Gideon020 woke up at 3AM on the dot as always. Granted, it was largely because of his own...
Zero Sum Soldier OVA: A Day In The Life Of A Zero, SI Oneshot.
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Gideon020
Really in the mood for ribs.
Gideon020 woke up at 3AM on the dot as always. Granted, it was largely because of his own sleeping habits, but the fact that he didn't want to hear that cheery J-Pop crap in the morning also helped as he forced himself to get up and set the alarm clock to use the beeper again, "Never again. I am never using the radio as an alarm again."
Stretching, he walked out of his bedroom to start his day, passing by a door marked with a cute drawing as 'Shion's Room' on his way to the bathroom, sparing a glance for the small tendrils of fog running out from under the door, "Ugh, please tell me it isn't Halloween again."
He checked the calendar next to the door. Yes, it was October, prompting a sigh from Gideon, "Going to be a long night in a few weeks." He walked into the kitchen and started making breakfast for himself and his house-mate.
A house-mate the government said would have been transferred by now, but still hadn't, "How long does it take to replicate a Zero Sum field anyway?" Gideon muttered to himself. He liked the kid but he could do without the complaints from the neighbours about nightmares every few weeks.
Breakfast was, as always, toast with fried eggs and bacon. Again, none of the Japanese food he had been forced to learn to make since coming to this insane reality. Yeah, the memory of that one day when he stepped on a crack in the sidewalk and fell onto Earth.
One that seemed to take every anime trope related to Mecha, Shoujo and Shounen manga and anime, and made it all real parts of the physics. Gideon still remembered that day two years ago when he had woken up in a shallow crater in a park, with guns aimed down at him, and some scientist talking machinegun Japanese at someone before telling him in perfect English to come with her.
And the reason why? Because another group of aliens had come to invade for reasons that so far Gideon had still not made complete sense out of, and his coming apparently was based upon statistically reliable appearances of other people from nearby universes and dimensions elsewhere on the planet.
"And an anime fan finds himself in an anime Japan. Heh, I still think Marco or Lili-chan would have a fit if they were dropped here." His sardonic grin twisted into a pained grimace at the reminder that it was impossible for him to return home as he sipped his coffee and tapped his personal datapad to bring up the news sites and start reading the latest headlines.
Well, the Space Colony Coalition and UN Spacy, his term for the United Nations Special Strategic Space Forces, had won a victory on Venus thanks to a Super Robot Team. Which was good, even if the Robo Trooper and Live Trooper casualties were pretty bad as usual.
Robo Troopers and Live Troopers, somewhere in those two years Gideon had clinically divided the AI-operated mass-production Mecha and the actually manned ones into two separate categories, but then so did the press. Nearly two million Robo Troopers destroyed in the meat-grinder around the main enemy stronghold and eight thousand Live Troopers dead as well.
And the front page was dominated as always by the smiling photogenic, and all teen, pilots of the Super Robot team known as Crusader 6, with their combined robot standing behind them in all it's skyscraper-sized glory.
As the man responsible for running the USSSF's special training program, codenamed 'Bitter Taste', Gideon felt a flash of pride at seeing one of the pilots standing proud with the rest of the group and smiling with his team-mates, instead of being slightly off to the side.
Gideon switched to a video of the final battle, watching as the robots fought their way into the Enemy fortress, fought the surviving enemy generals in their giant robots, and generally went through all of the tropes related to giant robot shows of this kind and with this level of violence.
That was certainly different, seeing Magical Girls in fights that left behind corpses, but then so was watching a romantic comedy play out in front of him in a restaurant. Gideon shook his head as he checked his emails, when you had kids who could be born with the eyes and hair of an anime protagonist, and it was physically possible for it to happen because the first alien invasion brought with it the strange reality-bending technology that humanity in this reality called the Shinoa Keys.
He still had trouble figuring out why they called them Shinoa Keys and why the energy released was Shinoa Fields. Especially considering the scientist responsible for cracking the mystery was named Kagura. Yeah, it's definitely an anime universe when Japan gets to be the centre of progress and advancement.
Oh, and since they had Space Colonies and Arcologies, you could own a house in Tokyo's inner prefectures. Seriously, two years and it still felt...anime. Urgh, he was never going to get used to this. Taking a sip of his coffee, Gideon grimaced slightly.
He also wasn't going to get used to Martian Coffee, why did he let Suzuhara talk him into buying this stuff again? Gideon made a noise of realisation as he smiled. That's right, he let her talk him into it because she bounced her chest right after getting him to lower his eyes.
Gideon took another sip of the coffee and promised not to buy so much next time. Finishing breakfast, Gideon took his dish to the sink and began washing up while glancing at a wall clock. Rolling his left shoulder, Gideon began working on Shion's lunch for the school day, before grimacing as he considered the contents of the fridge.
"Ugh, please, please let there be sandwich supplies in there. A man cannot live on Bento boxes alone...if he isn't Japanese." Opening the fridge, Gideon smiled slightly as he saw that there was still enough sliced meat and other sandwich fillings inside, "Good, that's my lunch taken care off, now for Shion's."
He liked the kid, and if Gideon020 had to admit it, he didn't really want the cute pre-teen girl to leave. So he started work on the girl's bento while humming to himself, wondering how long before he got another police report from the school because they found unknown blood trails on school grounds again.
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For someone like Gideon, active field duty was still two weeks away, and he still had to figure out how to make sure Shion didn't get into trouble, or at least was somewhere that wouldn't result in piles of unrecognisable corpses when her Shinoa Field caused horror tropes and death flags to be activated again.
Hmm, that kid she was sweet on had a strong hot-blooded fighter trope going on didn't he? Regular combat, a mini-tournament arc, and crossovers were common enough when Shinoa fields of equal strength interacted...yeah, he'll give the kid and his adopted family of martial arts masters a call, see if they could handle it.
Right now, he was seeing off Shion at the bus-stop before he walked to the train station to get to work, hugging the girl firmly, "Be good and concentrate in class, okay?"
"Mm!" The girl happily sounded in reply, "Take care Gideon-san!" Gideon smiled, ruffling the girl's long black hair as she looked up with her blue cat-like eyes, and began walking to the train station, turning at the corner to give Shion a wave as the bus arrived right on time.
As he walked along the street, Gideon suddenly stepped to the side of a large crack in the sidewalk and just as he did, a teenage girl, a senior from her uniform, landed with a loud crunching of concrete. As he watched, the senior glanced back to allow him to see the slice of toast clenched in her teeth.
He simply waved to the girl and she nodded back before turning back to her own rush to school and jumped, ascending rapidly enough that Gideon was certain the girl probably hadn't even felt her own powers dipping slightly in effectiveness from being near him. Well, the Shinoa Field was like a muscle to use the weak analogy. Survive with it long enough and you could use it to your advantage, even wield it like a weapon.
Gideon knew at least three Special Forces pilots who used their own horror-based Shinoa Fields to wipe out entire bases in a single night, and it was a given that come graduation, Shion would be pulled in like she was Johnny Rico.
Not that the situation wasn't already that grim. Shinoa Fields and the lesser Shinoa Tells manifested primarily at birth, and if you had a Field that wasn't militarily useful, you were largely left alone. If you had one that could be controlled by the time you graduated high-school though...
There was no doubt in Gideon's mind that he would be seeing Shion in a UNSSSF uniform soon enough. He shook his head as he arrived at the train station and flashed his ID to the soldiers standing guard at the entrance to the military train station, stepping into the scanner as he did so, "Morning Kenji, Ross."
"Morning Captain, beautiful day isn't it?" Gideon smiled as the scanner came up clean and he stepped out of the scanner, looking up at the clear sky. He smiled and walked towards the train alongside the small crowd of military officers and soldiers on soft duty rotation, many of them whispering to themselves as he passed, trading the usual military gossip.
He tapped his datapad and began reading the international news to see how the other Super Robot and Super-Prototype teams were doing. He idly noticed an article about how the Super-Prototype machine 'Delias XI' now had a pilot, some smug looking high-school student with the typical anime good looks.
