Vandread Fan Fiction ❯ Mechanics & Medicine ❯ Reunion ( Chapter 1 )

VanDread - Mechanics & Medicine

 

Disclaimer: I state that VanDread belongs to Gonzo Studios and thus is NOT my personal property.

 

< >: Thoughts

 

Chapter 1

 

Reunion

 

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Back on Talark, a day before…

 

Duero was busy running a few more tests on his projects while in his officer, namely concerning the integration of Talark and Megele medical technology and practices for the next batch of trainees coming his way. It had been difficult at first to teach the Megele training methods he had learned due to the inconsistencies that were there due to the women's vast reliance on their technology and that left them vulnerable when technology broke down. That was one concern he addressed in his days there and put to practice when he got the chance.

 

When he got back, he began to work on developing Talark versions of the equipment and for once, Talark's few resources were now being used to better the society instead of being used to expand their military power…after all, the war between his world and Megele was pretty much over, and Duero knew that if they could improve their world, then all the better. All the scientific concepts they had developed that was once dedicated to warfare was now being used in improving he state of their people, though they still had their class system.

 

There were also more hardliners in the government who were still adamant in continuing the war with women…despite the proclamation of Grand Pa to ceasing of all hostilities between the military of both their worlds. They still tried on occasion to cause mischief, but Grand Pa put a stop to that and had them brought to court and reminded them that the war was over now, and even some of the First Generation agreed with the sentiment. Though there would still be those who would not give up on keeping the gender war alive, even with the power of making the war continue, now being suppressed by Grand Pa.

 

Duero however didn't concern himself with politics and policy, his concern was training his fellow men preparation with their meeting with female company. He however didn't forget the time he had been branded as a traitor and tortured by his fellow men to denounce women. The lashes hurt, but he didn't relent in any way at the least, it wasn't in his nature. But after the war with the Harvesters, he and Bart had been removed from being branded as traitors and then the request from Grand Pa came in and off he went.

 

When he got back, there was more than one person on his world who asked about Megele and what the world of women was like. He told them as much as he could about his time on the all female planet. There also people on Talark who still looked as if they could not believe that he was alive after being with the women's world, some of them even tried to ask Duero if he had been infected!

 

It had been even harder for him to get students due to so many men fearing that he would infect them with dreaded sicknesses that women were depicted of inflicting on men, though he knew for a fact that it was nothing more than propaganda. The situation could have been bad hadn't Grand Pa made it compulsory for all Talark medical graduates to attend Duero's session on not just female medical technology and methods, but also on their basic physical descriptions and form. The first few classes were full of men who tried to discredit him until he put a stop to it himself. Duero might not act like it, but as an Elite of Talark, he was quite proficient in hand to hand combat, weapons tactics, and more due to such things being a requirement for ALL Elite citizens of Talark. It took a while until the first few classes settled down and paid attention to his teachings and for that, he was thankful.

 

When his first students came back from their time on the Nirvana, they were still in shock by what they had seen due to them being still used to the idea that women were vicious and ugly monsters. Duero understood, that since he too had been led to believe that women were monsters. But unlike his other fellow men, Duero had been always the intelligent and curious sort so he didn't always believe that women were monsters even before he was on the Ikazuchi, so he didn't go into culture shock that much when the pirates came into the scene.

 

As he finished cataloguing his work, he suddenly got a message from the door, showing that he had a visitor.

 

“Open.” Duero turned and faced one of his Talark students, a dark blonde male named Trey Morandes. Trey was one of the new EMP or emergency medical personnel that were being trained by Duero. They were to serve as field medics just like him, but on the battle-field, thus like Duero the young blonde had received training combat training and good medical training to even it up. Trey was average looking by Talark standards and had been one of the newer batches of cadets Duero had trained, though he was a bit more open minded than his fellow cadets. His blonde hair was long in a ponytail and like all Talark men he too had been molded as a soldier and thus had the form to go with it. (*)

 

“Hello Trey, can I help you with something?”

 

“Sorry to bother you Instructor McFile…but you have guests coming in.” The young medic/soldier answered as he stepped in and then moved aside to let the visitors enter Duero's office.

 

“Hey Duero, been a while hasn't it?”

 

Duero smiled a bit as he recognized his visitor.

 

“Hibiki! What brings you out here? I thought you were discussing things with Grand…I mean your father on what new ventures our government can have with Megele and Melanos?” Duero said as he shook hands with the young man. Hibiki was wearing new clothes to show his position in the Talark Government as special ambassador to Megele and Melanos. The clothes were in the same make as that of his Third Class clothes, since he didn't plan on forgetting where had been for the last thirteen years of his life after waking up from cold sleep. Beside him was none other than Dita Liebely who smiled warmly as she too greeted Duero.

