Chapter 1 Nightmare
It was the day after the first flag-ship fight. The Nivana was quiet and all the pilots were peacefully sleeping.
But for five pilot's, their dreams were a disturbing tale of how a blinding red light destroying each one of them and finally the nirvana. " No.. stop it now!" screamed Hibiki quickly sitting up.
Breathing heavy he looked around. He wasn't in the Vandread Dita and there was not red light. He was in his own cell. In his own bed. All alone. Suddenly he felt a twitch in his shoulder
He held it but, the twitch had gone. In his dream he had been hit on the shoulder by the red light. For a moment he thought he felt pain. But nothing, not even a twitch.
With the dream haunting his mind, Hibiki decided to take a walk to clear his head. He got dressed and walked to the hanger. Hoping to clear his mind of this dream.
As he walked down the lit corridors he mind wondered about the dream. "What does it mean?, Is it a message? A sigh? He thought. But he could not figure it out before he knew it he was Standing before his vanguard in the hanger. His mind remembered the red light and all the damage it caused. "But what was it?" he thought deeply.
Just then he heard footsteps. Alerted by the noise he turned around to see the four pilots he had spent most his time with. Meia, Dita,Jura and even Nix were all stood there still in their sleep wear, looking at each other with tired and scared looks.
"What are you all doing up so early?" Hibiki said grumpily rubbing his eyes. "It's trying to communicate with us" Meia said as the three female pilots lowered their heads. "Trying to tell us something? said Hibiki confused. "Or at least that's how it felt to me" Meia continued.
Surprised by her answer Hibiki asked."Are you saying you all saw the same dream I did?"
"So you saw it too Mr. Alien?" Dita asked him surprised as much as he was.
"That dream, the pain we all felt"said Nix holding his right arm again.
"That's creepy. How can we all have the same dream at the same time, it's just weird" Jura said painfully holding her right hand against her head.
Suddenly she stumbled. Meia and Dita reached for her, but she recovered and stood again."I'm fine" she insisted holding her head still. "I'm going back to bed" she said slowly walking out of the hanger.
The others agreed. Sleep maybe the best thing for the wore out pilots. sSo they began to walk back to their rooms.
As Nix walked down the hall way to his cell. Images of the dream flashed in his mind. "Hmm I have heard of dreams telling people what's on their mind, but how can we all be thinking the same thing?" he thought Nix stopped. His ears had picked up voices talking in the same corridor he was in and they sounded familiar.
He looked back down the corridor to see Dita and Hibiki talking. He listened to them as their talking became louder and louder.
"So when are you coming to visit? Tomorrow,the next day,the day after that" said a pleading Dita. "Very soon" said an embarrassed Hibiki running past nix. Nix smiled at dita as she slowly followed after hibiki
But as Nix was about to walk on he heard his name. "Dark heart!" shouted an annoyed Meia beside him. "Ah sorry leader, I didn't notice you there" he said surprised as he faced her.
Her expression changed seeming also suspicious .
"How could you not tell, I was poking your right arm ?"She said looking at him curiously. Nix seemed to freeze.
"Tiredness miss Meia" he said quickly rebuilding his confidence. "It affects our reaction time" Nix said coldly looking away. But Meia still looked at him. She wanted answers.
"I'm must go, forgive me" Nix said as he walked on towards the prison watched him walk away knowing he was hding something, but what?
Meanwhile in the conference room captain Magno, BC and Gascogne were having a meeting about the current status of their return trip to Mejere."We're approximately 90 days from Mejere." started Bc.
"As for Operation Harvest. Earth plans to harness our body parts as a new source of organs, our home world and Tarak should realize the threat we're facing" said BC looking at her comrades as they sat there.
Mango then asked sternly. "What about the message pods we sent out earlier?".
"They should have arrived at the two planets by now, but we haven't received any form of confirmation from either Tarak or Mejere" said BC answering Magno.
"It looks more like we're getting ignored" Gascogne added fiddling with the metal piece in her mouth.
The aged pirate leader reassured the two women with her kind words. "I'm sure they will not ignore the messages we're sending them this time. Once they learn that Earth plans to harvest our reproductive organs".
Suddenly a monitor screen appeared above the table showing Parfet's image. "Reporting captain" Parfet said happily. "Yes?" the captain said awaiting the report.
The engineer nodded. "The Peksis is acting up again and I can't decide the cause" Parfet said."This again?" Magno sighed. She really had no time for a fussy engine.
"Its probably just residual side effects from when the Nirvana fused together" BC guessed. But truthfully nobody knew what was wrong.