To think he had nearly been forced to get inside that overly-complicated monster; if he had then Gideon probably would have been killed in that first battle so long ago. He plugged in his earbuds and began watching the attached interview video, listening to the Delias XI's creator, Doctor Shizuko, answer the usual run of questions.
And then one caught his attention, "And what about the delays in deployment caused by the refusal of Captain Gideon of the UNSSSF's Mechanised Infantry Forces to pilot Delias XI? Was that a major factor in finding another compatible pilot?"
Ah, there it was, the tightening of the smile and the way her eyes became shadowed. Poor woman, he hadn't meant to, but in the end it made the difference in that battle and when the revelation of his Zero Sum Field came to light, she had seemed...happy for his refusal. But still, it had to have weighed heavily on her, poor Hana.
"Got to remind myself to call her, see if she'd like to get some drinks when she's in Tokyo next." Gideon murmured to himself as he flicked to the official military channel detailing the progress of the Martian Front. As he expected, the fighting was still grinding onwards, even with four teams there and over eighty million AIs and four million soldiers.
It looked like he was going back to Mars when his Active Duty rotation started again, and it was going to be a long one. Hopefully Shion and that Martial Artist kid...Kei was it? Hopefully they would get along and their Shinoa Fields didn't overwhelm each other.
"Attention passengers, we are now arriving at Headquarters, please have your ID ready for inspection." Gideon sighed and began packing up his datapad before standing up and approaching the doors of the train as it pulled into the station at Headquarters.
He noticed that no-one was moving near him and he smiled to himself, shaking his head visibly at the ridiculous fear that had spread ever since that day.
Honestly, it wasn't like he was contagious.
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A small pile of paperwork greeted Gideon as he entered his office in Headquarters. Since Headquarters was also the main military base for the UNSSSF's Japanese contingents, Gideon had the rare privilege of seeing the various robot teams, both Super and Real, on the base on occasion as he went about his own duties.
Like the team that was waiting outside the door to his office as he stepped out of the elevator. Gideon wracked his memory for which one they were, before he noticed the insignia and remembered the name, Special Operations Unit S-901 'Scorpion'.
They hadn't seen him as he walked closer and he managed to catch the tail-end of a conversation, "...not right! Why should Kenshin have to go to this program! He's doing fine! We've never had a problem with him before!"
"We've had this conversation already Kina, Kenshin has to go into Bitter Taste because of the insurbordination. It was fine when Colonel Hatake was in charge, but now that he's retired due to injuries to a teaching position, Kenshin has to do this before the new Colonel throws him in the brig or disbands the team!"
Gideon could see the look of horror on the girl's face. Kina Motoko, apparently some exiled alien princess if the dossier was correct, with a near-planetary range Shinoa field that operated under the Apocalypse Maiden trope, making her a walking nuke capable of taking down some serious opposition.
She also, according to the dossier, happened to be hopelessly in love with the hot-blooded ace of the team, Kenshin Tomoe. Gideon guessed she dragged them here to protest the kid's transfer into Bitter Taste. Well, he could hear them out. He knew there would be at least five teams that would be protesting their hot-blooded pilots, their loners, anyone who had a powerful Shinoa Field or was just had an absurd degree of talent that it gave them attitude problems within the UNSSSF.
Gideon cleared his throat, getting the attention of the team, and he watched Kina and the team leader spin around to focus on him, the alien princess pointing a finger at him, "You!"
Gideon brushed past the team and unlocked his office door, opening it silently and indicating silently with his hand that he wanted them to enter. As the four pilots walked in, Gideon noticed a couple of officers looking out the doors of their offices. A glance had them duck back in before Gideon closed the door.
He was about to speak when Kina cut him off, "I don't want Kenshin in the Bitter Taste program! You'll just brainwash him with your freaky power!" The leader, Gideon remembered the name was Himura, tried to quiet her, "Kenshin's a great pilot, he doesn't need this program, so I want him off the roster!"
Gideon simply regarded Kina with a level stare before walking to his seat and sinking into it, sighing at the feeling of the soft leather as he closed his eyes and rubbed them gently, trying to get his thoughts in order when Kina snapped, "Well?"
"Sergeant, you are certainly correct. I will not be authorising the transfer of Tomoe Kenshin into Bitter Taste." The girl looked pleased right up until Gideon said, "I will also be authorising that you take part as well." As the girl spluttered in shock, Gideon glared at the team, "Kenshin's problem clearly pales in comparison to the arrogance being displayed by your artillery specialist, Lieutenant Himura. She will be transferred into Bitter Taste and take part in the program."
Himura nodded, "I agree. In fact, you should have the paperwork there already." Gideon checked his stack of latest paperwork and found that there was indeed the necessary forms, correctly filled out, waiting for his signature. He quickly went through the forms, slapped the green stamp down in the right places, followed by the red stamp, and place the paperwork in his outbox.
"Iori!" Kina shouted in shock but Iori Himura remained firm as Gideon continued with his paperwork.
"I'm sorry Kina, but you do need this as much as Kenshin does. I've had to cover not just for him, but for you as well!" He was clearly getting something of a confidence boost from being in Gideon's presence, or was it the fact that so long as he was in the room, their talent and powers were being reduced to their bare minimums?
Gideon honestly didn't care and tuned out the argument until Kina finally lost her temper and stormed out, slamming the door behind her as Lieutenant Iori Himura sighed before turning to him, "Sorry about that Captain, we've been under a lot of stress-"
"Lieutenant, I've had nearly two hundred people tell me similar stories when someone protests Bitter Taste." Gideon looked up from his work with a sympathetic expression, "And I give them all the only advice I can give. Go talk to her and try to get her to cooperate with the program. As for whatever fears you have, there is nothing to be worried about."
The teenager, really a young man considering Scorpion Team had been in operation for six years now, smiled before bowing, "Thank you Captain."
Another of the team suddenly joked, "At least Kina and Kenshin won't see action here." He blinked at Gideon's sudden glare, "What?"
"Idiot."
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"Captain." Gideon paused in eating his sandwich to find another officer, a senior, standing in front of his table, a tray of food in her hands, "Mind if I join you?" Gideon motioned to the free seat that she gratefully took, "Arigato Captain." Gideon nodded as he resumed eating and the woman watched him while picking at her food with her chopsticks.
Finally, she asked, "How do you deal with it?" Gideon paused and looked up to see a troubled expression on the pretty face of the officer, a Major if he read that rank marking correctly, "How do you deal with the fear and rumours about you?"
Gideon remember why her face looked familiar, Major Sakuya Ena, Real Robot pilot and one of the unfortunate people to be born with red eyes in this universe. And in a universe where fictional tropes were real, quantifiable physics, it meant that she had to have lived a life that would almost guarantee that she would betray humanity, because that was what the Shinoa Fields demanded of her.
Unless she found a friend, a friend who had a clear track record of helping traitors stay loyal or turned them back to humanity's side. Gideon didn't mind, he liked doing things like this. Besides, she was cute.
"You're Front Line Assault, aren't you?" At the woman's nod, Gideon nodded, "Yeah, same here. Listen, why don't you transfer into my battalion, I know some people who'd be glad to have another Red Eyes working alongside them."
Major Ena blinked, "What?"
Gideon shrugged, "Where you are now probably sucks. They don't respect you, and they're probably saying all kinds of shit behind your back. Transfer to my battalion. We took heavy casualties since retaking Luna-4, so the Colonel needs as many skilled officers as she can get."
The red-eyed woman blinked and stared at Gideon, who continued eating his sandwich, "Is...This is a joke isn't it? You're just playing a cruel trick on me, just like the rest of the-"
"Colonel Honda. He was my Sergeant when I came here two years ago." Gideon interrupted the woman, "We became friends, and as the Luna Invasion happened, I helped him reconcile some differences, stopped him from going traitor like numerous other Red Eyes. Gave him a fuckload of medals for Tranquility Evacuation and that promotion soon after."
"Wait, you know Colonel Ise 'Snake' Honda?" Major Ena asked and at Gideon's nod, the officer regarded him with narrowed eyes, "So why don't you have a senior officer's rank?"
"You really think High Command is going to be promoting a guy who pretty much destroys all those nice advantages that the Shinoa Field gives Super Robot and Super Prototype teams into a position where he has to be around them constantly?"
