AN: Wow, you guys actually read my fic. Thanks a lot. Either that, or I just got tired of waiting. This is my second shot at IT, and more knowledge about IT will be let out in this chapter. I just couldn't hold it back any longer, you know. Especially when you imagine hearing the song of the first stage's closing credits—himegoto—to be exact, and you can't sleep until it drives you crazy!!! Yes, it's true. I've been besieged by my imagination that ruthlessly continues to pump the same damn song until I jump out of bed at 2:00 AM and turn my computer on! The even stranger thing is that when I'm finally at the keyboard, it stops and is replaced by the song from the opening credits of Saiyuki's first season! Oh, sorry if it looks like I copied the scene from Bad Company. I really liked it, so I couldn't help but do so. One more thing: I had to name some of the crewmembers, since basically, just a few names are actually mentioned. WARNING! Expect OOCness!

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread. GONZO does. I don't own any VIPER-born concept either. I do own, however, IT's more original attributes. So what else is new?

Project IT

            A shot rang out from the muzzle of the silenced 9mm Berretta, the bullet hitting the man square between the eyes. He fell facedown on the soaking wet street floor of an alley on one of the minor cogs of the Earth's iron city. This hit man mission was too easy, eliminating a nameless drug lord for a million credits.

The slicker-clad Bounty Hunter returned his weapon to the holster conveniently placed inside his waterproof jacket. As he exited the alleyway and into the major street that was drenched in acid rain, two suspicious-looking men in black suits and sunglasses approached him. He eyed both of them: same height, same build, same hairdo, same facial expressions, same black umbrellas, same holstered .45 caliber pistols, same… everything.

            "Who are you?" he asked them, his heavy Spanish accent showing.

            "Mister Lorenzo Fernandez, I presume?" one of them asked.

            "Si, Senior." He answered in his mother language.

            "We're with the Global Security Agency." The other said as they both showed him their badges.

            "So what does the GSA want with a Bounty Hunter such as myself?" it was his turn to ask a question. Indeed, what did the GSA want with him?

            "We're representing Aires Genetics for the time being." They replied flatly.

            "Biological weapons, eh? Must be a very important hunt then. It's the most advanced corporation devoted to the harvest." He thought for a moment, "What kind of assignment is this exactly?"

            "Recollection/Capture. Area of operations, the entire Harvest Theater."

            "What!? You want me to scour every single star system on the harvest list!? To capture who?" he paused for a moment, "Or what?"

            "Calm down, mister Fernandez," the agent said, "Our intelligence would've narrowed the search down to a few hundred miles by the time you've received your dossiers."

            "In any case, what you'll be looking for are this man," one of the agents showed the picture of a man in his late forties, receded hairline, laboratory attire, average geek look, and thin-framed spectacles. "And this canister." He held up another picture of a sophisticated containment cylinder, silver in its color, with the large imprints 'WARNING: BIOHAZARD' printed on it.

            "A rogue scientist, and what; some sort of Top Secret Biochemical weapon? What about my former client?"

            "Mister Hendrickson has allowed us to be the medium of this." an agent showed him a suitcase, "Your last mission's pay is in this suitcase."

            "What about the pay for this mission?"

            "Give a number." Clearly, that was what to be expected, since either the cash was coming from Aires Gen, or the Government.

            "10 billion credits."

            "20 million." The other agent replied.

            "A hundred." He fought back.

            "The way we see it, mister Fernandez, with 20 million credits, you can experience early retirement, pay off all your debts to 35 insurance companies, give your family a good life, your children a good education, and get ten generation's worth of high-quality harvested parts."

            "The way I see it, is that either you give me a hundred million credits, or you find a better hunter on this fricking excuse for a planet, which is highly unlikely."

            The two agents remained silent… "Alright, then. A hundred million it is. Ten now, ninety later."

            "Ah, ah, ah. Fifty now, fifty later. My terms or I don't accept this mission." He said finally.

            "Agreed then. Two dossiers concerning your mission will be delivered to you at 5 PM today, one to your office, and the other to your home. Have a nice day." They handed him the briefcase, along with a check for fifty million credits, and left him standing there, in his slicker, as mysteriously as they came.

            Oh, brother, another recollect/capture mission. How boring. He thought as he proceeded to get to the warp link, To make it worse, it's a guy who can't even put up a good fight! What the Bounty Hunter didn't expect, however, was that knowledge of the risk in this operation was to be released upon him from the dossier that awaited.

***

            Meia stepped up to the chute that led to the docking bay, its door protected by a pair of spacesuit-clad guards, laser rifles crossed to prevent passage. They parted the weapons to allow the dread team leader to pass. "Where's Barnette?" she asked one of the guards.

            "In the docking bay with Celina, investigating the pod." She replied.

            Celina? She thought for a moment, Oh, yeah, a new member of the security team, "Let me through."

            "Of course."

            Meia stepped into the turbo lift that brought her down to Docking level… almost instantly. As the door opened, she caught sight of a pod similar to the one they found Misty in, a scantily dressed woman with green hair, and some uniform-dressed red head. Both of their backs were turned to her. Celina.

            "Barnette." The green haired woman almost jumped ten feet if that was humanly possible for somebody of that build.

            "Oh, God! Meia!" she retorted, "Don't scare me like that!"

            "Sorry." She apologized coldly, "What's the situation?" she approached the pod and tapped a button on the side that caused the shutters to retract. What she saw was more repulsive than the worst-case scenario of any fight she had experienced back on Meger. It was literally a bloody mess. It was something that probably went with those rumors Tarakian's let out to their people. Women were liver-eating demons. Yeah right. Disembodied body organs lay scattered about; the whole person was gone save for his bloody lab coat, an ID card saying he was a researcher at from some Earth born corporation, a pancreas, two feet's length of large and small intestine, and a spine.

