FicWad

Mission 04: Into the Fray
Trunks sat in the ship's common room, watching what he decided was a television. There was some sort of sport on; it looked like a rugby hybrid of sorts. After watching for nearly two hours, he was starting to get the hang of the rules.
One of the teams called for a time-out, and he looked over to Armada once again. She was sitting on the other side of the room at another computer-thing, still staring at the same screen she'd been on for the past hour or so. "Forget how to operate that thing?" he asked jokingly.
"No; I'm just confused is all," she explained, still gazing at the monitor.
"Well what's so confusing then?"
She turned to face him. "You wouldn't understand."
"Maybe you could explain it to me."
"I could, but it wouldn't help."
"Well, since you're not going anywhere looking at that screen all day...care to try?"
Armada paused for a moment. "Fine. Come over where you can see."
Trunks got up from his seat at the table and moved over to a chair next to Armada. He could clearly see what was on the screen-profiles of people in two different tables.
"Do you know how the government is run?" she asked him first, before referring to the monitor.
"Kind of. Something about several countries are part of the...what's it called, Federation Alliance?" he pieced together from things he'd previously heard.
"Right, sort of," Armada assessed. "All the planets and countries in the Shera system belong to the Federation Alliance, where every country has a representative say in what the Federation does. Or at least, that's what people are supposed to think," she said, turning to the monitor.
"In the Alliance, every star system under its control has a council, made of people from the lands in that star system. However," she looked towards him again, "there is nothing stating that every country must have a representative in the council."
"So not every country is represented then?" Trunks tried to follow.
"Most of the time, no; but sometimes there is at least one person from every country. Right now," she said, pointing to the list of people on the left, "I can't tell if every country has someone in there or not. It's not listed where these people are from." She moved her hand over and pointed to the list on the right. "These people do have a list of what countries they are from, and I think nearly all are here."
"But...why do you have two lists if there's only one council?" he questioned, noticing both lists stated the people as council members currently.
"Ah, so you're picking up on this," she said nodding to him. "This list," she began, pointing once more to the list on the left, "I recovered from the data was I hired to steal from Ukyo."
"So you kept it?" Trunks asked, kind of surprised.
"No, I turned in the original. I did make a copy, though. I figured I might sell it under-market if the price was good, but there wasn't really anything there that people would pay for," she said, sounding a little disappointed.
"You mean the 'black market,'" he corrected her.
Armada raised an eyebrow at him. "The 'black market?' What's that?"
"Ah, never mind," Trunks hastily recovered. He assumed 'under-market' was the same as the 'black market.'
"O-kay. Anyway," Armada started, turning back towards the monitor, "the other list came from the Network."
"And the 'Network' is...?" Trunks waited for an explanation.
"The Federation's public data bank. People also use it for personal use. You can probably do anything on the Network," she explained bluntly.
"As I was saying," she continued, "the list that came from the Network, or the Alliance itself, is completely false. I did a little research and these people comprised the council more than thirty years ago. So I have the sneaking suspicion that the list I obtained from Ukyo is the real one."
"Why would they need to hide who's on the council?" Trunks asked, now starting to see why Armada said she was confused.
"Exactly. What do they have to hide?" she said, still gazing at the list. "And the other thing is," she continued, now pointing to one particular dark haired young man listed on the council, "this guy. His name's Hamad Gen." She looked to Trunks, trying to see if he happened to know who Hamad was. "He's the crown prince to the empire of Taydr."
"What does that mean? No royalty on the council?" Trunks joked.
"Sort of. He doesn't have any real political power over Taydr as long as his father is still emperor. You see, he's allowed to serve on the council as long as he doesn't become emperor. The only rule is that government officials of countries are not allowed to serve-the council must be made up of civilians only. And as long as he's only the prince, he's a civilian. Should his father die or abdicate, Hamad either has to leave the council or refuse the throne. But in the mean time," Armada shrugged.
"Okay. I can see how this can be a little confusing," Trunks admitted. "But if it's legal for him to serve, why hide it? Are those other people anybody important?"