Seniors officers had to be in near-constant contact with Super Prototype and Super Robot teams, and while Gideon's Zero Sum Field made it possible for a platoon of experienced Live Troopers to take on enemy Supers and win, it also made it possible for allied Supers to lose, badly.
He still remembered the massacre of three teams at the Sea of Tranquility during the evacuations; hot-blooded speeches didn't sway key pilots, the final team attack didn't take out the enemy leader, and he and Ise were the only survivors of what would have been a heroic final stand.
Everything returned to zero and reality ensued, blood was traded for blood. Gideon had his first taste of the horror his power could inflict on enemies and friend.
He focused his attention back on Major Ena, who was now glancing down at her food, so he continued, "Look, Shinoa Fields go down around me Major, but they don't go away. Nor do they remain permanent. If you have one, then the best thing that can happen is that you transfer into my battalion."
Major Ena looked up, "I've heard rumours, of pilots with Shinoa Fields or mechs with Shinoa Keys becoming weaker, and then after a month they regain their power and become even stronger, some even able to control Shinoa Fields."
Gideon nodded, "Honda was piloting a Shinoa Key mech during Tranquility, some super-prototype that supposed should have made him go evil because the last pilot did. That's the trope, combined with his Death Seeker-based Shinoa Field."
"A trope and Field that you subverted, allowing him to become the Hero of Tranquility." Major Ena breathed out, "You think I could be a hero?"
Gideon's eyebrow raised, "Aren't you already? I've heard about you. Hell, who hasn't heard of the Bloody Valkyrie of Olympus Mons." He noted the way her cheeks flushed, "Twelve thousand enemy mechs destroyed, six artillery positions wiped out, and five enemy Aces. Hell of a kill-count, and you earned the Terran Star with that action."
Major Ena shook her head, "I...It still wasn't enough to get their respect."
"You have mine." She looked up at Gideon's casual expression, "You have my respect, and that isn't something I give out freely."
She blinked and then realised who she was talking to, "That's right...you're the Zero Sum Soldier, aren't you?"
Gideon smiled, "Well, if that's what they're calling me. Well Major, what would you say to a change of scenery?" He held out his hand and Major Ena looked down at it, before glancing at the rest of the Officer's cafeteria.
Everyone was staring at them, and she could see the glares from many of them, judging her...no, they weren't judging her. The stares were all directed at him, and they were incredulous, surprised that some faceless soldier was offering a potential traitor his hand.
She reached out and grasped his hand in a firm grip, "I accept."
Gideon smiled, "Great! I'll speak to my commander about getting you that transfer."
Major Sakuya Ena had a moment of wonder then; she was speaking with such a famous soldier like an equal despite the rank difference, and for all of his confidence and his reputation, he looked just like any other front-line soldier. He didn't have the hair or the eyes of the usual breed of hero, but this was the soldier who survived the Tranquility Evacuations, Operation Aphrodite, and was the sole survivor of the first attack on Olympus Mons.
How many other ordinary people had such talent and were buried by the presence of kids with spiky hair or people like her? As she released his hand, Major Sakuya Ena realised that she didn't like the answer.
-----------------------
Gideon waited on the open field, watching the incoming helicopter as it approached the training field where Bitter Taste was run. Major Ena's transfer had gone through, and that was another Red Eye who would hopefully be saved from turning traitor.
He glanced over towards the obstacles set up for the program. For any other training course they had all sorts of insane training tools.
This? This was a fairly basic set of increasingly difficult but conventional obstacle courses. And that was how Gideon knew they would fail Bitter Taste on the first day.
As the helicopter came in to land, Gideon glanced to make sure his folding chair and snacks were set up. He wasn't about to miss out on the show by going to get more snacks. Besides, that would be the perfect chance for some kind of bullshit teamwork spiel that would have them all pass and they wouldn't learn their lesson.
Well, they'd learn it, but then Next Week Syndrome would kick in and they'd forget all about it and then they'd be right back where they started.
He wasn't about to let Bitter Taste fail today as the rear doors opened and he got his first look at the aces that he would be training over the next week or so, the standard time that it would take for Bitter Taste's lessons to sink in.
He winced at seeing what he had to work with; bishonen boys and pretty girls with large chests, firebrands that were already at the other's throats, cold loners...he was going to have his work cut out for him with this batch.
Still, this was where they had been sent to learn and he had a few tricks up his sleeves as he waited for the group to notice him, taking note of the ones who were curious, the ones who were dismissive and the ones who clearly were in contempt of him training them.
He smiled as he adjusted his beret, "Welcome to Bitter Taste. You've had a long flight but you can't rest now." There was a dissatsified murmur but Gideon continued, "Drop your gear and do one run of this obstacle course." He pointed at the starter course and smiled as he prepared to get their imaginations flaring, "No-one who has ever been to Bitter Taste has ever completed that course on their first try. If you do that, you can leave."
He could see the glances the course was getting now. Gideon knew that rumours about the 'impossible' obstacle courses in Bitter Taste had spread between every Super team in the Colonies and UNSSSF, rumours which had grown until one of the Super pilots in his battalion had asked not to be transferred to Bitter Taste and would work with her team.
Because she didn't want to get killed by the first obstacle course.
'Poor kid must have heard the one where the sandpits are actually quicksand traps with mines at the bottom.' Gideon thought to himself as he waved at the course, "Start when ready."
After some uneasy glances at each other, one of them ran forward and took up a position at the starting line and Gideon could feel her nervousness warring with her pride, and dare he say it, excitement at being the first in the group to handle the 'impossible' obstacle course?
"Just you all watch! I'll beat this course and head back to my team!" With that declaration that elicited a giggle from Gideon, she took off towards the first obstacle on the course, a lightly greased knotted rope.
"Hup!" She jumped off the lip of the ramp and grabbed the rope, "Ha!" And then Gideon saw the exact moment when her hands started to slip and she gasped in shock, "What?" She fell down into the water pit below the rope, surfacing with a shout, "Ah! That's cold!"
"It should be, I spent the last three hours filling that with ice and water. Try again if you want." That was all he had to do, get them moving and don't let them think about how their natural talents were being steadily reduced by his Zero Sum Field.
The girl glared at him through soaked blue hair and ran back to the start and with a sharp 'KYAAH!' ran towards the rope again, intending on swinging across to the other side. She jumped, grabbed the rope...
...and slid all the way down into the water again as Gideon sighed and turned to the rest as the girl surfaced with a frustrated cry and started to head back to the start again, "Told you." He turned his head towards the girl, "Sakuraba! Let the others have a chance."
The girl glared at him, before sullenly backing off, and after a few moments, one of the bishonen stepped forward and prepared to run at the greased rope.
Gideon simply headed to his chair, took a seat, and watched the show start as one by one, the group jumped for the rope, grabbed it, and the low-friction machinery grease used as joint lubrication on combat mecha sent them down into the icy water below.
He opened a packet of potato chips, the picture of professional disinterest, and began eating as once again they went down into the water.
After fifteen minutes of watching the scene play out, Gideon sighed and pulled out a whistle. A shrill blast of noise caught the attention of the teens as he stood up, "That...was the most pathetic display of athletics and teamwork in my life."
Walking up to the ramp, he motioned with his hand for the teens to move and once he did so, he shifted slightly and then took off running, jumping off the lip of the ramp to grab the rope...
...and then lock his boots firmly in place on one of the knots, his momentum carrying him across the gap to jump onto the next platform. Turning to the group of teenagers now staring at him with shocked eyes, Gideon regarded them with a neutral expression, "No-one has ever used their legs to help them maintain their grip long enough to reach the other side on their first try. You've gotten as far as you have on talent and skill, but in doing so you've become arrogant, aloof and insubordinate, qualities that the war effort can only ignore for so long."
He hopped down from the platform, "This is the easiest of five obstacle courses, each one more difficult than the last. None of them have traps or sudden surprises, but they will test you physically and mentally. And do you know why?"
He stopped in front of them, "Because as of now, you are all each as physically capable as a trained soldier, and just as talented. My name is Captain Gideon, and you might know me as the Zero Sum Soldier." Instantly a ripple of shock and indignation ran through the group, "And for the next two weeks, I am the rival you must defeat."