Back in the prison block of the Nirvana. Bart was eating some pills that the Tarak men used to make sure that their workers had enough energy to get them through the hard work day.
"Women are weird." he said munching on some pills. "At first I believed that they would eat a man's internal organs" he continued to say before looking at the big book in Duelo's hands.
"What book you're reading? Any good?" Bart asked still eating the pills.
Duelo smiled as he closed the covers around his thumb and held it up for Bart to see. "I found it in the storage room of the pioneer ship." He said reopening the book. The young doctor then read a small passage to the helmsman.
"The baby's life starts when the seed, which is the father's sperm accepts the female egg called an ovum. The two of them join together to form a zygote, which in turn develops into a fetus".
Bewildered at this Bart stared at the doctor. "You're really into that stuff huh?"he asked confused. Duelo smirked at him. "I find it fascinating" he said calmly going back to his book.
Just then Hibiki walked into the room, his seem drained as he tiredly collapsed on to his bed. Both Bart and Duelo wondered what made him so exhausted. "I really don't know why I bother any more" Hibiki muttered into his bed.
Offering Hibiki a few Tarak food pills Bart asked him what had him so exhausted. To which Hibiki gladly complained about.
"You promised that you would go to Dita's room?" said Duelo as the three men nodded. "Yeah, it just came up at the heat of the moment you know?"he said shyly."So what's the big deal?" Bart asked relaxing again. "Just go ahead and see her" Bart said putting his hands on Hibiki's shoulders .
"You go and see her!" Hibiki snapped back. The helmsman shook his head as he held his hands up. "No way, you were the one who made the promise, pal" he said panicked. "You gotta be kidding!" barked Hibiki. "Go into to a woman's room? A real man would never do that!".
"Ah but real men do keep their promises" said Duelo staring at Hibiki calmly. Hibiki tried to speak but Duelo spoke again stopping him. "Your other self should've realized that" he was having trouble finding the right words to use. "It's not that I want to break the promise, but…"
Growing frustrated at himself fro not being able to answer, he snapped. "Look! If I go in there, what are we going to do, when I get there? What are we going to talk about?" quizzed Hibiki. The other two men looked at each other confused than looked back at Hibiki."Good point" they said in agreement. But outside the cell Nix was smiling.
"Hmph what a bunch of single mind men" he through holding his right arm. "Not only are they so unaware, but they also seem incapable to keep simple promises. What a waste". He said to himself with a grin.
It was after he left the cell, Nix walked past the shooting gallery only to her someone miss a target. "Funny?" thought Nix walking back towards the door. He walked in expecting a rookie women solider. But no, In the shooting gallery was Jura talking to a stunned Barnette.
" I want have a baby with a man!" Jura said with a twinkle in her eyes. ".. ur" sighed Barnette. She was starting to give up on her friends crazy dreams.
Seeing this situation Nix slowly crept out the room. "I can already see where this is going" he thought making a run for it.
But even with nix gone. Jura continued to talk to Barnette, who still seemed in disbelief at what Jura told her.
"What?" she asked her friend. "Just think about it Barnette. I'd be the first woman in Mejere history to have a baby with a man. I'd be hailed as a heroine" smiled Jura imaging herself on a stand with a baby in her arms and a blackouted figure holding her shoulder.
But Jura's dreaming was soon disturbed by the alarms going off. "Positions everyone" order BC over the ship intercom.
However in the hanger, Nix was already in his van-defender preparing for launch. "Computer active" he ordered as his ship came to life. It's control panel flashing many colours, The van-defender started with a loud click as it gears changed.
"Ready and go" ordered Nix as he pulled on the joystick. His ship flew out into space at great speed, the stars shooting past him. As Nix readied his van-defender cannons for an attack,he turned on his radio. Listening to everything that was happening on the bridge.
I've confirmed a life signal" said a bridge bunny looking at her radar screen. "A survivor of the harvesters?" said BC shocked at the thought. She didn't think it was possible. The captain closed her eyes and groaned at this fact.
"Well if there is a survivor, there's only one way to find out." She said bringing up a floating monitor screen showing Meia in her dread.
"Meia, the supply ship will revive that pod, the dreads are to guard it from attacks. Do not fight unless you have too" ordered the captain. Meia nodded her head in acknowledgement .
The dread team soon escorted the supply ship to the location of the pod. However when they arrived they all noticed Nix was already ahead. Meia zoomed ahead in her dread to see what he was doing. She saw Nix had the pod in his van-defenders shield. "Dark heart" she said angrily opening communication with him.
