[FIC] Long Road Chapter 2

[Reaper DXR-7]

Full Metal Panic: Long Road

Chapter 2: Mission? What Mission?

“So how has Kalinin been lately? That old dog still biting as hard as he use to?”

In a small room at the large estate Sousuke was taken too by his “girlfriend” he chatted with Murai Fukigawa. “Affirmative, he is still a tough soldier, even in his old age.”

The older man grinned; “well that’s good to hear. How is Arbalest holding up, I hear you’re the one piloting that monster?”

“Affirmative. I have yet to reach the full potential of the Lambda driver systems, it is quite difficult to use with out the medical treatments that Gauron and Takuma undertook.” Sousuke stared straight at the father of Chisato.

“Well, it was originally designed for use by whispered.” Murai sighed, “well, since you did know of my identity then you must already know that I am a Mithril agent. The UN position is just a front. Like many of the other politicians, the job that we have is really a position handed to us by Mithril. It’s not that much different from your mission with Miss Chidori, I am required to do this job.” Turning to Sousuke, Murai smiled, “the reason Mithril sent you was because they found out about that little bug in the lambda driver system.”

Sousuke nodded and Murai continued to speak. “I see, then it’s pretty obvious that Mithril wants me to join the Dadanaan crew.” Again, Sousuke nodded. “Well, seeing as I do have a load of sick leave days stacked up at the UN I should be able to take extended leave for say... About ten years.”

Murai laughed away as Sousuke stood dumbfounded, “don’t worry son, I’m sure that Tessa will enjoy having you back so soon, last I remember of her was back when you two had first met. She probably still has that girlish crush on you.” That last statement had sent Sousuke into a cold sweat as taboo thoughts crossed his mind. Murai chuckled when he saw the expression on Sousuke’s face, “don’t worry bout it, I know you don’t like Tessa that way, especially after reading the field reports.” Sighing he stated, “disobeying orders to save Kaname Chidori, killing Gauron to save Chidori and Dadanaan. Not to mention the fact that you dressed up as a giant hamster thing to save her from Yakuza, and fought off gangs to protect her. In fact, your entire first week at Jindai you came back to the safe house injured.”

“Miss Chidori is a dangerous mission.”

Murai grinned as he patted Sousuke on the back. “No offense Sagara but all women are dangerous missions.” Beads of sweat trickled down Sousuke’s face as Murai escorted him into the dinning area. Chisato was sitting in the hostess’s chair as her father plopped down in the chair across from her; Sousuke sat next to Murai. “Honey, I’ll be leaving on a business trip soon.”

Chisato beamed, “its ok daddy, I have Sousuke to protect me.”

“No. Sousuke is coming with me; it’s an important military project inside of Mithril. You will be living with your mother in Osaka from this point on.” Murai turned to Sousuke then back to Chisato; “there is also another thing I have to tell you about.”

“Mithril?” Chisato was frightened; her father had never mentioned any of his other work. “Is that part of the U.N.?” The room went deathly silent, and then Sousuke stepped forward.

“Ms. Fukigawa, your father does not work for the U.N. He is a Mithril agent placed in the U.N. to make sure that things like World War 2 does not happen again.” After noticing the look on Chisato’s face, Sousuke went on and continued his explanation. “You are not permitted to tell a living soul about Mithril, you understand.” Chisato nodded, “good. Mithril is a secret organization that wipes out terrorist factions and tries to prevent major wars from occurring. We are also the leader in AS developments, your father has worked for Mithril since before you or I were born.”

Chisato looked over at her father, “is this true daddy?” Worry had set in as her father nodded.

“When I was in my younger years, I was in much of the same position as Sagara was. North Vietnamese soldiers killed my father and mother in Vietnam. Mithril found me, took care of me, and found a place for me to work and live. I am grateful for that, I am also grateful to see that Mithril still helps people that were once down in the gutter.”

Just then a tall figure walked into the room, his flowing gray hair caught Sousuke and Murai’s attention. They both jolted up and saluted the man who had just made his presence know; Commander Kalinin. “I see you have already informed the girl about Mithril.”

Both soldiers stated in unison, “sir, yes sir!”

Kalinin nodded, “at ease.” Walking over to Chisato, Kalinin introduced himself and explained the situation a little more. “From this point on you will be under the supervision of Mithril. You will have guards like Sgt. Sagara 24/7.” Cold gray eyes turned to meet the purple eyes of Murai; “your daughter will be shot if she mentions anything of Mithril to anyone other than Mithril personnel.” Murai nodded.

All three soldiers left the room and boarded a helicopter on the front lawn. Chisato was escorted to an unmarked van with a man and a woman. In the copter Kalinin began speaking to Sousuke. “You are being reassigned to guard Chidori once again Sgt. Sagara.”

“Why sir? I thought the threat of abduction was over. We did kill Gauron.”

