Disclaimer: Vandread is the property of Pioneer and Gonzo.
**I am well aware that this beginning does not immediately jump into Vandread but please read it none-the-less. This short half of the prologue will eventually prove vital. **
**This is my first attempt at a Vandread fanfiction and I hope that I did sufficiently. Trying to mimick space battles in true Vandread fashion in a fic is much harder than I thought, and I would like any feedback I can get about how I did. **
**C&C can be directed to Ledzepfan111@hotmail.com and a review would be greatly appreciated.**
**This fic draws some inspirations from the music of Rush and the writings of Ayn Rand. **
** Takes place after episode 4 of Second Stage**
** Enjoy…**
A flickering light slowly made its way down a hallway enshrouded in a mist of confusing darkness. All the sound that provided comfort to the dancing flame on a torch was that of the gentle click of a shoe heel against the metal floor as the archaeologist Jonathan Green gazed in puzzlement upon his most recent findings.
He had come to Brazil in the hopes of stumbling across something, anything really, which would make use of his talents. Simply put, he had been desperate beyond belief. There had been a general drought in the archaeological community, and the stagnant situation his life had assumed had made him overly anxious.
On a whim he had up and left his home, traveling to South America and to the finding of his life. Instinct had dictated his actions, be it divine intervention or a primal sense of self-preservation (no work meant no money and no food), and he eventually found himself in a bar in a town of which name he had had no clue how to pronounce.
But fortune had smiled upon him and one night in which he had been planning nothing but alcohol consumption to drown out his woes he had the luck of overhearing a conversation between two natives and a tourist that proved intriguing. The tourist had been off exploring the jungle on his own, an American cowboy, with a heart beating for adventure, at the same time disregarding everything else in the world. It was puzzling to Jonathan why American would be addressing a boy and his father at a table in a small bar, but then again, weirder things had happened. "Bloody Americans," had been the British man's comment as he began to pound down another drink.
And as he had lowered his head onto the bar table the conversation occurring at the table behind him began to grab his full attention. "What the hell is up with the jungle out there?" the American had asked.
"Senor?"
"Don't play stupid with me," the adrenaline motivated man had continued. "There's a fucking blizzard out there in the jungle. One minute I was sweating my ass off and the next I'm almost dieing of hypothermia. There had to be over four feet of snow on the goddamn ground!"
Jonathan would have dismissed the conversation as American tomfoolery were it not for the two natives' sharp inhales and all to quick, "Que's?"
"Don't you what me!" exclaimed the brash American demonstrating his limited knowledge of there language. "You know exactly what I'm talking about."
The man turned to his son and began to whisper in his ear in their native language telling him to tell the elder's of their village of the situation. "I'm sorry senor, but I must ask you to leave. You have outlived your welcome here."
"What are you talking about?" the American fired back, a bit surprised.
"You will never mention the temple of our gods ever again, and you will never come back to this village," the native instructed in a heavily accented English. He crossed his arms authoritatively as a group of men entered the bar.
Jonathan had kept his head down to avoid trouble, but his ears were taking every word uttered and engraving them into his memory. "What the hell is this?" The American had said as a fist came flying into his face knocking him out. Without hesitation, the men that had apperared in the bar began to carry him to a car that would serve as his transportation out of the village. In fact the hum of the motor that had pulled up outside the tiny pub surprised the archaeologist immensely. The small size of the village, in conjunction with the relative newness of cars to the world brought curiosity and a sense that everything was not all that it seemed in this village. With resolution he had paid his bill and left the bar, planning on putting together his various gear, picking up some winter clothing and seeing for himself what mysteries this jungle did hold.
He had set out determinedly, after a couple nights of wandering stumbling across the stunning spectacle the American had described. One moment he was traveling through a luscious green forest, and the next he began to see a white aura glowing behind the trees up ahead of him. The radiant illumination had only increased in intensity as he approached the end of the tree line. A sudden drop in temperature caused him to drop his pack and change into the winter clothes he had conveniently found in the local store. Without a doubt, that town had been hiding something… snow gear in a tropical atmosphere was absurd.
After trudging through the thick layers of snow that reached to over his waste he had come across a gradual elevation in the form of a small mountain. Exertion and stamina had gained new meaning as he had climbed up the mountain, eventually reaching an incredibly wide opening that seemed to be a cave entrance. Awe had enraptured his being at the fact that the opening was the width of one face of the mountain. But nonetheless, he had pushed on. He had come to a fork in the passage way, over a dozen possibilities, and after much deliberation, set out into a random passage way. He had found himself walking down passages that were most certainly man made. His eyes could barely comprehend the sites in front of him as he walked down gigantic passages made entirely of a metallic alloy.
