Commander could understand Anis' exasperation with him. With the way he was acting, he'd likely have gotten himself killed multiple times already if it weren't for his insanely good luck. But he just wanted to keep everyone alive, and if that involved putting himself in harm's way then so be it. They were a team, and teammates looked out for one another. And speaking of looking out for teammates, Commander immediately noticed that Marian wasn't looking so good. She was panting heavily and seemed to only be standing thanks to the aid of a truck she was leaning against.
"Are you okay, Marian?" He asked after moving closer to her.
Raising her head to look at him for a moment and then looking back down at the ground, Marian shook her head gently. "Honestly, no. I don't know why but I feel wrong. Sluggish."
In order to make up for her past indiscretions and to hopefully repair her frayed relationship with Marian, Rapi volunteered to perform maintenance on the injured Nikke. The last thing Rapi wanted was a brewing conflict between Nikke when they had a mission to complete. When Marian looked shyly at Commander, her cheeks flushing red, the young man got the message and turned his back to her. He didn't quite know what maintenance was but it was plausible that it included clothes being taken off. Marian's internals needed to be looked at and there was only one way for that to happen. Their brains were that of humans, so of course a woman would be embarrassed to be seen naked by a man.
"Unbelievable." Anis had moved to stand beside Commander, peering up at the man's face that'd turned a faint shade of crimson. "You actually see us in that way?"
"I'm a man and you're all good-looking women, what do you expect?" He chuckled lightly while the sound of clothes rustled a few feet behind him, Rapi and Marian having taken cover inside the nearest building. Commander supposed it was because Nikke were used to being treated as weapons and nothing more, so they'd given up on being seen in such a manner. But he couldn't lie to them. Flower had smiled at his joke, Marian was worried about him, Anis usually had an amusing comeback. When they expressed such emotions, how could he not see them as human? How could he not be attracted to them? The fact that Marian was embarrassed to be seen naked by Commander made him happy, in a totally normal way. She was acknowledging that they saw each other as equals. She saw him as a man and he saw her as a woman.
"Hmm..." Anis trailed off in an attempt to sound bored and uninterested, but her face couldn't lie. For a brief moment a genuine smile crept onto her face. Anis was always trying to be funny because she didn't want to engage with the horrible situation Nikke found themselves in, so her smile was usually forced to match her fake persona. She'd given up on people, on finding love, many years ago. She just got on with her job and thought of trying to relieve stress through humour. But now she'd encountered someone that cared about Nikke and even saw them as people. If more people were like this man then perhaps Nikke would live better, more fulfilling lives.
Commander was about to continue the topic, curious about Nikke, but was interrupted when he heard an unfamiliar voice in his ear.
"...Do you... copy? Does... anyone read me?" A high-pitched voice came through over the radio, interrupted by regular static. "Ark Control to surface. Do you copy? Rapi, Anis?"
"This is Rapi. Shifty, do you copy?" The girl in red and black responded while continuing to look Marian over. Rapi was progressing smoothly with the injured Nikke's maintenance. Rapi was hellbent on making sure she did a thorough job to ensure there wouldn't be any problems later on for Marian. While Rapi worked, her handler, Shifty, spoke to her over the radio.
"It's about time we got through! Give me a sitrep, what's going on Rapi?"
Rapi relayed any information she believed to be relevant while poking and prodding Marian's open back. Not long after a transport ship was shot down both herself and Anis had transferred themselves to the command of the last human survivor. Commander believed his team was still capable of completing the mission, so they were currently following coordinates provided by Marian. Along the way they encountered some members from the missing patrol. Counters, Rapi's squad, was going to keep moving North in an attempt to find the last missing Nikke.
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Nikke: Goddess of Victory Novel Adaptation
AçãoThe Rapture invasion came without warning. It was both ruthless and overwhelming. In what seemed like an instant, Earth was turned into a sea of flames. A huge majority of humanity were hunted down and slaughtered without mercy. But as mankind's tot...