“That may be true but,” Kalinin said looking straight into his subordinate’s eyes, “the people who Gauron was working for are still after the whispered. You remember that incident in Hong Kong with those Venom units?” Of course Sousuke remembered that time, it was the day he finally put Gauron to rest. “Turns out that Amalgam has gotten a hold of one M12 unit, rumors in the underground say that they have the unit stored somewhere in Tokyo.”

“What!?” Surprise, so this is what Amalgam was planning.

“Rumors are that Amalgam plans to complete obliterate all of Japan, to wipe the land clean and turn it into an big war zone. They want to make money is all, and by showing their power every nation in the world would buy their Arm Slaves.” That wasn’t good, not at all.

“Why, how could they plan to do that? Kaname... All of them, my fellow students... The people I have grow to admire, respect, even... Even grown to care for her...”

“Sgt., we are stationing you in Tokyo at a Mithril base. You and a few new soldiers will be attending Jindai to protect Kaname, and some of the other whispered candidates.” Kalinin was nervous, even in all his years of duty nothing this big has ever presented itself. “Kurz, Mao, and the rest of the SRT members will be stationed at various locations in Japan.” Turning to Murai, Kalinin stated, “Lt. Murai, you and a few other scientist and whispered shall be stationed at that base as well, we need you to complete the new Lambda drivers. We need all the Lambda Driver capable Arm Slaves we can get.”

“Sir, yes sir!” The jet-black helicopter disappeared in to the pitch-black night. They were heading in the direction of the Mithril base, it was located somewhere near Sousuke’s safe house. The SRT members were already at the base and awaiting the arrival of the Commander.

When the helicopter landed they were greeted by all the SRT, and staff working at the base. Walking through the newly built hangar Sousuke noticed that a massive amount of Arm Slaves were here. Murai laughed when he saw what model the AS were. “Damn Commander, you guys got these M12s up and running already!” The new units towered over the few M9s present. At the very end of the hangar stood ARX-7 Arbalest. Murai walked up to the Arbalest and patted the foot. “Hey there buddy, looks like we finally get to finish you up. Looks like the original guy died half way through.”

Sousuke was astounded by the mans bond with the Arbalest. “Sir, what do you know of this machine’s capabilities?”

The question Sousuke fired at Murai had the man grinning, “not that much actually. I helped back in the designing phases but some punk took over the job, high commands orders.” Both men stared at the Arbalest, after a good five minutes they left the hangar and proceeded to the living quarters.

The base resembled much of the Tuatha Dadanaan. The living quarters were an exact replicate of the barracks aboard the submarine. All the soldiers found themselves right at home, all except Sousuke. Kalinin noticed Sousuke’s change in mood, he approached the young Sergeant, “Sgt. Sagara, I see that you do not approve of the new base.”

The sudden appearance of Kalinin startled Sousuke, “no sir, it’s just I would prefer to be back at the safe house.”

“I see.” Kalinin smiled as he watched Sousuke walk off towards his room, but then Kalinin stopped Sousuke. “Sgt. Sagara.”

Sousuke turned around. “Yes sir?”

“Since the base is only ten minutes from the safe house, we can allow you to resume your stay there.” A glimmer of hope fluttered inside Sousuke, Kalinin noticed this. “It would most likely be in our best interest seeing as you are still under orders to protect Miss Chidori. One thing though,” the Russian man handed Sousuke some files, “I would like these two to accompany you.” Sousuke opened the files revealing two teen girls, they were both new to Mithril but quite skilled AS pilots. “They will be assisting you in protecting Miss Chidori.”

“Sir, yes sir!” Sousuke smiled as he ran towards the hangar. It would good to be able to speak with Chidori, to eat with her... Sousuke frowned when he realized that she would end up hitting him more than sharing with him.

“Oh well, it is my mission again!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning Kaname awoke to a peaceful day. Nothing had blown up, no one hiding in the shadows tailing her everywhere, no bacteria, no shotgun wielding Bonta-kun’s. Just a normal day.

It made Kaname depressed.

Everywhere she went she saw little things that reminded her of Sousuke. She had finally made up her mind to forget him when out of the blue... “Kaname!!”

She recognized that voice, “Sousuke...” Making a quick 180 Kaname laid eyes upon that scruffy, melodramatic, military, maniac she had grown to care for so deeply. Never telling him that of course, but maybe she would think about it in the future. Then she grew annoyed, “so where’s your little girlfriend Chisato?”

Sousuke grew nervous, then rigid. “I shall explain the situation to you along the walk to school Kaname.” And so he did, in excruciating detail, which was quite a long story I might add. So long that Kaname did not even have a chance to put in a decent word before they had made it to school. That’s when she saw Sousuke’s two new “friends”.

[Sgt. Sagara Sousuke]

Interesting prospect...

4 girls involved already. Sousuke's death phase 1 initiated. Planning to introduce anymore in? Hehehe