AN: and so it begins...

Chapter 27.1: There's a Killing a Comin

The roaring sound of an ASDF transport shuttle lowering itself to Earth was one that most people did not forget. Few vehicles made such thunderous noise anymore due to the anti-gravity drives used to move around when transport nodes were not available. There was a weight limit for such things, however. The more weight to be moved, the larger the engine needed. There was a sweet spot between interplanetary cargo ships and civilian use vehicles where the transport shuttles remained useful.

Scott and his day team stood at the ready as the transport shuttle came to ground. It was a ship of common design. It had the appearance of a bread box with fins.

The shuttle touched down and the rear door opened. A moment later nine people wearing desert camouflage themed cycle armor rolled out. Cycle armor a type of variable design power armor that transformed between motorcycle and wearable combat suit, it was standard for cross-country overland missions undertaken by the ASDF. Scott felt severely underdressed. He could not even afford basic power armor, yet.

A tall dark-skinned man stepped forward and saluted. "Staff Sergeant Darrell Wilkes and squad seventeen, reporting."

Scott did not have to salute, but he did. He would have felt strange not to do so. "Hunter Scott Matthews, glad to receive you and your people sergeant."

Sergeant Wilkes nodded to him then glanced back at his team. "Riders, stand forward and introduce yourselves."

Two people stepped forward first, both men. The one of the far left spoke up. "Corporal Jameson Briggs." The next man introduced himself afterward. "Private First Class Andrew Henderson."

Next to introduce themselves were the six Crystallim who comprised the rest of the squad. They each introduced themselves by a call-sign designation. They were either first or second, and called Alpha, Beta, and Gamma.

Alpha-1 marched over and stood to the immediate left of Sergeant Wilkes. She was a hawkline with beautiful pink hair and piercing steel grey eyes. She reminded Scott of the girl he had not spent much time with yet after forming an initial bond. Her position at the left-hand side of Sergeant Wilkes showed that it was actually she, and not the two men behind her and to the left who was second in command of their outfit. It was customary for a human soldier to be introduced first, but the ASDF did not discriminate when it came to rank and file beyond that factor. She held at least the rank of sergeant if she stood in that position.

A Crystallim could not hold a rank higher than her master, but in the military that merely meant that once she outgrew her commander in rank she would need a new partner of higher rank. One of the highest ranking officers in the ASDF was Co-General Ashley Brante a goddess class Crystallim who held joint rank with her master. It was an honor no other Crystallim had earned in America to date, and few others in the world had managed in their own countries of origin.

The other Crystallim fell into position according to their rank. Alpha-2, a green haired Amazon, stood next to Alpha-1. The beta duo a catgirl and an elf stood next to Corporal Briggs, and gamma team stood next to Private Henderson. They were comprised of a catgirl and an elf as well.

Scott gestured to Pirouette and Flora, his day team. "My day team."

Pirouette spoke up first. "Alpha Pirouette, Dark Elf."

Flora flushed slightly then sweetly said, "Flora, Alraune."

Eina glanced toward Scott to see what he would do. He spoke up on her behalf. "My associate, Eina. She's an Amazon Armsmistress."

Scott expected her to say something like, Associate? Who would associate with a fatty like you?, but for once Eina chose not to make a scene. For a brief moment he wondered if the volcanoes on the Southern Isles had frozen over.

She did, however, walk over and stand to the left of Flora to show that she was more than just an associate in this matter. Scott quirked his eyebrow at her, but she merely granted him a flat expression.

"Right, anyway." said Scott after a moment. He then looked back to the sergeant. "My reserve force consists of a Caesg named Shaia, and a Black Widow named Tara. There is one more member of the team, but I have not trained with her yet so she will not join the operation.

Sergeant Wilkes inclined his head. "Alright. Let's get down to business."

The two teams joined together for the moment and Scott related the information that he had acquired. The squad would head out to scout the area shown. If any trouble was found they would call back to him, and he would relay it to the council. It was not particularly difficult to jam long distance communications when they had to travel hundreds of miles, but it was more difficult to do so if the distance was less than forty miles.

