Aliens: Beyond Time and Space

Najenda leans back on her chair and smokes her cigarette. After looking around the assembly hall to confirm all her subordinates are present, she exhales a cloud of smoke and begins to speak.

"The subject today is the growing religion that is spreading across the land, The Path of Peace."

All the members of Night Raid look at Najenda and then to each other with curious expressions.

"I know that religion." said Tatsumi "They came to my village a while back. The chief even gave me a wooden statue of their god".

"They are a very influential group on the east side of the Empire." continued Najenda "Over the years, their numbers have been growing at a tremendous rate. Thanks to that, they have been planning an armed uprising to take down the Empire. When they do, the Revolutionary Army and our allies, the Western Tribe will launch an attack as well. The Empire will then have all out war on the eastern, southern, and western fronts".

"So it's a three pronged attack" Tatsumi realized "Even the Empire can't easily beat such an overwhelming force!"

Najenda holds up her normal hand to quiet him down. "Unfortunately, the Prime Minister knows this also and has already planted a spy within their ranks. This spy, Borick has already infiltrated the Path of Peace and is now considered the Lord's right hand. As long as Borick remains in play, the Path of Peace will never begin its insurrection."

"So the only way the plan works, is for us to eliminate this Borick guy. Right boss?" asked Tatsumi.

Smiling, Najenda nods her head and then suddenly makes a frown

"But first, we have a more pressing matter to deal with. Which brings us to our next order of business. The Jaegers have stepped up their efforts in finding us. So we're going to take the fight to them this time!"

All the members of Night Raid felt their bodies tense with anticipation upon hearing this announcement. Tatsumi idly grasps his Imperial Arm, the sword form of the demon armor Incursio.

Finally! With all that Esdeath has done, the countless lives ruined and the people she's killed, now's our chance to make her pay! And Seryu too, that psychopath is just like Esdeath, she enjoys killing in the name of Justice. One a sadistic murderer and the other a hypocrite who killed Sheele. They're worse than all the Danger Beasts that roam the land. I can't think of any creature on this planet that is more monstrous than those two rabid bitches. They need to be put down for everyone's sake.

Tatsumi then grips Incursio tightly But there's Wave and the other Jaegers. Wave isn't a bad person, neither is Run. And there's Kurome, Akame's younger sister. Tatsumi looks over at Akame.

From her squared shoulders and furrowed brow, she seems resolved to give her all in this fight. No matter who it may be.

Najenda clears her throat to gain the attention of her subordinates once more. Once all eyes are upon her again, she resumes talking

"Along with the intel, headquarters has sent us standing orders to eliminate the Jaegers' Kurome and Bols as a top priority."

Tatsumi's sighed inwardly. Not only are they not immediately going after Esdeath or Seryu, but now we have to kill Akame's sister. His gaze shifts back over to Akame. Her stance and posture did not change. Not even a hint of sadness or doubt showed in those crimson eyes of hers.

"I must do the same." Tatsumi said to himself with resolve "I'll give it my all too! Even if it means facing Wave and his Imperial Arm, Grand Chariot."

Najenda turns to face her humanoid Imperial Arm, Susanoo who hands her a map of the Empire. As she lays out the map on a nearby table, she begins explaining her plan to the rest of the group

"We'll set up two different decoys by spreading rumors and forge eyewitness reports of Akame and Mine being spotted in the town of Romary…" Najenda places her finger near one corner of the map

"And we'll do the same for Tatsumi at the opposite direction, towards the other side of the Empire." she traces her finger across the map to the opposite corner

"Once the Jaegers learn both pieces of information, they'll likely split their numbers. With Esdeath following Tatsumi's decoy and Kurome following Akame's."

Mine looks up from studying the map "How's it certain this plan will work and they take the bait?"

"She'll definitely take the bait" Akame and Tatsumi answered together in apprehension. It's become common knowledge, about Esdeath's obsession with capturing Tatsumi and making him her lover.

The same goes for Kurome wanting to find Akame, so that she may kill her older sister herself.

Convinced of the plan's likely success Mine turns to Najenda, who resumes explaining "We'll set up an ambush at the outskirts of Romary. After we lure Kurome and the Jaegers into this gorge, Mine will-"

Suddenly, Najenda stops talking and looks up along with everyone else. Flying above them in a circle, was a messenger eagle that flew in from a nearby window. The eagle lands on the table in front of Najenda, who reaches out with her normal hand and removes the rolled up paper tied to the eagle's leg. As the eagle flies off the table and out the window it came in from, Najenda unrolls the paper and reads its contents.

Face full of concern she stops reading and addresses everyone

"Change of plans. The Jaegers will have to wait. Everyone, gather your supply gear and your Imperial Arms. We're leaving immediately."

