Language/Blood)

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Akira110
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Embers of Hatred(Violence/Language/Blood)

#1 Post by Akira110 »

This is the second story in the Cosmic Whispers Duology, Cosmic Whispers is officially no longer canon and instead this duology takes its place. For those of you who are confused as to what a duology is, don't worry, it doesn't come up. A duology is merely what a series of two fictional works is called. Anyhow, there will be spoilers for the books that chronologically come before it so usual disclaimer. If you want to completely understand the story, read One Girl in All the World, The Kindred Night, Harmony of a Hunter, Melody From the Past, and Breeze in the Night. This is the direct sequel to Breeze in the Night

Prologue

40 Years Before One Girl in All the World


Yoshiro chased his half-sister up a tower within Fairy territory. As they ran up the stairs, thunder rumbled outside. Soon they reached the top of the tower, the woman looked at Yoshiro, "You killed my little brother!" Yoshiro looked at his his hand and closed his fist, "You know, standing here, I've come to realize that you were just like me. You were trying to make history, but who's to judge the right from wrong..." Yoshiro drew his sword, "When our guard is down, I think we'll both agree, that violence breeds violence." Yoshiro adjusted his shield on his right arm and watched as Aiko drew her own weapon, "In the end, it has to be this way." The two of them rushed at each other and locked weapons, Yoshiro sensed which way the pressure was going in the bind and allowed her to push against him, releasing by moving his hilt up and allowing her sword to slide downward against his sword.

Yoshiro quickly brought the pommel against her unarmored face, causing her to reel back and clutching her bloodied nose. Yoshiro then quickly placed his blade against her arms, doing a pull cut and cutting deeply into her arms, preventing her from being able to use her sword. As blood poured from her wounds, lightning flashed and the thunder rumbled again as rain started to fall, diluting the blood that hit the ground. Aiko still got up and rushed at Yoshiro, swinging at him with a fist. Yoshiro dodged her fist, the slick stone surface was making it hard for either fighter to keep their footing, but Yoshiro noticed something, Aiko's wounds were no longer bleeding, they had been cauterized. Aiko looked at him, "I'll be the one to kill you, mark my words, Yoshiro! I will kill you!"

Yoshiro dodged Aiko's attack and grabbed her by the tail, using it as a leverage point to shift her momentum towards one of the walls. Aiko stumbled in the rain and turned around, a fire ball steaming in her hand as water hit it and evaporated instantly. Aiko threw the fireball at Yoshiro, however Yoshiro raised his shield to block it. The heat was extreme and caused him to drop the shield, which had become red hot. Yoshiro watched as steam rose up as droplets of rain hit it. Yoshiro looked at Aiko who rushed at him and threw a punch at his face, only to hit the helmet he wore and break her hand. Yoshiro grabbed her by the arm and slung her towards the wall behind him, only to watch her hit the wall and fall off the tower. Yoshiro walked over to the wall and looked over, he watched as Aiko hit the ground.

Yoshiro looked at his shield, which was still red hot and made a mental note to come back up here as the rain picked up, soaking him through his armor. Yoshiro looked up to the sky, "This feels like an omen." Yoshiro walked down the steps of the tower, he could hear the storm picking up, he had just killed his own half-sister and yet, he didn't feel a thing, which bothered him the most. He didn't feel sorrow, nor did he feel regret for doing so, and this disturbed him. Thoughts raced through his head and he wondered if he was becoming a monster that he always feared becoming. As he reached the bottom of the tower, he looked out of the doorway, the rain was coming down heavily and the winds were blowing hard. He walked out to confirm his kill regardless.

As he walked over to Aiko's body, he took off his helmet, allowing the rain to soak his head. He also took off one of his gauntlets and knelt down next to the body. He placed his fingers on Aiko's neck and what he felt surprised him, she had a faint pulse, she was alive. Yoshiro sighed and picked up her body, "I need to get you to a medical facility, even after everything you've done. You do not deserve to die. No one does..." Yoshiro looked up at the sky and let out a loud shriek. He waited for a moment, then Julius landed near him, he placed Aiko on Julius' back and climbed aboard, "We need to get her to a medical facility, we'll have to come back for my armor pieces." Julius nodded and took off, Yoshiro looked at Aiko, "You owe me for sparing your life, half-sister."
Been around this forum for over 8 years now. Everyone I've known has left, now it's my time to do the same.

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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#2 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 1

Five Years after Breeze in the Night


A dark skinned half-human, half-neko transwoman walked through the halls of the Raptors' base, she was trying to get to the office of the Commanding Officer, but she had no idea if the Commanding Officer was even on base. When she reached the office, she knocked on the door and a voice with a thick Elvish Accent spoke up, "Excuse me for a second. Come in." The transwoman opened the door and saw a fairy for the first time in her life, the woman stood there with large patterned wings and her long blond hair went down to her back, Yoshiro turned to her, "Claire, come in, Aunt Anastasie and I were just discussing matters within her kingdom." Claire looked at him, "Aunt?" Anastasie turned around, "His mother and I are real close friends and I used to babysit him when he was really little."

Claire nodded, "I brought the report from the simulator." She place the datapad on Yoshiro's desk, "Here." Yoshiro nodded and took the datapad, going over it, "You score high in the psionic simulations, but, I don't think you're ready for real combat yet." Claire frowned, "Why?" Yoshiro looked at her, "Man, Woman, Transsexual. It doesn't matter, there are only two kinds of people who would be ready for their first taste of real combat. Psychopaths and Sociopaths, and personally a Psychopath is the far better choice of the two. However, you are neither of them. However, I'd like you to stay here, since you do want to prove yourself." Claire nodded as Anastasie looked at her, "Are you aware of Vivienne's tower?" Claire shook her head, but Yoshiro spoke up, "Yeah, I know of that tower, I threw Aiko off the top. I should've killed her when she was broken on the ground in front of it."

Anastasie nodded, "I know how you feel about it, but Aiko has forcibly taken the tower again and I don't want to move against her with my army, because Masaru could see that as an act of war." Yoshiro blinked, "You mean that Aiko isn't working for him?" Anastasie shook her head, as another Datapad hit Yoshiro's desk, Yoshiro caught the scent of Lilah, "Been ten years since I last saw you." Lilah nodded, "I'm ready to carry out the terms of our contract, if you're willing to have me. I've been doing side jobs as a spy for other nations for the past decade." Yoshiro nodded as he reviewed the data, "Welcome aboard." Claire looked at Lilah and then at Yoshiro, "You have an assassin around here!?" Yoshiro nodded as he kept reading, "She's my bodyguard and if need be, my spotter. She's saved my life many times."

Yoshiro placed the datapad down, "I see... this is bad. He's not willing to publicly condemn it, yet he doesn't support it. Anyone that acts on it, is likely to get a declaration of war thrown at them." Yoshiro stood up from his desk and walked over to a fish tank, looking into it, "And if anyone can trace our involvement in the situation to you, Masaru's paranoid [censored] will try to start a war against you and your people." Anastasie nodded, "What are you going to do?" Yoshiro sighed, "What can we do?" We can't call on support. No one in the region can act because of the multiple pacts that were made, it could light the entire region on fire and start all out war on the entire continent..." Yoshiro looked up at the ceiling, "Lilah, can you destroy any and all records of Anastasie ever coming to this base?"

Lilah nodded, "Sure." Claire blinked and looked around, "You're destroying evidence?" Yoshiro turned around, "Claire, I'm trying to stop my homeland from erupting in war. We do not have a lot of allies, the only good news is, is if Masaru declares war on us. No other nation will jump in, unless the Fairies do. But if Masaru finds out that Anastasie hired us, we have all of these alliances, in case another continent attacks us, or if the Menschilche returned. When an ally of a nation gets attacked, that nation goes to war to protect its ally." Claire nodded, "I didn't know." Yoshiro nodded, "Which is why Anastasie is going to hire us off the record." Anastasie nodded, "Claire, you're a new recruit, right?" Claire nodded, "Yes, your highness. I am." Anastasie chuckled, "Though I am the Fairy Queen around here, you don't need to call me that. But you're going to learn a lot more about war as this conflict goes on."

Claire nodded and Yoshiro spoke up, "Claire, I'm going to transfer you to Falke Squadron, the leader there is a friend of mine and she makes sure that all of her pilots get back to base safely, no matter what happens." Claire nodded, "Thank you, Yoshiro." Yoshiro nodded, "The bright side to all of this is that Masaru would think that you're in a Drow base, he'll have no idea you came here to see me. Not to mention, if any questions get asked about us being here, I can fake some orders and 'accidentally' let them slip into Masaru's hand that we swooped in and took over this base as a staging area against Aiko." Anastasie nodded, "He'll believe that story?" Yoshiro nodded, "Man's extremely paranoid about myself and my father, he'd believe that I was secretly a three headed fire-breathing dragon if you told him enough."

Anastasie nodded, "And if the Kitsune declare war on you?" Yoshiro shrugged, "I have intimate knowledge about the Kitsune defenses. They believe they do not have a need for anti-air." He turned to Claire, "So you don't have to worry about being shot down while engaging your enemies." Yoshiro turned back to Anastasie, "You should slip out of here while you can, if anyone asks, say you were meeting with the Drow Matriarch." Anastasise nodded, "Thank you, Yoshiro." Yoshiro nodded, "Thanks for hiring us." As Anastasie left, Claire looked at Yoshiro, "You seem unusually calm about talking about war." Yoshiro nodded, "It's a sad thing, yes, but when you've experienced as much combat as I have, you grow numb to it. It's why I say you're not ready. No normal person is ready for it." Claire nodded, "Thank you, sir." Yoshiro chuckled, "No problem, and Claire..." Claire looked at him, "Yes?" Yoshiro handed her a rank insignia, "All pilots are officers, Lieutenant."
Been around this forum for over 8 years now. Everyone I've known has left, now it's my time to do the same.

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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#3 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 2

Claire walked into the hangar bay where the fighters were kept and she saw a technician working on one of them in particular. She walked over to the fighter and saw her name, freshly painted on it, before she knew it, she heard a voice speak up, "You must be the new pilot." Claire wheeled about and saw a Mus woman standing there, the woman had the insignia of a Lieutenant Colonel, "Yes, I am." The Mus extended her hand, "Nice to meet you, I'm Kari Fretheim, leader of the Falke squadron. You look a little green, but I'm sure you can handle yourself." Claire shook her head as she took Kari's hand and shook it, "I can assure you that I'm in good health." Kari smiled, "Green is a military term, Claire. It means that you're inexperienced. You've made high marks in the simulators, but things out in the field are far different."

