“Hey! We’re approaching Testharia.” A person yelled out in the shuttle, ceasing the auto-pilot command as they exited lightspeed travel in the next minute.
This shuttle was part of the Soul-Core and property of the Star Gazers Squad. They had set course to Testharia in order to negotiate an alliance with the Mobilizers of Testharia. However, to their unexpected liking...
They did not know that they already made an alliance with Dark Intrinium.
“Finally... it’s been hours sat in this tiny ship.” Mikael sat upwards in his chair, taking his helmet off the armrest and cleaning the inside, ready to put it on any second.
“Tiny, or are you just big?” The loud-mouthed individual spoke back to Mikael, smirking as he said so.
Mikael turned his head to the person sitting down at the controls. He had a red t-shirt with a white cape. He wore a white jacket on top of that. It wasn't just any kind of casual clothing, but if you looked clearly, you would think he was playing superhero.
He was the captain of the Star Gazers Squad.
The captain wanted to say something to Mikael, before turning his head to a lone girl taking a nap on a small mattress. “Hey, sleepyhead! Wake up, we’re close!”
The girl yawned, standing up quickly. She napped for a good 5 hours, which would really be enough to count it as a good night’s sleep. “Uff...” With a little moan, she opened her eyes, stretching her arms.
“Orders from the General. We’re to try and secure an alliance with the Mobilizers of Testharia. Should be a piece of cake since we look presentable, rite?”
“Ughg... I just... wanted to sleep more. Do we really have to...?”
Mikael got annoyed by the girl’s slothful demeanour and quickly shut her down. “It’s not our fault that you didn’t get any sleep before we departed the Space Station, Nanasu.”
Nanasu pouted. “Yeah, because you didn’t give me time to sleep!”
The captain clapped his hands, smirking. “It’ll be fine! Just as long as we remember our squad dance, right? Right?”
Mikael and Nanasu stared intensely at the captain, clearly ready to flame him for his ‘stupid’ recommendation to dance in front of the Great Kamisword. Nanasu specifically stared at him with a very annoyed look.
“We’re not doing that.”
However, the captain just smirked. “Captain’s orders! Can’t deny!’
Nanasu took a deep breath, inhaling and exhaling a couple more times, before stretching her arms and legs again. “Right...” The very thought of treading into unfamiliar territory wouldn’t be a good one, so she slapped her cheeks to be on high alert from the get go.
You never know if you’re going to get attacked, despite Testharia being a peaceful planet. “Huaghghghg... I hate this...” She yawned again.
The shuttle exited lightspeed, appearing right before Testharia. But something was wrong.
“Woah...” The captain immediately noticed the Soul Energy trail the Dankasho intruder left off. “What happened there?”
“I don’t know... the news channels have been very restrained in releasing information, especially with less public planets like Testharia.” Mikael added.
The moon of Testharia – Dankasho, felt and looked different lately. It had fewer lights as it was in a state of emergency. The military base was left partially destroyed and was to be rebuilt immediately. Zephite City was closed off from the neighbouring cities and towns to keep any kind of criminal activity away from the city.
And lastly, no one had permission to go in and out of Dankasho, even their own residents.
The shuttle approached the exosphere of Testharia and immediately fell under the radio signal zones. If they tried anything that was hostile, they would be taken down the second after.
“Hmm...” The captain slowed the shuttle down. There was a huge laser encircling the planet, meant to control traffic of incoming and outcoming aircrafts. Every foreign ship was subjected to this, as they had to register themselves before entering the exosphere.
“Hey, did we even tell the government we were coming?” Mikael asked.
“Looks like we’ll be doing that now! Nanasu, the honours!” The captain had given the task to Nanasu to establish connection with the ‘border police’.
“Ughh... why me...? Nanasu frowned, standing up as she walked slothfully towards the cockpit. She cleared her throat, establishing connection. She tried setting the frequency of the radio at the same hertz as the border control was working on.
A mere seconds later, the connection went through.
{C}: “You have reached the Testharian Space Zone. Please, state your names, affiliation, and the reason of coming here.”