"What are you doing! You did not wait for the captains orders!" scolded Meia, but Nix stayed quiet. "Respond dark heart" Meia demanded.
But Nix looked to his side then leaned in closer to the radio and spoke quietly through it. "We must keep communications to a minimum" he whispered. "The enemy shows no sign of movement yet" he said. Meia shook her head ,she couldn't believe him.
"Miss Gascogne, can you take the pod?" asked Meia through communications. " No sweat" Gascogne said flying towards her target. As Gasconge flew close Nix closed down his shield allowing her access to the pod.
It was just as the supply grabbed the pod with the ship pincers like arms that the near by enemy cube types started to attack.
"Computer lock on and fire" ordered Nix. The van-defender fired its energy cannons only to have the cube-types enemy's dodge them with ease. "Well nice to see our enemy has more tricks up their sleeves" smiled Nix as he began to fire again.
With the dreads now in a dog fight with the squads of harvesters, they failed to notice a small group of cube types strike the delivery ship. "Ah" cried Gasconge as her ship shook. The cube type had manged to shake loose the escape pod from the ship."The enemy is retreating with the pod" Belvedere cried from the bridge watching the action from her monitor.
"There ignoring us?" Said BC suspicious at the harvesters actions. But the captain smiled.
"If what's inside that pod is so important that the enemy is willing to turn their backs on us, then we simply cannot allow them to have it" she smiled getting fired up.
"Everyone get that pod back at all costs"she ordered and with that a full out battle began for the pod.
The battle was hard and long for the nirvana pilots. Through out the battle Nix and Meia found themselves surrounded many times by the small cube type ships. "Hmph, typical weakling tactic." Said Nix with a grin. He enjoyed a battle were the brain was used.
He flew up in his van-defender and rained down on the cube types with his cannons shots. The energy shots destroyed them all with ease. Annoyed by his actions Meia just flew off as Nix went on attacking cube types. But he was not the only one going on the offence.
Finally it was Hibiki turn to attack. "All right, we're up" Hibiki cheered as he joined with Jura. With Vandread Jura formed, the ship launched its own shields out in a small circle securing the escape pod in it.
"Now that's how it's done" Jura said happily posing as if she was having her picture taken. "Am I good or what?" She smiled to Hibiki. "Yeah, well better late than never" Hibiki grunted before Jura scooted over to him.
"Listen Hibiki" Jura said making her tone even more seductive than normal. "I want to have a baby. Will you give me what I need?" she asked softly. HIbiki turned bright red as she looked at him.
"We're in the middle of something now! We don't have time to talk about stuff like that!" Hibiki yelled in an embarrassed, uncomfortable tone. However there talk was cut short as a new enemy appeared before them.
"What the hell is that?" shouted Hibiki noticing it. All the other piliots looked as the new enemy appeared.
From the voids of space,a string ray shape ship appeared . It flapped it huge fin like wings as it swam through the voids of space. Slowly It opened its mouth and fired a huge red beam straight at the vandread jura.
"Arh" cried Hibiki and Jura as the beam hit the ship causing the Vandread Jura to separate into the two original ships.
"Vandread Jura has just been spilt" said a bridge bunny shocked. "But how?" BC said shocked.
She then looked at the captain who seemed to be thinking hard. "It seems our enemy has a new weapon" said the captain coldy watching the battle from her floating monitor screen.
As the now free pod floated away, Nix gave chase only to be intercepted by more cube-types. They gripped onto the van defender like a vice stopping him in his tracks.
"Get off me you swine's!" Nix roared. Rocking his controls from side to side, trying to shake them off. Seeing the situation Hibiki and Dita joined to form Vandread Dita. Ready to attack.
But as they readied themselves the string ray type enemy fired its red beam again. This time hitting Vandread's Dita left arm. Hibiki and Dita grunted painfully as it hit. "What was that?" Hibiki thought swearing he felt something.
Both Dita and Hibiki looked down at the control sphere for the left arm and noticed that it was left arm had started to deteriorate, turning a dark rust colour from its normal dark blue shade.
"It's just like in the dream" Hibiki thought panicking. They attempting to use the shoulder cannons but as they did the Vandread moved slightly before the power quickly died, leaving Vandread Dita defenceless.
"What's going on!" Hibiki yelled trying to make the vandread move. "This is…just like before" Dita gasped as she frantically tried to control the ship.
Nix was soon in trouble too. He had gone to attack the ship only to fall victum of the the its red beam ."Shield down,cannons down" he said angrily watching his ship shutdown.
It was then panic set in and Nix panicked.