"Nah, they're nobodies. But you're right-why hide it?" she looked at the screen quizzically. "See what I mean now?" she said turning to Trunks.
"Right, I get it," he said, standing once more. "Next time you're going to give me a civics lesson, I'll pass," he jested, reseating himself at the table in front of the 'television' once more.
"Civics?" Armada mimicked in confusion. "You mean governmental policy?"
Trunks shrugged. "Same thing."
"I swear," Armada began as she turned back to her work, "you don't know the correct term for anything."
If Trunks had not been sitting down, he would face-vaulted. Instead, he concentrated on trying to figure out what was going on in 'the game.' "Didn't you say we had work to do today?" he asked absentmindedly, growing bored with the current setup.
"Well I'm sorry; I forgot that it's not until tomorrow," Armada spat back with minor disdain. It was a near incredible feat in itself that she made a mistake and admitted to it.
Silence descended upon the room once again, with the exception of whatever Armada was doing with what appeared to be a map and the sound of the broadcast Trunks watched. After a few moments, a slight beeping noise made itself known. "Aw, damnit," Armada cursed annoyed. With that, she rose and left the room.
Inside the bridge, Armada seated herself at the primary navigational console, to the left of the pilot's seat. She hit a few buttons and the noise stopped, bringing up a written message. She quickly read the letter, and laughed slightly afterwards. "That's K'ha for you," she said quietly to herself. "Hey," she called out, "looks like we have something to do after all."
***
"Took you longer than before," K'ha said with a smirk as the two mercenaries entered his tent.
"I was hungry. Had to stop and eat," Armada joked. She stopped in surprise as she looked at K'ha. "Whoa, somebody's in uniform."
K'ha was indeed in uniform; a cerulean/black/teal overly decorative suit, emblazoned with the symbol of the Niacca family, showing that he'd won over their favor in recent years. K'ha shut his eyes, annoyed. "I am still the general of the armies of Juu. That hasn't changed."
Armada shrugged. She spotted some interesting navigational tools laden across the man's makeshift desk inside the tent, and began to inspect the materials with interest.
"So..." Trunks started, giving his partner an odd look, "what are we doing?" he finished, trying to stay on topic.
"Find and rescue," a young man answered, walking into the tent and stopping in front of K'ha's desk next to Trunks. He handed a few papers in a folder to his superior. "Everything's ready."
"Nice work Brim," K'ha nodded to his lieutenant while receiving the information in his hands. Brim stood at eye level with Trunks. He had long blonde hair, the same as hue as Armada's, and green eyes which were hidden behind round eyeglasses. He wore an outfit similar to that of K'ha, only less decorated with medals and awards.
K'ha flipped through the papers handed to him, and nodded. He placed the papers back in the folder and set them down on his desk. "Brim;" he addressed his inferior, "this is VDD," he motioned towards the pair beside Brim.
"Good to be working with you," Brim said as he and Trunks shook hands. Brim leaned forward and looked over to Armada, who was still investigating the contraption in her hand. Trunks nudged Armada with his elbow.
"What?" she looked at him and noticed Brim, standing with his hand outstretched in greeting. "Sorry," Armada fumbled with what was in her hand, dropping it to K'ha's desk and hurriedly shaking hands with Brim. She laughed nervously in embarrassment. /And she says I'm bad/, Trunks thought, slightly bitter.
"I've heard quite a bit about VDD," Brim began with a cool excitement. "I'm just glad you guys are on our side after what happened in Mainc."
"Guess Rail didn't realize who he was messing with," Armada bragged.
"VDD?" Trunks echoed in question. "We're VDD?" he asked, turning to his comrade.
"Yeah...I had to name my business something," she replied giving him a wary eye.
"Business?" He shook his head. "But why VDD?" he continued.
"My ship. The /Verdandi/. Three syllables, each starting with a certain letter," she explained.
After taking a quick moment to think about it and make the connection, Trunks nodded. "Right."
"Shall we get going?" Brim interrupted.
"Okay," Armada responded, letting Brim lead the way out of the tent and into another area of the makeshift camp in Juu.