            "That's all we found, along with this." Barnette brought out a foot tall cylinder, with the Biohazard symbol conveniently pasted on it, and the words 'WARNING: BIOHAZARD' imprinted, with a sophisticated storage system attached. "This is some kind of containment device. Judging from the warning signs and writings, we can tell that whatever was inside is some sort of biochemical agent."

            "You don't have to be a genius to know that. The whole damn thing's riddled with admonitions." The red haired security agent said as she snatched the can from Orangello's grasp. "We've also picked up trace elements of Corrosiumide, a new kind of organic acid that's supposed to be containable only by some metal alloys." She glanced at the silver container, "And this is made out of one of them. It's craftsmanship is of the highest known quality. My guess is that the Earth made this, since the guy, whoever he was, was from Earth as what his ID states. So what do you want us to do with this, Meia?"

            "Shouldn't you be asking me that question, Celina?" the trio turned to see a certain silver-haired vice-commander smiling expectantly.

            "Oh, Vice-Captain Buzzam." She stammered, "Of course. What do you want to be done about this?"

            "Take that," the Tarakian pointed at the contents of the pod, "To the infirmary and have Duero give it an autopsy. As for this," he/she snagged the canister from Celina's tight grip with relative ease, "Send it to the lab for analysis."

            "Yes, ma'am." She snapped a salute. She was new to this pirate business, recruited just a few days back by Rebecca, and transferred to Nirvana for no apparent reason… as far as Rebecca was concerned, anyway.

            "You don't have to do that. We're not in the military, you know." He/she replied with an uncertain look on his/her face as several of Gascogne's workers stormed in with a mini forklift and took it away.

***

            Bounty Hunter Lorenzo Fernandez examined the files stored on the Photon Disc he had loaded into his computer. Apparently, it wasn't the scientist that the government was worried about, but what the canister contained. It was a prototype Biological Weapon, codenamed IT-007, IT for short, the latest, and by far, most successful prototype of its kind.

            His wife, Corazon, and his kids were on vacation to the Planet Nortil, a vacation spot that was not on the harvest list, so he had the house all to himself. Born to kill, IT was a hunt worthy of a hundred million credits. Tested on all other harvest-related combat units such as Beatleots, slimes, even assault probes, it devoured them all suffering no damage whatsoever.

            It was originally designed to attack organic life forms, but since they had no people left to spare, they just used harvest fleet machines. It was, however, definitely capable of devouring a human. As far as the government was concerned, anyway. Why Doctor Adam Adams stole it and escaped via pod, was a mystery. The government didn't worry much about him, though. He would be dead by now.

Its molecular composition allowed nothing to contain it except a few metal cases that were resistant to Corrosiumide. It was therefore, extremely hard to catch… if ever it were possible.

He tapped away on the holographic keys on the glassy surface of his main link. Information was the most vital weapon in any battle. In knowing thy enemy, never forget above all, to know thyself. Apparently, this was the most updated information concerning the nature of IT. About himself, well, he thought, no, knew, that he was prepared. He had already had his arsenal assembled several hours ago.

His plain of vision that was so concentrated into knowing more about IT was disturbed as an image of one of the two GSA agents appeared on screen. Which one it was, he didn't know… and didn't care for the matter. "What can I do for you?"

"Good evening, mister Fernandez. I'm Special Agent Benson, we met this afternoon." Came the professional reply.

"Which one? The cheap with the suitcase, or the other cheap with the picture of my targets?" this was of course, a joke.

"With the suitcase, mister Fernandez."

"Okay. So what do you want?" he asked.

"We just wanted to have you updated on two things: one: our intelligence has pinpointed the location of IT."

"My, my. Your intelligence is as good as you claim it to be. Where is it?" he wanted to finish this mission as soon as possible because of two things: one, he was tired; and two: he was in a hurry to retire.

"Of all the places for it to be, would you believe it docked in one of the most wanted anti-harvest ships in history?" the agent was obviously giving Lorenzo a hint on the identity of IT's newest vector.

"Nirvana…" he nearly whispered. The name alone was legend. The vessel that was bestowed the great honor of housing the second Pexis. The Pexis that gave its crewmembers the extra edge they needed to beat what Earth had sent so far, namely five Mother Ships and a Planet Buster... alongside the help of a mixed-up fleet coming from three galactic superpowers and a group of harvest survivors, of course.

"That's right. The second thing we want you updated about is concerning IT's procreation status." That statement raised one of the Spanish Bounty Hunter's eyebrows.

"Procreation status?"

"That's correct. IT is growing, mister Fernandez, and we're giving you a time limit for this mission."

"Time limit? Wait… what the hell do you mean it's growing!?" he was definitely puzzled at that, "Growing as in from-baby-to-adult growing, or… pitter-patter-of-little-feet growing?"

"The latter, I'm afraid. As for the reason of your time limit, it's due to the fact that IT will commence mitosis in 72 hours. You have three days, mister Fernandez. Good luck with it."

"WHAT!?" his outburst was not of heard, though, due to the fact that the GSA operative had long ago cut communications with him. It was hard enough going after a seemingly invincible foe, but it was far beyond impossible to even attempt capturing a million of them. He shook his head at his stupidity in accepting this mission. He now faced a horrible dilemma. Committing implied suicide wasn't worth a hundred million credits… not at all.

AN: Well, that ends this chapter. Mostly rising tension here, eh? In any case, Dogma has finished his first chapter, and I have yet to ask if I should be the one to post it or him. Well, chow!

            "When my people were writing down philosophy, your people were still swinging from trees!"

                                                            --Gus Portokalos of My Big Fat Greek Wedding