At that moment, Gideon knew that one thought had become prominent in their heads. One overriding desire that would see them give everything they had to complete Bitter Taste, because every single one of them had now believed they knew the reason why Bitter Taste was so challenging.
It paid to be Genre Savvy in this reality, because it let Gideon see the exact moment their eyes hardened at one single thought.
'He is my Rival, and I will beat him!'
Gideon smiled.
--------------------------------
"Well this is bullshit." Gideon complained as he looked down at the documents in his hands, before looking up at his immediate superior, "Major, I was told two weeks for this batch of Bitter Taste candidates because of the situation on Mars. Now I'm being told to keep this kids here for the full month?"
Major Anzu Katsuragi nodded, "Your own deployment has been postponed as well. Delias XI apparently wiped out much of the forces on Mars in it's first deployment. Looks like this new ultimate weapon might give us enough breathing space to get rid of this invasion."
Gideon rolled his eyes, "Yeah, until the next wave happens." He looked back down at the papers before glancing at the teenagers outside, "Have their teams been informed?"
"Yes, and I expect you to inform them that their stay here has been extended on orders from High Command, which means I want you to run them through Coffin Maker." Gideon nodded as he watched the entire group going through the fourth obstacle course, which he called 'Pitbull'.
He winced as he watched the blue-haired girl, Sakuraba, fall into the sludge again, "Ooh, she's not going to be happy about that today."
Katsuragi nodded, "They're improving. I think they'll beat Hammer by the end of the two weeks and be able to do the Marathon Man without a single slip-up." Her expression became grim, "After that, comes Coffin Maker."
Gideon nodded as he watched the teens help Sakuraba out of the mess, "Yes, and if they thought Bitter Taste was bad, Coffin Maker will be even worse." He chuckled, "I will say this, give them a jab to their pride and set yourself up at a rival, they'll do anything to prove themselves better."
"It helps to know who you're dealing with," Katsuragi nodded in agreement, before walking around Gideon's desk and sitting on it, "It also helps for that knowledge to be not just for the enemy, but your allies as well."
Gideon glanced at Katsuragi as she leaned in closer, "And I was thinking that maybe-"
Alarms began to scream as Gideon sighed and stood up, "I'll see you later Major. Want to try out that Korean place you were telling me about?"
Katsuragi smiled, "Sure."
----------------------------
"Well, I hope you bitches and bastards are ready to go!" Gideon shouted as he entered the hanger where the pilots were waiting in their pilot suits, and every last one were in the kind of skin-tight suit that showed off their incredible bodies.
They smiled confidently but Gideon's expression remained cold as he continued, "By now, you know the handicap that you are operating on. If you go off on your own, you will die. Horribly. You will be operating under my command and if you do not follow my orders and work together as a team, you'll never see your friends and family again."
As their smiles dimmed, Gideon walked over to a large shape and tapped his fist against it, "This is the Shinseki Industries MM-452 Kikai Yohei. Three quarters of these are manufactured for AI usage, but many are still piloted by normal humans because not everyone can synchronise with Shinoa Key mecha. I want you inside these mechs, armed with standard load-outs."
He turned to them, "We're going to be supporting the Magical Girls, since something like this is Internal Security's job. Don't try to be a hero and only move in if something happens. More than likely we'll be dealing with mooks while the magical girls do all the heavy lifting."
There was a ripple of discontent and Gideon visibly rolled his eyes. The rivalry between mecha pilots and magical girls was something that he learned early on in his life here, "Get moving people, we don't have the time to waste sitting on your pretty little asses!"
As they rushed for the other mechs, Gideon shook his head as he climbed into the cockpit access behind the flat head of the mech and sat down in the chair, flipping switches and pressing buttons, watching the screens light up as he had the mech grab the assault rifle-shaped autocannon before turning to the teens as the radio told him their opinions on piloting the mass-production mechs.
"Cut the whining! We have a job to do. Check your weapons and rock and roll!" There was a cheer from one of the teens.
"Yatta! Now we get to kick some ass!"
Gideon's smile was grim as the mechs engaged their thrusters and roared out of the hanger towards the city. In the distance, he could see smoke and flashes of energy and magic. He turned off his radio, "Fuck."
------------------------
The city was in chaos as the mechs arrived in front of a crowd of fleeing civilians, and at the very rear...the sight made Gideon snarl, "Fuck." He activated the radio, "Arm weapons, move in your assigned groups. Shoot to kill and prioritise civilian rescue!"
He whipped the mech's rifle up and fired a burst, the autocannon thundering as the heavy 30mm shells tore into several monsters tearing apart civilians. Firing again, he pointed down the road to several cowering citizens, "Get moving! A safe zone has been established down the road! Get the hell out of here!"
As they ran, he checked the position monitoring system for his students and grimaced as he noticed two out in front of the pack, "Hayasaka! Tennoh! Get the fuck back in formation before you get killed!"
"No way! We've got them on the run. We'll kick their asses!"
"Yeah! I have visual! Moving to en-" An explosion tore through the air and Gideon snarled as he saw the smoke rising nearby.
"Fucking idiots. They've been spending two weeks near me, and they just charge straight in?" Gideon knew the others were hearing him but didn't care, "This is Zero-Zero to Rescue Command! I need priority MEDEVAC at the following coordinates!"
His eyes snapped down to the monitoring system, "What the hell are the rest of you doing? Get back to your jobs and evacuate the civilians!" As the teens gave their affirmatives, Gideon moved towards the downed mechs.
The mechs were a mess as Gideon's autocannon thundered, the explosive shells tearing off huge pieces of flesh and spraying blood and gore across the street as he checked the downed mechs, the other hand grabbing and crushing one particularly foul specimen, the head popping off the neck like a cork before Gideon tossed the body away to check on the mech.
"Shit." Gideon muttered over the radio, "Rescue Command, Zero-Six is dead, get bodybags ready." He moved to the other downed mech and tore open the rear to check on the pilot, and he sighed in relief, "Thank god. Rescue Command, we have one in need of immediate rescue."
He looked over at the other downed mech, "That's what it's like for us grunts you know. Someone near you dies, while you live. You kids sure are lucky."
He watched as a pillar of magical energy tore into the sky, "Well, that's the end of it. All units, begin clean up operations. I want one-hundred percent enemy casualties on this." He snapped the rifle up and fired a burst, tearing apart a small pack of monsters that were creeping up from the sides.
Looking around at the devastation and the corpses lying in the street, Gideon sighed, "What a fucking mess."
-----------------------------
"Evil will beware! Because the Holy Crusader Knights will always protect this city from harm!" Gideon watched the magical girls give their victory speech to the cameras, a pile of monster corpses behind them and he knew from experience that the girls had likely been absolutely caked in blood during the fight.
"Wah, magic sure is useful." Gideon glanced to the side to see Major Katsuragi approaching him with a bag in her hands, "Korean, from that restaurant. And I brought drinks."
Taking a seat next to him, Katsuragi handed over a can of coffee that Gideon immediately snapped open, taking a long sip from it. Sighing, he placed the can against his forehead, "One dead, three seriously injured. As far as training casualties go, that's rather light."
"A little cold, but correct," Katsuragi replied as she took out a sealed bowl and handed it over with some chopsticks, her lips quirking into a tiny grin at Gideon's grimace before they began eating.
After a few minutes, and with the food finished, Katsuragi looked up at Gideon, "Tennoh's team has been informed and Hayasaka will be back on her feet in a few weeks."
"Modern technology, isn't it grand?" Gideon remarked and Katsuragi's expression softened.
"Gideon...you..."
Gideon stood up, "I need to go pick up Shion from school. I'll see you later Anzu."
As he walked away, Anzu Katsuragi swiped at her eyes, "Dammit. In the end, it's never something that goes bad or goes well for you and stays that way." She pulled out a picture, showing a group of pilots in a photo. In the centre, a smiling young woman is giving the 'V' sign to the camera while hugging a somewhat nervous young man.
The photo was marked 'Operation Olympian'. The first landing at Olympus Mons.