All the members of Night Raid stood in confusion, unsure of what their leader just said until she yelled at them

"Get Going, Dammit! I'll explain on the way, but I want us heading out ten minutes from now! Now move it people, assholes and elbows!"

That jolted her subordinates into moving again. Susanoo and Akame ran into the kitchen and began filling a sack with meat and cooking utensils.

Lubbock and Tatsumi were in the infirmary stuffing another sack with medicine, bandages, surgery kits and antivenins.

Three of Night Raid's members ran towards their living quarters. In her room, Leone was gulping down alcohol straight out of a bottle she stashed under her bed, mentally kicking herself for choosing not to wear less revealing clothes that might have been able to conceal any bottle of booze she'd want to bring along.

Chelsea was in front of her mirror trying on different headphones. Satisfied with her choice she grabbed her Imperial Arm, Gaea Foundation off the top of her dresser and quickly stuffed extra lollipops into its compartment.

And finally Mine was delicately placing rifle scopes, barrel extensions and a multi sensory image visor into the metal case belonging to her gun Imperial Arm, Pumpkin. After she finished packing the case and slinging it over her shoulder, Mine began walking towards the hallway before stopping to look at a pair of broken glasses sitting on top of her dresser. Picking up the glasses, Mine stood still for a minute to reminisce about the person who owned them.

"I'll avenge you Sheele, I swear it." she whispered, hoping her dead friend can hear her make that vow.

"Hey Mine! You're the last one remaining! Move your pink little ass!" yelled Lubbock from down the hallway.

Mine's face blushed deep red as she bellowed "I'm Coming, You Pervert!" That caused Lubbock to retort mockingly "You should be so lucky."

With a growl, Mine pocketed the glasses and adjusted the shoulder strap to Pumpkin's case before storming out of her room to catch up with her teammates.

Meanwhile in the stables, Najenda was untying the tethers to the Air Manta, one of Night Raid's tame Danger Beasts used for aerial transport and covert insertion. The creature emits a low humming tune as it eagerly awaits the moment it can take to the skies.

With the tethers off, Najenda places her bulky prosthetic arm atop the danger beast to keep it from flying off on its own as she impatiently awaits her subordinates to make ready to depart.

Tatsumi and Lubbock were the first ones to arrive, hoisting the medical supplies securely in place aboard the Air Manta.

Then came Susanoo and Akame, dragging a bloated sack of food and cookware between them. Susanoo then used his strength to lift the sack and stow it onboard.

Before Najenda can tell them off for bringing excess rations, a drunken Leone came staggering through the doorway with an arm draped around the shoulders of an extremely annoyed Chelsea and speaking nonsense to her face.

"Hic . All I'm trying to say, Chelsea is that with the natural beauty you already possess, why bother with wasting all this time trying on different accessories, wearing make up and fitting into such conservative clothing? Hic. If you really want to get people to do what you want, you should try showing a little skin once in a while. That'll really get them wrapped around your finger. Hic "

With a blush on her cheeks, Chelsea looks up and sees Tatsumi, who is busy going over the inventory near the two of them.

"You know what Leone?" she answer "You're absolutely right!"

And with all her strength, shoves Leone into an unsuspecting Tatsumi "Why don't you give a demonstration? Show us how it's done."

Leone wraps her arms around Tatsumi to keep from stumbling, causing him to fall over with Leone on top. Startled, Tatsumi tries to stand up but ends up burying his head into Leone's bosom, her breasts completely smothering both sides of his face.

"Tatsumi. Hic. We don't have time for this. Hic. The boss wants us to gather in the stables so that we can leave for no reason. Hic." Leone says while giggling.

Wanting to scold her and knowing there's no time to do it, Night Raid's leader instead raised her prosthetic arm and aimed it at the drunken fool of an assassin. With a bang she fires the detachable hand component and it reaches to grab the back of Leone's black tube top. Najenda then retracted the hand's grapple line and tugged Leone off of Tatsumi and towards where she stood.

"Why's it always you Tatsumi?" Lubbock complained enviously "I'm so jealous when you get yourself in situations like these."

He then helped Tatsumi to his feet. "Tell me, how soft were they?" Lubbock asked with a grin.

"Ahem" behind him, someone began clearing her throat. Lubbock turns to see who it is, just in time to see Mine throwing her leg forward and kicking him hard in the groin.

"You Are The Worst!" Mine growled, as Lubbock keels over in pain.

"That's enough down there!" Najenda called out after tying up a semi-conscious Leone to keep her from falling off the Danger Beast

"Climb aboard, or we leave you behind!"

One after the other, all the members of Night Raid boarded with an Incursio armored Tatsumi carrying a groaning Lubbock, bringing up the rear. With a tug of the reigns Najenda guides the Air Manta into soaring gracefully upwards, past the opening of the stables' ceiling and towards the evening sky.