Brim continued to maneuver through passing soldiers and equipment while giving the two the briefing. "Several days before you two demolished Tere, we sent soldiers in elsewhere to take over another bunker we had leads on for a while now." Brim ducked under a large piece of artillery and the two following him did the same. He gave a quick glance back to make sure they were still behind him before he continued. "Unfortunately, the numbers and weaponry of Tere were severely underestimated, and twelve of our men were captured. We still believe they're being held alive, as this would further any needs Tere has, including using them as hostages."
"So the rescue part is getting those guys out of there, right?" Armada said while moving around another group of troops.
"Correct," Brim replied swiftly.
"But why not just send in more soldiers?" Trunks asked, moving through another crowd.
"Because they'd see that coming," Brim said over his left shoulder. He made it to his destination and stopped, turning to face the pair behind himself. "And they wouldn't see you." Armada noticed they'd stopped in front of an artillery tent. She opened her mouth to explain her nonexistent need for such items when Brim immediately answered. "They're for me." With that, he rummaged through a few things and pulled out a pistol that he shoved in the left side of his belt and a rifle which he placed on his back. He moved to another area and found twin automatics, placing each inside a holster at his hips. He turned back to face the mercenaries. "All right. Let's go."
"Wait, so you're going with us?" Armada asked with a bit of disbelief in her voice, as well as humor.
"Of course. I know where we're going; you don't. That simple enough for you?" he countered.
"Right," Armada replied bitterly.
"We're going to have to walk," Brim said, adjusting his belt. "But don't worry, it isn't far."
***
Brim held a hand over his eyes, shielding them from unwanted light. "Nothing," he said, rising from his position on one knee on the ground. "It's all clear," he told the pair standing behind himself, letting out a shortly-held breath at the same time. Brim then faced the complex once more and led the trek through thick vegetation.
It took only a matter of moments to approach the building, being that there seemed to be no security measures on the outside. Brim motioned towards a large round gate covering a sewage system that led outside to drain. After the trio worked together in removing the grill, Brim stepped up and led the way inside. Armada wrinkled her nose upon entering and Trunks simply tried to ignore the smell. Fortunately for them, the water level wasn't more than a few centimeters high.
Once the group had made its way into the building, they exited the sewers and soon found themselves inside a bland corridor. "Okay," Brim said, looking both directions as the crew stood in a corner. "I believe the soldiers are being held that way," he said, pointing to the hall leading to the right. "That direction leads to the inner workings of the building," Brim stated, pointing to the left and facing his comrades in arms. "We don't need to go through there; besides, Bmyhad's flattening this place once we're done." The mercenaries nodded and the trio continued onward.
After navigating through a few halls and dodging the view of Tere'ns, the three had made it to an electronic door. "Stand back," Armada said with a smirk. She used her left fist and smashed open the card lock next to the door. She then knelt down and took a few moments to mess around with the wires. Next, she stripped a few and touched them together, shorting the door's code. She stood back and looked to the men behind her. "Just watch," she said with another smirk. The door continued to struggle with the short and eventually gave in, opening up and sending out a signal indicating that it needed repairs.
The three watched as the door slowly opened only to see about nine rebels armed with large weaponry awaiting them. "Get down!" Brim screamed as the Tere'ns opened fire. All three intruders moved to the right side of the door, taking cover against the wall with the twenty-inches of metal of the doorframe they opened shielding them from the direction of the fire.
Brim knelt down to the ground, pulling out both automatics holstered below his waist. With both weapons in hand, he looked to the two standing next to him, and bolted for the door, guns blazing. Armada ran after him, with Trunks following the first two. In firing, Brim took out most of the opposition before he had to reload. The three rebels he didn't take out stood poised to kill him until two energy blasts came flying from behind him, annihilating those who stood before him. Brim turned to look and saw both Armada and Trunks each had a hand raised. /Didn't know they were ki-fighters/... he thought, refocusing his thoughts on the task at hand.