"Because for you, it all returns to zero. Because that's who you are." Katsuragi closed her eyes and hugged the photo close.
Stretching, he walked out of his bedroom to start his day, passing by a door marked with a cute drawing as 'Shion's Room' on his way to the bathroom, sparing a glance for the small tendrils of fog running out from under the door, "Ugh, please tell me it isn't Halloween again."
He checked the calendar next to the door. Yes, it was October, prompting a sigh from Gideon, "Going to be a long night in a few weeks." He walked into the kitchen and started making breakfast for himself and his house-mate.
A house-mate the government said would have been transferred by now, but still hadn't, "How long does it take to replicate a Zero Sum field anyway?" Gideon muttered to himself. He liked the kid but he could do without the complaints from the neighbours about nightmares every few weeks.
Breakfast was, as always, toast with fried eggs and bacon. Again, none of the Japanese food he had been forced to learn to make since coming to this insane reality. Yeah, the memory of that one day when he stepped on a crack in the sidewalk and fell onto Earth.
One that seemed to take every anime trope related to Mecha, Shoujo and Shounen manga and anime, and made it all real parts of the physics. Gideon still remembered that day two years ago when he had woken up in a shallow crater in a park, with guns aimed down at him, and some scientist talking machinegun Japanese at someone before telling him in perfect English to come with her.
And the reason why? Because another group of aliens had come to invade for reasons that so far Gideon had still not made complete sense out of, and his coming apparently was based upon statistically reliable appearances of other people from nearby universes and dimensions elsewhere on the planet.
"And an anime fan finds himself in an anime Japan. Heh, I still think Marco or Lili-chan would have a fit if they were dropped here." His sardonic grin twisted into a pained grimace at the reminder that it was impossible for him to return home as he sipped his coffee and tapped his personal datapad to bring up the news sites and start reading the latest headlines.
Well, the Space Colony Coalition and UN Spacy, his term for the United Nations Special Strategic Space Forces, had won a victory on Venus thanks to a Super Robot Team. Which was good, even if the Robo Trooper and Live Trooper casualties were pretty bad as usual.
Robo Troopers and Live Troopers, somewhere in those two years Gideon had clinically divided the AI-operated mass-production Mecha and the actually manned ones into two separate categories, but then so did the press. Nearly two million Robo Troopers destroyed in the meat-grinder around the main enemy stronghold and eight thousand Live Troopers dead as well.
And the front page was dominated as always by the smiling photogenic, and all teen, pilots of the Super Robot team known as Crusader 6, with their combined robot standing behind them in all it's skyscraper-sized glory.
As the man responsible for running the USSSF's special training program, codenamed 'Bitter Taste', Gideon felt a flash of pride at seeing one of the pilots standing proud with the rest of the group and smiling with his team-mates, instead of being slightly off to the side.
Gideon switched to a video of the final battle, watching as the robots fought their way into the Enemy fortress, fought the surviving enemy generals in their giant robots, and generally went through all of the tropes related to giant robot shows of this kind and with this level of violence.
That was certainly different, seeing Magical Girls in fights that left behind corpses, but then so was watching a romantic comedy play out in front of him in a restaurant. Gideon shook his head as he checked his emails, when you had kids who could be born with the eyes and hair of an anime protagonist, and it was physically possible for it to happen because the first alien invasion brought with it the strange reality-bending technology that humanity in this reality called the Shinoa Keys.
He still had trouble figuring out why they called them Shinoa Keys and why the energy released was Shinoa Fields. Especially considering the scientist responsible for cracking the mystery was named Kagura. Yeah, it's definitely an anime universe when Japan gets to be the centre of progress and advancement.
Oh, and since they had Space Colonies and Arcologies, you could own a house in Tokyo's inner prefectures. Seriously, two years and it still felt...anime. Urgh, he was never going to get used to this. Taking a sip of his coffee, Gideon grimaced slightly.
He also wasn't going to get used to Martian Coffee, why did he let Suzuhara talk him into buying this stuff again? Gideon made a noise of realisation as he smiled. That's right, he let her talk him into it because she bounced her chest right after getting him to lower his eyes.
Gideon took another sip of the coffee and promised not to buy so much next time. Finishing breakfast, Gideon took his dish to the sink and began washing up while glancing at a wall clock. Rolling his left shoulder, Gideon began working on Shion's lunch for the school day, before grimacing as he considered the contents of the fridge.
"Ugh, please, please let there be sandwich supplies in there. A man cannot live on Bento boxes alone...if he isn't Japanese." Opening the fridge, Gideon smiled slightly as he saw that there was still enough sliced meat and other sandwich fillings inside, "Good, that's my lunch taken care off, now for Shion's."
He liked the kid, and if Gideon020 had to admit it, he didn't really want the cute pre-teen girl to leave. So he started work on the girl's bento while humming to himself, wondering how long before he got another police report from the school because they found unknown blood trails on school grounds again.
------------------
For someone like Gideon, active field duty was still two weeks away, and he still had to figure out how to make sure Shion didn't get into trouble, or at least was somewhere that wouldn't result in piles of unrecognisable corpses when her Shinoa Field caused horror tropes and death flags to be activated again.
Hmm, that kid she was sweet on had a strong hot-blooded fighter trope going on didn't he? Regular combat, a mini-tournament arc, and crossovers were common enough when Shinoa fields of equal strength interacted...yeah, he'll give the kid and his adopted family of martial arts masters a call, see if they could handle it.
Right now, he was seeing off Shion at the bus-stop before he walked to the train station to get to work, hugging the girl firmly, "Be good and concentrate in class, okay?"
"Mm!" The girl happily sounded in reply, "Take care Gideon-san!" Gideon smiled, ruffling the girl's long black hair as she looked up with her blue cat-like eyes, and began walking to the train station, turning at the corner to give Shion a wave as the bus arrived right on time.
As he walked along the street, Gideon suddenly stepped to the side of a large crack in the sidewalk and just as he did, a teenage girl, a senior from her uniform, landed with a loud crunching of concrete. As he watched, the senior glanced back to allow him to see the slice of toast clenched in her teeth.
He simply waved to the girl and she nodded back before turning back to her own rush to school and jumped, ascending rapidly enough that Gideon was certain the girl probably hadn't even felt her own powers dipping slightly in effectiveness from being near him. Well, the Shinoa Field was like a muscle to use the weak analogy. Survive with it long enough and you could use it to your advantage, even wield it like a weapon.
Gideon knew at least three Special Forces pilots who used their own horror-based Shinoa Fields to wipe out entire bases in a single night, and it was a given that come graduation, Shion would be pulled in like she was Johnny Rico.
Not that the situation wasn't already that grim. Shinoa Fields and the lesser Shinoa Tells manifested primarily at birth, and if you had a Field that wasn't militarily useful, you were largely left alone. If you had one that could be controlled by the time you graduated high-school though...
There was no doubt in Gideon's mind that he would be seeing Shion in a UNSSSF uniform soon enough. He shook his head as he arrived at the train station and flashed his ID to the soldiers standing guard at the entrance to the military train station, stepping into the scanner as he did so, "Morning Kenji, Ross."
"Morning Captain, beautiful day isn't it?" Gideon smiled as the scanner came up clean and he stepped out of the scanner, looking up at the clear sky. He smiled and walked towards the train alongside the small crowd of military officers and soldiers on soft duty rotation, many of them whispering to themselves as he passed, trading the usual military gossip.
He tapped his datapad and began reading the international news to see how the other Super Robot and Super-Prototype teams were doing. He idly noticed an article about how the Super-Prototype machine 'Delias XI' now had a pilot, some smug looking high-school student with the typical anime good looks.
To think he had nearly been forced to get inside that overly-complicated monster; if he had then Gideon probably would have been killed in that first battle so long ago. He plugged in his earbuds and began watching the attached interview video, listening to the Delias XI's creator, Doctor Shizuko, answer the usual run of questions.
And then one caught his attention, "And what about the delays in deployment caused by the refusal of Captain Gideon of the UNSSSF's Mechanised Infantry Forces to pilot Delias XI? Was that a major factor in finding another compatible pilot?"
