The Chronicles of Gaia

Prologue Act
Chapter 1st
Calm before the Storm
 
The 4th Company’s Dormitory
The 13th Battalion of the Kingdom Army’s mobile base
Outskirts of Tarsonis
September 19th A.P. 327
17:29
            With a grunt, a young man woke up from the dark memory that was kept inside a niche of his mind for so long that he almost forgot that it had existed; nevertheless, it still haunted him until this day. He groped his face, already wet from cold sweat, trying to push the images back as deep as he could. There was no use thinking about them.
            “Captain Laden Kries, to the command center.”
            A cold voice of a woman echoed throughout the dormitory. When heard his own name, Laden snatched his coat that lied on a pillow on his bed, wondering why he was called. He had been sent here just yesterday alongside with the rest of 4th company, and hadn’t done anything notable, yet.
            Laden banished the thought out of his mind and stepped out of his room into the fuss of the dormitory’s main hall, where every soldier currently freed from their duties were doing whatever they liked.
            “Excuse me...Hello...”
             Laden walked past a group of soldier that looked like they were going to kill each other while playing poker, greeted some acquaintances and stopped his feet just before leaving the dormitory when he heard another announcement.
            “Second Lieutenant Fujimiya Aki, to the command center”
            Just as the sound ended, one of many doors along the dormitory’s fifty-metres-long wall opened and a young woman strode out, headed to the dormitory’s exit, which also meant, to Laden.
            When she came close, Laden was able to observe her features more thoroughly. She had silver, straight hair at the length of the middle of her back, pale white skin with tapering face and cold, brown eyes, her lips tightly pursed into a line, showed no sign of any emotion. She wore a T-shirt branded with the seal of the Kingdom Army, trousers and combat boots, a normal uniform for a soldier in free time. She glanced at Laden before going through the door, into the sunset light of Gaian evening.
            “Wait for me...um...Are you Fujimiya?” Knowing that she was a descendant of Earth’s Japanese people, Laden decided to call her by her surname, a basic courtesy in Japanese culture. He felt like he had seen her from somewhere but couldn’t remember clearly.
            “Yes.” She answered curtly and said nothing more. Laden, who couldn’t find any topic to talk more, just followed her to the command center.
            The command center was a cube-shaped building built entirely from steel, it had only one exit and on top of it was a park site for high-ranked officers’ aerial vehicles. It differ only a bit from the dormitory in size, but tremendously in importance. Without the dormitory, soldiers still could sleep somewhere else, but if the command center is destroyed, the entire battalion would become deaf and blind instantly.
            “Laden and Aki, right? Come on in, Lieutenant Colonel Manuel is eager to meet you.” The soldier in a battle suit who was on guard duty greeted them both, moving one of his hands from his gun to a panel controlling the command center’s door and opened it. Laden said a faint ‘thank you’ while Aki bowed her head slightly and they went inside, where another soldier was waiting for them and signaled them to follow him.
            In the command center was full of stress, the commanding officers were unyieldingly arguing with each other, a large hologram map was projected in the air at the center of the building, showing details of the map of the area that was going to be a battlefield tomorrow, the city of Tarsonis. It was full of markings represented important strategic points, assault paths and squads of soldiers; they were constantly changing due to different plans proposed by each officer.
            “Sir, the ones you called is here.”
            A soldier that led Laden and Aki to this place said to a man in high-ranked officer’s uniform who was staring at different plans with discreet eyes. He had blonde hair cut into a neat style, azure eyes behind frameless glasses showed a trace of intelligence. When notified, he broke out from his reverie and smiled.
            “Thanks, Private Clint, you can take a break now.”
            “Yes sir.”
            After Clint left, the man turned his attention to the newcomers.
            “Well, hello, I believe we haven’t met before but you should’ve heard my name…”
            “Lt.Col. Manuel Connor, commander of 13th Battalion” Aki said with stern voice, widening Manuel’s smile.
            “Let’s get to my office, the business with you two isn’t supposed to be talked publicly.”
            Minutes later, they sat in the commander’s quarter, Manuel behind his desk while Laden and Aki were on the next end of it.
            “Okay, I’ll start with you, Cpt. Laden; you’ll be assigned as the leader of the 2nd Squad in the 1st Division of the 4th Company.” Manuel laid a device that looked like a square-shaped silver plate on his desk; it was PCD (Personal Communication Device), a small multi-purpose device that could do everything from calling people to projecting a hologram. Manuel brought up a document in hologram form and sent his PCD to Laden.