The group continued to run forward through the hall, unaware of the ambush that lie in wait for them. Five Tere'ns leapt out from a crossing corridor. Brim shot off two before they could attack, but one of the attackers shot Brim in the right knee several times with an automatic before he killed the man. Brim fell; Armada spun around to see why he'd stopped running. "Brim!" she cried out at the sight of him, unaware of the two still behind her. One of the rebels fired, nailing Armada in the upper lumbar region of her back with a yellow beam. "Ah!" she managed to cry out before landing face first across the floor next to Brim.
Trunks took out the two Tere'ns ahead and turned to see what happened. A bloody Brim sat on the floor next to Armada, who appeared unharmed. "Keep going!" Brim shouted at the man, motioning forward with the pistol in his left hand. Trunks nodded and surged onward.
Armada began to stir slowly, bringing a hand to her head. "I'm not used to...getting shot," she grumbled out to Brim, seated beside her.
"You'll be fine, aside from a headache and back pains," Brim assured her. "It was only a stun shot, though I'm sure it was set to 'kill.'" He then pulled out the rifle stocked on his back for the time being.
"That's so...reassuring," she moaned, bring both hands to her head.
Trunks found another group of rebels, this time seven. The first two that charged at him, with only hand-to-hand weapons, he smashed together and pushed them to the side. The other five opened fire and he jumped above the group, firing multiple energy blasts. Upon landing, none were left in the room.
Cold metal felt its way to Trunks's left temple. "Don't move," a cool voice commanded him as the weapon in the man's hand was cocked. Trunks froze, unsure if he could move fast enough to dodge a shot at such close range. Suddenly, a shot went off. Trunks's body tensed for a moment, before realizing he wasn't dead. He turned and saw the man who'd threatened him not to move had a bullet hole in his forehead and was falling to the ground.
Trunks turned and saw Brim in the doorway, holding his rifle in his right hand and Armada in the other, as she had her right arm around his neck and the left holding onto this shoulder, with her head down.
Trunks glanced down to the deceased man beside himself and silently thanked Brim. Brim slowly approached with a gangly-walking Armada attached. He looked to Trunks for a moment before a distant sounding voice broke the silence.
"'Bout damn time, Brim."
***
"We've been stuck here more than a week, I think. I lost count of the days," an older soldier told Brim as he lit what resembled a cigarette. "Thought you guys would never come," he continued while putting away his lighter.
"You know we wouldn't leave you here," Brim replied, taking back the rest of his 'cigarettes' from the other soldier. "So what'd you tell these guys, Desk?" he asked with intrigue. "If you thought we weren't coming, that is."
"Told 'em to hold out. Have hope. And survive, like we've been trained to," Desk replied with the item in his mouth. Desk took a look towards the right side of the room and motioned towards the two strangers among uniformed men. "Who're they?"
"Hired help. We knew Tere would expect another battalion, so we decided to come in with few, more powerful 'soldiers,'" Brim replied, placing emphasis on the last word.
Four of the soldiers played a card game of sorts, seated in the far right corner near one of the holding cells. Trunks approached, having an interested look at their game.
"You might wanna check on your friend there," one of them replied while placing down a card, "she's been acting kinda weird."
Trunks looked over to see Armada leaning her head against one of the cells, with both hands holding the bars. He could hear her muttering something under her breath, whether it was too inaudible to hear or if it was really incoherent gibberish, he wasn't sure. He only knew he couldn't understand it.
Trunks raised a hand towards her. "Uh, Armada...?"
She muttered more, and then began to bash her head against the bars of the cell.
Trunks jumped back slightly in shock. "Wh-what are you doing?!" he shot at her, becoming extremely confused.
She stopped slamming her head, and muttered something before responding. "My head hurts."
He stared at her blankly, wondering if she really had gone insane. As if to respond to the question in his head, Armada automatically explained her actions. "They say that if your body hurts so much the brain stops 'feeling' the pain in self-defense." Her voice had sounded a little wavery in response as she rushed the words out, leaving no pauses between words or putting any real personality into it. He paused, simply staring at her for a moment before she continued her brain-bashing.