 

“Hello Duero…nice to see you again!” The redhead said cheerfully as she walked in. She dressed in a fuller, short sleeved body suit, long but comfortable suit pants, her new Talark made custom boots, and had on her favorite jacket along with her ever present tiara. The redhead had to learn on how to adapt to the culture and environment on the male planet and Hibiki, along with his parents had to be her guide. She was still as innocent as before when she and Hibiki met and Hibiki didn't want her to change too much.

 

She had gotten used to being on the desert world and had to wear suntan lotion on her body when she came out to guard her skin. Before, when she started living with Hibiki in their new quarters, she had to get used to the heat outside and stayed home most of the time. She however also went out of the complex on occasion and had been nearly hurt by some of the rougher men who didn't trust her despite the peace accord. Hibiki however was there and promptly beat them up for their attempts to harm Dita.

 

Those men were suitably punished by the police of Talark and Grand Pa suggested that Hibiki would have some security around her and thus when Dita went out of their home, she would be escorted by a member of Talark's commando elite, the Sand Tigers…this man was named Rook Rainova.

 

Dita quickly made friends with her body-guard and as such Rook was very kind to the young woman, accompanying her when she was not with Hibiki. However, most of the time, she never left Hibiki's side and was always with him when he had to go in summit meetings with other leaders on Talark, and on Megele or when she went to get food and drink for the house she shared with Hibiki.

 

“Excuse me, Sir Hibiki.”

 

Hibiki turned as Rook came into the room. Rook was dressed in normal Talark combat fatigues, with a combat knife on his left hip and a pistol on his right, along with him holding a smaller version of the Talark Claymore assault rifle named the Rapier, adeptly used by the Sand Tiger Commandos.

 

Rook was a tall person and had the look of a well seasoned soldier, short black hair in a semi military cut and a somewhat serious demeanor with his steel grey eyes. Like all the men of Talark, he was strong and very much a fast and skilled fighter, along with weapons and a Vanguard. He was very honored to be assigned to guard Grand Pa's son and even the young woman who he was very friendly with, though he mostly keeps true to his military training and family back-ground, him being the grand-son of the founder of the Talark Sand Tigers. Many thought he did it through connections, but many who knew him know better than that. (**)

 

“Yes Lieutenant Rook?”

 

“With your permission sir, I would like to remain outside, and handle the arrangements for your flight to the Nirvana, if you wish…I can prep your Vanguard for transport.”

 

“Thank you, I appreciate that, you may go ahead Lieutenant Rook.”

 

“Thank you sir!” Rook answered with a crisp salute and left the group to talk.

 

Duero smiled as Dita cuddled to Hibiki who this time didn't try to escape, but merely blush and reciprocate her affections. Duero knew how close they were for a long time, though he may not admit it, he was also eager to see Hibiki and Dita admit how they felt towards one another like everyone else on the Nirvana a year before and despite his seeming disinterest, he too would keep discrete tabs on the two, he was happy to see them finally being comfortable with one another. Though a part of him wished he could have the same…

 

He however put those thoughts aside as he recalled that they were his guests in his office.

 

“Oh I forgot…please sit down while I get some drinks and food.” Duero said as he busied himself by making his guests more comfortable in his office, and like Hibiki and Dita's home, Duero's office was also air-conditioned…a luxury to the men, though to the women…very common-place.

 

As he got some food and water to them, Hibiki was busy looking at Duero's office. The place was very much Spartan-like in manner and functions, the men of his world valued a practical and simplistic approach so that reflected not just on their use of materials, but the way they lived life. They however were efficient in many ventures and as such were not in the mood to waste valuable resources, time, and equipment. That was one of the factors that grated the peace treaty as both cultural personalities were known to hit hard on one another.

 

The women with their belief in aesthetics and the over use of resources and over reliance on technology made them not very suitable at times to tolerate the men's no non-sense approach in dealing with certain things and situations, not that he could blame both sides. Dita herself had to get used to living with him and despite the change in Citizen rank and quarters, along with the other perks that came with the fact that both Grandma and Grandpa were his parents, it still took some getting used to.

 

Duero then handed them several of Bart's pellets, these however not only looked like food in color but now tasted like the food in question. As the close friends were busy eating and chatting, Duero then asked them what brought them here to his little office. He had not been informed as of yet on the planned reunion, so he was very much unaware of the plans being made by the crew.

