The Hero of the Deep

Chapter Four - The Meeting

The following morning.

A young woman in her early twenties with long blonde hair, wearing a regal looking blue dress, walked into a grand conference room in the Hyrule military headquarters escorted by two bodyguards. Her name was Zelda and she was the daughter of the King of Hyrule. She sat down at a rectangular table whose centre was displaying holographic maps.

"Your Highness" said one of the military officials.

"What is your reason for summoning me to HQ?" she asked.

"My apologies your Highness, what I'm about to show you is of a highly sensitive nature" explained the general as he placed a data disc onto to the table's reading surface. He pressed a button and the holographic display suddenly changed above the table, showing videos of a battalion of jet black tanks advancing towards a small town in the desert. "As you can see King Ganon's forces are mounting an attack on the town that is on our border."

"That is awful! Our citizens must not find out or they would panic. Can our troops get there in time to push them back?"

"We sent as many as we could, but a bandit raid has disrupted our supply. This would not have happened if the commander on-board wasn't incompetent!" Suddenly a commander joined in the conversation.

"I resent being singled out for blame."

"But Anita, it was on your watch" replied the general.

"Who was responsible for making sure that we did not get hacked?" asked Anita. "If I'd known we were dealing with a Goron, I would have had a gun with armour piercing ammo instead of just 9mm. I'm still angry about the way that brute dragged me around by my hair, so that is why I cut it short" she said looking at the wanted poster of Jack on the holographic screen.

"I'm so sorry to hear that Commander, I'm glad to see you lived to tell the tale" the princess said in a sympathetic tone. The sight of Jack's ugly face made Anita's blood boil with rage every time she saw it on the screen.

"Did you manage to get any valuable intel from the would-be data thieves Commander?" the general asked.

"Me and my squad, in a joint effort with the Sheikah, managed to capture two of the bandits but one of them unfortunately died when we had them cornered!" Anita Replied to him.

Zelda examined the holographic files. "Tell me more about those wanted faces" the princess asked. One of the intelligence officers explained to princess Zelda about the the crimes that Link, Jack and the other bandits had committed; numerous criminal offences, most of them violent. "I think I recognise that face" she said looking at Link's profile with interest. "I feel like I've seen him in my dreams."

"What, this scoundrel?" the general asked. "Why would a princess like you be dreaming of seeing a filthy cut-throat like him?"

"He has the face of Link!" the Princess said with interest, and brought up an ancient depiction of a Hylian wearing a dark green tunic and holding a sword over a pig-like demon figure.

A hush fell on the room as everyone present exchanged confused looks.

"Have you really taken leave of your senses your Highness?" the general asked.

"I believe that the hero has returned! He may be our only hope to defeat Ganon!" Zelda said.

"But your Highness, the hero of time is just a fairy tale, the only Link we know is Prince LInk of the Zora kingdom that is sadly missing."

"I know, and I miss him so much." Zelda knew the young Zora prince before he was abducted and missing for ten years. His disappearance caused tension between the Hylians and the Zoras, She used to enjoy his company as a child as they were the same age.

"Her Majesty Queen Cana, of the Zora kingdom is not pleased that we lost the data on the archaeological findings on the so called hero of the deep" announced the Hylian royal ambassador via holographic video link.

"That is not the only valuable data the bandits have got their filthy hands on, they got our weapons tech as well!" the General said shooting an evil look at Anita. "And what's more I happen to know that ugly Goron, I had dealings with him before. He was in the Hylian army! He had a long history of criminal offences before enlisting, most of them violent. I had him court-marshalled several times for drunken violence and disrespect."

"I told you it was not a good idea to transport all that data in a single train" said Anita with annoyance. "Your line from the embassy had better be secure. There is a lot at stake here."

"Rest assured commander as all our coms traffic undergoes multi-level encryption and we increased security on all systems in our consulates and embassies."

"Meeting adjourned, we will let his Majesty the King know what we discussed in this meeting" the general said, getting up from his seat.