            “In truth, someone who graduated from the Royal Army Academy with the best school-record like you can even become a company commander, but order’s order and this one is from the top, I hope you’ll understand.” He explained while Laden roughly scanned the document and paused at the name of the one who executed this order.
            ‘Carlos Valdez, Supreme Commander of the Kingdom Army’
            A thin smile appeared on his lips, he still remembered one of the words said by the owner of this name.
            ‘The most important thing is the basics, without the basics, there will be nothing more.’
            Seeing that Laden had no objection, Manuel drew his PCD back, opened another document and lent it to Aki.
            “2,Lt. Fujimiya, you will take the sniper position in Cpt.Laden’s squad.”
            She examined the document silently as Manuel continued his babbling.
            “The one with such a remarkable sniping score from the Royal Army Academy shouldn’t be just a sniper in normal soldier squad, but the order can’t be argued and there’s no name of the order giver, too.”
            “No problem, sir.”
            Aki pushed the PCD back at Manuel, who closed the document and put it away.
            “So, I’ll let you meet other members of your squad then. Pvt.Clint, to my quarters, immediately” The latter, Manuel said to a wireless device attached to his earlobe. A minute later, Clint arrived at the door of the commander’s quarters, panting heavily with a wry face.
            “Take them to the training ground, their squad mates are already there. I’ll have to discuss about tomorrow’s strategy some more.” Without waiting for any response, Manuel walked away and returned to the main chamber. Clint started leading Laden and Aki out of the command center, mumbling something under his breath.
            The training ground was a long, rectangle-shaped building, looked same as the dormitory on the outside but the inside was totally different. The only thing they had in common was their tumult. The training ground was divided into many sections; combat simulation in virtual reality section, body training section with all kinds of training equipment and armory section for soldiers to customize their battle suits and loadouts.
            “I’ll leave you here; your squad is in the body training section”
            Clint said and headed back to the command center, Laden thought he was going to be called by Manuel again soon. Aki treaded along the soldiers who had their charmed eyes on her because there weren’t many female soldiers, and even fewer who should’ve been a model instead.
            “Watch out!”
            At the moment Laden started to trotting after her, a loud shout broke out. He turned just in time to see a silver shade flying at him. Fortunately, he was able to duck down just before that thing buried deep in the wall where his head was at a second earlier.
            “Are you okay?!”
            A soldier in battle suit came rushing to him, although the suit’s helmet covered the wearer’s face, Laden knew from the voice that the person inside was a woman. She plucked the thing that almost cut his head off from the wall. It was a sword with very thin blade, shone brightly at a length of one metre. The female soldier inspected it for a bit and, seeing no damage, sheathed it into a scabbard on her back, then turning left and right, like she couldn’t decide what to do next.
            “Sigh…how many times have I told you not to swing your friggin’ sword here?”
            As Laden was trying to calm his beating heart down, another soldier walked in, offered him a helping hand, hauled him up then addressed the female soldier.
            “It’s…it’s not my fault! It’s his! He shouldn’t just stand idly around here!”
            Still, she averted her face and walked away, also drew her sword of and start swinging it again as if she want to cut someone’s head off. The second soldier gave out a long and frustrating sigh.
            “I must say sorry for her…Oh, you’re…”
            His helmet folded itself back into his battle suit’s neck, revealing a coarse face with a grin on it of a young man, black eyes squinting from smiling and his hair of the same color was a bit messy due to being squeezed in a helmet.
            “Are you Cpt.Laden Kries?”
            “Yes, it’s me…”
            “Great, I was about to go find you and the other one. I’m Sergeant Daniel Carwells, from this day on, I’m gonna be one of your subordinates, pleased to meet you.”
            “Ah, um, okay, same here”
            Daniel reached one of his hands out so Laden held and shook it, although shaking a hand in battle suit felt like gripping a cold steel.
            “This way, I think everyone has arrived.”
            The place where Aki and the rest of the squad were gathering up is relaxing section of the training ground. All of them wore a leisure uniform, just like Aki’s, except for one, whose Laden recognized immediately from the sword on her back.
            “Hey guys, how’s today’s training?”
            “Good as always, but I do want to fight in a real battlefield again, virtual reality is so boring…Who’s that?” A tall, young man with blond hair said, raising a can of drink to his mouth.
