Hearing her words I froze
Have I been compromised?
How did she even bet my information? I hacked in and upgraded my security all up to S level classified, no one should be able to get that information....unless
"As you may have guessed, yes, I did hack into your network, I had a personnel.....reasons in mind, when I happened across your file and my curiosity was peaked, after all, what normal citizen has their information as S level classified?"
"And.... what did you find?"
With all the dignity of a queen, she pulled a file out of her desk, pushing it towards me
"I found everything"
Opening the file I looked in side, and set it back down, it really was everything, there was even information on my current mission.
"....What exactly do you want? if you were going to just trap me you would not need to tell me that you know anything, so clearly you want something from me"
"Just think of it as...you owing me a favor" A cheeky grin spread across her face not at all helping me feel safer.
"I take my favors very Very seriously" Noticing her grin widen, I pause, and change direction. "Why not ask for the favor right now?"
"I have no need of you at this moment, however I will need your help soon enough" Getting up she walked towards a bookshelf lining the side of the room, her ass swaying side to side, almost distracting me as she pulled a random book of the shelf.
Opening the book reveled a small slot just large enough to fit a small microchip, pulling it out she put the book back and made her way over to me.
"This" She said, handing me the microchip "is all the information on the favor I want you to take care of, keep it with you at all times, and don't open it until exactly three months from now"
"Why? what happens in three months?" I fake ignorance
"You will know in three months, for now, continue on as if nothing has happened between us, you will stay here for a few days, until your team leader is done with his task" She stood up, before switching to a calm smile and reaching out her hand "Now, it seems we have forgotten introductions, I am Alice Shevneik, Queen of Blackstail Coal Mine, I hope we will have a favorable relationship"
Reluctantly, I accepted the handshake, not feeling to good about being threatened into owing someone, even if said someone is royalty
"Its Absolutely Totally My Pleasure" to meet you, I am Commander Yoru Yoshino"
"With that done" She said, ignoring my sarcasm "I will have a servant show you to your living quarters for the next few days"
*************************
Unsurprisingly the "living quarters" where actually very nice, and surprisingly enough the next few days went smoothly, even though I was unable to relax, I still enjoyed my time, most of which was spent play games with the off duty guards in their rec room.
They had a really nice rec room, from ping pong and Foosball to pool and chess, and even a PC, certainly way better than our rec room back at base.
Over the days fell into a simple routine, wake up, shower, meet with Alice, breakfast, hanging out with the guards, and then sparing before dinner and bed. It went mostly uneventful, however, the Queens first knight, aka body guard, Evan something, seemed to have a grudge on me for some reason, I mean he's the one who challenged Me to a spar, how could he even hope to win?
He even tried to get back at me for it later by breaking my thumb! in front of Alice no less! And I may have put up a strong front, not even wincing, but it still stung like hell! He did lose an entire year of pay for his little stunt.
Aside from that, not much of interest happened during my stay, it had already been four days and not a single word from Jackson yet, I started getting worried as we were running out of time, we had to meet up with the rest of our team in around 16 hours, luckily, I finally got a message from him, on my communication device.
--Pizza's ready, Got everything we ordered, party's at Blake's--
Or in other words
--Mission Complete, Went according to plan, meet at point Beta--
It was time to go, with Jackson done, there was no need for me to stay here, plus I had a vacation after this mission so getting back was a top priority.
After getting my things ready, I hurried out of my quarters, moving through the palace and a quick pace, doing my best not to be seen by anyone I know. Heading out into the large platform, I stopped for a moment to find the pathway that headed out the way I originally got in, seeing it, I headed towards it, keeping my head low.
Feeling a pat on my shoulder, I curse and slow down.
"Yes? your majesty?"
"You're trying to leave without saying goodbye?" She asked, grabbing my arm and pulling me to a stop.
Unable to stop myself, I roll my eyes, before turning and looking at her.
"Nah....just didn't want to sadden you is all, figured if I just disappeared you wouldn't cry" Truth of the matter was, I just want to get out of here, the sooner the better.
While I did enjoy some of my time here, one of the main reasons I wanted to leave was because I felt like I had a target on my back the entire time, even if the queens the only one who knows why I am actually here, the fact that anyone knows, puts me on edge, and when that person is the Queen of the place you are in, its just all kinds of stressful.
"No..*sniff* you leaving wont make me cry...*sniff*" Alice looked up at my eyes, tears starting to pool at the edge of her eyelids a sad pout on her face.
This freaking..... if I wasn't holding my backpack and rifle, I would have face palmed. While we both know that she's just being her self, an over dramatic, playful , sarcastic playoff, to everyone else it looks like I just tried to sneak off without saying goodbye to my sweetheart.
"Cut it out, I'm feeling to stressed right now to go on a sarcastic jaunt with you"
In seconds her tears dry up and she grins at me.
"Aww.....And here I thought I could have some, Fun, with you, one last time, before you leave" She said adding a quick wink.
This.
This is the main reason I wanted to get out of here
After the first time I talked with her, I thought she was a focused and serious type, and yet, every time I have been with her since, she has been teasing and playful, it just throws me off. I can't even be blamed as no one expects a Queen, to tease them.
"Yeah. Now then, goodbye" I turn and start walking over to the pathway up and through the front gate.
"Yoshino! Remember! Three months!" I hear her yell at me.
"Yea! Yea! I'll Remember!"
After all, how could I forget?
*************************
Walking on the pathway over the empty void, I make a note to my self to come back later to study this place.
I nod at the guards as they let me pass by. Walking down the road I turn into an alleyway, putting on my backpack, I swing my rifle over my shoulder and start the climb up. Unlike when I arrived, this was going to take some time.