 

“There's gong to be a meeting in the Crossroads with the old crew?” Duero asked in surprise…it wasn't often that the Nirvana would be doing such things. After the war, the Nirvana had been used as a case study on men and women working together until the Crossroads station was built.

 

“Yep…everyone's going to be there!” Dita replied cheerfully as she too was hoping to finally see her comrades for a bit of a break.

 

Hibiki was also interested to finally see the old crew himself…besides, he did have a chance to finally beat Gascogne in cards, he had been working hard to finally beat the Register head for quite some time now and today's reunion seems a good time as any would be.

 

“Yeah…Maggie is planning to let us all take a break…and we've received word from Melanos patrols that there have been no signs of activity from the Harvesters for some time.”

 

Both Duero and Dita already knew who Maggie was…none other than Captain Magno Vivian. The elder woman had been a close friend of Hibiki when he was still very much a baby and when he learned the truth behind the old woman he used to call old hag, he changed his tunes a bit, and now called her Maggie instead of old hag…which naturally helped in dealing with the mess that was left behind.

 

“I see…well, I am happy for that, but I have so many duties here that I might not be able to make it.” Duero said honestly, with his ever increasing work-loads, the Talark youth barely had time to leave the office on personal matters.

 

“Don't worry about that Duero…Dad said that you have been given the authority to go with us and leave the school for the time being, some of you're graduates will handle things from here. It's up to you who you would assign to take you're place here in the Academy…we'll be leaving in four hours, so you have plenty of time. See you at the launch pads.”

 

“Bye Mr. Doctor!”

 

As both Dita and Hibiki left the building and got ready to leave…Duero sat back and wondered just what he would do…he missed being with the crew of the Nirvana, and he wondered how they had fared since he had last been on the ship. His other concern was to Parfait, he wondered if she would be present among the crew and since she was the busy sort it would hardly surprise him that she would be very busy in her own way.

 

Regardless of that however, he decided to begin screening his possible replacement since it had been quite a while since he relaxed and just maybe see some old faces.

 

*************

 

In Megele…

 

“Are you sure?”

 

Barnette asked as she and Jura were busy getting ready for their return to the Nirvana. Ever since the war's end with the Harvesters, the crew got the chance to return to the world of their birth and relax a bit more. They had just gotten word that the Nirvana would be picking them up, along with other members of the old crew for a reunion.

 

“Yeah, I personally think that it'll be nice to see everyone again…and maybe I can ask Dita if she's actually managed to get Hibiki to have a kid with her.”

 

“Jura! That's…that's private! I doubt that Dita would say something like that like it was ordinary…besides, I rather doubt that the two even KNOW how to have children, I can't even begin to picture how a man and woman could have kids.”

 

“That's why I still have the book…no way am I going to give up on the idea yet.” Jura replied with a very mischievous look as she presented the same book she had gained from Duero a few months before, this one was dedicated to the children's way of understanding co-gender procreation, but since it only explained the way the child is born and did not explain HOW a man and a woman go about in procreation, the blonde was understandably left in the dark on the matter, thus she was curious on how Dita fared in her time with Hibiki.

 

Barnette could only sigh and wonder just when will Jura's desire to have a child with a man be either fulfilled or abandoned. But for now, they had some shopping to do before they decided to check up on a few of their friends…not to mention a certain bespectacled head engineer.

 

Speaking of whom…

 

Parfait was busy working on another project of hers in the work-shop when her Fahma…who had the day off came into the workshop with a glass of cold lemon tea for her daughter.

 

“Parfait, here, you look tired.”

 

Parfait spotted the tea and smiled as she put away her tools and took the offered drink from her Fahma's hands and drank the tea. As soon as she finished she thanked her Fahma and as about to go back to work when the door-bell chimed…stating that someone was at their door.

 

“I'll get it dear.”

 

As her Fahma left, Parfait went back to her project, and like before was now absorbed into her work, so much so that she didn't notice her Fahma coming back to the work-shop…with a pair of guests.

 

One of whom spoke out to their comrade…

 

“Parfait…don't you ever take a break?”

 

Parfait gave a shout of surprise and turned to see Barnette Orangello and Jura Basil Elden. She had not seen them in quite a while now and it seemed that her fellow pirates had decided to pay her simple home a visit.

 

*************

 

To be continued…

 

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Well, chapter 1 has finally arrived after so long, sorry once more for the long delays fellow readers, but I had a lot of things to do before I could make this so you'll have to forgive me for taking so long.

 

(*) Think around the form of Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury and King of Fighters.

 

(**) Sagara Sousuke ring a bell? (^_^)