Granted that the first world war was occurring and great technological advances were being made, yet not even Ford's model T could compare to the magnificence of a metal door that parted in half as he made his way on the downward slanted passage way. Rooms with such doors flanked him on either side yet he did not stray, and continued to walk down the long hallway. "My god," he murmured as the hallway grew, feeding into a gigantic door. With a breath of amazement, Jonathan Green watched the gigantic doors retract into the ceiling and floor, granting him passage.
"Intruder detected," a feminine voice dictated as bright lights filtered into the hallway in which he stood burning holes into the walls behind him.
"Bugger this," Jonathan yelled as he reached into his pocket bringing out a pistol, sprinting into the room in search of cover. He nearly paused in awe as things out of comic books began to come out of the gigantic ceiling of the room, floating in the air, all the while firing at him. Turning around for a second he began to unload his clip at one of the machines chasing him. "Crap," he muttered as the bullets deflected off the outer armor. Seeing the futility of fighting back, he returned to running.
He surveyed his surroundings as he weaved in his sprint, dodging the fire he was being subjected to. Luck was most definitely not on his side as he realized that the room was totally devoid of cover except for the altar that stood in the center of the gigantic area. The ceiling was the length of two rugby fields high and the width as almost the same, forming a giant dome. "Fuck," he muttered as his movements became too predictable and the laser blasts came too close to him for his liking. He lunged away from the perimeter towards the center podium trying to do anything he could to avoid getting hit.
Jonathan looked up towards the altar, merely a limestone table in the gigantic room, and flinched when a flash of light reflected off of something on the table into his eyes. "This is getting old fast," he muttered to himself, ducking under the table, trying to find any shelter he could. He closed his eyes waiting for the end as he heard his pursuers fly overhead. Much to his pleasure the contraptions stopped their firing resorting to circling overhead of himself and the altar. A sudden realization struck him leaving a pleased grin on his face.
"They can't fire at me because they can't risk hitting whatever's up there," he laughed triumphantly. With a deep breath he removed himself from his cover and lunged for the item on top of the stone table. Rational thought within himself stopped as his hands came in contact with a sword hilt. "What?" he murmured as he gazed upon the sword hilt he held in his hands, a pair of gloves, two small glimmering swords that he recognized as bearing a similarity to the Japanese kodachi, a quarter staff and a book with a giant insignia of a hawk on the cover. The cover of the book itself looked almost to be a puzzle, with many circular rings that formed the insignia, each ring maintaining the same width but becoming less in diameter as they came towards the center. "My god," he muttered in shock.
"What is all this?" he wondered as the domes walls began to glow, forming green letters that were unknown to the archaeologists intellect. Before he knew it he was crying out in pain as electric bolts entered his arms and spread throughout his body. He screamed out in pain as the sword hilt levitated up into the air and set back down onto the table, leaving him disoriented on the floor. In at that moment a billion images entered in his head.
He saw flying contraptions flying through the vast reaches of space. A group of three women and one man entered his mind's eye. "Nirvana," he uttered in a trance-like state. And he saw Earth, and the evil that would become. He saw the hopelessness and the destruction brought about by his insane planet.
A soft
childish feminine voice echoed of the walls of the room with true majesty and
grandeur. "Thank you Jonathan
Green. You have given all that is good
in the world a fighting chance. Because
of your bravery we will not go quietly into the night. May you live in peace, destroyer of Earth,
and savior of life."
"Get up John," he whispered ignoring everything but his own weakness. He would ponder everything later, but for now, he knew that survival was dependent on his ability to get out of this winter wasteland.
"Thermal monitoring has been halted. Snow camouflage lifted. Prepping for take off," came a monotone voice that resounded throughout the interior of the room.
"Get up, get up, get up," his voice began to get steadily louder as he continued his mantra. Adrenaline sparked life into his legs as the floor began to vibrate. "Ahhhh," he yelled as he got to his feet, ignoring the waves of pain coursing through his body.
As fast he could move, he was heading back towards the door in which he had entered this chaotic room. Had he not felt a sense of urgency he might have realized that his floating demons from before had disappeared, however his mind was signally focused on survival. His instincts told him that the only path for survival was away from the places and he was putting all the effort he could into escaping.