Ah, there it was, the tightening of the smile and the way her eyes became shadowed. Poor woman, he hadn't meant to, but in the end it made the difference in that battle and when the revelation of his Zero Sum Field came to light, she had seemed...happy for his refusal. But still, it had to have weighed heavily on her, poor Hana.
"Got to remind myself to call her, see if she'd like to get some drinks when she's in Tokyo next." Gideon murmured to himself as he flicked to the official military channel detailing the progress of the Martian Front. As he expected, the fighting was still grinding onwards, even with four teams there and over eighty million AIs and four million soldiers.
It looked like he was going back to Mars when his Active Duty rotation started again, and it was going to be a long one. Hopefully Shion and that Martial Artist kid...Kei was it? Hopefully they would get along and their Shinoa Fields didn't overwhelm each other.
"Attention passengers, we are now arriving at Headquarters, please have your ID ready for inspection." Gideon sighed and began packing up his datapad before standing up and approaching the doors of the train as it pulled into the station at Headquarters.
He noticed that no-one was moving near him and he smiled to himself, shaking his head visibly at the ridiculous fear that had spread ever since that day.
Honestly, it wasn't like he was contagious.
------------------------
A small pile of paperwork greeted Gideon as he entered his office in Headquarters. Since Headquarters was also the main military base for the UNSSSF's Japanese contingents, Gideon had the rare privilege of seeing the various robot teams, both Super and Real, on the base on occasion as he went about his own duties.
Like the team that was waiting outside the door to his office as he stepped out of the elevator. Gideon wracked his memory for which one they were, before he noticed the insignia and remembered the name, Special Operations Unit S-901 'Scorpion'.
They hadn't seen him as he walked closer and he managed to catch the tail-end of a conversation, "...not right! Why should Kenshin have to go to this program! He's doing fine! We've never had a problem with him before!"
"We've had this conversation already Kina, Kenshin has to go into Bitter Taste because of the insurbordination. It was fine when Colonel Hatake was in charge, but now that he's retired due to injuries to a teaching position, Kenshin has to do this before the new Colonel throws him in the brig or disbands the team!"
Gideon could see the look of horror on the girl's face. Kina Motoko, apparently some exiled alien princess if the dossier was correct, with a near-planetary range Shinoa field that operated under the Apocalypse Maiden trope, making her a walking nuke capable of taking down some serious opposition.
She also, according to the dossier, happened to be hopelessly in love with the hot-blooded ace of the team, Kenshin Tomoe. Gideon guessed she dragged them here to protest the kid's transfer into Bitter Taste. Well, he could hear them out. He knew there would be at least five teams that would be protesting their hot-blooded pilots, their loners, anyone who had a powerful Shinoa Field or was just had an absurd degree of talent that it gave them attitude problems within the UNSSSF.
Gideon cleared his throat, getting the attention of the team, and he watched Kina and the team leader spin around to focus on him, the alien princess pointing a finger at him, "You!"
Gideon brushed past the team and unlocked his office door, opening it silently and indicating silently with his hand that he wanted them to enter. As the four pilots walked in, Gideon noticed a couple of officers looking out the doors of their offices. A glance had them duck back in before Gideon closed the door.
He was about to speak when Kina cut him off, "I don't want Kenshin in the Bitter Taste program! You'll just brainwash him with your freaky power!" The leader, Gideon remembered the name was Himura, tried to quiet her, "Kenshin's a great pilot, he doesn't need this program, so I want him off the roster!"
Gideon simply regarded Kina with a level stare before walking to his seat and sinking into it, sighing at the feeling of the soft leather as he closed his eyes and rubbed them gently, trying to get his thoughts in order when Kina snapped, "Well?"
"Sergeant, you are certainly correct. I will not be authorising the transfer of Tomoe Kenshin into Bitter Taste." The girl looked pleased right up until Gideon said, "I will also be authorising that you take part as well." As the girl spluttered in shock, Gideon glared at the team, "Kenshin's problem clearly pales in comparison to the arrogance being displayed by your artillery specialist, Lieutenant Himura. She will be transferred into Bitter Taste and take part in the program."
Himura nodded, "I agree. In fact, you should have the paperwork there already." Gideon checked his stack of latest paperwork and found that there was indeed the necessary forms, correctly filled out, waiting for his signature. He quickly went through the forms, slapped the green stamp down in the right places, followed by the red stamp, and place the paperwork in his outbox.
"Iori!" Kina shouted in shock but Iori Himura remained firm as Gideon continued with his paperwork.
"I'm sorry Kina, but you do need this as much as Kenshin does. I've had to cover not just for him, but for you as well!" He was clearly getting something of a confidence boost from being in Gideon's presence, or was it the fact that so long as he was in the room, their talent and powers were being reduced to their bare minimums?
Gideon honestly didn't care and tuned out the argument until Kina finally lost her temper and stormed out, slamming the door behind her as Lieutenant Iori Himura sighed before turning to him, "Sorry about that Captain, we've been under a lot of stress-"
"Lieutenant, I've had nearly two hundred people tell me similar stories when someone protests Bitter Taste." Gideon looked up from his work with a sympathetic expression, "And I give them all the only advice I can give. Go talk to her and try to get her to cooperate with the program. As for whatever fears you have, there is nothing to be worried about."
The teenager, really a young man considering Scorpion Team had been in operation for six years now, smiled before bowing, "Thank you Captain."
Another of the team suddenly joked, "At least Kina and Kenshin won't see action here." He blinked at Gideon's sudden glare, "What?"
"Idiot."
-------------------------
"Captain." Gideon paused in eating his sandwich to find another officer, a senior, standing in front of his table, a tray of food in her hands, "Mind if I join you?" Gideon motioned to the free seat that she gratefully took, "Arigato Captain." Gideon nodded as he resumed eating and the woman watched him while picking at her food with her chopsticks.
Finally, she asked, "How do you deal with it?" Gideon paused and looked up to see a troubled expression on the pretty face of the officer, a Major if he read that rank marking correctly, "How do you deal with the fear and rumours about you?"
Gideon remember why her face looked familiar, Major Sakuya Ena, Real Robot pilot and one of the unfortunate people to be born with red eyes in this universe. And in a universe where fictional tropes were real, quantifiable physics, it meant that she had to have lived a life that would almost guarantee that she would betray humanity, because that was what the Shinoa Fields demanded of her.
Unless she found a friend, a friend who had a clear track record of helping traitors stay loyal or turned them back to humanity's side. Gideon didn't mind, he liked doing things like this. Besides, she was cute.
"You're Front Line Assault, aren't you?" At the woman's nod, Gideon nodded, "Yeah, same here. Listen, why don't you transfer into my battalion, I know some people who'd be glad to have another Red Eyes working alongside them."
Major Ena blinked, "What?"
Gideon shrugged, "Where you are now probably sucks. They don't respect you, and they're probably saying all kinds of shit behind your back. Transfer to my battalion. We took heavy casualties since retaking Luna-4, so the Colonel needs as many skilled officers as she can get."
The red-eyed woman blinked and stared at Gideon, who continued eating his sandwich, "Is...This is a joke isn't it? You're just playing a cruel trick on me, just like the rest of the-"
"Colonel Honda. He was my Sergeant when I came here two years ago." Gideon interrupted the woman, "We became friends, and as the Luna Invasion happened, I helped him reconcile some differences, stopped him from going traitor like numerous other Red Eyes. Gave him a fuckload of medals for Tranquility Evacuation and that promotion soon after."
"Wait, you know Colonel Ise 'Snake' Honda?" Major Ena asked and at Gideon's nod, the officer regarded him with narrowed eyes, "So why don't you have a senior officer's rank?"
"You really think High Command is going to be promoting a guy who pretty much destroys all those nice advantages that the Shinoa Field gives Super Robot and Super Prototype teams into a position where he has to be around them constantly?"
Seniors officers had to be in near-constant contact with Super Prototype and Super Robot teams, and while Gideon's Zero Sum Field made it possible for a platoon of experienced Live Troopers to take on enemy Supers and win, it also made it possible for allied Supers to lose, badly.
He still remembered the massacre of three teams at the Sea of Tranquility during the evacuations; hot-blooded speeches didn't sway key pilots, the final team attack didn't take out the enemy leader, and he and Ise were the only survivors of what would have been a heroic final stand.