            “This is Cpt.Laden Kries, who’ll be our leader from now on. What are you waiting for? Introduce yourselves!”
            The squad members stared at Laden first, then at each other, and the one who spoke first is the blond-haired man.
            “Lance Corporal Edgar Huntley, assault”
            Although his words seemed normal, it was coated with disbelief.
            The female soldier’s helmet slid open, revealing her tan skin and short orange hair. Her deep brown eyes riveted at Laden, showing no sign of acceptance.
            “Sergeant Camille Saravay, brawler...I can’t believe they chose a frivolous guy like you to be our squad leader.” She crossed her arms, steely insulted Laden who gave a forced smile back at her. It looked like she wouldn’t get along so well with him.
            “I...uh...I’m Lc.Cpl. Sybill Gardner, medic...”
            The last introduction came from a young woman that Laden hadn’t noticed at first because she sat so shirked that Edgar almost covered her. She had brown hair tied up in a bun, when combined with shy eyes and a book in hands; she looked like one of the bookworms found in a library.
            “I’m a demolisher and you’re...” Daniel turned to Aki who had been quiet for a while.
            “2, Lt. Fujimiya Aki, sniper” She yielded a short answer and nothing more.
            Silence fell over the squad, Camille and Edgar just kept their eyes on Laden, who smiled back although he knew it was stupid to do so. Daniel and Sybill looked from side to side uncomfortably while Aki sank into her own world again.
            “So...shouldn’t we start preparing a party for our new leader and sniper?” It was Daniel that tried to defuse the situation by clapped his hands once and said with cheerful voice.
            “A party? I don’ think...”
            “No, there must be party, it’s a tradition of our squad since it was established, members can be changed but this must stay because it helps bringing us closer.” He explained but Laden didn’t agree that much when he laid his eyes on Camille and Edgar.
            “Tell me when it’s on...” Aki left the conversation and departed, paying no attention to other people. Edgar finished his drink and headed to virtual reality section while Camille murmured something under her breath, walking toward body training section. Obviously, they had no intention to help.
            “Um...I don’t think you have to help us, you can head back to your quarters, and I’ll contact you when the party starts.”
            “But letting only you two doing all that...”
            “No problem! Just a bit of work, if it’s for people I have to place my life on, this is absolutely nothing.”
            Facing such a firm insistence, Laden felt that being stubborn would be a gaffe so he headed back to the dormitory but didn’t enter his room. He swept his gaze over the names on the dormitory’s rooms until he find the name ‘Fujimiya Aki’
            He activated the room’s intercom, trying to find the most appropriate words.
            “Hello, um, or hi? It’s me, Laden...may I, or, uh, can I have a talk with you?”
            There was no answer from Aki; however, the room’s door slid open in the next moment, its owner stared at Laden with emotionless eyes for a second and said.
            “Come in.”
            The words ceased every activity of the soldiers in the dormitory and made their eyes focused on them both that Laden flinched inside. Their eyes composed of surprise, suspicion and, above all, malice. More than enough to make Laden started to doubt this if this was a good decision, when the door closed behind him; he prayed that he won’t be someone’s punching bag soon.
            “Sit there.” Aki sat down on her bed, motioned Laden to sit on her work desk’s chair which was basic furniture for every room. After found a place for her guest, Aki continued her ongoing work immediately; in front of her were parts of something placed orderly, their number made Laden felt dizzy, and had no choice but watching her doing her work.
            She put each of the parts up, d some polished, some calibrated with tools from a nearby toolbox. When all of them were checked, Aki began assembling the parts together with supernatural speed and extreme precision. Not a single minute had passed, in her hands was a long, sleek sniper rifle, it was raised up, aiming at a target aka Laden’s face.
            “This is your own gun?” He used his fingertip to flick the rifle’s muzzle away before asked.
            “Yes.” Aki lowered it down aside her bed, its length lapped more than half of the bed that was two meters long. Comparing the rifle’s size to its user’s, Laden was amazed that she was able to move it around without any problem.
            “Gauss system?” After managed to find a topic to discuss, he chose to stick with it for a while until something else comes up on his mind.
            “Yeah.”
            “Manufactured from which company? Which Model?”
            “Maximus Munitions, GF-12Z, semi-automatic anti-material, .50 RAR”
            “Scope?”
            “ZAK-13 from the same company, can be adjusted from iron sight to 50x, also comes with night vision mode and thermal mode.”
