Chapter Twelve: Sentinels

After Ren reminisced about the day he met Serenity, he decided to do what made the most sense at the time.

He stood up between the two and asked "Could I say something?"

Scarlet looked at him, overwhelmed; after all, she just showed up and saw Ren with a half-naked girl in the bathroom.

Ren took a deep breath and said "Scarlet, firstly, nothing happened between Serenity and me; honestly, I was just as surprised as you were seeing her here, and secondly, Serenity, please stop teasing us and just admit nothing happened between us here."

Both girls sighed and said "Fine..."

"Now, Serenity, I guess you really found that confidence you were missing." Ren said.

Serenity was shocked and asked "You remember?"

"Yeah, you threw me off since you grew out your hair, but I remember now, and I also see you ditched the glasses." Ren said.

Serenity laughed and said "Yeah, I had a procedure to fix my eyes, but I'm happy you remembered."

"Wait, how do you know her?" Scarlet asked.

"Remember about half a year ago we held that mock battle against the Miami Academy?" Ren asked Scarlet.

"Yeah, we crushed them, if I remember correctly." Scarlet said.

"Well, this was one of their team members." Ren said while showing Scarlet the picture of both Ren and Serenity from back then.

Scarlet looked at the picture and said "Wait..." She then took a double take at the picture and said in surprise "That's her?"

"Yeah, same person." Serenity said smiling.

"Did you have a late growth spurt or something because how... Scarlet was stunned at how a girl who you wouldn't bat an eye at suddenly turned into such a beauty.

While the two girls were discussing how Serenity changed Ren, he got a call in his headset.

"Hey Ren?"

"Go ahead, Lena." Ren replied.

"We need you to go to the sentinel bay and meet up with the head mechanic. She needs your specs for your personal sentinel." Lena said.

"Alright, thanks, Lena; I'll head down now." Ren replied.

As soon as Ren stopped talking to Lena, he turned back to Scarlet and Serenity's conversation.

"Hey you two, I gotta head out, handler's orders. Have fun hanging out!" Ren said, as he was basically running to the room door.

Ren could hear the two talking from down the hallway.

"And how did these grow that much?" He heard Scarlet say it from back in the room.

"Never change, Scarlet; never change." Ren thought to himself.

Ren walked to the sentinel bay on the ship and saw a familiar face there.

"Hey, Zoe, right?" Ren asked.

Zoe, the girl he saw talking to Lena during the tour of the ship, was there looking at a list on her phone.

"Oh hey! Ren right?" Zoe asked.

"Yeah, I heard from Lena that I got called down here for something." Ren wondered why he was there.

"I know; my mom needed you for your sentinel calibrations; follow me!" Zoe said as she started to lead Ren down one of the rows of sentinels.

"Ok, unit E-08 will be your personally assigned sentinel; my mother should be coming to meet you now. I'll see you later, Ren!" Zoe said as she walked back down the row, but not before screaming.

"Reggie! I told you to put a fresh coat of paint on D-11, and it's still not done. Don't make me throw you out of the airlock!" Zoe yelled.

"She has an entirely different personality when it comes to the sentinels, doesn't she?" Ren thought to himself.

Then a dark-skinned woman with long black hair and brown eyes jumped out from behind the Sentinel.

"So you're Ren, huh? Wow, you look like your mother."

"Wait, you knew my mom?" Ren asked.

"Of course, we went to school together. Me, Aurora, and Emilia were great friends. After all, I ended up following Aurora here to Eternity while your mother stayed back and had you on Earth. I even met you once when you were in diapers." the woman said.

"I'm sorry, but I don't even know your name." Ren said nervously.

"Oh, my name is Keira; don't worry about last names; I haven't changed mine yet, so I don't go by it." Keira introduced herself.

"Sounds like there's some baggage there; I really shouldn't pry." Ren thought to himself.

"Well anyways, so what would you like your sentinel to be set at sensitivity-wise?" Keira asked Ren.

"Straight to the point, I like it." Ren said.

"Your mother used to say the same thing; I don't have time to beat around the bush." Keira said.

"I respect it, but my specifications on my settings are a bit..." Ren started to say something before being interrupted.

"A bit what?" Keira asked.

"Well, can you turn off the limiters?" Ren asked.

"Boy, you're either absolutely crazy or suicidal..." Keira said in response.