Claire nodded, "I've been informed." Kari nodded, "That's good." Kari motioned towards a room, "Perhaps you would like to go meet the other pilots, they're currently in the lounge." Claire nodded, "What about you?" Kari looked up at one of the fighters, "I need to make sure that the mechanics did a good job on all of the fighters, Claire, as Squad leader, I'm responsible for the lives of everyone in my squadron." Claire nodded and walked to the lounge, she saw the other pilots through the window and walked in. One of the pilots, a male Mofeta turned and looked at her, "So you're the new twelve." Claire nodded, "Yes, I am." The Mofeta chuckled, "I'm Falke Two. It is an irony that I'm here." A Kani woman shook her head, "Don't pay Doroteo any mind, he and Yoshiro used to be enemies at one point." Doroteo spoke up, "Thank you Aliina."

Claire was curious, "So what happened?" Doroteo looked at her, "Where do I start?" Claire shrugged, "The beginning if at all possible." Doroteo nodded, "Did you know that the commanding officer has the nom de guerre of Grim Reaper?" Claire shook her head, "No, I didn't." Doroteo smile, "He has that particular name because of his reputation. One minute, you're relaxing at base, the next an alarm goes off. When you go to investigate. You figure out quick that there's a sniper out there, but by that time, it's too late, he's already packed up and left. As for me, I was riding in a jeep with my new commanding officer and his executive officer around the base, I was being given a tour, next thing we knew, the Commanding officer had been shot in the head. The driver sped up to try to get away, but the executive officer was shot in the head as well. The driver panicked and crashed into a wall, the impact killed him, but I survived."

Claire sat down in an empty seat as Doroteo continued, "I was scared, time seemed to slow down and I was waiting for my turn. Death never came for me, it wouldn't be until four years ago that I met the man who did that. When he came before me, I realized it was him, fairly immediately. I was frightened, but when he saw down, he placed his sword on the table. I knew what this meant from Kensei, he wanted to negotiate with me. It's how I got here." Claire nodded, "So you were asked to be here?" An elvish woman spoke up, "Hi, I'm Enaistiel Elertaur, I'm Falke Eleven. Doroteo is the only person here that was ever personally asked by Yoshiro to be here, and that's really only because Yoshiro felt guilty for scaring him to the point where he actually [censored] his pants."

Doroteo shot a glare at her as a male fairy spoke up, "I'm Falke four, Clovis Fortier, it's nice to meet you, Claire." Claire nodded, "Likewise." The introductions continued and Claire felt welcomed into the squad, it was nice for people who were considered the best pilots that the Raptors had to offer were so welcoming to her, despite the fact that she only had simulator training. Once all of the introductions were finished, Claire looked around, "So what do we do when we're not on duty, do we just stay in this area?" Enaistiel shook her head, "No, pilots are permitted to go anywhere on base, however, we're always on call. We live near the hangar bay in order to make it easier for us to scramble at a moment's notice." Claire nodded, "That's good. Though I do have one more question."

Kari walked in and sighed, "Going to have to put that on hold, Claire, I'm sorry. Listen up everyone, we've been given a mission to undertake first thing in the morning, one week from now. Yoshiro is having his people 'hack' into the database of the Fairies, so that we can have some intel on our foes. However, what we know about the extent of their territory, is that there's an old Mofetian fort in the way, it has been taken over by forces wearing Imperial Kitsune Armor and using the same kind of gear. We're going to have to soften up the defenses in order for the ground forces to be able to take it from our enemy." Claire nodded as Kari looked at her, "Claire, your fighter will be equipped with air-to-ground missiles, your job will be to take out enemy vehicles."

Claire nodded again, "Understood, Kari." Kari smiled, "We are not expecting any sort of anti-air resistance, though there might be some as the Mofeta have in the past been at war with the fairies. Anyhow, everyone knows their role from the last time, yes?" Everyone nodded and Claire nodded as well as Kari nodded with them, "Good, it would not do for my pilots to forget what they were supposed to do in the middle of the mission. Anyhow, you're all dismissed and free to enjoy the rest of the week however you wish. Remember, be here at 0400 hours in exactly seven days." Claire smiled slightly and stood up, "I think I'm going to go to the hologram room." Kari nodded, "Good idea, Claire, but keep in mind that you'll want to start going to sleep earlier, or getting some caffeine." Claire nodded, "I will." Kari smiled, "Good."
Been around this forum for over 8 years now. Everyone I've known has left, now it's my time to do the same.

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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#4 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 3

A week had passed and Yoshiro sat at his desk, reading reports. This was the most boring part of the job for him, but because of his position in the base, he had little choice in the matter. He sighed and placed his hand on his chin, he was the son of Project Kawal, he belonged out there on the battlefield when war broke out, despite his hatred of killing. Yoshiro placed down the datapad and Lilah looked at him, "What's wrong, Yoshiro?" Yoshiro sighed, "If I knew desk work was going to be so damn boring, I'd have refused the promotion in the first place." Lilah nodded, "You're restless, I see it in your eyes and your movements." Yoshiro sighed, "I know, I need to go stretch my legs, follow me if you want, if you don't, you don't have to." Lilah nodded and walked over to him, "Yoshiro, you know that I wish to follow you, and that after everything you've done for me, I'd follow you anywhere." Yoshiro started smiling but suddenly Lilah morphed into Rogelio in front of him, "No..."

Rogelio's voice spoke up, "Yoshiro, what's wrong?" Yoshiro shook his head and reached for his drawer, he pulled it open and grabbed the bottle of pills in the desk and opened it up, "Damned PTSD." Yoshiro took one of the pills and swallowed it, he closed his eyes as he closed the bottle, so that he could stop seeing Rogelio in front of him. When they finally kicked in, Yoshiro placed the pill bottle back in his drawer and closed it, opening his eyes, "Sorry about that, Lilah. I've been so busy that I've been forgetting to take my medications." Lilah frowned, "Perhaps I should remind you from now own." Yoshiro looked at her with a chuckle, "So you're willing to become my assistant?" Lilah shrugged slightly, "I'm already your spy, Yoshiro, becoming your personal assistant wouldn't be too difficult." Yoshiro shrugged, "If you insist, Lilah." Lilah nodded, "Where are you going?" Yoshiro sighed, "Anywhere, but this room."

Lilah nodded, "Alright." Yoshiro started walking through the base, he needed to get outside and get some fresh air, even though it was close to midnight and he hadn't slept yet. As he walked through the base, he saw the faces of soldiers who were still awake. One soldier in particular stopped to talk to him, "Yoshiro, sir, it's good to see that you're up working hard, but don't you think that you should be asleep?" Yoshiro nodded, "Yeah, I should, but being the commander of a mercenary nation is a lot more demanding than you'd expect, kiddo." The mercenary nodded slightly, "I understand, Yoshiro, but you look like you haven't slept in two days." Yoshiro laughed, "Four days, actually." The young mercenary nodded, "I understand, it's hard to sleep when war is on the horizon, a lot of people get excited, but for people like us, our worries are what keep us awake. Still, you should try to get some sleep."

Yoshiro nodded, "Yeah, I'm just going to get some fresh air, then I'll head back to my quarters and go to sleep." The mercenary nodded and Yoshiro continued walking through the base. Soon, he exited the base's interior and walked out onto a mountain outcropping. The cold mountain air whipped across their faces, Lilah started shivering, but Yoshiro smiled, "I have to thank my father for the arctic blood that he gave me, I could go shirtless in this weather." Lilah looked at him, "Don't you dare." Yoshiro smiled slightly, "I wouldn't, it'd be unprofessional, no matter how sleep deprived I am." Lilah nodded and then spoke quietly, "We're not alone." Yoshiro shook his head, "We're on a mercenary base. Of course, we're not alone." Lilah shook her head, "No, what I mean is that someone that is not supposed to be on this base is here." Yoshiro nodded and reached for his pistol, only to find that it wasn't there, "Dammit, left it at my desk."

Suddenly Akira's voice spoke up, "You didn't leave it at your desk, son, I took it from you." Yoshiro wheeled about and looked at his father, "Dad, what are you doing here?" Akira sighed, "I could ask you the same thing. I know that you know of your family history, Yoshiro." Yoshiro nodded, "And I know all about you, Dad." Akira closed his eyes and furrowed his brow, "I told my mother-in-law that I wanted to keep that a secret from all of you, but she goes ahead and tells you anyhow, so I guess you know why I'm here?" Yoshiro sighed, "To put a stop a non-existent rebellion against Masaru, because the paranoid [censored] thinks that just because I raised a military to kill my half-sister, that means that I have any interest in overthrowing his government?" Akira blinked, "How'd you know that's what was going through Masaru's head?" Yoshiro folded his arms, "Masaru has always looked at people like us and perceived us as threats, we're super soldiers and unless he has control over us, he feels that we must be destroyed."

Akira nodded, "I know. This is why I came here. Masaru was going to launch a campaign against your Raptors, but I was able to convince him that your target is merely Aiko. However, he promised not to attack under only one condition, my unit comes here and monitors your mercenary group." Yoshiro sighed, "Fine. Anything to keep us from fighting a war on two different fronts, but Father, have you considered the fact that Masaru might use this as an opportunity to destroy both of us at once?" Akira shook his head, "Masaru is cowardly, not stupid. He knows full well of my past and what I'm capable of." Yoshiro nodded, "But times have changed, Father. You're not as effective as you used to be." Akira shook his head, "Yoshiro, I was trained with every weapon the Verbanans had and every weapon the Menschilche had, both physical and psionic training methods were used. I was designed from the ground up, to kill people."

Yoshiro nodded and fatigue started to settle in, "Well, you and your unit can settle in wherever, I'm going to go back to my quarters and get some sleep. Aiko invaded the Fairy territory and we're going to go liberate it from her." Akira nodded, "When's the offensive?" Yoshiro yawned, "In about four hours. Like I said, I'm going to go get some sleep, feel free to do whatever you wish to do, Father." Lilah grabbed Yoshiro and placed his head against her shoulder, "Feel free to close your eyes, Yoshiro." Yoshiro smirked, "No thank you, Lilah, I'd rather wait until we get back to my room." Lilah nodded, "So what do you mean you know all about your father?" Yoshiro whispered in her ear, "It's classified, but considering your position in this mercenary nation, I feel that you can know about it, my father is Project Kawal." Lilah blinked, she knew that once Yoshiro woke up in the morning, they were going to have to have a long talk about this, but her primary concern was getting him to his quarters to sleep.
Been around this forum for over 8 years now. Everyone I've known has left, now it's my time to do the same.

