- a certain room, inside Yukikaze –
- 77˚47'22" S, 41˚29'08" W-
- 0310hrs -
"Whoa wait, an Interstellar Carrier? This isn't a joke right?" questioned the man technically kidnapped by a special operations team and woke up in a room he doesn't know. the girl beside him has that smug and quite prideful posture that has him unamused.
"Yup! My two-year work on this ship surely paid off!" she exclaimed. Jaeger backed a bit from his sister that's too energetic because of her hand movement that nearly hit his face
"And you named the second model 'Yukikaze'?" Jeanne instantly nodded gleefully with a bright smile, Jaeger could only facepalm at her sister's attitude.
"Just how much an otaku are you? And what? You going to name the third one Kaga?" Jaeger remarked.
"Nope, I'm not that much of an otaku, unlike you. Also, I won't intentionally name the third one Kaga, you know there's a Carrier that already has that name now right? Plus, this ship class isn't cheap you know and it now kind of lacks some of the crew members" he did another facepalm due to Jeanne's retort.
"Then, how are we going to initiate the operation?" Jeanne had a small chuckle and along with that expression that jaeger disliked when she was going to do something awfully bad and crazy to him. He could only mutter "I have a bad feeling about this"
- At the Briefing Room, Yukikaze –
- 0444hrs -
The room is half crowded, it's filled with the high ranks and officers of the ship, along with the field personnel that are also part of the mission. They were chatting to each other; some are having coffee since it was still early in the morning, while some tried to sleep in their chair. Although the location of the ship is at the Arctic Fjord, its life support system kept them warm since the fact it's not a regular modern-day warship.
As the Commanding Officer enters the room along with a laptop in her hand, the room suddenly quiets down as someone yelled 'Commander', they stood up and salute her. She then replied with a salute and let them at ease, she lit up the projector and as it displayed the start of the briefing, she asked if anybody is absent at that time, but since nobody answered, she considered everyone essential already present.
"Alright, let's start with the briefing, shall we? As you all know, I'm the Commanding Officer of the current operation, but since there are new faces that I haven't seen, I'll introduce myself again" She then proceeds to salute the recruits.
"I'm Commander Jeanne Himmelsdorf, part of ABEL's PMC department as the head director and also the Head Researcher of Project 'Omega', the detail about that project is quite vague to tell all of you now since it is currently highly classified but most of you here will know in the middle of this briefing since I have the allowance."
She then proceeds to the next slide, which shows the details of their assignments during their cruise towards the objective, some asked questions about hypersleep pods and other Sci-Fi equipment usage throughout the ship, and Jeanne answered them professionally. She also mentioned the change of combat equipment for outer space combat for ship-to-ship infiltration and capture. The crowd is quite awed by the tech that is supposed to be realized in 500 years to come.
"This is the 2nd ship of its class, the first Trailblazer class, the Trailblazer herself, was *cough* sunken during her maiden voyage to Neptune for an expedition mission, a high-speed orbiting asteroid with the size of 9 meters in diameter penetrated the starboard side of the ship and ignited the ammo storage near the bow. This is a terrible loss since this technology is practically still in the child phase, we still need to improve the physical barrier that coats the ship, currently, it only protects against normal projectiles and 2 simultaneous nuclear blasts." She explains the loss.
One of the men in the room raised his hand to question, the Commander looked at him and smiled, indicating that he was allowed to. He then stands up, and casually speaks to the commander.
"I'm sorry for cutting the explanation, but does this ship has countermeasures during flight to the destination when crossing the inner Asteroid belt & Kuiper Belt and further asteroid field beyond our star system??" at that question, Jeanne lost her professionalism, her inner childish scientist self-kicks in and took over the briefing.
"Hmm, I give you 10 points for your answer Lil' bro!" she exclaims and pointed at him. The expression that she did has made half of the room that is present surprised as they have never seen the gleeful girlish face of their commander.
"Ho ho, the warp drive technology that I developed with the boys has that flaw of some of the objects getting in the way of our near lightspeed travel, So... We already made a warp gate at mars! Pretty impressive ain't it Archie?" she explained gleefully, but in a split second, she snapped back to reality where her subordinates are present in front of her. She blushed in embarrassment.
"Ah..." was the only word she could come out in the aftermath of the spur of the moment.
