TBVF: Chapter 15: Enter the Dragon

Title: The Blue Vast Future
Author: Ariel Chew
Genre: Sci-Fi, Humor, Friendship, Family
Summary: A SB#187 team aged-up to be in a Kaiju battle. Ariel’s merely a 21-year-old supervisor of Gamma Rapper, but with all the training of the Academy she has, will it prepare her for the biggest turns of events of the century?
~*~

Hurried footsteps can be heard through the hallways, a particular harried looking supervisor rushing to the Control room with her watch showing the time of 8:05. Her hair’s a mess, her jacket buttoned all except the middle as she familiarly swipes her access card against the card panel and almost drops her card from her rush. The door swings open, and all eyes turns to her.

“Sorry I’m late.” Ariel quickly bows in apology, moving to stand beside Iris before covering her nose to sneeze. “Excuse me…”

“Bless you. You’re not that late, really.” Iris whispers back, pointing at Achik resuming her conversation with Zul and Asyikin as Joey enters with a tray of hot coffee, Izwin close behind with a container of sandwiches. Achik says a few more words to Zul before she clears her throat, signaling the start of their meeting.

“Good morning everyone. This past few days has been quite an eventful one, with both Beta and Gamma in temporary out of commission.” Ariel smiles a little when her eyes meet Izwin’s, the Marshall continuing on without noticing the brief exchange. “Which is why we have Hong Kong’s Storm Dragon transferring into our Shatterdome starting from today. Gentlemen, you may enter now.”

Ariel watches intently as the side doors open, and the Rangers of Storm Dragon entering with their supervisor behind them. Internally she is aware that she is staring, which is rude, but she doesn’t care because-

“Ashleigh?!” Iris breaks the awed silence first, rushing forward to envelope the fellow supervisor as Ariel feels a grin blooming, despite how tired she feels. Ashleigh had been Iris’ classmate during the Jaegar Academy years, Ariel meeting Ashleigh was thanks to Iris obvious enthusiasm over a same-age friend and photograph groupie.

The pilots of Storm Dragon watch the excited female exchange quiets down before they introduced themselves. Belmain, or Bel in short, is an average slim-build Ranger; his companion, Leo, is slightly shorter and broader (in terms of both shoulders and waist, but more emphasis on waist, honestly). They both are pretty fair, like most Chinese do, and are bespectacled. Unlike Ariel who’s slightly more tanned from sunblock-less/sunburn-more childhood days.

Asyikin coughs pointedly, directing everyone’s attention to her. “Now that the introduction is over, we have one more important announcement-“

“We’re here!” Aaron announces, crashing through the doors with Talha and Amirul in tow, Eric obviously missing from the newly arrived crew. Ariel can only hide her face in her hands while Iris sputters in shock.

“Why are you three here?! The two of you are suppose to be resting!” Aaron and Talha both have arm casts, and Amirul can only look sheepishly when attention shifts to him.

“They were upset when I told them that we had to skip a meeting. Though Aaron was the one who was the most upset.”

Aaron huffs. “Yeah! How can you not invite me when there’s FREE food?!”

“That’s your priority?!” Ariel can only laugh at Iris screeching back at an indignant face Aaron, the man in attention falling silent before a grin splits his face when he recognizes the new additions.

“Oh sweet Heaven above! Bel and Leo?? You guys being transferred here for good?”

“Yeah man! Heard you guys need whatever help you can. It’s been months since the last mission, wasn’t it, Leo?”

“Yeah. About five? Since we had to go down to Laos and deal with that ugly looking Kaiju.” Leo makes a face, obviously remembering a certain horrible memory that he wished to forget. Aaron laughs, mindful his chest, as he waves Leo off with his free hand.

“It’s all good. So, uh, since Asyikin looks like she’s going to hit me, I’ll pass the time back to her?” Aaron shifts, visibly deflated as he ducks behind Talha. Asyikin sighs.

“I’m not so terrible as to hit an injured person. I can be patient enough to wait until you recover, then I’ll hit you.” Asyikin gives a tight-lipped smile, specifically directed at Aaron. The receiver merely shudders and half-hides behind Talha, a sight that has Asyikin rolling her eyes at while she continues.

“Anyway, after the last attack, the K-science division has calculated our next attack. Joey, would you care to further elaborate on your findings?”

Joey nods. “Yes, thank you. Aaron –Lim, mind you, not Tan– and I have discovered that our next attack will be coming in two weeks’ time. Which means that Beta has enough time to recover and get into commission. However…”

Joey frowns, and so does everyone listening to her.

“This time it will be a Double-Event: Where two Kaiju are expected to surface and attack. This is the first time that this will happen, and marking the start of an increase in the number of Kaiju – A Triple event, then a Quadruple event, and so on.” Joey cracks the back of her neck, pausing for a moment before she continues.

“The only good news, or what is to our advantage, is that as more Kaiju comes through the portal, the Breach widens in order to support the increase in traffic. This, is where you guys come in. One of the Jaegars will be armed with a nuclear load, and send it down into the throat of the Breach to destabilize it, so it’ll collapse onto itself.”

Ariel gasps, the obvious glee undermining Joey’s words.

If they destroy the Breach, the Kaiju will stop coming in.

“So we can finally say ‘sayonara’ to those Kaiju? For reals? I’m in.” Aaron throws his good arm up. “Good idea. Two weeks should be long enough for Eric to wake up.”

“Only Beta Strucker and Storm Dragon will be involved. Even if Eric so happens to wake up right at the two weeks’ mark, Gamma Rapper will not get involved.”

Ariel sharply turns to Zul, who had stayed quiet all this time. “Is it because of the damage of the Jaegar? Are we unable to fix it in time?”

Zul shakes his head.

“It’s not the matter of making it in time. It’s, well…” He uncomfortably looks to the Marshall for some sort of support. Achik nods, and then Zul speaks.

“All of our spare parts were either destroyed or withheld from production.”

Achik adds. “It’s true. Last night our techs who went to do a stock check found out that someone had sneaked in and destroyed everything. Obviously whoever had done this did not want us to go into battle.”

“Are the infiltrators the same as the ones who attacked Talha?” Amirul inquires, but instead of Achik answering him, Iris does.

“They should be. As well as diverting most of our personnel out of this Shatterdome since the past until now, is that not right, Marshall?” Iris meets Achik’s gaze head on. “Someone from the higher-ups is trying to dismantle this program. Whoever is doing this, might have some links to some sort of anti-Jaegar groups or those Kaiju worshippers.”

“Is that why you told us to kept silent, because you know who’s behind this? Are you trying to hide something from us?”

Achik smiles at Iris.

“I do know that person, however I’m still trying to gain enough evidence in order to wipe them all out.” Achik waves Iris off. “Just leave this to me, and see for yourself how a former Ranger deals with traitors who side with injustice. In the mean time, I have my ways to get around these sort of situations.”

Ariel is mildly intimidated by the Marshall, and knows now that she is very grateful to work under such a great boss.

~*~
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