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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#5 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 4

Claire looked at the heads up display on her helmet's visor as she started her final pre-flight checks. Kari's voice sounded over the communicator in her helmet, "All Falke Squadron members, report." Claire heard Doroteo speak up first, "This is Falke Two, everything is reading green across the board, ready to take off when you are." Falke Three was next, "Falke Three here, everything checks out." Falke Four was the third voice, "Ready when you are, Falke Leader." Falke Five spoke up, "No problems here, boss." Aliina spoke up, "This is Falke Six, I'm standing by, boss." Falke Seven spoke up, "All systems are functioning in optimal condition, Falke Leader." Falke Eight then spoke up, "On your ready, boss." Falke Nine was the next one to speak up, "All systems are go." Falke Ten spoke up softly, "Nothing is malfunctioning, but my shield generator needs to be checked out when we get back." Kari spoke up, "Hold on Falke Eleven and Twelve, Falke Ten, what is the issue with your shield generator?" Falke Ten spoke up, "It's nothing serious, ma'am. I just can't realign my shielding. I'm stuck at full fore and aft shielding." Kari spoke up, "Alright, you're cleared to go. Falke Eleven, report." Enaistiel spoke up, "Everything is functioning normally." Claire spoke up, "This is Falke Twelve, pre-flight checks show that everything is working correctly."

Kari spoke up, "Control, do we have clearance to launch." Caladwen's voice spoke up, "Falke Squadron is clear to launch from the Hangar. May you all return safely." Claire nodded, she was nervous, this wasn't like the simulators, despite the fact that they used psionics to make seem realistic. She knew for a fact that this was the real deal, she watched as one by one, her fellow pilots accelerated their fighters down the runway and she sighed as it came for her turn to do the same. She disengaged her fighter's brakes and pushed forward on the accelerator. She looked around as the hangar moved away from her and her fighter continued to accelerate. After gaining enough speed, she pulled back on the stick and as her fighter entered the skies, she raised her landing gear. She quickly found her squadron and fell in formation with them, quickly checking on her hydrogen fuel supply.

Kari's voice spoke up, "We'll reach our objective in roughly fifteen minutes, everyone remembers their roles from the briefing?" Everyone spoke up an affirmative, including Claire. Claire watched as Kari's face appeared on a monitor, "Claire, you'll be with Sigmundr, he's Falke Nine if you remember, you're in his flight." Claire watched as Kari's face was replaced by Sigmundr's, another Mus, this one with a heavily scarred face, "I hear you're part of my flight now, don't worry, kiddo. I'll take care of you. Our job is simple, we have ground forces at the ready, just out of range of enemy detection. Falke Leader and her flight are taking out hardened enemy positions like bunkers and pillboxes, Falke Five and his flight are engaging any anti-air positions. We're taking out enemy combat vehicles, we would like to capture supplies if at all possible, understand?" Claire nodded, "Yes, Sir." Sigmundr shook his head, "It's First Lieutenant out here."

The fifteen minutes passed and Claire followed Sigmundr and the rest of the flight towards their objective, Sigmundr spoke up, "Weapons hot, do not fire unless you have a lock. Engage targets at will." Claire nodded, "Roger!" Claire broke off from the main group and switched her weapons from safe to hot, weapons fire erupted from a tower not far from her position and she watched it splash harmlessly off her shields, she watched as suddenly an explosion erupted from the position and Aliina spoke up, "I got your back, Falke Twelve!" Claire nodded, "Thank you." Claire switched her weapons from her twin pulse cannons to missiles as she cycled through her targets and watched as a Kitsune tank came up. She piloted her fighter to the point where she had a straight shot towards it and decelerated it. She held her finger steady on the trigger, until she heard the beeping become a steady tone and her heads up display tell her that her missile was locked on.

She pulled the trigger and her fighter lurched slightly as the missile launched from the missile bay of her fighter, she watched as the glowing orange ball streaked across the night sky. Time seemed to slow down for her as she came to the realization of what she did, this wasn't a simulation, this wasn't an exercise. This was real, she had just doomed people to die and her heart sank down into the pits of her stomach. As she watched the missile connect, time started to flow normally again from her perspective, "..." Enaistiel spoke up, "Falke Twelve has a confirmed kill." Claire didn't speak, she didn't deviate from her flight path, she was in shock. Enaistiel spoke up, "Falke Twelve, is there something wrong with your fighter?" Kari spoke up, "Lieutenant Prideaux? Is everything alright?" Claire couldn't bring herself to speak, every fiber in her being wanted her to run from this, to go away from the battle. To return home.

Enaistiel spoke up, "First Lieutenant, permission to link up with Falke Twelve and return her to base. Her fighter is okay and she's physically fine, but her medical scanners are stating that her mental state has deteriorated severely." Kari sighed, "I was afraid this was going to happen, Falke Eleven, you and Falke Twelve return to base. Falke Twelve, report to a therapist immediately after landing, that's an order." Claire didn't snap out of her catatonic state and Enaistiel sighed, "Claire, I know that you feel horrible about what you did, but you can't set things right unless you snap out of it. We're your friends and we want to help you." Claire closed her eyes, tears streaming down her face, "This is Second Lieutenant Prideaux, I'm returning to base. I'm sorry." Claire adjusted her flight path back to base, and she saw Enaistiel's face appear on the monitor in front of her, "Claire, I'm going to escort you back to base, and when we land, I'm going to take you to a doctor, alright?"

Claire nodded, "He was right..." Enaistiel nodded, "I know, Claire. Our first battle is always the hardest on us. You take the lead, I'll follow you, that way I can make sure everything's alright." Claire nodded slowly, "Thank you, Falke Eleven." Enastiel shook her head, "Claire, you can call me by my name, we're no longer in the combat zone." Claire frowned and looked down and away, she wanted to take off her helmet, but knew that she couldn't. She saw Enaistiel's fighter come close to her's and she saw her give a thumb's up while hearing her speak, "We're your friends and allies, Claire. We're always going to be there to help you." Claire spoke up, when time had slowed down for her, she saw bodies escape the tank, she watched one of the soldiers who escaped in time catch fire and flail wildly as he burned to death. It made her sick to her stomach and she wished she had looked away, but it was too late, "Enaistiel... thank you." Enaistiel nodded, "You're welcome, Claire."
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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#6 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 5

Claire sat in the infirmary, she had been scanned over and over again, and remained in a catatonic state. She just stared forward, hardly blinking, hardly moving, only breathing. The shock of what she had done was too much for her mind. One of the doctors spoke up, "Well, she'll recover, but she won't be the same person, ever again." A male drow spoke up, "I'm aware of how combat affects people, have you informed Yoshiro about this?" The doctor shook his head, "No, I haven't. I haven't been able to reach him, I suspect that he's asleep right now, Caladwen." Caladwen nodded, "He's been pushing himself extremely hard these past few days, let the man rest." Caladwen walked over to Claire and looked at her, "Hmm... I've never seen someone this far gone though, could it be because of her human blood?" The doctor sighed, "That hasn't been determined, but what we do know is that her brain is rewiring itself, her mind is trying to protect herself by rewriting her own memories so that she will think that someone else fired the missile."

Caladwen nodded, "All we can do for right now is to wait until she snaps out of it, the only good news to come out of this whole situation is that we suffered no casualties in taking that position, there are some wounded, but no one died." The doctor nodded, "The infirmary will be ready to take in the wounded, you can be assured of this, but... the place for her to come to isn't here, she needs to be somewhere more comfortable and familiar." Caladwen nodded "Let's get her into a wheelchair and I'll take her to her room." The doctor nodded and a wheelchair was brought out, Caladwen and the doctor placed her on the wheelchair and Caladwen grabbed the back of it, pushing her out of the infirmary, when he felt a Mus hand grab his arm, "Executive Officer Caladwen Faladhen, sir. This pilot is my responsibility, allow me to take care of her." Caladwen nodded, "Kari, you do know what you're dealing with, don't you?" Kari nodded slightly, "Of course I do, sir. I wouldn't be offering to take this job up if I didn't." Caladwen sighed and let go, as Kari started to wheel the chair down the hall.

Kari sighed, "I didn't know your mind was going to react this poorly to what you would have to do, Claire, if I did, I wouldn't have let you go up there. I'm sorry." Claire didn't respond and Kari sighed, "I don't even know if you can hear me right now, Claire." As Kari wheeled the half-neko woman to her room, she began to think back on her first battle and how her first kill had affected her, she remembered being devastated, but nothing to this degree. But she also came from a military family with a military background, from what she knew of Claire, Claire was a civilian who had joined up with the Raptors. Kari frowned as she entered Claire's room and turned on the light near the bed. She picked the woman up and placed her on the bed, laying on her back, "Don't worry Claire, I'm not going to go anywhere." Kari sat down next to the bed and smiled, waiting for Claire to come out of the state she was in.

Minutes turned into hours and Kari became hungry, she frowned slightly, because she didn't want to leave, so she pressed a button on her communicator, "Doroteo, can you go to the mess hall and bring two trays of food, one for Claire and one for myself." Doroteo's voice spoke up, "Sure thing, Kari." Kari waited, she figured that Claire would want something to eat when she finally came to, and she grabbed Claire's hand holding it. Claire blinked and her eyes dilated, "I overslept... I'm sorry..." Kari shook her head, "No, you didn't, you were wonderful out there." Claire shook her head, "I've been here, in the base the entire time." Kari frowned, she knew what this meant, Claire's mind had replaced the memories of her mission with false memories to protect Claire's psyche and that it was wrong for her to force her to remember the events of said mission. Kari smiled, "You didn't over sleep, Claire. We decided that we'd ground you for this mission. We figured that it would be simple enough with only ten fighters, instead of the full twelve, Enaistiel stayed back with you."

Claire nodded as Doroteo walked in with a couple of trays, "What's this?" Kari looked at Doroteo, "I had our number two bring us some food, when I heard that you weren't feeling well, I had come to your quarters immediately, Claire, it's good to see that you're doing alright, but you need to eat to get your strength up." Claire nodded, "That would explain the wheel chair in here." Kari nodded as she took the trays, handing one to Claire, "Yes, Enaistiel wheeled you to the infirmary, you were very delusional at the time, and when they checked you out, they said that it was a high fever. She brought you back and I took over the watch from her, letting her get some rest. Like I said before, Claire, all pilots in my squadron are my responsibility. Your health comes first, if you're not healthy enough to go out on a sortie, I will not allow you to go out." Claire nodded and Doroteo spoke up, "What..."