            “Furthest shot range? Bullet speed?”
            “4 kilometers, 1500 m/s”
            “Ever shot someone?”
            Being loose, he sent this question out of this month unintended, because it differed not from ‘have you ever killed someone’, whereas, picking up a spoken word was impossible. Aki didn’t answer in that instant. Instead, she reached her hand to her rifle, patting it gently like playing with her favorite pet.
            “If you don’t want to answer...”
            “Never.” She snapped, drawing her hand back.
            “Um...okay, good for you...”
            “What is it that you want?”
            “It’s...uh...”
            When his topic was poached, his brain worked at full speed, if he couldn’t find something else, she might think of him as a pervert trying to be in private with a girl.
            “How...how do you think about our squad mates?”
            “I don’t care.”
            The topic he had hoped would prove interesting was killed in just one sentence, making Laden felt a bit down, but he didn’t give up.
            “Why?”
            “Because there is no need to, holding onto something that can be lost easily isn’t an appropriate thing.”
            “But, what about teamwork?”
            “My role doesn’t need teamwork.”
            “Don’t you want some trustworthy friends?”
            “For me, only two things that can be trusted on the battlefield are myself and the gun in my hands.”
            This answer dealt a fatal blow on Laden’s attempt. He gave out a disheartened sigh to himself, hoping that when they’ve done missions together, this would get better.
            “Anything more?”
            “Um...no.”
            “Then get out.”
            Laden reluctantly reentered the dormitory’s main hall, before stepping out of Aki’s room, he glanced back to saw that she still gazed at him until the door parted them.
            He fought the mordant eyes of other soldiers and entered his own room, lying down on his bed. Laden picked up his PCD that was left on the table before he took a nap and faced that nightmare, trying to read a war strategy book that he had to finish but his brain just didn’t want to cooperate and the memories from thirteen years ago crept out again. No longer able to bear it, he pulled out something from his collar.
            It was an old, pale golden locket with some burn on it but was maintained with great care by its wearer. He opened it, inside it was a beautiful red gem, shining as magnificent as the first time he saw it. 
            For some reason, whenever he sees these two things, they always give him an unexplainable tranquility.
            In his head emerged an image of two girls who gave him the locket and the gem, but despite of how hard he tried to think, he couldn’t clearly remember their faces.
            ‘How will they be doing right now?’
            A question that might never find an answer, he didn’t even know that they survived from the incident or not.
            Laden closed the locket and put it back to its place, after his concentration came back, reading a war strategy book was an easy task.
            Time passed quickly and a beep from his PCD swayed his eyes from ‘How to cope with being ambushed in narrow ground’ and accepted the call. Daniel’s smiley holographic face popped up.
            “The party’s about to start, please bring Fujimiya with you, too.”
            And so Laden found himself talking to the intercom of Aki’s room again under satirical eyes, in the next five minutes, they sat together with other squad members on the training ground’s floor. The food Daniel and Sybill prepared was nothing but ready-made dishes from the base’s cafeteria, and it looked like Daniel believed in a ‘friendship can be built better with alcohol’ principle.
            But this time he was wrong.
            “Don’t you think it’s bad to drink that much when you’ve got a battle to fight tomorrow?”
            “Just when did I say it’s you business?! Sybill! Gimme more!”
            Half an hour passed, Camille crushed a can of beer in her hand down so hard that about half a dozen cans, already emptied, tumbled down while Sybill handed over another one to her. “Who told you to be so slouchy? Come on, cheers!”
            “Eh?...I don’t think I...Mmph!”
            Camille opened the new can and drank a gulp, stole Laden’s can from his grip and forced it upon Sybill’s lips who tried to back away but it proved to be unsuccessful since they sat next to each other.
            “Sorry that you’ve got to see her like this.”
            Daniel tossed Camille’s last can out.
            “Well, being so jovial is good for morale...”
            “Then why don’t you get some, leader?”
            Edgar had taken not much less alcohol than Camille that his hand was a bit shaky when he passed a new can of beer to Laden.
            “Huh, then it’s mine then, Mr. Laden Tenderfoot.” Seemingly, Edgar meant to say that to himself but it was heard by everyone that Laden was certain this was his true thought.
            “I’m leaving.” After eating all the time without letting out a single word, Aki put her dish down and stood up.
            “So soon? Hey, this one is also delicious...” Daniel made his attempt to make her stay, showing another dish which was closest to him.
            “I’m full.”
