Salvation
Deep within the cloud of debris that used to be the fifth planet of the Ninth Star System, two ships drifted close together. Low on fuel, the occupants of both vehicles had begun transmitting their beacons so that the recovery ships would find them – they just had to be patient.
"Do you still believe," Shildy asked Lufy via the radio-link between the vehicles, "that winning this war will bring us a brighter future?" She had tried to explain to the fighter-jock that their continuing battles with Paranoid forces would only result in further devastation, but the aptly-named Attacker pilot had steadfastly refused to consider any alternatives. After this latest conflict, however, when High Leader Journey had chosen to sacrifice half of her remaining forces to act as bait in a thwarted attempt to lure the Paranoid fleet to its' obliteration, she seemed to be reconsidering her choices.
When Lufy failed to respond, Spea broke the uncomfortable silence that followed. "Something I don't understand, Lufy – you were deep in the inner system the last time we saw you. The Bronz-series assault troopers aren't equipped with Lightspeed drives... so how did you get to us in time to help stop DAMIA?"
Shildy gaped at her friend with a "Why didn't I think of that?" expression on her face. "That's RIGHT," she observed, "even at maximum acceleration, it should have taken you days to reach the orbit of the station. Yet you managed to not only reach it in less than an hour, but found our exact location within something the size of a planet. How did you do that?"
This statement captured the attention of both Amy and Catty as well, who twisted in their seats to face the image of their rescuer on the monitor positioned between the two pilots' consoles.
"You're not going to believe this," Lufy explained to them, "because I don't really know if I believe it myself." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment before continuing.
"It was the strangest thing..."
The Paranoid drone halted its' forward motion to open fire on another Assault Trooper – and that was all the opening Lufy needed. A single blast from the phased-plasma cannon held by the Trooper she piloted punched a hole straight through it from underneath, causing it to erupt into a fireball of flying shrapnel. Bits of debris bounced off the armoured shell of her cockpit as she paused to contemplate the situation she now found herself in.
Damn it, I believe in this war! She silently chastised herself as she once again found herself thinking about everything she had been told since being revived only a few days ago. Absently, she flipped a switch that caused the shields protecting the windows on either side of her to retract. She turned her head to the right and gazed upon the ongoing battle – ship after ship unleashing continuous volleys of missiles, with the blue-green orb that was the planet Terra in the backdrop. That's what I'm fighting FOR!
Then she turned to the left to see the ruined world she knew as Chaos – once made green and living by Solnoid hands... it was now grey, cratered and lifeless. And that's what this war will buy us...
She had never thought this way before, and it worried her. Could Shildy and her group be RIGHT? Could there be ways for the Paranoid and Solnoid peoples to coexist, without the extermination of one or the other? Does the life on Terra deserve to be wiped out in order to ensure our victory?
NO! She decided. I can't allow that to happen! I have to PREVENT it from happening! Her mind made up, she spun around and pushed her thrusters to the limit as she accelerated towards the fifth planet.
Within a few moments, however, she realized that she likely wouldn't make it in time to do anything. With both fleets engaged in battle, it was easy to guess that the order to activate and fire the system-destroyer would be given at any moment. Once that happened, there was no way that any effort she made would amount to anything more than a futile gesture of defiance. She also realized that she didn't care HOW futile it would be – she still had to TRY. So she maintained her acceleration.
Her body lurched forward, her harness biting into her shoulders, as her thrusters suddenly cut out and her acceleration dropped to nothing. Pulling on her control levers, she looked out the windows and saw that the arms and legs of her craft had been somehow immobilized by the orange glow that had suddenly appeared around her. She started to wonder what manner of trap it was that the Paranoids had set when the rectangular portal of a landing bay slid into view around her. A moment later, she felt the jarring contact as the feet of her Trooper touched the deck and heard a rattle that sounded like the clamps that would hold her securely against flight. What's going on?
Her answer came as the main monitor-screen before her lit up, and presented her with a white silhouette standing against a black background. It looked to her like a Solnoid, but why would an ally hide like that?
The communicator came to life with a barely-audible hiss. "Unidentified pilot," a deep voice said without preamble, "can you hear me?"
Lufy recovered from her shock quickly. "Yes, I can hear you," she answered. "Who are you, and why did you seize my fighter?"
"Who I am is not important," the voice told her as the image appeared to nod its' head. "I wanted to ask why you abandoned your compatriots the way you did."
"I'm not 'abandoning' anyone!" She shouted in her own defense. "I broke off from the fight in order to stop an attack that would destroy everything in this system! My friends are at the fifth planet, trying to prevent the weapon hidden on it from firing at the star and killing every living thing here!"
"But you're a member of the Attackers," the voice continued. "Is that not what you are trained to do – destroy the enemy with no thought given to the cost?"
"I was – but not anymore." Lufy looked at the image and sighed. "Victory is wasted if nobody is left to appreciate it. That's not what I want to fight for. If you have to destroy everything in order to win, then you've lost."
"Well said," the voice noted with a chuckle. "I commend you for your understanding. Because of this, I will aid you in your efforts. Brace for acceleration."
"Wait – what are you...?" Lufy got no further as her vision blurred due to a sudden shift in her environment that made every indicator and telltale in front of her appear as a streak. Lightspeed? She realized. But...