"Heh, that's Commander Jeanne for you" the crowd burst out laughing, Jeanne pouted and is quite irritated at her brother. Even so, they then returned to their professional attitude not long after, their atmosphere isn't as tense as when the start of the briefing. The cutely embarrassed commander then continued the briefing.
"Alright gents, our primary objective is to scout a planet MC-DXC-II, or we could call it Verdia. One of our destroyers that is on the orbit of the planet reports high activities of medieval era cities on several continents and reports a high frequency of unknown natural energy from one of the continents, our primary objective is to establish contact with the inhabitants and create an Interstellar alliance, although that means we need to teach them about advanced science and engineering. The time between here and Verdia is very different, their planetary rotation is much faster than ours. Nonetheless, my hypothesis says it's just a mirror image of earth with different geographical terrain and technological advancements. Our arrival will be around 2 days when using the Warp Gate. This operation will start in 2 hours. Now then...." She then changes the slide and reveals the roster for the landing operation and to the audience's surprise, it was only one man. Everyone started murmuring about it, it was surely impossible for one man to establish cooperation with the inhabitants in their opinion, Jeanne requested them to quiet them down.
"I know, it looks crazy to think only a single man will be sent there down there, and I know you know the answer, Lt. Col Jaeger, so let me clear here" she cleared her throat and shut the projector down, she also signals by nodding to the guard at the door of the room to lock it.
"Whatever I say here next won't leave this ship, you'll be instantly executed if you give this information out to the public" Jeanne signals Jaeger to come forward at the podium of the room. Questions burst between murmurs among the present audience. as he's at the podium, Jeanne quiets them down and allows Jaeger to speak.
"Alright, since you all know I'm just your cliché outstanding superior in the field and quite a carefree guy in your eyes, I'll say it's just one of my public masks." He said with a serious expression, unlike his easy-going vibe. the crowd became more confused.
"I'm one of Project Omega's specimens, and about it, the Project is about biological enhancement towards the human body. Whether it is about regeneration, superstrength or even ESP, the researchers are focused on maximizing our bodies' capabilities." They're finally quieted down on their small murmurs, the cliché experiments made some of them ask if they could be enhanced too, Jeanne disagreed with their request and let Jaeger continue.
"The project has a lot of flaws and a massive loss of life during testing, I'm one of the 3 succeeded subjects out of a thousand, the rating of success currently is around 0.3% and it was debatable between the higher up's to continue the experiment. Although, it has major progress due to my sister's involvement. Nevertheless, it is a no go if ABEL found you're not compatible enough. My enhancements include rapid regeneration, millisecond situational awareness and body physical enhancement on endurance and agility, ABEL probably already thought of this if things go down very wrong there" he cleared his throat and returned to his usual expression.
"Well, does anybody has further questions or objections?" questioned Jeanne. The crowd simultaneously answered no, she then ends the briefing and permitted them to leave. As the room emptied up and only the siblings remain, Jeanne suddenly hugged Jaeger and made him jolt a bit.
"Man, your jugs grow too mu- OW!" he shrieked as Jeanne kicked his crotch.
"Could you not be a perv for like 3 minutes!" he could only laugh at his remark about her actions. While hugging him, she has a feeling something going to be bad there and was worried.
"You know, I actually disagreed with this plan, it was originally an 8-man team landing operation, I don't wanna lose my precious little brother when he's on another planet..." Jaeger let go of her hug and give her a head pat to comfort his anxious sister.
"I won't die, besides, it'll be like last time when I protected you, right sis? This Hunter is quite slippery you know" he remarked with a small chuckle.
After Jaeger has done comforting her, they parted way towards their own destination, Jaeger headed to the Bridge to assist the captain of the ship as his sister ordered before they parted. She knew his capabilities of commanding a fleet and entrusted the ship to him while she rests. At Jeanne's quarters, the Commander dived to her bed, covered herself up with a nearby blanket, and curled up inside the blanket.
"I wished he didn't see me just as his sister..." she muttered in dejection. Not long, she then fell asleep after 2 days awaken.
-Yukikaze's Bridge, Yukikaze –
- 0630hrs -
Everybody is checking their monitors back and forth, the preparation for launch is going smoothly as Jaeger's supervision helped the recruits on the bridge. The other crew is also checking thoroughly on their equipment's conditions and the supplies for the journey. The ship can carry around 15 thousand personnel, although 70% of them are combat-ready marines & pilots along with 3 thousand Tactical Combat Humanoid or robot soldiers that compensate for the lack of crew.