"That dream, it's coming true" Nix thought watching as the sting ray readied to attack again. He watch as the ship opened it mouth again. His heart beat faster, his muscles tensed and sweat began to roll down his forehead.
"No..No i won't be defeted by some fish!"roared Nix pulling his controls up. It was tough but from a mighty tug, the van defender shot up. But collide with Meia's dread. Who had been struck by the beam too.
"What! Not them too?" said BC from the bridge. The crew watched as the van-defender and Meia's dread began to within a white light. It glowed a so bright until Finally the new ship appeared.
Shaped like Nix van defender, the ship still kept it's night black colour but the once bulky armour was now smooth and razor-sharp.
Every comer of the ship had a sharp edge which shined like a shining sword. On the ships back a huge black fin jarred out and seem to glisten. "No way"said Barnette watching from her damaged dread.
The two pilots awoke in the new dread and Meia had quite a surprise. She found herself sitting on Nix's lap.
"Impossible" said Meia shocked. "I'm afraid not" said Nix from behind her. The two looked at each other with cold stares. "So we two can combine as well" said Meia coldly looking at Nix. He just smiled as he spoke.
"Well I'm glad your comfy leader, But now is not the time for relaxing. He said cocky. Meia just scoffed as she went back to facing the front. "I'll fire this ship up" Meia ordered. "Roger" said Nix.
Meia moved the control spheres beside her forward. At this the ship suddenly shot off. "What speed!" said Jura amazed looking as the new ship stopped right in front of the sting ray ship.
"I only have the control for steering" said Meia over her shoulder at Nix.
Nix looked to his side to see two new red sphere controls."If I'm right" He thought hovering his hands over the spheres. "Computer, fire!" He ordered hitting the sphere's.
With that the new ship chest opened up to show six cannons in a chain gun like style.
Suddenly the cannons began rotating faster and faster until, it fired of the six huge energy shots at the sting ray.
"All right direct hit!" cheered Hibiki from Vandread Dita, but Nix and Meia knew it was not over.
"Don't go celebrating yet soldier" said Nix over communications. Hibiki looked back to the string ray again.
"What! No way!" Hibiki shouted as the string ray came back for more.
"I'm not letting this thing have another chance!" Hibiki roared as he clenched his controls. "Dreams may seem real when you're asleep, but I'm not sleeping now and I refuse to let it end like this. I won't let you tin cans win!" he yelled. His will seemed to give Vandread Dita the power to spring back to life.
"Die!" The young pilot roared as he targeted the Stingray with the Vandread's shoulder mounted cannons. The cannons fired it powerful beams. The sting ray enemy seemed almost beaten from Hibiki powerful attack. But Nix and Meia were not about to be left out.
"Fire" they said in unison slamming don on the control sphere. With that the ship fired it's six energy shots again. "We gotta attack too" said Hibiki to Dita. She agreed and vandread dita attacked again with it's cannons.
This time the combed attacks were too much for the sting ray. It exploded into pieces, leaving the Nirvana crew victorious again.
"Yeah that's how it's done!" Hibiki boasted to Dita before he noticed Nix and Meia on his communication screen. " Back to base everyone. We have the pod, let's go before more enemies come" ordered Meia. With Meia's ordered the teams returned to base.
As the teams flew back to the nirvana, the new ship of Nix and Meia's broke apart. Returning them both to there own ships two looked at each other from their ships, then proceed to land in the hanger.
"You certainly don't see that everyday, do you leader" said Nix to Meia as they waited for the other dreads to land in the hanger.
"I don't know why it happened" she said looking at Nix."But it got the job done and that is all I care about" she said coldly. Nix grinned at her. "Hmph your the leader" he said with a grin as the others arrived.
But it was in the sub hanger where the real action began. Nix was watching from the back being taller them most people on the ship. He watched over them as Parfet override the lock to the rescued escape pod and stepped away as it opened.
A cold mist escaped as the pod opened. "Hmph let's see what was so important to earth" thought nix as the mist cleared. The crew looked in awe at what was inside. It was a girl likely in her early teens with deep dark blue hair tied into a ponytail.
She wore a yellow outfit and had yellow, triangle-shaped earrings. Beside Nix Hibiki was trying to see what was going on. Noticing this Nix said.
"Want me to put you on my shoulders soldier?". Hibiki looked at him with a glare. He hated being mocked for his height. "Shut it" said Hibiki angrily as he beginning to barge through the crowds to see what was going on.
As he pushed through to the front of the crowd. He lost his footing and he fell face first into the pod. Shocked at what happen Hibiki Immediately he pulled himself out of the pod. But as he did the girl inside opened her eyes.