A moment later, the blurring effect faded and the view outside the portal was dominated by a planet with some very metallic-looking craters. "We are now in a close orbit around the fifth planet of this system," the voice told her. "I am jamming the planets' defensive network so that we may approach without opposition." A secondary window appeared on the screen before her, displaying a line-drawing of the planet and four small dots near one edge. "I am also detecting four life-forms deep within the planet – I suspect that those will be the friends you spoke of. The necessary navigation data is now being fed into your on-board computer so that you may find them quickly." She heard the clamps release and her Trooper automatically began to walk towards the open portal.
Lufy pulled on her control levers and brought the lumbering machine to a halt. "Wait a minute," she said, "You haven't told me who you are, or why you're doing this. Why should I trust anything you say?"
The silhouette tilted to one side. "Is it not enough that I agree with you? I want the same thing that you do – an end to the fighting that doesn't involve the total annihilation of not only yourselves, but any innocents that might get caught in the middle. After all... if everything is destroyed, what's the point?"
"That's not fair – using my own words against me," she muttered with a smirk as she guided her craft to the very edge of the portal. She paused for a second, then the Trooper flexed its' knees and jumped into the void – its' thrusters firing to speed it towards the planet on the course she had been given. "Thank you for your help," she said in a whisper.
"Good Luck, former Attacker Lufy," the voice said as the two-toned image slowly faded from her screens. "Go, and fulfill your destiny."
Her eyes widened at what she heard. "Wait, wait, WAIT! How do you know my name? How did you know that I was an Attacker? And what 'destiny' are you talking about?" Her questions went unanswered, as the silhouette was now completely gone – replaced with the usual status displays and the newly-programmed course information.
Unable to contain her curiosity, she slowed her acceleration towards the planet and spun around – hoping to catch a glimpse of the ship the had just exited. But the sky around her contained nothing but stars and the planet she was determined to stop.
Unwilling to wait any longer, she turned to face the planet and kicked her thrusters to full power.
"I never saw any trace of the ship that brought me here," Lufy concluded, "and my instruments didn't keep any record of my time inside it. I have no idea what it was, or how it did everything it did. Don't ask me any questions, because I don't have any answers. All I know for sure is that it guided me right to you, and I didn't encounter any resistance along the way."
On her screen, the four girls in the other ship looked at each other with odd looks on their faces. Lufy couldn't figure out what they were thinking, that could make them act so strangely.
"You don't think...?" Catty started.
"How could it be?" Amy finished the thought. "He said that he was leaving, and wouldn't return until we were ready to stop fighting."
"Maybe he couldn't stand by and let Terra be wiped out, just like we couldn't," Spea pointed out.
"And it's well within what we know him to be capable of," Shildy continued where Spea left off. "His ship was cloaked so perfectly that we never saw it, his tractor beams blocked our propulsion systems, and his computers were able to override the most advanced devices he encountered."
"I have to say," Catty admitted, "it's certainly possible that he's still around."
"Hold on," Lufy chose that moment to interrupt their speculations. "Are you saying that you KNOW what happened to me? You'd better tell me everything, right NOW, or so help me I'll pump a few shells into your pod!" Shildy and Spea smirked at each other over the mocking threat, while Amy and Catty widened their eyes in surprise.
At that moment, the crackle of a new transmission stopped them. "Attention, Assault Fighter Ay-Eff-Three-Nine-Nine and Bronz Trooper Bee-Tee-Seven-Nine – this is the recovery ship Ark. We have you on scanners and will reach your sector in approximately thirty minutes. Hang tight, we're on our way."
Amy and Catty smiled at the announcement. Shildy looked at Spea, who nodded in agreement of the unspoken question. Shildy turned back to the on-screen image of Lufy. "Okay, we have thirty minutes – but we'd better go Private for the next part." Shildy and Lufy both punched a sequence of keys on their respective consoles, and the image in front of them became outlined with a red border. Now nobody else could eavesdrop on their conversation. Shildy looked at Lufy with a smirk on her face.
"Have we got a story to tell YOU..."
Far out in space, on the opposite side of the star system, the occupant of the invisible ship watched the dots of light that flew around the inner planets. Holding his hands behind his back, he smiled broadly as the survivors of the battle were picked up one ship at a time.
"Another step in the right direction," he said aloud.
"Indeed, Marcus," responded a disembodied voice. "It will not be much longer before we know for certain."
"Yes. They will either break free of the violence they imposed upon themselves, or their curtain will fall. At any rate – Terra is safe to try again."
"Speaking of safe... are you sure that it was a good idea to reveal the extent of your knowledge to that pilot?"
Marcus laughed softly at the concern shown by his computerized companion. "The risk is minimal, Sentinel, if there is any at all. I'm sure that our mutual friends will fill her in on many of the details... and if she did manage to pick up on the hint that I dropped, that would reveal more about how suitable she is – given what's to come."
"Scans indicate that they have completed their recovery operations," Sentinel noted. "All ships are jumping out of the system."
"Then that's our cue to leave, as well. We won't see this system again for a long time. You have the next set of coordinates?"
"Confirmed. Coordinates set. Ready to jump at your convenience."
Marcus took one last look at the system that he had helped save.
"Back to the long wait..."
-FIN-