Scott's primary task now that the military was involved, was to continue his current mission for the next twenty-four hours. Afterward they would rendezvous and set out together to perform a deeper exploration of the area if such was warranted. Basically, the military would make certain it was worth the effort for further examination before they put their people and a hunter in a potentially hostile situation. Scott and his team would receive the credit for anything found.

Sergeant Wilkes looked to Alpha-1 then nodded. "Get 'em moving sergeant."

Alpha-1 snapped to attention, pivoted smartly, then called out, "Squad! Prepare for movement!"

The squad surrounded Sergeant Wilkes and his command Alpha, then they spread themselves out in a standard roll-out formation. After they were in place Alpha-1 called out, "Transform and roll-out!"

A strange electronic noise emanated through the air as the power armor worn by the soldiers folded out then underwent a short series of transformations. Now they wore battle armor and sat astride oversized motorcycles.

The formation rolled out, each of them at a twenty meter interval from the other. They rode out toward the desert in perfect synchronization and left only dust and awe in their wake.

"Wow." said Flora lightly. Before she said anything else, her vines began to creep over to curl gentle around Scott's ankle.

He was not so far away that he could escape her sweet clutches. "That was neat."

Scott watched the riders ride off for a few minutes then smiled to himself. That life was over. He had not worn power armor in the field since basic training. He worked in a branch of the psi-ops department when he was with Seventy-Two, that was not a position that lent itself to power armor related field work since he would serve a much better purpose in defense coordination and command operations.

"What's the agenda today?" asked Pirouette. She ignored the clinging vine that snaked its way past her. Flora was the sort of girl who desired constant affection.

"We'll head out on patrol. There is not much else to do. Even if the squad finds something out there, the job we still have a job to do here has priority till they get in touch with us." he said.

They ate a quiet breakfast then set out to patrol the area. Throughout the early morning three out of the four members of the group chattered on like overly gossipy magpies. The area surrounding Mesa-III was a massive and wide-open region. The likelihood of an opponent sneaking up on them was slim unless they were the sort of people who had access to military great covert operations illusion gear. It would be similar to people using the sort of equipment that the guards around Alexis utilized, but solely to stalk four random people on a flat plain.

Everything seemed normal for the first part. They did not find any Hawkline to capture, but they still made the effort to work toward a complete patrol circuit.

Scott, however, began to notice a strangeness in the air. There was a sort of quiet on the wind. Something was terribly wrong. The source of that wrongness eluded him for a moment, but when he realized it his eyes opened wide. He turned to look upon the source of the strange atmosphere.

Eina blinked once slowly then looked at him, an introspective expression on her face. "Yeah? What is it?"

He blinked then stared openly at her. "Eina, are you ill?"

She made a half-hearted huffing sound but shook her head. "No. I'm fine."

A thought occurred to him and he swiftly moved to her side. "You... Eina, is this about last night?"

She reached up and gently swatted the side of his face with her hand. "I'm fine. It's alright." As an afterthought, she sighed softly then half-heartedly whispered, "Fatty."

Scott slipped his arms around her and pressed her into a tight embrace. "Oh, no. It's worse than I thought!"

Eina snorted at him lightly then leaned her chin on his shoulder. "I'm a little tired. I should just go back."

"Well, if you need to go back to town and rest..." said Scott.

"That's not..." Eina closed her eyes for a moment then took a breath. "I just have no reason to be out here, I guess."

Scott looked at her in genuine surprise. What had come over her? Where was the brash and overly bitchy girl he tolerated with affection? "What are you talking about?"

Eina shrugged a little then looked off to the side. "I'm just your associate."

"That? What, I couldn't call you part of the team." said Scott, surprised by her attitude.

"I know. It's..." She laughed a little, but her eyes were sad. "I need to think about a few things, is all."

Pirouette drew Flora away a short distance to give them privacy. Though, if the truth were told her elven hearing allowed her to easily hear what they were saying to each other.

"What's to think about? You're my Eina, and you want to spend time with everyone." said Scott.

"Am I?" she asked him with a growl. "Am I really?"

"Eina?" he asked in confusion.

The twin-tailed terror's eyes narrowed. "You've had two years... and you haven't made good on that at all."