Everything returned to zero and reality ensued, blood was traded for blood. Gideon had his first taste of the horror his power could inflict on enemies and friend.
He focused his attention back on Major Ena, who was now glancing down at her food, so he continued, "Look, Shinoa Fields go down around me Major, but they don't go away. Nor do they remain permanent. If you have one, then the best thing that can happen is that you transfer into my battalion."
Major Ena looked up, "I've heard rumours, of pilots with Shinoa Fields or mechs with Shinoa Keys becoming weaker, and then after a month they regain their power and become even stronger, some even able to control Shinoa Fields."
Gideon nodded, "Honda was piloting a Shinoa Key mech during Tranquility, some super-prototype that supposed should have made him go evil because the last pilot did. That's the trope, combined with his Death Seeker-based Shinoa Field."
"A trope and Field that you subverted, allowing him to become the Hero of Tranquility." Major Ena breathed out, "You think I could be a hero?"
Gideon's eyebrow raised, "Aren't you already? I've heard about you. Hell, who hasn't heard of the Bloody Valkyrie of Olympus Mons." He noted the way her cheeks flushed, "Twelve thousand enemy mechs destroyed, six artillery positions wiped out, and five enemy Aces. Hell of a kill-count, and you earned the Terran Star with that action."
Major Ena shook her head, "I...It still wasn't enough to get their respect."
"You have mine." She looked up at Gideon's casual expression, "You have my respect, and that isn't something I give out freely."
She blinked and then realised who she was talking to, "That's right...you're the Zero Sum Soldier, aren't you?"
Gideon smiled, "Well, if that's what they're calling me. Well Major, what would you say to a change of scenery?" He held out his hand and Major Ena looked down at it, before glancing at the rest of the Officer's cafeteria.
Everyone was staring at them, and she could see the glares from many of them, judging her...no, they weren't judging her. The stares were all directed at him, and they were incredulous, surprised that some faceless soldier was offering a potential traitor his hand.
She reached out and grasped his hand in a firm grip, "I accept."
Gideon smiled, "Great! I'll speak to my commander about getting you that transfer."
Major Sakuya Ena had a moment of wonder then; she was speaking with such a famous soldier like an equal despite the rank difference, and for all of his confidence and his reputation, he looked just like any other front-line soldier. He didn't have the hair or the eyes of the usual breed of hero, but this was the soldier who survived the Tranquility Evacuations, Operation Aphrodite, and was the sole survivor of the first attack on Olympus Mons.
How many other ordinary people had such talent and were buried by the presence of kids with spiky hair or people like her? As she released his hand, Major Sakuya Ena realised that she didn't like the answer.
-----------------------
Gideon waited on the open field, watching the incoming helicopter as it approached the training field where Bitter Taste was run. Major Ena's transfer had gone through, and that was another Red Eye who would hopefully be saved from turning traitor.
He glanced over towards the obstacles set up for the program. For any other training course they had all sorts of insane training tools.
This? This was a fairly basic set of increasingly difficult but conventional obstacle courses. And that was how Gideon knew they would fail Bitter Taste on the first day.
As the helicopter came in to land, Gideon glanced to make sure his folding chair and snacks were set up. He wasn't about to miss out on the show by going to get more snacks. Besides, that would be the perfect chance for some kind of bullshit teamwork spiel that would have them all pass and they wouldn't learn their lesson.
Well, they'd learn it, but then Next Week Syndrome would kick in and they'd forget all about it and then they'd be right back where they started.
He wasn't about to let Bitter Taste fail today as the rear doors opened and he got his first look at the aces that he would be training over the next week or so, the standard time that it would take for Bitter Taste's lessons to sink in.
He winced at seeing what he had to work with; bishonen boys and pretty girls with large chests, firebrands that were already at the other's throats, cold loners...he was going to have his work cut out for him with this batch.
Still, this was where they had been sent to learn and he had a few tricks up his sleeves as he waited for the group to notice him, taking note of the ones who were curious, the ones who were dismissive and the ones who clearly were in contempt of him training them.
He smiled as he adjusted his beret, "Welcome to Bitter Taste. You've had a long flight but you can't rest now." There was a dissatsified murmur but Gideon continued, "Drop your gear and do one run of this obstacle course." He pointed at the starter course and smiled as he prepared to get their imaginations flaring, "No-one who has ever been to Bitter Taste has ever completed that course on their first try. If you do that, you can leave."
He could see the glances the course was getting now. Gideon knew that rumours about the 'impossible' obstacle courses in Bitter Taste had spread between every Super team in the Colonies and UNSSSF, rumours which had grown until one of the Super pilots in his battalion had asked not to be transferred to Bitter Taste and would work with her team.
Because she didn't want to get killed by the first obstacle course.
'Poor kid must have heard the one where the sandpits are actually quicksand traps with mines at the bottom.' Gideon thought to himself as he waved at the course, "Start when ready."
After some uneasy glances at each other, one of them ran forward and took up a position at the starting line and Gideon could feel her nervousness warring with her pride, and dare he say it, excitement at being the first in the group to handle the 'impossible' obstacle course?
"Just you all watch! I'll beat this course and head back to my team!" With that declaration that elicited a giggle from Gideon, she took off towards the first obstacle on the course, a lightly greased knotted rope.
"Hup!" She jumped off the lip of the ramp and grabbed the rope, "Ha!" And then Gideon saw the exact moment when her hands started to slip and she gasped in shock, "What?" She fell down into the water pit below the rope, surfacing with a shout, "Ah! That's cold!"
"It should be, I spent the last three hours filling that with ice and water. Try again if you want." That was all he had to do, get them moving and don't let them think about how their natural talents were being steadily reduced by his Zero Sum Field.
The girl glared at him through soaked blue hair and ran back to the start and with a sharp 'KYAAH!' ran towards the rope again, intending on swinging across to the other side. She jumped, grabbed the rope...
...and slid all the way down into the water again as Gideon sighed and turned to the rest as the girl surfaced with a frustrated cry and started to head back to the start again, "Told you." He turned his head towards the girl, "Sakuraba! Let the others have a chance."
The girl glared at him, before sullenly backing off, and after a few moments, one of the bishonen stepped forward and prepared to run at the greased rope.
Gideon simply headed to his chair, took a seat, and watched the show start as one by one, the group jumped for the rope, grabbed it, and the low-friction machinery grease used as joint lubrication on combat mecha sent them down into the icy water below.
He opened a packet of potato chips, the picture of professional disinterest, and began eating as once again they went down into the water.
After fifteen minutes of watching the scene play out, Gideon sighed and pulled out a whistle. A shrill blast of noise caught the attention of the teens as he stood up, "That...was the most pathetic display of athletics and teamwork in my life."
Walking up to the ramp, he motioned with his hand for the teens to move and once he did so, he shifted slightly and then took off running, jumping off the lip of the ramp to grab the rope...
...and then lock his boots firmly in place on one of the knots, his momentum carrying him across the gap to jump onto the next platform. Turning to the group of teenagers now staring at him with shocked eyes, Gideon regarded them with a neutral expression, "No-one has ever used their legs to help them maintain their grip long enough to reach the other side on their first try. You've gotten as far as you have on talent and skill, but in doing so you've become arrogant, aloof and insubordinate, qualities that the war effort can only ignore for so long."
He hopped down from the platform, "This is the easiest of five obstacle courses, each one more difficult than the last. None of them have traps or sudden surprises, but they will test you physically and mentally. And do you know why?"
He stopped in front of them, "Because as of now, you are all each as physically capable as a trained soldier, and just as talented. My name is Captain Gideon, and you might know me as the Zero Sum Soldier." Instantly a ripple of shock and indignation ran through the group, "And for the next two weeks, I am the rival you must defeat."
At that moment, Gideon knew that one thought had become prominent in their heads. One overriding desire that would see them give everything they had to complete Bitter Taste, because every single one of them had now believed they knew the reason why Bitter Taste was so challenging.
It paid to be Genre Savvy in this reality, because it let Gideon see the exact moment their eyes hardened at one single thought.