The worker had a strong voice, clearly determined to know their identity. This was common procedure in a lot of planets. But since Testharia was a private and a planet unaffiliated with most of the bodies controlling the galaxy, they were far stricter.
They didn’t want outsiders to destroy their beloved planet.
Nanasu looked at the captain, then at Mikael, and back to the laser obstacle before them and the planet.
“Hey, urm... I’m Nanasu Valadne. I... uhm... am with 2 other people and 1 animal, which is my pet c-“
Mikael bonked her in the head.
Nanasu held her head, wincing in pain. “That hurt!” Nanasu shook her head, turning back to the comms device and continuing. “Rgh... We’re affiliated with Soul-Core, we were sent as diplomats in hopes of... establishing an alliance with Testharia... or something.”
Nanasu continued.
“We’re... a defense coalition made up of thousands of star systems across the galaxy.”
With that being said, Nanasu fell silent and took a step back from the communications device. The silent was unbearable, as the space border control police, or whatever they wanted to call it, were contemplating whether to give them access or not.
“Nanasu, I swear... if you fucked it up for us all-“ Mikael was shortly interrupted by the worker.
{C} “Access granted. You are given an hour to complete your meeting with the Great Kamisword, as well as to roam freely. After the hour is complete, you shall return to your shuttle and leave immediately.”
“An hour? In what universe would you think that a meeting of this caliber would take... less than an hour?”
Mikael spoke to the guard on the communications device inside the shuttle. He seemed disappointed that they were granted just one hour to finish their job.
“We can’t possibly get shit done in an hour; you know?”
{C} “This is a security procedure that all outsider aircrafts must follow. We are strict on taking people in and out. If you do not comply with the rule, we are then obligated to revoke the agreement, effective immediately.”
“... Fine, we agree.”
The huge laser would then cease, as the shuttle slowly made into the Testharian exosphere. The shuttle was still 200 kilometers away from the atmosphere.
“Do they really hate outsiders that much?” Nanasu asked.
“I don’t know, it’s stupid... but who am I to complain about how they work? I’d say it’s normal procedure.” Mikael patted her head, where he had bonked her.
“I’d say they aren’t fond of us because they don’t deal with us at all. We’re aliens to them, like they’re aliens to us. Of course they’d be wary of what we’re capable of.”
“Who cares really? It’s Testharia, it’s not like they’ll send out an army of hitmen to kill us.” She got annoyed.
The captain stomped his right feet and chuckled. “It wouldn’t matter anyway! Because we... are...” He was preparing his signature ‘Star Gazers Squad’s Amazing, Incredibly, Extremely Charismatic, Fighting Entrance Dance!’.
“The. Star. Gazers!” He said as he danced in motion to it.
Again, Mikael and Nanasu fell silent, as their jaws were down to the stupidity of ever thinking about doing the song. Nanasu looked away as her pet jumped on her lap, while Mikael facepalmed, clearly seething from the cringe dance he just had to deal with.
“Please... don’t do that when we’re introducing ourselves.”
Mikael would then shake his head and look at Nanasu.
“Anyways, that’s besides the point.” Mikael put his hands on his waist, almost headbutting her as he leaned forward. His face just inches away from hers. “You brought your pet, why?”
“...” Nanasu fell silent again. “Well... I just... y’know... I-I uhh... I couldn’t leave him with the... lunatics back in the... barracks, y’know! They’ll do unspeakable things to Kleine!”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
Mikael said nothing and continued staring at her. It was clear that it was a scare tactic, and it seemed to work on the veteran, who was tired and half-awake. “I- He’s not a liability, I swear!”
The captain pressed a few buttons that opened the upper-hatch of the shuttle. What was he thinking? “You guys go ahead and land this baby. I must make my entrance awesome!”
He climbed through the hatch and to the roof of the ship as it was descending through the atmosphere.
Mikael sighed. He was still being new to the SGS. He was still adjusting from the professional and cold nature that Squad Leader work gave him. The casual and fun nature of the Star Gazers Squad, he wasn’t used to it at all.