Kari got up and whispered into Doroteo's ear, soft enough to where Claire couldn't hear her, "Her mind is fragile right now. She's replaced her memories of that mission with fake ones and I'm trying to make her feel better. The worst thing we can do is force it upon her right now. It'll come back to her naturally." Doroteo nodded, "Understood, I'll head back to my quarters." Claire looked up at her, "Kari, what did you tell him?" Kari turned around, "Nothing much, just told him that he should get some rest and relaxation before his next sortie." Claire nodded, "When do I get to go?" Kari frowned, "When the doctor gives you a clean bill of health. I will not risk your life out there by letting you go out while sick, understood, Claire?" Claire nodded, "Thanks for looking out for me, Kari. I might not even be here if you didn't let me go out there." Kari nodded slightly, "You're welcome, Claire. Is there anything you'd like to do?"

Claire nodded, "I'd like to read on my datapad, I'm not very hungry right now." Kari nodded slightly, "That's alright, Claire, the food will be there when you want it. I'm going to go check up on the others in the squadron, alright? If you need anything, you know how to reach me." Claire nodded slightly, "I know, Squad Leader, and thank you." As Kari left the room, Claire slowly picked up her datapad, as she turned it on, she was greeted by the home page on it. She opened up one of the e-books on it, and started reading slowly, she felt guilty that she didn't get to go out there on sortie with the other pilots, but if she had gotten as sick as Kari said, then it was truly for the best that she didn't go out. She reached over for the fish on the plate of her food and brought it up to her mouth, eating as she read.
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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#7 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 6

Yoshiro sighed as he continued work for the day, it was late evening and he was sitting in his office, reading over the report when he heard the knock on his door, "Come in." He watched as a male Paard walked in, "You should see this, sir." The man handed over a datapad and Yoshiro took a look at it, "Ah, her mind decided to protect itself. We handle our first kill in different ways." The man looked at him, "I tried looking through her medical records, but I couldn't find any." Yoshiro sighed, "[censored], they must have used her birth name on the records." The man tilted his head, "Birth name." Yoshiro sighed, "I thought I was thorough in redacting her files." The man looked at him, "Redacting!? You redacted her files, is she even a her to begin with!?" Yoshiro nodded, "Yes, she is. She has made the full transition and I expect you to treat her with the respect and decency that all living things deserve." The man looked at him and folded his arms, "So she's a freak." Yoshiro stood up, "Hand me your rank insignia." The man looked at him, "I have my own opinions." Yoshiro walked around his desk, "You can hand me your rank insignia, or I can tear it off of you." The man got into a fighting pose and Yoshiro shook his head, "[censored] idiot."

Yoshiro allowed the man to throw a punch and grabbed him by the arm, keeping it extended as he punched the elbow, breaking the man's arm. He then let go and clicked his tongue, a blade pierced the man's other arm and Yoshiro walked around the man, grabbing both arms, "Cuffs." The man looked at him, "I don't have any cuffs you tranny lover!" Yoshiro looked at the guy, "By Amaterasu I wish I could just kill you now and stop your bigotry." Lilah put handcuffs on the man and Yoshiro called out into the hallway, "Security, I got someone for the brig!" Yoshiro grabbed the man's hair and spoke into his ear, "Before you swung at me, I was going to dishonorably discharge you for your hatred and bigotry of other soldiers. The only reason you're alive right now is that the laws of our nation forbid me from killing you, from this point forward, you are stripped of all rank and position and forbidden from ever serving in the Raptors again, I will release you from the brig when the war is over, am I clear on this." The man spat on Yoshiro's boot and Yoshiro growled, "Am I being clear!?" The man looked at him as two guards walked into take him away, "You'll regret this."

Yoshiro scoffed and looked at the blood on his uniform, before he walked back to his chair and looked at Lilah, "Thanks, Lilah." Lilah nodded, "You're welcome, Yoshiro." Yoshiro sighed, "I hate people like him..." Lilah nodded, "I know, Yoshiro, I know." Enaistiel's voice spoke up, "Excuse me, am I... am I interrupting anything?" Yoshiro looked over at the door, "Nah, come in and don't mind the blood. One of our soldiers decided to be a bigot, neither of his arms are entirely functional anymore and he's going into the brig." Enaistiel nodded, "I wish there were less people like that in the world." Yoshiro sighed and closed his eyes, "I've met the entire gamut of those kinds of people. My nakama's father was and still is a racist prick, joke's on him though, he lost his job a while back ago." Enaistiel nodded, "Nakama?" Yoshiro shook his head, "I don't want to talk about him, anyhow, what can I do for you, Enaistiel?" Enaistiel frowned, "I want to know why Claire cannot remember the mission." Yoshiro nodded, "Claire had repressed memories of war in the past. I've gone over her entire medical history, believe me, it's a thick file. Then again, she came from an imperialist nation, who declared war as often as I take a piss."

Enaistiel blinked, "I've never heard it put that way, but alright. I didn't know she came from such a horrible place." Yoshiro nodded, "People were frequently publicly executed. It was a horrible regime, you joined... shortly after we were hired to topple it, I believe." Enaistiel nodded, "Yes." Yoshiro sighed, "She also lived in a region where homophobia and transphobia were not only common, but rampant and celebrated. As was ignorance of other cultures and Xenophobia. Her family was always cast as outsiders, because they were an interspecies couple. Claire..." Yoshiro was unsure if he should share this information, "Claire's a transwoman, who happens to love women, who happens to be born of two different species and cultures, and her parents are from two different planets. She was always hated and abused there... it's no small wonder that when she got the chance to flee, she chose to join us." Enaistiel nodded, "So she wasn't born a woman?" Yoshiro shook his head, "No, she wasn't. As per her request, I redacted her files after finding and taking them from her home nation. I thought I was thorough, but... I guess not."

Enaistiel nodded, "So the reason she's repressing her memories and rewriting new ones in their place is...?" Yoshiro's hand closed into a fist and Enaistiel looked at this, "You don't have to say anything, I got the message." Yoshiro spoke up, "She wasn't an only child, her siblings, her older siblings were executed before her very eyes for not joining the military against their will. The leader of the regime was a monster and forced children to watch their loved ones die before their very eyes to instill fear of him in them. He also did other things that I don't want to talk about... he was... did you know that we were hired to capture him?" Enastiel shook her head, "No, I didn't." Yoshiro sighed, "We were. I was personally contacted with the job. Once the dust settled in the capitol city, I got my hands on all the records the guy kept, he was an egotist and I had never been so horrified in my life. I ordered him brought into the same room as me and told him that his people were going to have a trial for him. He was scared. One week later, he was found guilty, I was his personal executioner. I still remember the look on his face when I put my gun to his head."

Enaistiel gasped, "But you didn't kill him, right?" Yoshiro nodded, "I killed him, I could've done any number of things to him, but I knew it wouldn't have changed the past. I shot him, right then and there, in the head. I can never bring back the dead, I could never undo what he did to Claire, but what I could do was give Claire and what remained of her family a chance at making a new home for themselves." Enaistiel nodded, "I... I had no idea that she had gone through so much." Yoshiro nodded and then Enaistiel frowned, "But why are you telling a second Lieutenant all of this?" Yoshiro shrugged, "None of it's classified, anyone that wants to go look for it can find it. But most of all, you asked. Claire will recover, or she won't. The mind is a tricky thing. Enaistiel, I'm forbidding her from going on sortie until she at least goes to a therapist and a psychiatrist. It doesn't matter to me when she does it, just I refuse to allow her to risk her life until something is done about this situation. As the base commander, I'm responsible for all of you."

Enaistiel nodded, "Sir, permission to stay behind with her?" Yoshiro placed his hand on his chin, "On what grounds?" Enaistiel frowned, "She seems to respond best to Kari and myself, and since Kari is our squadron leader and has apparently already told Claire that I stayed with her while she was 'sick', it would help her mental state." Yoshiro nodded, and picked up his datapad, "Permission Granted, Enaistiel. It warms my heart to see my soldiers looking out for each other, especially in their times of need. It reminds me of... nevermind." Enaistiel nodded, she knew better than to press the subject, "Thank you." Yoshiro smiled and adjusted some settings on his datapad and put it down, "Is there anything else I can do for you, Enaistiel?" Enaistiel shook her head, "Not that I can think of." Yoshiro nodded, "I appreciate you coming down and talking about this, remember, Claire doesn't admit it yet, but she thinks of you as a friend. I see the way she looks when she's around you. She's happier around you." Enaistiel nodded, "Thank you, sir. Permission to leave?" Yoshiro shrugged, "You don't need my permission. Go on, go to your friend." Yoshiro watched as she left and then went back to work.
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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#8 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 7

Three weeks had passed and Yoshiro was sitting at his desk, reading the report of the previous battle, he was glad that the commander of the company had ordered a retreat, casualties were much lower than they could've been as a result of the blitz that Aiko's troops had done against their position. Yoshiro sighed slightly, "She's been getting more and more bold as of late." Lilah nodded slightly, "She seems to have a reason to become more and more bold, you've been pushing her more and more into a corner." Yoshiro nodded, "She's also been retreating into civilian centers, she knows that I forbid the fighters from attacking there. If only we could get some help from the Fairies." Lilah nodded, "But Masaru will go to war with you if he sees that you're building a massive army and we could risk kicking off a continental war." Yoshiro heard Masaru's voice speak up, "Though you Raptors are a threat, Aiko is a greater threat. She took half my military, citing a divorce as being the reason for gaining it. She didn't want anything else."

Yoshiro couldn't believe what he heard, more than he couldn't believe who he heard, Masaru walked into his office, "You'll have to forgive me, bioweapon, if I don't ask for your permission to enter your office." Yoshiro's brow furrowed, "I"m a first generation unaltered Super Soldier. And no, I don't think so." Yoshiro opened his desk drawer and flipped the safety on his pistol as Masaru walked in. Yoshiro grabbed the gun and Masaru shook his head, "I know what you're going to do and I wouldn't do it if I were you. I'm here for a reason." Yoshiro wanted to kill Masaru and now had an excuse to do it, but the potential consequences of such an action flashed through his mind and he turned the safety back on, before closing the drawer, "I don't like the fact that you are anywhere near my base, Masaru. Especially after everything you've done." Masaru closed his eyes, "Your father should've been killed, he should've been destroyed. My family stayed their hand, and you betrayed us." Yoshiro shook his head, "No, I didn't betray anyone, except for Mamoru. Masaru, if you had left well enough alone, we wouldn't be enemies right now."