'He is my Rival, and I will beat him!'
Gideon smiled.
--------------------------------
"Well this is bullshit." Gideon complained as he looked down at the documents in his hands, before looking up at his immediate superior, "Major, I was told two weeks for this batch of Bitter Taste candidates because of the situation on Mars. Now I'm being told to keep this kids here for the full month?"
Major Anzu Katsuragi nodded, "Your own deployment has been postponed as well. Delias XI apparently wiped out much of the forces on Mars in it's first deployment. Looks like this new ultimate weapon might give us enough breathing space to get rid of this invasion."
Gideon rolled his eyes, "Yeah, until the next wave happens." He looked back down at the papers before glancing at the teenagers outside, "Have their teams been informed?"
"Yes, and I expect you to inform them that their stay here has been extended on orders from High Command, which means I want you to run them through Coffin Maker." Gideon nodded as he watched the entire group going through the fourth obstacle course, which he called 'Pitbull'.
He winced as he watched the blue-haired girl, Sakuraba, fall into the sludge again, "Ooh, she's not going to be happy about that today."
Katsuragi nodded, "They're improving. I think they'll beat Hammer by the end of the two weeks and be able to do the Marathon Man without a single slip-up." Her expression became grim, "After that, comes Coffin Maker."
Gideon nodded as he watched the teens help Sakuraba out of the mess, "Yes, and if they thought Bitter Taste was bad, Coffin Maker will be even worse." He chuckled, "I will say this, give them a jab to their pride and set yourself up at a rival, they'll do anything to prove themselves better."
"It helps to know who you're dealing with," Katsuragi nodded in agreement, before walking around Gideon's desk and sitting on it, "It also helps for that knowledge to be not just for the enemy, but your allies as well."
Gideon glanced at Katsuragi as she leaned in closer, "And I was thinking that maybe-"
Alarms began to scream as Gideon sighed and stood up, "I'll see you later Major. Want to try out that Korean place you were telling me about?"
Katsuragi smiled, "Sure."
----------------------------
"Well, I hope you bitches and bastards are ready to go!" Gideon shouted as he entered the hanger where the pilots were waiting in their pilot suits, and every last one were in the kind of skin-tight suit that showed off their incredible bodies.
They smiled confidently but Gideon's expression remained cold as he continued, "By now, you know the handicap that you are operating on. If you go off on your own, you will die. Horribly. You will be operating under my command and if you do not follow my orders and work together as a team, you'll never see your friends and family again."
As their smiles dimmed, Gideon walked over to a large shape and tapped his fist against it, "This is the Shinseki Industries MM-452 Kikai Yohei. Three quarters of these are manufactured for AI usage, but many are still piloted by normal humans because not everyone can synchronise with Shinoa Key mecha. I want you inside these mechs, armed with standard load-outs."
He turned to them, "We're going to be supporting the Magical Girls, since something like this is Internal Security's job. Don't try to be a hero and only move in if something happens. More than likely we'll be dealing with mooks while the magical girls do all the heavy lifting."
There was a ripple of discontent and Gideon visibly rolled his eyes. The rivalry between mecha pilots and magical girls was something that he learned early on in his life here, "Get moving people, we don't have the time to waste sitting on your pretty little asses!"
As they rushed for the other mechs, Gideon shook his head as he climbed into the cockpit access behind the flat head of the mech and sat down in the chair, flipping switches and pressing buttons, watching the screens light up as he had the mech grab the assault rifle-shaped autocannon before turning to the teens as the radio told him their opinions on piloting the mass-production mechs.
"Cut the whining! We have a job to do. Check your weapons and rock and roll!" There was a cheer from one of the teens.
"Yatta! Now we get to kick some ass!"
Gideon's smile was grim as the mechs engaged their thrusters and roared out of the hanger towards the city. In the distance, he could see smoke and flashes of energy and magic. He turned off his radio, "Fuck."
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The city was in chaos as the mechs arrived in front of a crowd of fleeing civilians, and at the very rear...the sight made Gideon snarl, "Fuck." He activated the radio, "Arm weapons, move in your assigned groups. Shoot to kill and prioritise civilian rescue!"
He whipped the mech's rifle up and fired a burst, the autocannon thundering as the heavy 30mm shells tore into several monsters tearing apart civilians. Firing again, he pointed down the road to several cowering citizens, "Get moving! A safe zone has been established down the road! Get the hell out of here!"
As they ran, he checked the position monitoring system for his students and grimaced as he noticed two out in front of the pack, "Hayasaka! Tennoh! Get the fuck back in formation before you get killed!"
"No way! We've got them on the run. We'll kick their asses!"
"Yeah! I have visual! Moving to en-" An explosion tore through the air and Gideon snarled as he saw the smoke rising nearby.
"Fucking idiots. They've been spending two weeks near me, and they just charge straight in?" Gideon knew the others were hearing him but didn't care, "This is Zero-Zero to Rescue Command! I need priority MEDEVAC at the following coordinates!"
His eyes snapped down to the monitoring system, "What the hell are the rest of you doing? Get back to your jobs and evacuate the civilians!" As the teens gave their affirmatives, Gideon moved towards the downed mechs.
The mechs were a mess as Gideon's autocannon thundered, the explosive shells tearing off huge pieces of flesh and spraying blood and gore across the street as he checked the downed mechs, the other hand grabbing and crushing one particularly foul specimen, the head popping off the neck like a cork before Gideon tossed the body away to check on the mech.
"Shit." Gideon muttered over the radio, "Rescue Command, Zero-Six is dead, get bodybags ready." He moved to the other downed mech and tore open the rear to check on the pilot, and he sighed in relief, "Thank god. Rescue Command, we have one in need of immediate rescue."
He looked over at the other downed mech, "That's what it's like for us grunts you know. Someone near you dies, while you live. You kids sure are lucky."
He watched as a pillar of magical energy tore into the sky, "Well, that's the end of it. All units, begin clean up operations. I want one-hundred percent enemy casualties on this." He snapped the rifle up and fired a burst, tearing apart a small pack of monsters that were creeping up from the sides.
Looking around at the devastation and the corpses lying in the street, Gideon sighed, "What a fucking mess."
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"Evil will beware! Because the Holy Crusader Knights will always protect this city from harm!" Gideon watched the magical girls give their victory speech to the cameras, a pile of monster corpses behind them and he knew from experience that the girls had likely been absolutely caked in blood during the fight.
"Wah, magic sure is useful." Gideon glanced to the side to see Major Katsuragi approaching him with a bag in her hands, "Korean, from that restaurant. And I brought drinks."
Taking a seat next to him, Katsuragi handed over a can of coffee that Gideon immediately snapped open, taking a long sip from it. Sighing, he placed the can against his forehead, "One dead, three seriously injured. As far as training casualties go, that's rather light."
"A little cold, but correct," Katsuragi replied as she took out a sealed bowl and handed it over with some chopsticks, her lips quirking into a tiny grin at Gideon's grimace before they began eating.
After a few minutes, and with the food finished, Katsuragi looked up at Gideon, "Tennoh's team has been informed and Hayasaka will be back on her feet in a few weeks."
"Modern technology, isn't it grand?" Gideon remarked and Katsuragi's expression softened.
"Gideon...you..."
Gideon stood up, "I need to go pick up Shion from school. I'll see you later Anzu."
As he walked away, Anzu Katsuragi swiped at her eyes, "Dammit. In the end, it's never something that goes bad or goes well for you and stays that way." She pulled out a picture, showing a group of pilots in a photo. In the centre, a smiling young woman is giving the 'V' sign to the camera while hugging a somewhat nervous young man.
The photo was marked 'Operation Olympian'. The first landing at Olympus Mons.
"Because for you, it all returns to zero. Because that's who you are." Katsuragi closed her eyes and hugged the photo close.
"The Zero Sum Soldier!"
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Ardion Prosili
An (im)Perfect Cell
Fricken tease. Giving so many hooks and interesting happenings and saying its a oneshot! Boooo on you sir.
I like it. I like it very much, actually.
Arythios
Snarky Sharky Bastard
- Location
- In your crawlspace, OOGA BOOGA
Took the words right outta my mouth.