Well over an hour into my climb, and I finally pull myself up onto the tops of the city, I have to stop and catch my breath before I can continue towards meeting point beta, even with my advanced military training, climbing up a giant building while wearing an almost fully packed backpack, and carrying a large sniper rifle really tires me out.
After catching my breath and having a quick drink, I start running across the city's ceiling, making my way over to the opposite corner than the one me and Jackson arrived at, this was going to be a long run.
And a long run it was, even almost fell to my death from missing a jump a few times, nonetheless, I finally reached the corner of the city, where the wall met the mountain cliff, And, sitting on the wall, was none other than Jackson, after seeing me, he threw a rope down, helping me climb up.
"Jackson! Sir! good to see you in one piece!" I grin as he flips the rope over to the other side of the wall.
"Yoshino, I could say the same about you. Your mission was more dangerous than mine after all" He responded as he begun to make his way down the other side.
"Yea....when I got to the palace gates there was a full on battle, it was some sort of revolt going on" I waited until he was half way down before I started climbing down myself. "As for after that, things went pretty smoothly, ignoring the queens guard, who tried to give me a hard time"
Reaching the ground, Jackson waited for me, before yanking the rope, detaching it, and putting it back in his backpack after it fell down.
"From here on, we will split up, and meet back where we entered the forest."
With a nod, I headed towards where we came out of the forest, planing to back track all the way. Jackson headed south, probably going the long way around.
Unlike when we came over, heading back was much much faster, not only was it just me, but I already knew where to go, as such, it only took me around 27 hours to get back to where we first entered the rigged area of the forest.
Unsurprisingly, I was the first one to arrive, so I climbed up a tree, pulled out a camouflaged cover, putting it over myself and waited.
It took another 9 hours before the rest of the group started showing up one by one, making me glad that I always bring a book with me on my missions. It would be hella boring without.
After 10 hours of waiting, Jackson, the last person left, finally showed up, and after quick reports from everyone, we left together, heading to our pickup point where a small compact Corvette ship picked us up and flew us back to our main headquarters, just have to sit through a mission report and we can finally go home.
*************************
As happy as I was to be back home, I still quickly fell into the loop of lethargy that I had tried to avoid.
Though that left as within a month of being back home my family decided to move and I was soon neck deep in work, from packing boxes, to cleaning carpets. I don't know why they decided to move right now but, at least now I'm moving around, working.
Soon enough the house was cleared out, everything having been moved into a large moving truck, and my family was saying their goodbyes.
As I waved them off, I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Yoshino, we need to talk"
Turning around, I found myself face to face with one of my teammates from the latest mission, his name was Aaron Sheffield, he had black long hair, being tied up in a man bun, emerald green eyes, and was couple inches shorty than me, coming to about 6", he was wearing black camo pants, and a dark green t-shirt.
Not having a clue what he wanted to talk about, I nodded, and followed him into his car, he drove to the edge of the city, before pulling over and getting out.
"So, you gonna let me in on what you wanted to discus?" I can't help but feel a bit annoyed as he had pulled me along with him and had yet to say anything during the drive.
"What do you know about the mission we went on a few months back?" He asked, walking through a tunnel, leading to the suburbs outside of the city wall.
".....Just what we were told, Why?" Did he find out exactly what they planed on doing with the resources we secured?
"Look....I know that you always get all the information you can about any mission you go on, so you should have done the same for this one as well" He looked me in the eye, as if to say that he knew, I knew.
"Look, sure I had more info on the mission than the rest of you, but I could not get all of it, while I found everything they tasked us with retrieving, I did not find out what they planed to use it for"
What is this even all about? whats he even worried for? Sure all we got probably helped to explode an entire country, but what does that have to do with us? its not like we can stop it, and its not like we will be effected by it.
"Than you know what it can make, that's good that's good"
"Yoshino, the bomb has been planted"
I froze, a shiver running up my spine, The Bomb Has Been Planted, a secret code between a few of us used to convey that something MAJOR went wrong, it was meant to be used to warn each other that we had to get out of the country with our loved ones immediately, however.
"How long?" I asked
"Maybe 10 minuets....doesn't matter" He looked at me, his face pale enough to look albino "We have no chance, its...!"
Aaron stopped, as if the air in his longs had suddenly vanished
I felt like the same happen to me
All sound stopped, I couldn't hear a thing
Dust sucked to the my right
The trees all started to lean to the right
....
..
*BOOOM!*
A giant explosion sounded to my right, as the sound finally reached us, the air suddenly blowing to the left at high speeds, the trees swooshed to the left, some getting up rooted.
My ear drums where filled with a buzz as my body was thrown across the ground my mind going black.
Closer to the explosion buildings disappeared, blown into dust from the force of the explosion. wood stone metal, all evaporated into particles. What was once the largest country in the world, filled with life and sound, now reduced to ash and dust, the force of the explosion by itself, enough to turn half the continent into a dessert.
I blinked, looking around I found myself laying against a large tree. Pulling myself up to sit against the tree, I looked around, sand being the most prominent thing in my sight, with the few remnants of buildings and debris scattered around.
Just a few yards in front of me I heard a metal grating sound, and a metal trap door opened up, and from inside popped out non other than Jackson, who's eyes landed on me immediately.
"Yoshino! Good to see your still alive!" He looked at me with the largest grin I have ever seen on his face, things were going to be interesting, that's for sure.
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Author Note: Sorry it took so long to get this chapter out! I will be posting a few other chapters for all my novels the same time as this, which is why it took so long.