Above the Clouds, South of the Empire

As the Air Manta levels off at a high altitude above ground, Najenda hands the reigns to Susanoo before stepping towards the rear where the rest of Night Raid had gathered.

"Sorry for the sudden departure everyone." Night Raid's leader spoke "But something strange has happened near the Empire's southern border and the Revolutionary Army's top brass has asked us to look into it."

Her subordinates each began voicing their concern.

"I hope you have more than Something Strange to share with us boss" began Lubbock while donning his Imperial Arms, Cross Tails

"Simply ignoring the Jaegers going on the warpath with us, isn't what I would call a smart move."

Smirking, Najenda reaches into her pocket and pulls out the rolled up paper message from earlier

"It is, if even half of this information is true" She then explains "Headquarters has recently learned of a series of strange phenomena occurring in a valley near the Empire's southernmost outpost."

She unrolls the paper again and begins to read "Our scouts whom we had surveying the area for Imperial patrols, first encountered a flash of bright light."

How bright?" Leone asked, her eyes blinking into focus as sobriety began to set in.

"Blinding. Most of the scouts temporarily lost their ability to see and the ones that could, saw night turn into day around them."

Despite their leader's answer, most of Night Raid still held some doubt.

"That's not all" continued Najenda "As the light began to fade, a large explosion set off from where the light originated from." That got everyone worried

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but how large an explosion are we talking about?" asked Chelsea.

Najenda's face became grim "It's at a cataclysmic scale. It shook the nearby mountain range and shattered two of its peaks. The surrounding forest had its trees laid flat or completely ripped out of the ground, roots and all. All the rivers and lakes in the area had the water completely blown dry."

Chelsea's eyes widened and all her comrades gasped in bewilderment. Najenda reached into to her pocket for a cigarette to light, then remembered where she was and left it alone.

She sighs and kept reading "There's been some injuries and even some casualties. Mostly from debris and a stampede of local Danger Beasts, fleeing the area.

"This time it was Akame who spoke up while sheathing her katana Imperial Arm, Murasame after sharpening it "So the place is barren now? A blast like that should have at least left a gapping hole in the ground."

"Far from it" Najenda answered "The survivors of the scouting party continued towards the source of the explosion and found some weird structures at the site of the blast's origin."

"Structures?" inquired a curious Tatsumi.

"Buildings." his commander replied "Large, metal buildings. About a handful of them. Enough to make up a small town."

Mine raised her hand, to get the group's attention "Could it be another Imperial outpost? Maybe they setup a base for researching and developing weapons, to fight the Revolutionary Army?"

Then Lubbock spoke up as well "If they did, something must have gone wrong and they wound up shooting themselves in the foot. That explosion could've been a weapon they were testing. Maybe even an Imperial Arm!"

Najenda mused out loud "It makes sense. All of the buildings that were seen, showed significant amounts of damage. The largest one was the worst. It looks like a giant cone with half its upper section blown off. But it's likely that the Empire has nothing to do with it."

She looks at the paper she was holding, and places it back into her pocket "According to the last piece of information from this document, as the scouting party made ready to retreat to headquarters, they came across a fallen sign at the site's outskirts. It contained these words on it. HADLEYS HOPE, POP. 158."

Akame's eyes narrowed as she processed this information "It's definitely not an Imperial base. The Empire wouldn't bother giving a name to an outpost at such a remote location, nor would they advertise the amount of people they have on the premises. That place is something else entirely."

Najenda nods her head in agreement "Which is why we're being called in to investigate. Headquarters wants answers to this mystery and Night Raid is best equipped to handle any situation that might arise. We're to secure the area, search the buildings and bring back anything that look like weapons, survivors, and intel. We have three days to get this done." 

"Why three days?" Tatsumi asked.

"Because the Empire will have definitely heard about this incident."

Najenda answered "When it does, the Prime Minister will want his best men out there to investigate. It would normally take five days for the Imperial Army to march its way past the mountains surrounding the site's location."

She looks down at her prosthetic arm and touches her eyepatch with her normal hand "But if the Jaegers get involved, you can count on Esdeath to use her abilities and shave two days off that time."

Tatsumi's face began to look worried. But before he can ask more questions about the Jaegers' Commander, Susanoo calls out from the front of the Air Manta

"Heads up everybody! We've just cleared the last mountain. Our destination is coming into view." 

All the members of Night Raid instantly shifted their gaze over the side of the Danger Beast. What they saw next made them gasp in wonder and awe. Far below them, in a valley surrounded by high mountains lies the ruined terraforming colony of LV-426 formerly named Hadley's Hope. And its neighbor, the devastated remains of Weyland-Yutani's atmosphere processor.

What they failed to notice is that another structure unknown to them also appeared in the other side of the peak, not far from where they're landing