"It's just in the standard settings that I'm held back; like in the graduation mock exam and the mock battle we had, I was limited due to the limitations of a standard Sentinel, but I'm used to having no limiters on, or if I had to, I would use barely any." Ren explained.

Keira sighed and said, "Are you sure about this? If one thing goes wrong out there, things can go seriously wrong for you."

"I'm sure, and don't worry if things go wrong; it'll be all on me." Ren said.

"Alright, but I will have to tell Aurora about this." Keira said.

"That's fine; she hopefully won't have a problem with it." Ren said nervously.

Keira sighed once again and thought to herself, "Ren, you don't know Aurora as well as you think..."

After talking about some little details on his specifications, Ren walked back to his room, where it was just Scarlet. Scarlet said Serenity went to go talk to Eleonora a little about the mission, and Ren and Scarlet turned the night into a movie night and watched movies for hours. Scarlet even fell asleep on Ren's lap about four hours in, and Ren carried her to her bed before going to sleep in his own bed which happened a lot back on Earth during the times they would hang out.

*Kuiper Belt, lead ship of the Alpha Centauri Fleet*

"Is everything ready?" Lucilia asked her three generals, who were using hologram communication.

"Yes, Princess, our ships are ready for combat; just say the word." General Veronius of The Redeemer said.

"Princess, I did get word from Princess Aurelia Maecia Caelum that your father is sending a prototype weapon here for this engagement. It's supposedly called 'Abris'." General Attius of The Harbinger said.

"Abris? The God of Death?" Lucilia asked.

"Yes, and by Princess Aurelia's description...that name is quite fitting." Attius said.

 "Really now...I wonder how it works." Lucilia said.

"Sorry, Princess, not even I know. Your father has a select team of people who know who will be coming. All of them researchers from what I know." Attius said.

"Mysterious, well, no helping it. I'm going to go to my room; if the situation changes, tell me." Lucilia said.

"Yes ma'am!" The generals all said.

*UNS Eternity Bridge*

"He wants what?!" Captain Aurora said, yelling into the phone.

She was on a call with Keira, who updated her about sentinel specifications.

"That's what I said, but the boy doesn't want any limiters on the sentinel; should I go through with it?" Keira asked.

Aurora sighed and said "No, put minor limiters on the sentinel; there's no sense in him killing himself. I don't know if he truly knows what having no limiters on the Sentinel means. So just have the bare minimum on his."

"Understood, boss, I'll get on that. Hey Reggie, put-" Keira was saying before stopping herself, but she continued, "Reggie, you idiot, I told you not to use your phone to watch TV during on-time hours. Focus on your job for once."

Keira closed off communication and continued her work, while Aurora did the same.

"Get me in contact with UNS Annapolis, UNS Evangelion, and UNS Florence. We need to go over the mission once again." Aurora ordered her bridge crew.

"Yes ma'am!"

Captain Aurora went into her thoughts. "Outside of the Ren thing, there's also this mission; something just feels off about it. I hope it's just my anxiety and nothing else."

*The next morning*

Ren woke up alone this time, thankfully, as he didn't want a repeat of yesterday. Ren showered, got dressed in his pilot uniform, and headed down to the sentinel bay, where he was greeted by a familiar face.

"Hey Ren? What are you doing down here so early?" Zoe asked.

"Hey Zoe, just wondering if my sentinel specifications were made." Ren answered.

"About that, Ren." Zoe said. "The no limiters were denied by Captain Aurora; instead, you have minor limits, which is still pushing it in my opinion. Are you sure about this?" Zoe asked.

"Alright, that's fine; I can work with that." Ren said as he was kind of disappointed that he didn't get exactly what he wanted with the settings.

"Is there anything else, Ren?" Zoe asked.

"No, but thank you." Ren said before leaving.

It was then that Ren heard something on his communication device.

"Listen up" Lena said. "It's time to start getting ready for the operation. Meet me and Squad Captain Eleonora at our strategy room asap."

"Alright I understand, should be there in a few." Ren replied.

"Okay I'll see you then!" Lena said.

After hearing it was time for the strategy meeting Ren could only think to himself.

"It's almost time...for my first mission"

---------------------------------------------------------

If you guys want to to support me check out my patreon, it's as cheap as a dollar!

Patreon:

https://patreon.com/Alex_Blackwood628

Discord:

https://discord.gg/97ejzvAGKb