Masaru frowned, "We are not enemies at the moment." Yoshiro shook his head, "What's the real [censored] reason you've come here, Masaru. I'm not in the mood to continue this roundabout [censored]." Masaru chuckled, "Forceful as always. Fine, one of Aiko's soldiers attacked Reiko." Yoshiro slammed his fist on the table, "WHAT!?" Masaru sighed, "She's fine, Yoshiro, just shaken up. Like I said, half my military revolted and joined Aiko." Yoshiro nodded, "If I knew crippling your military was going to be that easy, I'd have tried to talk my sister into divorcing you, centuries ago." Masaru frowned, "That's not funny, Yoshiro." Yoshiro shrugged, "Tell me what you want, Masaru." Masaru sighed and muttered, "I need your help." Yoshiro tilted his head, "I'm sorry, I couldn't catch that." Masaru sighed and spoke at a normal volume, "I need your help." Yoshiro nodded, "So we've gotten to the point of this meeting. I don't like you, and you don't like me, as of right now, I'm failing to see the tactical advantage of helping you."

Masaru spoke up, "We still have our greatest Generals!" Yoshiro brought up the list of confirmed officer deaths in Aiko's forces and handed over the list to Masaru, "These Generals?" Masaru closed his eyes, "So, I bluffed." Yoshiro shook his head, "You lied to me, Masaru. The only reason I haven't had you escorted out of the base by a squad of armed soldiers yet is that honestly, you wouldn't be coming to me unless you were desperate. Because Aiko has your soldiers, this is seen as a civil war, and thus no alliance can act on any clause saying that they have to defend allies." Masaru sighed, "No, other nations refuse, because they see what's happening. Aiko revolted and has taken Fairy territory. However, since she's attacking you, they won't do anything, even when she attacks me." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "And the Fairies are afraid to fight back, because they're not completely sure that you're on the level. Only difference between you and I, Masaru... is that I have a way to fight back. You came to me, because you need me, Masaru. You have no where else to turn."

Yoshiro pressed a button on his console, "Communications, can you route this console to the communicator that my sister has?" Masaru looked at him, "You... you're really going to do this?" Yoshiro heard an affirmative and heard Reiko's voice speak up, "Your highness, I assume you recognize my voice." Reiko's voice spoke up, "Y-Yoshiro!? Is that you?" Yoshiro nodded, "Yes, little sister, it's me." Reiko's voice sounded more calm, "I haven't spoken to you in a long time... um, don't be mad, but my husband is coming up to talk to you." Yoshiro looked at Masaru, "Reiko, he's already here. I hear that you've gotten yourself into some trouble, courtesy of our half-sister." Reiko sounded sad, "Yoshiro, don't worry about it. They didn't hurt me." Yoshiro nodded, "Still, you are my sister, but at this moment, I refuse to give Masaru my protection." Minako's voice spoke up, "You what!? Your sister got attacked and you're going to be stingy because of some bad blood between you and Masaru!?" Yoshiro closed his eyes, "Mother, can you please patch this into the Public Announcement system?"

Minako spoke angrily, "I'm very disappointed in you, son! I taught you better than this! Akira taught you better than this!" Yoshiro sighed and picked up his datapad, and started writing on it, "Don't worry, the ball is in Masaru's court." Yoshiro quickly finished what he was doing and handed the datapad to Masaru, "My terms and my price." Masaru took the datapad, "... You wish for me to publicly announce that you're no longer a threat?" Yoshiro nodded, "That's my price, yes." Masaru looked at the console, "Minako, is the communicator patched into the P.A. system?" Minako's voice spoke up, "So my son isn't going to be unreasonable, give me a second... and done." Masaru cleared his throat, "Attention all Kitsune in my kingdom. Because of the circumstances before us, we will be temporarily allying ourselves with the Raptors, the newly formed Mercenary Nation. Their leader, Yoshiro Miyamae isn't the threat that I thought he was, and I would like to formally apologize to him." Yoshiro nodded, "In four days, I'll be sending a regiment of troops to bolster the defenses of the kingdom as a show of good faith. Thank you for your time."

Yoshiro turned off the communicator in his console and looked at Masaru, "You signed the contract, but thank you for going along with my ruse." Masaru growled, "You mean that you're not going to send troops." Yoshiro shook his head, "They will leave for your kingdom tonight, and be there by tomorrow morning. I will also send a messenger to inform Anastasie that she is free to attack any of Aiko's troops." Masaru blinked, "I... never actually thought of that." Yoshiro shrugged, "To be honest, like all plans, it has a chance of failure. But it's honestly, the best shot we have right now. The more we push Aiko, the more she digs in, and the harder it is for me to get her out. She's starting to use civilian infrastructure to hide from my fighters." Masaru sighed, "When... when I married her, before I married Reiko... I never thought that she'd become the monster that she is today." Yoshiro closed his eyes, "I'm partially to blame for that. I killed her brother, which drove away her father, and then I put her into a coma." Masaru blinked, "Well, I look forward to working alongside you again." Yoshiro shook his head, "The feeling is far from mutual, Masaru, you have to earn back my trust."
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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#9 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 8

Claire sighed as she was tired of spending time within the hologram chamber of the base, she had been going through therapy for the past few weeks and had been getting flashes of memories of that one day, however curiosity compelled her to head down to the hangar. As she walked through the hallway, she began to wonder why so much had changed and what was going on. However, she ran into one of the Kitsune Royal Guards, "Excuse me." The Guard looked at her and she watched as his hand balled into a fist, "Damned half-blood." Claire heard Yoshiro clear his throat, "I'm not going to stop this, but if you strike her, I give her full permission to break your arm, starting from the shoulder." The Royal Guard looked back and spat in Yoshiro's face, Yoshiro looked at Claire, "You might want to move out of the way." Claire did so as she watched Yoshiro rush the guard and punch him in the face.

Claire didn't want to be part of this fight, so she walked away from it. She sighed slightly as she entered the lift and looked at the directory, "Hangar, please." The lift quietly moved to the proper deck and then the doors opened, as she walked out onto the deck that the hangars were on, she sighed slightly as she walk into one that felt extremely familiar to her, but she couldn't explain why. One of the technicians spoke up, "Lieutenant! I wasn't aware that you were going to come down here." Claire nodded slightly, "I decided to come here of my own volition, I've been getting flashes of memories that I don't seem to recall." She saw a Mus on the other side of the hangar, who she knew as Kari, talking to an elf she knew as Enaistiel. The two of them looked at her and she waved slightly as she walked over to a particular fighter, something had been added to the nose. Doroteo walked over, "That's a Kill mark, something pilots have put on their fighters to keep track of their kills."

Claire nodded, but didn't think this was her fighter, until she saw what else was painted on the side, "Lt. Claire Prideaux." Almost instantly the memories of that day flooded to her mind, she remembered the body burning, she felt sick and started to throw up on the floor and Doroteo grabbed her shoulder, "Hey! Are you alright." Claire nodded and wiped her mouth as Kari ran over, "Get Yoshiro down here! Claire's memories have returned!" Claire sighed as she looked at Kari, "I killed people. I was the one that fired that missile and I was the one that ended those lives." Kari nodded slightly, "I know, Claire, believe me, I know. I was there." Claire sighed, "Why didn't any of you tell me?" Kari looked away, "Because we were ordered not to, we were afraid that it might harm your recovery." Claire nodded, "Thank you."

The doors opened and boot steps were heard, Yoshiro walked into the hangar with Lilah at his side. Kari looked at him, "Sir, I would rather discuss this with you alone." Yoshiro shook his head, "Claire, I want to speak with you." Claire nodded and stood up straight, saluting Yoshiro who shook his head, "Put your hand down, for right now your rank and position are temporarily stripped." Claire looked puzzled, "What do you mean?" Yoshiro sighed, "You're the only person that we've ever trained here, the Raptors pulled people from already established military units, so we don't normally deal with cases such as yourself. As such, I'm going to give you a choice that I wouldn't give anyone else." Claire shook her head, "I don't want special treatment." Yoshiro folded his arms, "I'm only doing this because you are a special case. A rookie, in a mercenary nation full of veterans."

Claire looked away, "Fine..." Yoshiro looked to Lilah, "I need the datapad." Lilah handed him the datapad and Yoshiro handed it to Claire, "This is a letter of resignation, anyone that wishes to resign may do so, but they have to sign one of these. I was going to allow you to, if you so choose, walk out of the base without doing so and joining your wife." Claire shook her head, "My wife is in Kitsune Territory, Commander." Yoshiro sighed, "I'd much rather not be called by rank, but if you're going to call me by rank, my rank is General." Claire nodded, "So why are you offering me this?" Yoshiro shrugged, "You remind me of myself when I was much, much younger. I stood at the same crossroads you did, and I chose to join with the Paladins, but I was forced to walk the path I walk today.

Claire shook her head, "No one is forced to walk the path they walk. They choose to do so." Yoshiro nodded, "Claire, now that your mind has accepted your first kills, you will find it easier to accept the fact that you will have to pull the trigger. However, it will always make you sick to your stomach, you will never get used to the fact that you do it, and you will never get over the sights that you see when you're on the ground. You can ask anyone here, they'll tell you the same thing. The question is, do you choose to keep walking down this path, knowing what awaits you, or do you choose to leave the military and go home to be with your wife." Claire shook her head and handed Yoshiro the datapad, "I'm staying with you guys. My wife isn't safe as long as Aiko is out there."

Yoshiro nodded, "Then I will no longer treat you like a rookie, Claire, you are a full fledged Raptor from this point forward. You will find that you will no longer get any formal training unless we get new equipment, but if you would like to use the simulators, then you are free to do so." Claire nodded slightly, "I understand." Yoshiro sighed, "I don't normally do this. I usually have Caladwen do these sort of things, but I feel like you've earned this." Yoshiro started to use the datapad and readjusted Claire's rank, "Unlike the Humans, we only have one Lieutenant Rank. You're hereby promoted to Captain, Junior Grade." Claire nodded, "Thank you, sir." Yoshiro nodded, "I promise you that we will stop Aiko. Believe me, I will not rest easy until I've seen her corpse for myself."
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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#10 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 9

Yoshiro sat down finally and kicked his feet up on his desk before reviewing the troop deployments for the day, he noticed that the base was more lightly defended than he would like, but with the Fairies and the Remnants of the Kitsune Military involved, he felt confident that everything was going to be fine. As he went over the deployments, he heard a throat being cleared and looked up to see a drow standing there, "Caladwen, come in, I'm just going over troop deployments, sort of depressed that I'm not out there, helping them do any fighting." Caladwen nodded, "This is the kind of work that is expected of a General." Yoshiro looked up, "I'm only five hundred and thirty-one years old, Caladwen." Caladwen looked at him, "I thought you were five hundred and thirty." Yoshiro nodded, "My birthday was yesterday, unfortunately, with the war and all, I don't have time to celebrate it."