The Trailblazer is an aircraft carrier so it is possible to carry a total of 220 fighters, transport & landing craft, Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) ships and 80 main battle tanks that could be airdropped. Her length is around 2.323 meters with a width of around 358 meters. Even with that length, Trailblazer has 20 Advanced CIWS anti-aircraft platforms that spread throughout the deck and below the hull, 7 Vertical launch system clusters and four twin-barrel 48cm naval guns and two single barrel 280mm railgun as her offence. It's currently the biggest ship that ABEL could produce and be kept in secrecy.
Soon enough, Jeanne entered the bridge. She saluted back to the crew that instinctively saluted on the Commanding officer that has entered, Jaeger greeted her while she was opening the report from one of the gunnery officers. She and Jaeger converse about the flight path towards the warp gate and he asked about the public secret issue, she explains about Yukikaze's optical camouflage capabilities and assured him that it is also heat resistant. After checking the list for the 3rd time and everyone was strapped to their seats, she ordered the captain to set sail and followed the planned route.
"Yukikaze, set course to mars orbit, initiate atmosphere escape procedure, full speed!" the captain exclaimed.
The engine started humming as the vertical thrusters engaged. As the ship started to hover slowly in the air, the main engines on the lower aft went into full power. Yukikaze initiate its Optical camo and started to climb exponentially. The rattle of the thrust was immense since the ship is currently accelerating around 450m/s and kept increasing. Around 2 minutes later, Yukikaze enters orbit and reduced her engine power.
"how's the jump preparation?" asked Jeanne to the Navigation officer. The female officer then quickly sent the data towards Jeanne's command display on her left. She thanked the Navigation Officer for her swift work.
The ship remained in orbit for at least two minutes, since previously the ship is on the other side of the earth when launching. From the crew's point of view, they're moving quite slow, but the ship is moving at 26 thousand kilometres per hour.
As they reached the planned waypoint, the commander issued an order to warp to mars. The navigation officer then engaged the warp drives, several hatches and hinges at the port and the starboard of the ship opened and a bright blue light came out from the exposed Warp drive exhaust module. The space in front of the ship rippled and made a circular shape of bright blue miasma, the recruits were awestruck at the scene that beholds upon them, the view that they thought only in science fiction came to reality. The Navigation officer then count down at the warping procedure, and as it reaches zero, the ship rocketed through the blue circular miasma and vanished from earth's orbit.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Several seconds later, they arrived at mars, the red desert planet is quite a view up close, although, the impressive one is the massive warp gate sitting idly around 300km above Mars's orbit. The halo-like megastructure is a sight that is out of this world, the place isn't empty either, transport and engineering frigates flew back and forth constructing defences and a medium-sized shipyard that could house large capital ships like a cruiser and could resupply even a dreadnaught that is planned by ABEL in future operations.
"Himmelstor station, this is Yukikaze of the 1st Carrier Division, we hereby request the warp gate to be bridged towards the star coordinate we've sent to you. Do you copy over?" the captain requested. The warp gate slowly activated as they saw a similar blue miasma that the warp drive made earlier, the traffic control on the gate gave a go for the ship to pass.
As they get closer, the circular miasma at the centre of the gate wasn't that similar to the ones that Yukikaze generated. instead, it behaves like a vortex. Some of the crew have an eerie feeling toward the warp gate due to the abnormal gravitational pull it gave, nonetheless in the situation, Jeanne explained to her subordinates that it's the normal condition of the warp gate when activated due to the difference in the gravitational pull of the other side. Traffic control reminds them that the trip isn't as fast as warping inside a star system, and it'll take them around 2 days to arrive due to the immense range and the location's space-time abnormalities. The captain understood and kept proceeding to enter the gate. Yukikaze rattles as the gravitational condition near the gate is quite strong, but after they enter, the rattle ceases and all they could see is a tunnel-like view of the warp gate.
"Alright people! Get some rest at your quarters, the effect of using the warp gate isn't comfortable and may cause nausea if you don't take proper rest" announced Jeanne to the crew. Most of them went to their room or the lounge to relax or sleep while the experienced ones stayed to monitor the situation. Everything was so proceeding smoothly that Jaeger felt a bit suspicious about it.