"Aah! Stop that!" he said, snatching her by the left arm away from the bars. She looked at him with half-closed eyes before wandering off elsewhere.
Maybe she really has lost it... he thought as she slowly attempted to walk off. The room that fifteen people presently occupied was fairly small and overly cramped with the holding cells taking up half of the room. Twelve soldiers, two mercenaries, and one lieutenant were definitely enough to fill the place.
Upon entering the room, one of the soldiers had spoken out to Brim. Evidently, without even realizing, the trio had found where the soldiers were being kept. Trunks and Brim freed the captives, two to a cell. Armada had sat on the ground muttering. Once the soldiers were free, they helped seal off the area as Brim awaited further instruction from K'ha on what to do. Now, the only thing anybody could do was wait. Or bang her head against a wall.
Wondering what the status of the situation currently was-yet already knowing it-Trunks headed over to Brim and Desk, as they stood near the door conversing.
"Ah, Trunks," Brim noticed the lavender-haired young man heading his way. "Need something?" he asked attentively.
"Not really, but thanks anyway Brim," he replied, stopping in front of the two. "I was just wondering," he began, "have you heard anything from K'ha yet?"
"Unfortunately, no," Brim answered, disheartened as well. "Still waiting. But hopefully we'll hear soon," he tried to reassure Trunks.
"All right...well, thanks," Trunks replied, and turned to head off.
"Wait," Desk spoke up.
Trunks stopped and looked as Desk took the radio from Brim. He examined it a moment before cursing briefly. "Brim, this comm. device doesn't work in here," Desk told the lieutenant. "This is what we had; one reason we never contacted you."
"Of course! We hadn't realized that the new communication equipment didn't work through Tere's carbonate walls." Brim mumbled in thought was he tried to figure another way of contacting K'ha.
"You're gonna DIE!" a very familiar voice yelled from across the room.
"Oh no," Trunks sighed. He looked over and saw Armada chasing a young soldier with a death glare across her face.
"Desk! HELP!" he yelled, running for his commander.
Armada stopped across the room from where Desk, Trunks, Brim, and the scared soldier stood. The four men each paled as Armada charged a ki-blast. Each ran and ducked out of the way as she fired, hitting the door. An explosion ensued, in which most of the men in the room instantly freaked.
"What the HELL was THAT?!"
"Who are these people?!"
Other random curses and profanities were abound as well.
Once the dust cleared, Brim analyzed the door, which was blown to pieces scattered across the floor. He then heard a commotion behind him.
"I'm gonna rip that guy's head off!" Armada screamed, scrambling to free herself from Trunks-who presently kept her from carrying out her threats.
"I didn't do anything! It was an accident!" the man cried from Desk's arms-who wasn't holding the man off, but was attached to this soldier while he wailed in fear.
"LIAR!" she shouted back, struggling futilely.
The soldier paused for a moment. "Okay, I did it. But only because the guys dared me to!" he sputtered out an excuse.
"You bastard!" Armada yelled out, once again trying to claw away from Trunks to presently tear the soldier limb from limb.
"What the hell did you DO?" a very confused Desk asked as his underling hid behind the commander.
"I tripped her," came the meek answer from behind Desk.
"All this because he tripped you?" Trunks stated, extremely annoyed.
"You're damn right he did!" Armada shouted back, no longer attempting to escape the demi-Saiyan's grasp. Suddenly, her eyes drooped and she slid down to the ground, out of the reach of Trunks. She pulled both hands to her head as she met the floor on her knees. "My head hurts," Armada said once more, curling inward a bit.
Brim approached the group, giving an odd look to both the scared troop and the headache-suffering mercenary. He turned back to Desk and Trunks. "Since the door's open, and we can't contact K'ha, we might as well get going."
***
The convoy had slowly crept through several corridors without being spotted. Trunks, Brim, and Desk stood at the front of the group, with the rest trailing behind. Desk motioned for the group to settle down and be silent. Brim saw a few Tere'ns walking through, and they wouldn't even notice the escapees if the group was quiet. The three rebels casually walked through the halls, laughing and joking with one another. They stood in front of a door, after knocking on it, apparently waiting for it to open. The door opened, the trio moved, and was almost out of sight...