Yoshiro heard his door open and watched as Masaru walked in, "Speaking of not having time, what can I do for you, brother-in-law." Masaru looked at him, "Care to explain to me why you broke one of my Royal Guards' nose!?" Yoshiro sighed, "Simple, I told him to stop assaulting one of my pilots, he spat in my face, so I punched him in his." Masaru growled and Yoshiro raised his hand, "I know that you're about to go on one of your tirades, but honestly, your highness, I don't have time for this [censored]. Get to the point, or shut the hell up, I don't care which." Masaru looked at him, not at all surprised about this, but the tone that Yoshiro took chilled his blood, "You sound like recordings of Kawal." Yoshiro nonchalantly went back to his datapad, "Simple, I'm his son. Did me sounding like him ever occur to you when you were insulting me and telling me about how I owe you?"

Caladwen looked at Masaru, "What is this about Kawal?" Lilah spoke up from the shadows, "I'm curious about this as well, you never told me about it." Yoshiro looked at Masaru and then motioned towards the door, Masaru spoke up, "Anything you can tell them, you can say in front of me." Yoshiro shook his head, "First of all, no. Second of all, I want you to close the door." Masaru nodded and went to close the door as Yoshiro spoke up, "When the door is closed, I'll tell you about this." Masaru closed the door and Yoshiro placed his feet on the ground and stood up, "Akira is Project Kawal, a bioweapon project to create a genetically enhanced enforcer for the Menschilche people, he was designed as a Kitsune model and was their only success."

Yoshiro placed his Datapad down and walked around the desk to lean against the front of it with his arms folded, "Despite what one might say about him, the man is my father and I've been digging up what information I could get about his past, as an Enforcer. It's not pretty, though I know for a fact that it's the same man, he bears little resemblance to the person my father is. Dad... it's so hard to accept that Dad was a killer like this, and this is a bit strange coming from a glorified assassin, no offense, Lilah." Lilah shrugged, "Been working with you for a few hundred years, I'm familiar with the job you have as a sniper." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Kawal... murdered everyone that rose up against the Leo Faction of the Menschilche. He was their weapon and he was a damned good one at that..."

Caladwen nodded, "He was present at the Massacre of Ilma Valssi, in the south." Yoshiro shook his head, "That's true, but what the media would have you believe is that he was part of a Menschilche taskforce. Three hundred and seventy-nine people were killed singlehandedly by him. A vast majority of those were civilians." Masaru nodded, "Which is why you and he are dangerous." Yoshiro looked at him, "You married one of his children, is my little sister not also dangerous?" Masaru snapped at him, "She has a pure heart, unlike you! You admit that you're nothing more than an assas..." Yoshiro interrupted, "Don't you dare finish that sentence, you may not think highly of people like Lilah and myself, but we're far more honorable than you could ever imagine." Caladwen looked at Masaru, "It would be unwise to let your temper get the best of you."

Caladwen looked at Yoshiro, "The same goes for you, we are in this war together, and let's not forget that we have a prisoner that said that you would pay for what you were doing." Suddenly before Yoshiro could say anything, the door opened and Akira walked in, "I was going to wait until you guys were done talking about me behind my back, but... remember the guy you beat the [censored] out of three weeks ago?" Yoshiro nodded, "The transphobic soldier that I was going to dishonorably discharge?" Akira nodded, "Yeah, he escaped his prison cell and as far as we all know, isn't on the base anymore." Yoshiro closed his eyes, he couldn't assuage his fears, "I don't know, but this can't be good news, Father." Akira nodded and closed the door, "By the way, none of what you heard about me leaves this room, it's a past I've tried to forget."

Yoshiro nodded, "Father... I'm..." Akira shook his head and hugged Yoshiro, "You're my son, you had a right to know the truth about me. It explains a lot about you. I'm honestly surprised that you're the only child of mine that wound up joining the military." Yoshiro nodded, "Dad, will you fight in this war with us." Akira nodded slightly, "Sure thing, son." Akira let go and looked at Masaru, "In accordance with our temporary alliance with the Raptor mercenary group, I shall join up with them in their fight against Aiko and her forces." Masaru sighed and folded his arms, "Do what you will, Akira, I could never stop you and you know that." Akira nodded, "While that is true, I'm doing this because my wife and daughter are in danger right now." Masaru nodded, "Very well then, I'll fight too." Yoshiro blinked, stunned at this and Masaru sighed, "I'm a king, we receive martial training when we're young."
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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#11 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 10

Yoshiro was startled awake from his sleep by an alarm and watched as a soldier wearing Kitsune Military livery entered his room, before a red spot formed on the soldier's neck, Lilah appeared behind him and he nodded towards her, "Thanks, Lilah." Yoshiro grabbed his pistol off the nightstand and shot a guy behind her, "Now we're even." Lilah nodded, "Get dressed, we need to get you to the armory." Yoshiro simply got out of bed, "I think that I can manage in just my smallclothes, we're a paramilitary organization, Lilah." Lilah nodded and she turned her face away a little, "I know, just..." Yoshiro sighed, "Fine, I'll get dressed, for you." Yoshiro walked to his closet and quickly threw on a uniform and Lilah nodded, before the two of them headed out of their room and down the hall into the armory, where soldiers were gearing up. One soldier in particular spoke up, "Sir, you shouldn't be fighting."

Yoshiro grabbed his armor and put it on, enjoying the draconic aesthetic of it, "Of course I do, tell me, are the Dragon Combat Augments ready?" The soldier nodded, "Yeah, they're in the hangar bay with the fighters." Yoshiro nodded, "Get the people trained to use them in the hangar, you'll know them by their heavier than normal armor." The soldier nodded, "What about you?" Yoshiro grabbed his sniper rifle from the locker and strapped it to his back as he placed his pistol into its holster and pulled out his sub-machine gun, "Simple, I'm going to go out there and kick these [censored] out of my base." Yoshiro closed his locker and turned to look at Lilah, "Let's go." Lilah nodded slightly as Yoshiro walked out of the Armory, "No doubt that their main force didn't get this far in, let's go say hello."

Yoshiro ran down the hallway and found himself ducking into a different hall as the hallway he was in lit up with weapons fire. Lilah was in the other side of the intersection and Yoshiro nodded as he lowered his pisonic barrier to allow himself to use his magic, switching the active element to fire. He peeked out to see what kind of armor they were wearing and smiled as he threw a fireball at one of them. The Kitsune quickly caught fire and started to panic, firing his weapon in all directions, forcing the allies of the Kitsune to turn on him and give Yoshiro the opening that he needed. He moved out from the corner and slowed time from his perspective, taking aim at each of the different kitsune, and shooting at each and every one of them. When he was through, he stopped dilating time from his perspective and ducked behind the same corner as Lilah.

Lilah nodded and the two of them ran down the hallway when Yoshiro heard Enaistiel call out, "We're pinned down!" Yoshiro noticed his father run to the opposite corner and the two of them looked at each other, before nodding and entering the corridor that Enaistiel's voice came from. Suddenly the area became flooded with weapons fire, forcing Yoshiro, Akira and Lilah to take cover. Yoshiro heard a voice behind him speak, "We were trying to get to the hangar, but these people intercepted us. We haven't suffered casualties yet." Yoshiro turned to see Claire standing behind him, "Yeah, I don't think my father and I will be enough soldier to get us out of this mess. You guys know where I can find some gre..." Yoshiro heard an explosion and looked out the door of the room he ducked in to see Akira looking back and shrugging with a grenade in his hand.

Yoshiro gave a thumbs up, and peeked out of the door to see that the grouping of soldiers were mostly dead, there were a few survivors and they immediately focused their fire on his position. Yoshiro ducked back into the room and sighed, "Mind throwing that one too, Dad?" Akira nodded and activated the grenade, chucking it at the soldiers, killing the rest of the unit. Doroteo's voice spoke up, "Ironic it is that you came to save us." Yoshiro nodded, "Dad, you bring up the rear, pilots, you stay in the middle, I'll take point." Akira nodded, "Taking charge, I see." Yoshiro nodded, "I'm the commanding officer, so I'll accept responsibility for my pilots." Yoshiro continued through the corridors, when he reached the hangar and noticed that an enemy unit was already in the hangar, "[censored]!"

Akira nodded, "I'll go in there." Yoshiro started to protest, but Yoshiro walked in, suddenly he heard screaming within the hangar and wondered what his father was doing in there. As Yoshiro took a peek into the hangar, he noticed Akira running between soldiers at a speed he had never seen his father move before. It was at least twice as fast as any kitsune he had ever seen in his life, and Akira was killing the soldiers with his bare hands, he noticed the morale of the enemy forces drop as they came to realize that all the rumors they had heard of Project Kawal were true and they were up against him. However, Yoshiro noticed one of them taking aim at his father and he took his sniper rifle off his back and took aim at the soldier, shooting him in the neck and forcing the shot to miss his father.

Once the hangar was empty of all enemies, the pilots started to move in and Enaistiel looked at him, "Thanks, Yoshiro." Yoshiro nodded, "I'm going to go help out the ground forces, you concentrate on getting in the air. They're here to kill you guys and me, to try to lower morale." Akira nodded, "Thanks for the save, by the way." Yoshiro nodded, "I'm going to occupy one of the guard towers and search for their commanding officer, mind covering me?" Lilah spoke up, "I'll come as well." Yoshiro nodded with a smile, "I wouldn't have it any other way." As Yoshiro ran out the hangar bay door, the fighters took off above them. He watched as the morale of the enemy forces started to drop and he quickly found a guard tower and entered the door.