And neither was Nanasu. She was a Squad Leader too, but it ended horribly. Her entire squad got wiped out a couple years before the joined the Star Gazers Squad. She slacked off for the entire duration of her squad leaderless time that she turned slothful.
Mikael sighed again, looking at Nanasu. “Leave Kleine on the ship, we don’t want him getting lost in the city.” He got up to land the ship. They descended through the atmosphere as they reached the top parts of the city’s 9,300 skyscrapers.
“I... euh... rmgmgmgmgmhmhmh... fine...” She felt defeated, petting Kleine for the last time before leaving him on her mattress, getting ready to go outside. “Be a good boy now, Kleine! Don’t get lost in the shuttle!”
It was truly a sight to behold. It was as beautiful as ever, with regular snowfall.
-
The shuttle closed in on the main landing pad of Tristate City. As always, there were thousands of people roaming in the streets, as some stopped to see whoever came.
“Ffffffffffffffffffffffffffear not, as Claude Magami has arrived!” Claude’s voice could be heard from above as he jumped off the ship and straight down towards the landing pad.
While that was happening. Mikael pressed a button and lowered the boarding ramp of the shuttle, walking out.
Hearing Claude Magami’s intense introduction caused people to distance from him to show respect, while others stood still to give them the spotlight.
“One day, you’re going to break something with that habit of yours.” Mikael walked with his hands in his pockets, referencing his entrance, gesturing at him with his right arm.
“Well, we can’t really stop him. Besides, he’s in a good mood. Let him have his fun.” Nanasu said.
Mikael chuckled, half-joking about it. “I suppose that’s better than being half-asleep on an important mission.
“Cut it out! It’s not like I’m half-asleep all the time!” She punched Mikael in the shoulder, clearly taking offense. She couldn’t help but feel embarrassed as she looked away from Mikael.
Claude landed where there was a large crowd, fixing his posture and doing a heroic pose.
“NAILED IT!”
Claude had a charismatic physique and due to his cheerful and hyperactive nature – it was only a fifty-fifty whether the Testharians liked him or not.
Just a few hundred meters away from the landing pad, stood the great Eria Tower. As usual, there were huge golden entrance doors that were open for anyone to go inside. The fact that it was always open was ironclad evidence that Testharians truly trusted each other.
“Wow... I wish the catering at the station were always this open.” Mikael scratched his nose, walking towards the tower.”
“Oh man- egghhh...” Claude realized that he didn’t bring any clothes to keep himself warm as he shivered. Tristate City was at a constant negative Celsius temperature, especially when it neared the tenth month of the galactical calendar.
“Already a good first impression, ‘Ultimate Charisma Magnet’...” Nanasu laughed with her hands in her coat pockets as well. Below her coat however, she was wearing her Argo-Suit, which was a stretchable, medium armoured spacesuit. The only downside of wearing it was that it didn’t come with a self-warming mechanism.
“Hmph! Task at hand! That tower!” Claude pointed at the tower and quickly interrupted Nanasu as if to show her that he didn’t listen or hear it.
“Can’t forget Rule 4, huh? You gotta look presentable and you fail at that.” She began to walk to the entrance while ridiculing her captain.
Mikael held back a laugh. “He... that’s why I always wear armour – the most versatile way to dress. It’s also warm.”
Nanasu undid her coat as fast as she could, showing Mikael that she wore armour underneath her coat too. People that stood behind her thought that she stripped herself naked towards Mikael.
“No way, I do too!” She laughed.
Mikael quickly looked away. “Nana... rgh...”
The three bozos would walk inside the tower. Mikael paused to look around the room to take in the architecture. Meanwhile, Nanasu was more than taken aback.
“What... the... FUCK!?” She yelled out, realizing how beautiful and heavenly the inside of the tower looks. From the insane architecture to the insane art that were presented on the sides. “This is ama-“
Before she could finish her second sentence, she was dinged in the head by her captain. “Language!”
“Ow...” Nanasu winced in pain, holding her head. This was the second time that her head took damage. With all this bonks that she had to deal with, it was impressive that she did not suffer from brain damage.