- 2 days later, unknown coordinates lightyears away –
- 0400hrs -
Everybody on board the ship is thrilled at the scenery of the destination while some are doing their work professionally, checking for any abnormalities on the ship's systems or anything unusual around the ship. As they were in a peaceful sailing towards the destination, suddenly, the ship shook violently, throwing off most of the crew that isn't strapped to their seats or on their bed towards the wall.
"What the hell is that?! Damage report!" shouted Jaeger to the damage control officer on the bridge.
"Sir! We didn't sustain any serious damage or hull breach, it's like something just bumped at us quite hard!" Jager then ordered him to give access to the cameras outside the ship, he switched between all cameras and scanned with infrared sensors but had no luck finding the cause of the sudden shake. The damage control officer reported several of the crews only sustain minimal damage, but some had their ribs broken due to the impact force.
"File a report about this and wait for the Commander to wake up, this is quite a bad sign" the Lieutenant nearby understood and quickly made the report. Meanwhile, the crew downstairs scrambled for secondary damage checks since some could be only monitored by humans.
Yukikaze finally arrived at Planet Verdia's star system not long after and proceeded to orbit the destination planet itself. The view is fairly familiar, a planet itself has a composition similar to earth, but the difference is the Geographical condition, Verdia has twice the size of earth with both the north and the south pole being larger than Earth, several continents are distinct towards each other and the planet itself covered with 83% water. Jeanne is already at the bridge not long after they exited warping.
"Alright Colonel, you know your mission, I wish you the best of luck. Proceed to the armoury, configure your equipment and supplies." Jeanne ordered, slightly with a distressed tone. Her crew would see that she still object to the change of the operation plan. Jaeger saluted the Commander and proceeded to head towards the armoury.
As the Colonel already left the bridge, suddenly, one of the watchkeepers shouted as he spotted some debris that is unusual nearby. The captain then ordered to send a UAV to check it, and thus, the flight operation officer issued the launch of 7 drones. The drones rocketed from the enclosed drone launcher at the port side of the ship, it then made a formation then hastily went towards the location. There, the drones found a horrifying discovery for the crew.
"Holy crap! Isn't that one of the destroyers that were sent here?!" exclaimed the gunnery officer horrified. The captain then orders Yukikaze to head towards the nearby moon, mooring there to assess the situation after doing their part in the operation.
Jaeger tested several weapons and equipment at the armoury and filled some supplies like ammo and provisions. There, the officer that manages the armoury told him to get to a specialized room nearby. Jaeger then went inside and was greeted by an unusual piece of equipment, an exoskeleton that isn't bulky, rather it's slim and seemed to be concealable in his eyes. Yet, the design is so unusual that it reminds him of a certain game he played in his childhood.
"The Phalanx exoskeleton, this bad boy is created specifically for your mission, an exoskeleton that will amplify your strength, agility, and endurance three times the normal human power. Although, we originally have 8 in stock with different equipment for different classes and since the Higher-ups changed the roster, most of this exoskeleton equipment is going to be yours to use." The Officer explained and told Jaeger that he could put it on.
Jaeger then stands at the mark on the floor, facing away from the exoskeleton behind him, and then a 3D scanner appears and scanned him. After its completion, he was told by an AI sound that he should spread his arms. not long after, the hinges that hold the exoskeleton arms moved and aligned themselves to Jaeger's arms and latched on to him. After it was successfully calibrated with his arm length and fingers, The officer reminded him that the part will hurt quite a lot, Jaeger could only gulp at what happened next. The neck part of the exoskeleton then unfolds its claw-like extensions and pierced through Jaeger's skin starting from his neck and down to the bottom of his back, he screamed in pain, but it was not that enormous since it was fairly sharp. It then made a hissing sound and Jaeger then eased up, the exoskeleton is now tightly attached and followed his body shape while also regenerating the lost skin that was torn by it.
"So? Does it hurt?"
"that was a fairly dumb question to ask you know?"
"Haha! Glad I wasn't the one assigned to this mission. Plus that expression was priceless, bet people gonna buy your weird face when wearing that, especially your sister"
"dude, wanna lose some ribcage bones?"