"Stop touching my goddamn hair!"
Trunks, Desk, Brim, and everyone else immediately froze. The three leaders turned around to see Armada standing casually, yet with a sickly look and dark eyes. They stared at her while veins popped out of both Desk and Brim's foreheads. "What?" she asked indignantly.
The three Tere'ns down the hall called to their comrades, who swiftly armed themselves and manned the end of the hall that Brim and company needed to pass through. Desk took a quick look around the corner to count the enemy's numbers. Several shots sounded, enough to kill six people, and Desk swiftly moved back around into safe territory. "Thirty and some," Desk told Brim in quick breaths, denoting the accuracy of Tere's fighters.
Trunks and Brim, the only two left armed or capable, positioned themselves nearest the corner of the hall in order to reach around and fire. Trunks charged a ki-blast and moved around to fire. As soon as he poked out from behind cover, the rebels fired with amazing marksmanship. Startled, Trunks lost control of the charged energy and dropped it, redecorating part of the hall closest to the convoy.
Brim fired a few shots with his rifle and pistol before putting away his weapons. "I'm out," he told the group. "You can't do anything?" Brim asked Trunks.
Trunks shook his head. "They fire too fast, and too close. I can't concentrate."
The constant shelling the rebels put the group under was too much for a certain headache-stricken, foul-mouthed mercenary. Armada forced her way to the front of the group, pushing soldiers left and right. Once she reached the front, she stared with dark eyes at the three men leading the charge. "When the hell are we getting out of here?" she questioned lowly, her face pale and eyes with dark lines beneath them.
The three men simply stared back, not knowing what to say. None had a solution at this point, anyway, so what would they tell her? Aggravated, Armada growled and pushed through the remaining three men in her way and walked with conviction around the corner and into fire.
"No, Armada!" Trunks yelled after her, trying to catch her by the arm but being pulled back by Desk and Brim. "We've gotta do something!" he told the military duo.
Armada walked towards the attackers as they opened fire, charging a kit blast in her right hand. She stared at the group darkly while speaking, "My head hurts and your goddamn firing is NOT HELPING!" With that she stopped and fired an enormous blast against the rebels. Some fled while most were caught in the explosion.
The troops came around the corner, led by Trunks and Desk. Upon seeing what she was doing, Brim ordered the troops to go and led them down another hall until they reached the grate that went outside. Desk and Brim ushered all the men through, then went themselves.
Armada continued to fire on the Tere'ns. "Bastards!" she screamed angrily while literally blowing them away.
Trunks snatched her by the left arm and started pulling her away. "Time to go!"
"But I wasn't done killing them yet," she said hardly emphatically and with a sense of sleepiness. The two continued on and followed the others in going out the way they came in.
Fifteen bodies ran as fast as they could across an open field, hoping to dodge the fire that followed behind them. Fortunately for them, the rebels did not chase.
***
Trunks forced open the door to the Verdandi, dragging one nearly unconscious woman with him. He stopped and hoisted Armada up, placing one of her arms around his shoulders so she could try and hold on.
Since they'd left Juu, her condition only seemed to get worse. What that condition was, or how it had happened, he had no clue.
"I...need a drink," Armada managed to mutter out, seeming completely drained at this point.
"You just need some rest," he told her while heading down the main hallway. /At least, I hope. /As insane as she'd acted today, Trunks was in no mood to face the same kind of person tomorrow.
He opened the door to her room, praying that she wouldn't suddenly become angry and the gain the strength to lash out. Instead, she raised her free hand and spoke, mimicking Brim's voice, "Twenty-four thousand beta, 'cause you did a good job!"
"Uh...right," he spoke nervously. He found an empty bed, unsure of which of the three she normally slept in, as all of them appeared unused, and dropped her in it. He heard her mutter something about a stun ray as he left, closing the door behind himself.
Trunks sighed. I'm the one who needs a drink... he thought before heading to his own room to retire.