“What happened to Rule 4, Nanasu? You were talking all so mighty about it.” He laughed, making fun of her. Even he didn’t have enough with his shenanigans, continuing his laughter to let the embarrassment marinate even more.
“I get it! Jeez...”
She followed Claude as he walked to the front desk in the lobby.
There was a receptionist working like there was no tomorrow. One phone call took about 20 seconds before taking another one. She had no time to help the people who stood before her. An annoyed face overwrote her previous expression.
“Ael demuste.” (One second). She spoke in Testharian.
“Hello! We came here to see the uhh...” .:. What was her name...? .:.
Mikael looked down at the receptionist – he was a little taller than the average Testharian due to poor gravity on his homeworld. With his helmet and armour obstructing his characteristics, the receptionist would think that they were a Testharian.
“The princess... Or was it the Great Kamisword?” He was deep in thought, putting his hand on his chin.
The receptionist finished their phone call and immediately got embarrassed for letting foreigners wait. Respect was of utmost importance for them, especially if it was towards a foreigner. To let them wait for a long time, scared her.
“I’m sorry for... keeping you waiting... urm... you said that you came here to see the Great Kamisword?”
“Yes!” Claude rested his hands on his waist, smirking mischievously.
“Ah... Have you gotten a permit from the space station?” She asked, her eyes still wide open.
.:. Great, a permit...? .:. Nanasu sighed, looking away as she sighed.
Foreigner aircrafts had the eligibility to get a permit for their reasons of coming to Testharia from the space station where they got access. However, Claude forgot as he immediately descended towards the atmosphere.
Which is why they were left without a permit and had to ask the nice receptionist for one. Nanasu and Mikael felt a bit embarrassed, but Claude was oblivious to such a thing.
“Nope! We’d like one though! Maybe this helps!” He placed his Soul-Core badge on the desk.
The receptionist immediately checked the files to see if there was a scheduled meeting for Sachiel Eria. But much to their dismay, there was none scheduled. The receptionist had a worrisome look on their face.
Soul-Core had no idea that Testharia had an alliance with Dark Intrinium. It wasn’t an alliance that they wished for, to be honest. The Viceroy made a mistake in trusting Lord Veyron.
“...Hmm... There is no meeting scheduled for His Excellency, but I can give you young gentlemen and lady a permit so you can wait in the High Lobby.” She referenced the lobby in Floor 128.
She checked under the counter to give them the one out of 29 permits. About a minute later, she reappeared behind the counter again, handing them the ticket for the elevator, and the permit for the Floor. They had to show it to the Royal Squad standing guard there.
“This is the ticket to the elevator, and this is the permit you must show to the Royal Guard. The elevators are to the right. Take the far-left elevator for a direct ascent to the top floor.
“Much appreciated, lovely!” Claude complimented the receptionist before snatching the permit and the ticket from her hand, walking to the elevators.
“...A ... urm... my pleasure...?” She went back to working with reddened cheeks.
As they reached the hallway where the elevators were located at, they had a hard time squeezing through. It was always picked with Testharians. It was easy to be lost if you were short.
Claude stood tall amongst the majority of the Testharians present. He was roughly around 6’2 feet, which helped him locate the elevators easily.
Mikael was another case, as he stood a good 6’4 feet tall as well. Even he had an easy time locating the elevator they needed to take to the top floor. He was able to look at the top of most Testharian heads. “Testharians are generally tall people, it seems...”
Nanasu, who stood just 5’9 feet tall, was nowhere to be seen in the amalgamation of Testharians. She was lost, as she tried to locate Claude and Mikael in what looked like a stampede. “Hey! Coming through! Rgh...”
Squeezing was hard. She was being pushed around and about without them being aware of her ever existing.
Being short was a curse.
Claude respectfully barged by the Testharians. “’Scuse me, Soul-Core personnel en route!” He popped his badge while he walked past them, smiling. Most Testharians opened up a path for them now that they realized that he was a foreigner. No longer were they in Hell.