"I'm joking mate, sheesh! Anyway, try to move"
He then tried to move his arms and legs, but he didn't feel any difference in his movements. The armoury officer then pressed the screen on a nearby monitor, and the exoskeleton then hummed, calibrating again for Jaeger's nervous system for its delay. He then tells Jaeger to try to move again or punch a dummy doll nearby. He then took a stance and punched the dummy doll with minimal power, but the exoskeleton's power made the dummy fly backwards fast enough that the steel wall bends.
"Alright, now you're geared up, I'll upload an AI assistant to your Exo-suit, all of the data you need is there since it'll act like your world library, from history to every single human on earth's information. Now go, your aircraft is already waiting." Jaeger thanked the man and left. He went to the hangar several levels below, he asked the AI for the way, and it appears in his eyes an illusion-like guide pointing through the corridor of the ship.
As soon he arrived, the AI suddenly asked Jaeger how he could reach the bridge without his help, not quite surprised, Jaeger answered casually that he asked for the way from a passing crew when he was trying to head there.
"Let me guess, you're my sister's creation too?" the AI let out a laugh.
"Indeed sir, O4NR class Enhanced Observer & Warning System AI, or you could call me Ofnir, at your service" Jaeger was saluted by a nearby aircraft maintenance crew and was handed an airtight helmet. His aircraft is a hybrid type that could sortie both inside the atmosphere and outer space, the designation is IFA-27B, the Vertical Take-off capable variant, with a codename 'Valiant'. A multirole fighter-attacker that is even capable of launching two nuclear cruise missiles for anti-Interstellar capital ship missions, its main armament consisted of a 50mm triple-barrelled rotary cannon with around three thousand bullet capacity, two internal missile bays that are big enough for carrying 10 JDAM smart bombs and 8 AMRAAM medium-range missiles in atmospheric engagements.
The plane itself is unique, its wings are currently folded inside the body of the aircraft, but when it's deployed, the dynamic double delta forward-swept wings, advanced-looking hull, and an aerodynamically hidden and dynamic rectangular exhaust nozzle at the back of the body are very eye-catching. The Valiant is the backbone of Yukikaze's Air group, along with several troop transport
Also, at that time, he was already given a cloak by the Armoury officer that looked old for the era he was in, He was also told that the cloak will provide protection against any sharp-edged weapons since it was tested against a laser cutter. The Exo-suit was also equipped with two 3 Dimensional Thrusters mounted on each of his hips for extreme evasive manoeuvres and four swords for Close Quarters Combat (CQC), one that is an energy-based sword attached to the back of the thrusters and two wrist-mounted energy-based daggers, and the other is a katana-like sword in his left hip holster that is coated with super-heated energy when activated. Jaeger then went inside the fighter's cockpit and prepared a cold start-up while putting the sword inside a certain weapon box behind the ejection seat.
"Shall I help you, sir?" Ofnir offered, Jaeger agreed, and the aircraft system is taken over by the highly intelligent AI. The cockpit closed tightly, and the life support system went online, the engine started to hum and Ofnir also checked the Fire Control System or FCS in short. The ground crew saluted to the aircraft he was in as it was lifted by a crane system to the launch deck, the hatch on the catapult opens and the lifted fighter was inserted in, then the hatch closed and the room inside started to decompress, as soon the decompression ends, the hatch in front of him opens and the crane then moved the fighter forward. It then latched it to the grip of the catapult system and started to power up.
"This is the control tower, sir, your callsign in this mission is Intruder 1-1, Reminder that your mission is diplomacy, we do not advise to use any acts of hostility unless necessary for survival, keep a low profile until you could meet the country's leader, Godspeed on your mission" the man then gave the landing coordinates and clearance for take-off, the external enclosed door of the launch port slowly open, guidance light one by one lit up on each side of the tunnel of the catapult. Jaeger then put the fighter jet at full throttle.
"Roger that control, I'll see you all in several months" the catapult then rocketed the aircraft from 0 to 600kmph in mere 7 seconds if it compared when the ship is staying still, as it's already around several tenth meters away from the ship, the jet extends its wings partially and went for orbital re-entry.
"Intruder 1-1, can you hear me?" a familiar female voice resonated through the comms, and Jaeger responded instantly.