            A succinct answer from the one who was wandering away, when heard that, Laden and Daniel then noticed that half of the food prepared had gone, turned into clean dishes near Aki’s sitting place, impressed Laden for the second time in just a day.
            “I have to...goooo...toooo.” Edgar threw an empty can from his hand and stood up, groggily standing for a moment then pat on Laden’s shoulder.
            “Take careee...Mr,Laden Tenderfooottt.”
            And so he stumbled away with a sardonic laughter that made Laden badly wanted to hit his head with something.
            “Ayyy, Daniel, look at this cutie, no fear at all, hehe...” Camille laughed with reddened face, pointing at Sybill who used her last resort to avoid unwanted alcohol, by desperately held an unopened can at her mouth like she was drinking from it, Laden felt both amused and sorry mixed together.
            “Damnit...I don’t know what she’s thinking, getting this drunk just before a battle.” Daniel grumbled and snatched Camille’s tenth can, she protested and tried to take it back, but drunkenness decided that all she could do was crashed her face into the floor.
            “Aw...that hurts...” 
            She wailed while Daniel shook his head in disapproval and carried her up.
            “I’ll need to bring her to her room. Looks like the party’s over, you can go back now, Laden. Sybill and I will clean this up.”
            Without waiting for an answer, Daniel strode out of the training ground, Camille in his arms, left Laden alone with Sybill.
            “Uh...don’t you want to go to your room?”
            “I think I’ll help you clean up, since I’m the one who made this.”
            “Th...Thank you then.”
            An awkward silence fell upon them again, only the sound of dishes and cutlery met each other remained.
            “Why did you become a soldier?”
            As Laden worked hard to find a way to start a conversation, this question was shot at him that he stopped his hands for a moment. Forasmuch, after being rescued from his death, his life always involved with Carlos and the military that he couldn’t see himself being anything else.
            “I’m inspired by someone...”
            So his answer was that.
            “I see, how well for you...”
            “What about you?”
            This was the question he really wanted to find the answer, because an image of Sybill in a battle suit was so hard to visualize. Sybill remained quiet for a long pause that Laden thought she didn’t heard his words.
            “I...applied by myself.”
            Quite a regular answer, because the Kingdom Army always needed fresh recruits, and many conscription were held all the time. If he asks this question to ten people in the army, he’d probably get the same answer from seven.
            “I was assigned as a medic because I can’t lift up almost any gun. Tomorrow’s gonna be my first time on the battlefield, too.” She said, raising Laden’s eyebrows.
            “First time? That means you just became a soldier?”
            “Yes, I was sent here just two weeks before you.”
            “What did you do before?”
            “My family has a small bakery in Crysalis, but we can’t fight with those large shopping malls lately and nearly had to close down, then I saw the army’s recruitment...with this much payment, although it’s risky, our bakery will be able to recover in just two years.”
            As her story reached this point, a hopeful smile bloomed on her face, full of dreams and anticipation that Laden was captivated by it.
            “If you’ve got a chance, go visit our bakery, I’ll make you the best treats I can!”
            He chuckled and said.
            “Sure, looking forward to it.”
            “Thanks for helping me, I’ll return these to the cafeteria, see you tomorrow.”
            Sybill put his stack of dishes on top of hers and wobbly carried them out, Laden fixed his gaze one her until she left the training grounds and came back to the dormitory.
            The dormitory tonight was noiseless even it wasn’t late in the night. Laden thought that it was due to tomorrow’s battle.
            The battle that no one knew whether they’ll come back alive or not.
            In the battlefield, dead or alive, was divided only by a thin line.
            Moreover, even if the enemy didn’t kill, the battlefield’s atmosphere wasn’t the pleasant one; many soldiers got a chromatic mental disorder from stress and pressure.
            It was at this moment that Laden’s heart suddenly filled with admiration towards Sybill.
            She was just a young woman who couldn’t even hold a gun, but she willed to jump into the battlefield without any hesitation for the sake of her own family.
            “Two years, isn’t it...”
            He lied down on his bed, realized that he, who got no target in being a soldier, now had one.
            Laden closed his eyes, he didn’t know what tomorrow had prepared for him, but his objectives was clear.
            Maybe the next tomorrow would be his last one, who knew?
            Who would know that tomorrow, many things would change?
            Who would know that tomorrow, nothing would be the same?
            Who would know that tomorrow, the wheel of fate would start to roll?