Claude managed to successfully get past all of them and into the elevator. However, he realized something; Nanasu was nowhere to be seen. He could see Mikael following in quickly after, but even he paused to look for the poor girl. They had lost her in the crowd.
“Keep the elevator open for us, Mikael! Nanasu needs saving!” He climbed back into the crowd.
“Oh man... they’re so tall...” She was scared, looking around. Her height didn’t even reach the chest area of Testharians. She couldn’t see the room, the hallway, the heads of Testharians, and just saw a crowd of huge, long legs.
“Captain!? Mikael! Save me!” She was lost.
Claude finally found Nanasu in the crowd, grabbing her and pulling her in, out of the crowd. She could see Mikael keeping the elevator door open for them. “Almost lost ya’ there, heh!” He smiled.
“Aeh! Thank you, Captain!” Nanasu hugged as she tried not shedding a tear.
“Heh! Now, up we go!” He walked into the elevator, stopping before he pushed a button. “Which floor was it...?”
“I believe it was the top floor.”
“There’s a ticket sensor next to the numbers, try if that works.” Nanasu pointed to the amalgamation of buttons.
“Hm...” He scanned his ticket against the interface, as the elevator door instantly closed. It was set to the top floor and about to ascend.
“Yay!” Nanasu cheered, clapping her hands.
“Awesome technology, eh?”
“They even don’t have that annoying elevator music.” Mikael humoured, smiling inside his helmet.
“But! We’ll make our own music!” He hummed ‘Space Boy’ as they went up. Which annoyed Mikael even further. He was done with his shenanigans. “Haha... -No.” He pressed a button on the side of his helmet, turning on his sound cancelling mechanism.
“-Like a Space Boy... oh oh oh!”
Nanasu held in her laugh behind Mikael and Claude as she looked away. Instead of Mikael cringing at him, she couldn’t contain the joy she felt because of her. This was a good squad to be in, especially when she didn’t need to take a caretaker/squad leader role.
She didn’t deserve it, not after everything that happened. She wouldn’t allowed herself to be put in such a position, neither would she work to it. All that she wanted, was this squad to remain unchanged. Hearing Mikael’s annoying voice directed towards Claude; hearing Claude be the goofy, hyperactive captain that he always is.
She loved every second of it.
However, the joy she felt came to an halt as the sheer force of the gravity tripling. The elevator ascended very fast, with an estimate time of 24 seconds to reach the top floor.
“GUH!” She dropped to the floor, coughing. “W-what! I can’t move!”
“Rmgh... This is... an elevator? This feels more like a fucking rocket taking off!” He dropped to one knee, grunting as the gravity quadrupled now. The G-Force the elevator could withstand was insane.
However, Claude stood as if nothing happened. He didn’t break a single sweat and was still humming ‘Space Boy’, oblivious to Nanasu and Mikael’s struggle.
They eventually made it to the top floor, the quadruped G-Force eliminated in a split second.
“Fuck... I feel dizzy now.” Mikael stood up, turning off his sound cancellation.
“I’m never riding this elevator again.” Nanasu stood up as well, holding her head. Her chin hurts from impacting the elevator floor.
“Huh?” Claude looked behind him, noticing Nanasu and Mikael struggling and frowning about something. “Why the droopy faces? Is it because I was humming ‘Space Boy’? You guys love that song!”
“Its... not that... It’s the elevator...” Nanasu coughed.
"Heh? What's with the elevator? Oh...” He realized. “Was it because of the gravity? Hah! You guys are so weak!”
Claude had a big smile on his face. He was the only one unaffected by the G-Force they just had to experience.
"..."
The doors opened, revealing a huge hall filled with art. As mentioned, the Royal Squad were present in the room. Some squad members took turns as some would have a strict no-moving policy. They were ready to strike at any moment, and anyone who did the slightest wrong move, would be dead before they even knew.
"Wow... Look at this place!" Nanasu looked around, her eyes wide open. "It's so beautiful!"
"It's like the entire tower is a museum." Mikael looked around, amazed by the architecture.
"Well, let's get going! Time's ticking, my friends!"
The three of them walked towards the entrance, where two guards stood.
"Stop."