Scott tried to hug her tightly once again, but she pushed him away. Eina shook her head back and forth, tears coming to her eyes. "I can't help what I've become you know." She slapped his chest lightly and he was sent flying back to land heavily on the hard baked earth. "Do you think I like sounding like I have a bug up my ass all the damn time?" she cried.

"Eina, just talk to me." said Scott in a serious tone. He did not reproach her for her assault. That was never a useful tactic when dealing with a Crystallim, and especially not with Eina.

The blond powerhouse stopped the ground hard then shouted. "Do you think you're the only one tired of being alone!"

That brought him up short. What was she talking about? She had an entire family who she could spend time with whenever she stopped working long enough to do so. Why would she feel like she was alone?

Scott rose to his feet and gently approached her with his hand out. "Eina..." he said in a soft, warm, tone.

She shook her head. "No, no. Don't say my name like that."

"Eina..." he said softly, once more.

She huffed a little. Tears began to well up in her eyes. "Stop it. Just... Stop."

His fingers lightly slipped around her waist. He pulled her back into a gentle embrace. "Eina."

The distraught blond slapped at his shoulders weakly as the tears fell. "I hate you!"

Scott held her tighter. Her body began to shake. Eina cried hot, bitter, tears as the floodgates of her emotions finally broke and she let it all out for the whole world to see. "I'll kill you, dammit."

He stroked her hair and listened as she continually spoke of all the horrible things that she wanted to do to him. Some were funny, such as the one where she wanted to break his spine and tie him up like a pretzel. Some were disturbing. The desire to rip out his intestines and use them as a jump rope was particularly detailed.

She did none of the things that she sobbed out while desperately clinging to him. It had not taken long for Scott to figure out something of what was wrong. Eina was at war with herself. They had met when she was an unevolved amazon. At that tier of ascension, she was basically a stronger version of a normal girl. Her emotions were not strange, though she did have a tendency to categorize people as strong or weak.

After going through two evolutions most people were far weaker than she was. The truth was that she could crush Scott into a fine meat paste with little effort and no special ability usage. That was the problem.

Her master was a father figure and not a love interest. She was an age where she would live to have such a relationship, but everyone she met was pathetic. The only one whom she actually enjoyed spending time with was also someone she had completely out grown as a warrior. In short, every cell in her body rejected him as a proper mate, but her heart still wanted what it wanted.

She was constantly torn between her desire to be with him, the legality of the situation, and her desire to smash him like the pathetic little shit that he was. That was comparatively speaking, of course.

Scott held the crying girl close and stroked her hair gently. "Eina, do you really want to kill me?"

"Yes." she said teary-eyed. She clutched him tighter then nuzzled her chin into the crook of his neck. A moment later she unleashed a particularly violent hiccup then sniffled a little.

Scott whispered something into her ear so that only she and possibly Pirouette, could hear it. "Give me one year. I'll give you your chance."

Eina's eyes widened. She pulled her head back then looked at him with a thoroughly bewildered expression. "Do you mean it?"

He nodded. "I do."

She sniffed once loudly. Her eyes began to shimmer softly with the emotion of it all. "Oh, thank you!" She hugged him tight, so tight that he felt his ribcage start to conscript. "I'll do my best to kill you."

"You—" he wheezed loudly. "already are."

Eina laughed warmly then snuggled against him. Scott had promised to take responsibility. Her laugh grew more jubilant a moment later. "Oh my goodness! I need to go tell daddy that we set a date!"

Scott's eyes bulged out slightly. She rarely called Jack, daddy. This could not end well, even if he did manage to survive her on the appointed date. They had only set a date to fight each other. She seemed to think that implied other things.

"I'll need armor, and a cake cuz you're a fatty, and maybe a white dress..." babble Eina happily. Her head snapped downward and she glared at him. "You know damned well that I can wear white, right?"

He nodded his head rapidly then tried to remind her that he needed oxygen to breathe. It went right over her head as the jubilation in the air caused her to go off on her beautiful tangent once more.

"There's a killing to plan!" cried Eina joyfully. She released him briefly, just long enough for him to take a deep breath, but then thought better of it. Eina hugged Scott again then forced him to dance around with her. All was right with the world, at last.