They were crimson red and then one of her earrings glowed brightly releasing a hologram of a yellow shapeless creature. Which appeared hovering over her shoulder."Did you see that?" Pyoro shrieked from the back of the crowd.
"What is that?" Hibiki wondered looking at the funny creature. The girl then began staring at him."It's you. You saved me" she said happily before getting into a sitting position and hugging Hibiki in a vice like grip.
"Thank you, my lord prince!" she cried happily as Hibiki struggled to breath. Barnette said in an awkward, small annoyed tone "Lord…""Prince?" Jura finished.
Seeing this strange girl hugging Hibiki made both Dita and Jura jealous as they quickly took a disliking to her. AT the back of the crowd Paiway giggled. "This is definitely getting interesting. A red circle check!"She said happily marking it in her pocket book.
It was later that day in the infirmary, Duelo and Paiway were checking on the rescue pod girl in the infirmary.
"According to the medical logs from the pod, her name is Misty Cornwell and she's approximately 14 years of age" said Duelo looking at his computer.
"14 plus the 63 years she spent in cold sleep would make her 77. Ribbit" said Paiway through her frog puppet. Duelo smiled. "I stand corrected" he said impressed with Paiway's knowledge.
Finally misty regained consensus in her bed. She opened her eyes to see all the crew members around her.
Seeing all these people, she quickly became nervous. At the same time her earrings began glowing and just like before it projected a hologram of a yellow shapeless creature. It mimicked her feelings as it nervously darted its eyes around the room.
"Its ok Q-chan, I'll be just fine" Misty said comforting the shapeless creature as she sat up. But immediately she hunched over. "It's so cold!" she said shivering.
"It's a residual effect from the cold sleep" said Duelo calmly getting a blanket for her."Just try and take it easy" Duelo said pulling a blanket over her shoulders.
Looking over to Duelo, Misty gasped. "Wow you're a really handsome guy!"she said blushing. Surprised by Misty's comment Duelo had a blank, confused look on his face until Bart broke the silence.
"Hey I hear you're from a world where it's normal for men and women to live together is that true?"he said. Immediately annoyed by him interfering Misty angrily replied. "That's the dumbest thing anyone's ever asked me, are you a moron?"
Nix smiled. "Well miss misty certainly has no problems with her mouth" he said with a grin slapping Bart on his back. Misty then shifted her attention to Nix. "Wow your handsome too" she said blushing again.
Nix just grunted and turned his back to her. "I have work to do, it's not in my duty to care for weird women" he said making his way out the room.
Misty then saw Hibiki standing right behind Bart, she gasped in surprise and quickly turned to Duelo and asked. "Hey who's he?"
"He?" the doctor repeated looking over to the only other two men in the room. "When you say he, you're obviously referring to those two and if it's not Bart you must mean Hibiki" he repiled.
"Hibiki!" Misty gasped. "What an adorable name" she said happily holding her hand together.
Hearing Misty mention his name Hibiki froze as she stared at him.
"I always knew I would meet someone one day and it would love at first sight" Misty said as Q-Chan turned into the shape of a string. "See the red string of fate, you know"she said with love in her eyes.
Everyone in the room looked Hibiki as he stood there making him even more nervous. "No I don't know, I have no idea what you're talking about" the young pilot barked at her.
Misty smiled at his response. "Wow you're so naive, but that makes you even cuter". she said with a smile. " Well just don't stand there Hibiki, come on over and sit next to me" she said with an inviting smile. But one girl was not going to allow this.
"No" Dita cried jumping in front of Hibiki. "He's not going anywhere near you. Everyone knows that red is the colour of bad aliens" she said holding her arms out.
It was as the two girl stared at each other, that Misty looked over to Duelo from the corner of her eye and angrily asked."Hey that girl. Is she his girlfriend?"
"Girlfriend?" Duelo repeated in a lost tone. "I'm unfamiliar to that term. What does it mean?" he asked interested.
"Are you serious?" Misty asked before referring to her hologram companion "Q-chan these people are pretty weird" she said before Jura spoke up. "Actually that works both ways" Jura said standing tall. "From our point of view you're pretty strange yourself".
Misty sighed as jura finished talking. She then muttered to her companion. "What kind of place have I ended up in?" Duelo then spoke again.
"Those of us aboard this ship come from an environment where men and women live apart from one another" Duelo explained to misty. "I'm not saying that we're right and you're wrong, but you'd do well to remember that there are fundamental differences between us"he finished explaining.
Misty sighed at this, what had she gotten herself into?