He quickly ran up the staircase and entered the watch tower, where he saw a single enemy soldier within it. He motioned towards the soldier and Lilah walked over and silently slit the soldier's throat. Yoshiro nodded with a thumbs up and set up his sniping perch, "Keep an eye out for the enemy soldiers." Lilah nodded as Yoshiro zeroed in his scope and looked down it. Yoshiro was looking for someone with an obvious rank insignia, knowing the arrogance that Aiko had. As he looked through the enemy forces, he couldn't find any one in particular. After a few minutes, he was about ready to give up and just start thinning the enemy numbers when he found his target, a colonel. Yoshiro lined his sights up and squeezed the trigger, sending a bolt of hard light into the colonel's head. The realization that not only the pilots were active, but the Grim Reaper was alive was enough to cause Aiko's forces to retreat, if not outright surrender.
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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#12 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 11

Yoshiro walked back into the base after all was said and done, he walked next to one of the corpses and took off his helmet, "Shame, they're just kids... they join the military thinking that they'll be like me someday, then they wind up dead..." He knelt down next to the corpse and closed the eyes of it, "Get a clean up crew in here, we'll bury their dead along with ours." One of the mechanics spoke up, "But sir, that's..." Yoshiro closed his eyes, "We have no idea where to send the bodies right now, we're at war... and they're not going to dare to attack us again. Not after that failure. It's... the best we can do for these kids..." The mechanic sighed, "Yes, sir." Lilah spoke up, "This isn't like you, normally you let them recover their dead." Yoshiro turned to look at her, "Lilah, they abandoned their home, betrayed their military and king and joined someone like Aiko. They have no home to return to."

As the fighters landed, the hangar bay was closed and Yoshiro watched as someone was dragged into the hangar, "He wanted to speak with you, sir." Yoshiro looked at the person, "You!" The person looked up at him and spat in Yoshiro's face, Yoshiro punched the man in the nose, "Do it again, traitor and I'll break your spine!" The man growled, "I didn't betray you, you betrayed me, you let a half-breed tranny freak on this base." Yoshiro raised his hand in anger, but lowered it and grabbed the man by the jaw, "If you want to be able to speak at your trial, I suggest you watch your tongue, before I internally sever your jaw from your skull." The man laughed, "You can't do that, it would take more strength than you coul..."

Yoshiro closed his eyes and blocked his pain receptors with his mind, he placed his hand on the man's forehead and started to pull. The man started screaming in pain and Yoshiro stopped, "Now that we've gotten that out of the way." Yoshiro heard Claire speak up, "Yoshiro, what's going on?" Yoshiro looked at the man, "Claire, this is our traitor, he apparently led Aiko's forces to our base and disabled our defenses so that they could try to kill our pilots and myself. His reasoning for doing so, you." Claire looked confused, "What... what did I do?" The man opened his mouth and Yoshiro glared at him as the man spoke, "You're a piece of [censored], you're just a man pretending to be a woman, who is pretending to like women, who pretends that he's a person in our society." Claire was hurt by those words, but Yoshiro punched the man in the face, "We do not tolerate that [censored] around here."

The man laughed, "And how are you going to stop me?" Yoshiro leaned in and muttered into the man's ear, "Simple, the galactic accords say that I cannot torture you, and that I cannot treat a prisoner of war unfairly. It says nothing about treating my own soldiers who betray me." The man laughed, "So you're going to execute me, here and now, just to stop me from..." Yoshiro shook his head, "No, you're going to have a trial, we're a civilized nation, but nothing is stopping me from repeatedly punching you in the head." The man laughed, "You'll die knowing that I was successful." Yoshiro looked at him, and then realized what was going on. The man pulled out a trigger and Yoshiro immediately opened his mind and poured magic into the trigger, solidifying the light mana and annihilating it.

Yoshiro grabbed the man by the shirt, "Let him go." The man smiled as the two soldiers let him go, "An attempted assassination of a nation leader is punishable by immediate execution, how do you plead!?" The man spat in his face, and Yoshiro used his free hand to place a gun to the man's head, "HOW DO YOU PLEAD!?" The man scoffed, "They already have the codes they need." Yoshiro squeezed the trigger and killed the man, then and there. He allowed the corpse to drop to the ground, "Pezzo di [censored]." Yoshiro walked away from the corpse and Claire spoke up, "That's it, you're just going to straight up murder him?" Masaru's voice spoke up, "He's right. Verbanan law states that assassins cannot go after the leaders of nations and kingdoms, any assassination attempt is punishable by execution when found or on the spot, no matter if it failed or not."

Yoshiro turned to look at his brother-in-law, "Never thought you'd defend me." Masaru walked over and kicked the corpse on the way, "If you died, Reiko would never let me hear the end of it." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Well... we need to change the access codes to the base and get our defenses back online, we need to bury our dead and their dead and figure a way to go on the offensive, we need to recover from this bloodied nose." Masaru sighed and folded his arms, "Don't tell me that you don't have a plan." Yoshiro closed his eyes, "I got woken up in the middle of the night to someone trying to kill me, I'm not exactly doing all that great on the thinking department right now." Claire chimed in, "If I may, sir." Yoshiro nodded, "Go ahead."

Claire spoke up, "While I was in the air, I spotted an installation, I recorded some footage of it, it's on this datapad if you'd like to see it." Yoshiro took the datapad and watched the footage, his heart immediately sank, "Well [censored], this is a Leo Faction Menschilche facility, I thought they were all condemned." Enaistiel spoke up, "Aiko's forces are in the facility, I intercepted some of their transmissions. They're trying to get into a room in that facility and they can't reach it, however, there are only two lifesigns behind the door." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Then that will be our next target. Do you have any issue with this, Masaru?" Masaru shook his head, "This is your operation, Yoshiro." Yoshiro nodded slightly, "Whatever we do, we cannot let Aiko have whatever lies behind that door. The last time she got her hands on something the Menschilche created, we had to fight bioweapons..."
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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#13 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 12

Claire finished up her pre-flight checks before looking out the cockpit of her fighter, Yoshiro's face appeared on the screen in front of her, "Falke Squadron, you will be assisting the ground forces. This will be a special operation, the structure is to remain undamaged. As such, I am heading out with the ground forces as a sharpshooter. Though I haven't lived in this area for the longest time, I'm accustomed to sniping within the woods." Claire nodded and she heard Kari's voice speak up, "Are you sure you want to do this?" Yoshiro sighed, "I'm bored of being behind a desk. They also made an attempt on my life, I want to do this." Kari's voice sighed, "Alright, sir, but what's the real reason?" Yoshiro closed his eyes, "I'll tell you when we capture this installation." Claire nodded slightly, "Major, are we cleared for takeoff?" Kari's voice spoke up, "Ground forces, are you in position?"

A voice spoke up, "Yes, Falke leader. We're ready to start the operation when you and our sharpshooter team get ready." Clare hit the ignition on her fighter and the entire squadron flew out of the base, she raised her landing gear and switched her weapons to active, swapping her chosen weapon from pulse cannons to her air-to-ground missiles, "Enaistiel, do you think that everything will be okay?" Enaistiel spoke, "Of course." Kari called out, "Spread formation, this isn't a Kitsune structure, so it might have some anti-air defenses, I don't want the entire squadron to get caught in the fire." Doroteo called out, "[censored]! Something's got a lock on me, I'm breaking formation!" Doroteo's fighter moved out of formation, none too soon as a missile blasted through where he was at. Claire looked at this as Falke Eight chased after Doroteo's fighter, she heard the pilot's voice speak up, "Doroteo, fly in a straight line."

Doroteo did as she asked and Claire watched as the pulse lasers struck the missile, detonating it prematurely and both fighters escaped unharmed. Sigmundr spoke up, "They have anti-air missile launchers and from the looks of it, they're from before the lot of us were born." Akira's voice spoke up, "They're Type Thirty-Sevens. They're designed to detonate almost when they're right on top of the target, get within the shields and do some serious damage. My team is moving into the base, cover me, son!" Yoshiro's voice spoke up, "Hold on a second... aaaaaand... now, move in!" Claire spoke up, "What are we supposed to do, they have anti-air weapons and we don't have any counter measures. Our job was to take this place, without damaging it." Yoshiro's voice spoke up, "Your lives are important, weapons free, but only against the anti-air weapons."

Claire nodded and Sigmundr spoke up, "Alright, third flight, let's go. Kari, I can assume that you have our backs?" Kari's voice sounded over the radio, "Of course." Sigmundr started flying towards the installation and the rest of the flight, including Claire followed suit. As she got within range, she started to cycle through her targets before finding one of the anti-air missile launchers and she waited for her missile to find a lock, she fired the missile and called out, "Falke Twelve, Fox Three." As her fighter lurched slightly from the missile launch, she watched as the missile lanced towards its target, slamming into the missile launcher and destroying it. She started to feel bad for the person in the missile launcher when Yoshiro chimed in, "Type Thirty-Sevens are autonomous."

Claire nodded when suddenly there was a steady beeping in her cockpit, "[censored]! They're trying to get a lock on me!" Claire immediately broke formation and suddenly the beeping became a steady tone, "Dammit! They got a lock!" Enaistiel's fighter started to fly towards her's and Claire looked at her screen, "Finish the mission!" Kari spoke up as she watched the missile fly towards her fighter, "Enaistiel, break off." Kari's fighter rushed into the path of the missile and suddenly, Claire watched as the canopy popped open and the seat fly into the air, not long after, the fighter was destroyed by the missile. Kari's voice spoke up, "Doroteo, you're in charge until I can get back into the air, you hear me." Doroteo nodded, "Aye, ma'am." Claire sighed, "Why?" Sigmundr's voice spoke up, "All anti-air missile defenses have been eliminated." Kari's voice spoke up, "Simple, machines can be replaced, pilots can't. I was trained for this situation, Claire."

Yoshiro spoke up, "Soldiers, move forward and capture some land so that we can get our pilot out safely" Claire spoke up, "Is there anything else that we can do right now?" Yoshiro sighed, "No. Unless you would like to use up fuel. However, this place does have a hangar." Akira's voice spoke up, "Handling that now, Yoshiro, by the way... this place was mostly built during the war, but there are some curious design choices in here that were from after the war." Claire nodded and then Akira spoke up, "Alright, the hangar bay is open, feel free to enter, most of the enemy forces in here are dead. They seemed to trip some internal defensive mechanisms which seem fairly recent considering when the war ended." Yoshiro sighed, "We get it Dad, you fought in the liberation war." Akira chuckled, "Anyhow, come on down. Yoshiro, you can move your team into the base." Claire nodded slightly and sighed, wondering how Kari was doing, when Yoshiro spoke up, "Major, let's go."