"This is Intruder 1-1, comms are green command"
"Roger, We have an abnormal energy wavelength building up at this coordinate. I advise you to break away from the waypoint if necessary" control sent jaeger the coordinates to his database. He understood and proceeded to continue. the aircraft then started its re-entry to Verdia's atmosphere, rattling heavily as the air friction slowed down his speed, everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly. Nonetheless, his feeling of a bad omen came true. The warnings on his cockpit blare at him, his AI assistant can't help much since it is currently stabilizing the fighter's descent due to the difference in atmospheric pressure.
"Intruder 1-1!! An abnormal amount of energy readings is covering the hull of your fighter! Breakaway ASAP!!" shouted operations command in Yukikaze high above, but to no avail, the blinding energy that covers the fighter is blocking the laser transmission. They watch in confusion and horror on the radar and visually as the trail of fiery light of the descending fighter suddenly vanished in mid-air.
"Damnit! Intruder 1-1! Respond!! Jaeger!!" shouted mission control.
Meanwhile, inside the fighter, Jaeger grunted as the energy is also enveloping him, holding off his movements and draining his stamina, he tried to move his right arm that is gripping the control stick, but it was too powerful for him as if he weren't allowed to move at all. His vision gets darker and darker every second, and the rattles stop.
- unknown location –
- unknown time -
"Sir! Get up! SIR!!" shouted Ofnir inside Jaeger's head, the man shook his head and regain his consciousness from the incident before. He was in a chamber with an unknown circular engraving floor, the roof is made out of glass, revealing the blue sky above, the pillars supporting the chamber are modelled similar to the roman empire era with some English kingdom touch, and the area around is partially dark since the light can't shine throughout the room. The moment he was fully awake, he jumped to realization.
"Ofnir! Where's my jet?" he asked in a panic while checking his equipment throughout his body.
"I have the IFA-27 land somewhere 500km South-East from our current coordinate, it is located at an inactive volcano cauldron to prevent technology spread and panic, I've also sent 3 drones throughout the perimeter acting as an early warning system" reassured Ofnir.
"Seems you're pretty useful after all, I was doubting you before honestly" the AI assistant could only sigh at its owner's bluntness, then again, Ofnir only thought to do as it is tasked: assist Lieutenant Colonel Jaeger at all costs. Jaeger is also still confused about how he was transferred to this room without his flight helmet on.
During that moment, a door suddenly opens inside the chamber. Two men in white robes accompanying a young female in an elegant dress went inside. One of the men approached the conscious one that is inspecting around while still standing inside the engraved circle.
"Sir, it appears we have company" Ofnir reminded. Jaeger, fully aware of the situation, ignites the wrist-mounted energy blade and goes to a fighting stance. the men took a step back and is chanting some words that Jaeger don't understand, flames started coming out from the edge of the staff of the white-robed man while the other unsheathed his sword.
"All of you! Stop!" shouted the female in a dress, she then took a step forward and bowed as an apology, her appearance and attitude as if she's royalty from a fantasy book. She has long golden hair, a very eye-pleasing body shape and a crystal blue eye. During the same time, Jaeger who didn't notice, that another man, or rather, a teenage boy with a hoodie that covers up his seemingly high school uniform, started to regain consciousness. His looks are similar to a Japanese teen, his hair is quite sharp, and his body is quite average.
"Oh my, it seems there's a flaw in the summoning, there should only be one hero" her soothing voice is heavenly to hear, she then ordered her men to help the boy stand up since his physical condition dropped due to the shock of the energy. The other man, possibly her escort, then informs the girl about something.
"Good, there is no language barrier," Jaeger thought to himself, Ofnir reassured that a couple of men behind her isn't giving any hostility through neural scanning that it did before they started chanting something. He cleared his throat to get the attention.
"Excuse me for my interruption, but what do you mean hero?" Jaeger asked. The men beside the girl then took several steps back, while the other helped the boy stand up beside Jaeger.
"I'm sorry for the sudden of this summoning, oh heroes. I'm Lunamaria Nelimista, the second princess of the Holy Kingdom Nelimista. We are hereby in dire need of your help on the upcoming demon invasion, will you lend your mighty strength?" she stated while stretching out her hands to shake Jaeger's. 'The situation is very unforeseeable, at the very least' the Mercenary thought of himself wary towards the girl's request while smiling at him.