Kari's voice spoke up, "Hold on, I'm getting unstrapped from this thing." Claire followed her squadron and lowered her landing gear. When she got into the hangar, she stopped her fighter and sighed slightly as she deactivated it and took off her helmet, "So this is what a Menschilche installation looks like." Akira looked at them from the ground as Claire opened her cockpit. Akira smiled, "I forgot you kids have never seen the inside of one of these things. Used to fight in them all the time, that takes me back." Doroteo sighed, "The menschilche were responsible for the enslavement of our race." Akira nodded, "Yeah. However, this particular base is asking for my son and won't accept taking me for an answer..." Yoshiro spoke up over the radio, "I"ll be there in a few minutes, don't worry."
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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#14 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 13

Yoshiro walked through the corridors of the base, separate from everyone else. He walked towards the door that everyone else had told him about earlier. He placed his hand against it, and suddenly a needle came out and pricked his hand, forcing him to remove his hand and shake it, not having expected it. He sighed slightly, "All that's happened was..." Suddenly a hologram appeared before him, it was someone he recognized, "You, but you're dead and buried off world." The Hologram shook its head, "No, I'm not. Noah is dead, but he wasn't buried off world, Yoshiro." Yoshiro sighed slightly, "Okay, but why are you here, why are you based off my old friend!?" The hologram stepped towards him and Yoshiro backed away, "Answer the question." The hologram sighed, "I was created by Serpentarius scientists, at the behest of Noah, I was created in his image, with all of his knowledge and memories copied from his mind to my databanks."

Yoshiro placed his hand on his chin, "Isn't brain uploading illegal?" The AI shook its head, "His brain wasn't uploaded, it was more like using a computer's copy and paste function." Yoshiro nodded and looked behind him to see Claire standing there, the AI looked at Claire, "Interesting, a Human-Verbanan hybrid." Yoshiro sighed and shook his head with a smile, "Kari's alright, Claire, she took a bit of a rough landing because of all the trees, but she'll recover with a good night's sleep." Claire nodded, "That's not why I came here, someone said that you came here on your own." Yoshiro nodded, "This AI asked for me, specifically, by name. Which is curious because the two Menschilche that I know of that are alive are my adoptive kids and the other two that I knew are dead, one of which I saw the corpse of in my old castle."

Claire blinked, "You were a king!?" Yoshiro nodded and then turned back to the AI, "I'll tell you about that sometime later. AI, is there any recording of Noah?" The AI nodded and the hologram changed to that of an older Noah, "Yoshiro, it's been over a hundred years since I've last seen you and unfortunately, I don't have much time left in this world, so when you finally get this message, I'll be dead..." The hologram motioned towards the door, "This door will react to your specific DNA and will show you what awaits you within. Ten years ago, I had recorded another message for you, one about your ability to shapeshift and your holy blood. I trust that you received that message." The hologram closed its eyes, "I made it known that I died on the world I founded, in reality, I chartered a ship to come here, to see you one last time before I died..."

The hologram nodded towards the door and the door opened, "Unfortunately, when I finally placed my legacy within this base, it was too late to track you down, not to mention, you had moved from the Sea Elf kingdom and I couldn't find you anymore." The hologram coughed up holographic blood and Yoshiro sighed as it continued, "Before I die, I want you to know that my brother... he found Lathron to be hot." Yoshiro nodded as the hologram continued, "I hope you've become less reckless in your approach to combat, my old friend and I hope that your life will be long and full of happiness." Yoshiro nodded slightly as the hologram sat down and sighed, "Well, the next time you see me, I'll be dead, Yoshiro, just through those doors. A clone of Seth will be on my left and a clone of me will be on my right, all of us in stasis pods."

Yoshiro turned towards Claire, "I told you guys that I'd tell the truth about why I wanted to capture this place intact. I thought that perhaps Seth or Noah had left something for the Verbanan people in this base... they were Leo Menschilche that were adopted into and raised by the Virgo faction." Claire nodded slightly, "So that's why you were friends with them." Yoshiro walked into the chamber and looked at the middle stasis pod at Noah's corpse, placing his hand on the glass, "Yeah... Noah saved my life, a long long time ago. I was a reckless fool when I was younger, it was that event that changed my approach to combat. I was stabbed in the chest by Seth's murderer and lost consciousness quickly, when I came to, I was in a Menschilche facility, with Noah standing over me."

Yoshiro looked into the pod, seeing his friend's face, the Menschilche was far older than when he last saw him in person, "I'm sorry that I didn't know that you had arrived, I would've come out from the Kilvish kingdom to meet you, one final time." Yoshiro walked over to the left pod and turned to Claire, "Seth here, he was my first friend amongst their people, Dad wasn't too happy..." Claire looked into the pod, "That's a little girl, Yoshiro." Yoshiro looked into the pod, "Hey, Noah AI, did Noah get a female clone of Seth?" The AI hologram appeared, "No, the clone is a perfect one to one clone of Seth, why?" Yoshiro looked at the little girl inside, "So Seth was a homosexual transman. Think you know a person and you learn something new. Oh well, this doesn't change my opinion of him."

Claire nodded and looked at the other pod with a little boy in it, "So what are you going to do with them?" Yoshiro sighed, "Wait until after the war to wake them from their stasis, and then find a good home for them. This pod says that this clone's name is Anna, and that pod says..." Claire looked at the name, "Seth." Yoshiro nodded, "Noah named his own clone after his brother." Yoshiro sighed slightly as the AI spoke as a locker opened up, "It's not much, but Noah wanted you to have this." Yoshiro walked over to the locker and looked inside of it, there was a menschilche halberd inside, Yoshiro grabbed it and immediately recognized the designs on it, "This... this belonged to Seth." The Noah AI nodded, "That was his personal weapon." Yoshiro looked at it, "It's no longer functional, but... I'll treasure it."
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Re: Iron Will March(Violence/Language/Blood)

#15 Post by Akira110 »

Chapter 14

It was early morning and Claire sat in the cockpit of her fighter, she remembered the briefing quite well. This was a mission to destroy a supply camp of Aiko's, and that they would be working closely with Fairy forces. As a fairy fighter approached her own, a picture appeared on her screen, "Raptor Squadron." Kari's voice spoke up, "We're Falke Squadron, you're the Fairy Squadron that we're rendezvousing with, right?" The figure on the screen nodded, "Yes, we're Arbre Squadron. We'll be working closely together on this operation." Claire nodded, "It's good to know that we won't be alone on this operation, perhaps we could end this war quickly, once and for all." The fairy shook his head, "I was alive during the last war Aiko kicked off, it's not going to end until she's dead. The supply base is coming into range now, what are the status of your ground forces?"

Basilio's voice spoke up, "Ground forces here, we're ready to move in and finish the job when the air forces make their run." Kari spoke up, "We got one shot at this." Claire switched her weapons from her pulse cannons to the dumb bombs she had stored in her fighter. A reticle appeared on the heads up display of her helmet. As her fighter came into range, she switched her weapons to armed, "This is Falke Twelve, Pickle!" She pressed the trigger on the stick and her fighter shuddered at the release of the munitions. She watched as the dumb bomb traveled towards its target, before exploding on top of a fuel dump, igniting the hydrogen inside that's used for fusion reactors, "It's a hit, and by the looks of it, a drastic blow." Kari spoke up, "Nice hit, Falke Squadron, release!" Calls of Pickle came over the communicator and explosions rocked the supply camp.

The fairy spoke up, "That was a lucky hit, Captain, Junior Grade... though most militaries in the Alliance just call that First Lieutenant." Claire nodded, "Thank you." Basilio spoke over the communicator, "I uh... I don't think there's going to be anything left, half the [censored] in that base was just immediately destroyed by Falke Twelve's bomb, and whatever's left was destroyed by the rest of the squadron... I'll check though." Caladwen's voice spoke up, "That will not be necessary, Basilio, the entire place has been wiped out." Basilio sighed, "Alright, permission to return to base?" Caladwen spoke up, "Yes, Falke Squadron, Arbre squadron will handle the next operation, return to base to refuel and get rearmed." Claire nodded, "Yes, Sir." The Fairy spoke up, "Don't worry, we'll... wait a second, there's a fighter on my radar and it's using an unknown IFF."

A voice cried out, "Arbre One! You got a lock on you! BREAK!" Claire watched in horror as a missile lanced out from the unknown fighter, Arbre One's fighter moved, but it wasn't in time, the wing was hit and blown clear off the fighter, causing it to enter an unrecoverable spin. She watched in horror as the fighter slammed into the ground and then a figure appeared on the screen in front of her, the left half of his face was burnt, a cybernetic eye glowed red where the normal eye used to be, "Enemy squadron, I suggest that you retreat from this area, effective, immediately. Do not get any funny ideas, I'm not alone." Claire spoke up, "Who are you?" The man scoffed, "That's none of your business, Falke Twelve, now leave my territory before you end up like your friend there." Claire was overcome with anger, but Kari spoke up, "Falke Squadron, Arbre Squadron, let's bug out and return to base."

Claire closed her eyes and Enaistiel spoke up, "I know you're angry, but you can't last against these guys, we're low on fuel and we're ill-equipped for air-to-air combat." The man spoke up and removed his helmet, revealing that he was a full blooded Kitsune, "You, with the angry Amber eyes, what's your name?" Claire turned her fighter to retreat from the battlefield, "Claire Prideaux." The man smiled, "My real name has been forgotten, but I was given a new name to go with my new identity. I'm Daejien Vulpes, leader of the Hawk Squadron, I hope you will channel that anger in our coming battle, I wish for you to give me a proper battle, and a proper death." Claire sighed, "I will give you no such thing." Daejien smirked, "Oh? Fine then, but remember, when our upcoming battle happens, you'll have no choice."

Claire shut off the screen and continued to fly away, Kari's voice spoke up, "Caladwen, Aiko has fighters, led by some person named Daejien, can you give us any information about this guy?" Caladwen spoke over the communicator and Claire turned on the screen as information started to pour in over it, "Not a whole lot is known about this man, except for he's a mercenary like us, but works for the highest bidder and is too unstable to have even been considered for the Raptors." Kari nodded, "We encountered him." Caladwen sighed, "Yes, Arbre One is dead. He got his share of bloodshed. He used to be a fairly stable person until a botched ejection caused him to lose half his face and his entire left arm, he was proclaimed medically dead for near ten minutes before he was resuscitated."

Claire spoke up, "He told me that I would fight him, that he liked the angry look in my eyes." Caladwen sighed, "He's targeted you, Claire. He'll call the entire squadron off you and even shoot his own allies if they target you, all just for a dogfight against you, he's crazy. But he's also a death seeker. Problem is, none of the people who have engaged in a dogfight with him have succeeded, though he has been shot down a few times." Claire sighed, "Then I'll just have to aim for the cockpit then." Caladwen sighed, "Watch the path you walk, Claire. This anger you're feeling right now is justified, but... you don't need to seek revenge." Claire shook her head, "He's the kind of person those imperialists used gleefully on civilians, back where I come from. This isn't about revenge, this is about preventing what happened back home from happening again."
Been around this forum for over 8 years now. Everyone I've known has left, now it's my time to do the same.

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