Rooms past by as he sprinted down the corridor. Time seemed frozen as he emerged from the pathway into the giant cave opening that had sparked so much interest before. Fatigue gripped him, causing him to stumble; yet he could not help but smile as he fell out of the mysterious structure he had just been in, and into the snow of the mountain.
Of course that smile lasted for only as long as it took him to realize that he was now rolling down a mountain at an increasing speed. "Blooooooooooooooddddddddddyyyyyyyyyyy Hhhhheeeeeeeeellllllll," he yelled as he fell down the even slope of the small mountain. Had he been able to think, he might have noticed that it was nothing but snow he was rolling on. There were no rocks at all, and the slope to the mountain was perfectly maintained to the base.
In what seemed to be a lifetime, Jonathan found himself at the base of the incline, panting heavily and thanking whatever higher being existed that kept him from dieing. "At least it can't get any worse," he muttered sarcastically.
Life seemed to disagree as the mountain he had just been on began to rumble. Snow that fell of the mountain began to bury the down on his luck archaeologist as the mountain began to lift into the sky. Although, in this instance, a bad even ended up saving his life. The searing heat emitted from the base of the mountain began to melt the top layers of the snow, sublimating them into gas, totally skipping the liquid phase of matter. As the heat receded, Jonathan was left with nothing more than a light film of snow on top of him. As he sat up and opened his eyes, he was further inspired by awe as a metallic structure lifted into the night sky. The blue thrusters seemed to wink at him, saying, "Live on Jonathan, and thank you."
"What a day," the archeologist sighed as he looked down at the ground and took a well-deserved fainting spell. The ship rose into the sky, hope for a bright future rekindled. Good gained a fighting chance as the spaceship continued on with its flight to destiny.
****
Vandread: Dreamline
Prologue: Distant Early Warning
Dita smiled as she gracefully wove through the enemy fighters. "Mr. Alien, let's combine," she cheered in her naïve exuberance. Battles brought a simple sort of pleasure to her albeit it was amidst much disgust. She hated the fighting, and the possibility of losing her friends, however she also enjoyed how close it brought her to her favorite alien. Every time she combined, it was as if she could feel the bond between her and Hibiki grow to unbelievable heights. They worked together, not to mention the fact that he put his hand on top of hers and she sat incredibly close to him. It was memories like these that would elicit happy sighs from her when she was daydreaming.
"Aiiiieeeeeee," she screamed as a couple of the cube class enemy fighters intercepted her from above her dread fighter. Of course in battle there were always those annoying enemies that kept her and Mr. Alien from combining.
"Dita regroup," came the voice of her respected leader as Meia Gisborn steered her dread fighter towards the Van Guard that held the incredibly egotistical pilot Hibiki. Of course, Meia couldn't discredit his skills… he was truly almost as good as he put off.
"Roger," responded the red haired pilot with a little remorse. It looked like her leader would be getting the honor of combining to form a Vandread. As much as she hated to admit it she could not help but feel a little inkling of jealousy as Meia said, "Hibiki, I think we should combine our fighters now."
The enthusiastic response with which he would reply did nothing to alleviate Dita's jealousy when it was directed to Jura or Meia. Of course, it was still an improvement on his past behavior. Ever since they had destroyed the first flagship, he had seemed to gain a new level of maturity in addition an open perspective to that whole combining issue. Still envy was present in her as she heard her leader's order. And of course there was that Misty girl, to add to the mix.
"Alright let's do it," Hibiki cheered as he piloted his "partner" towards the incoming Dread fighter. In a flash, what the bridge had termed "Vandread Meia" had been formed as was heading towards the harvester ship at unbelievable speeds. The potential velocity that that particular fighter contained was truly impressive.
"All right you two, let's get this over with," Buzam Calessa or more affectionately called, BC, said to her pilots. "We don't have all day."
"Gotcha," replied the cocky male and his less so egotistical associate. "Let's do this," Hibiki Tokai roared directing the Vandread into the fray. Cube ships were left behind as the gray Vandread streaked throughout the vastness of space.
"Commander, we have a situation!" Belvedere Coco called out from her post. Her blond locks shook as she moved her head so she had established eye contact with her superior.
"What is it?" BC asked as she approached the radar screen that Belvedere was monitoring. The operator pointed to a small blip that was approaching at an alarmingly fast rate.
"The speed is reading even greater than that of Vandread Meia, and it's heading directly for the harvester," pointed out the blond haired woman.
"What does that mean?" asked Celtic Midori, dressed in a training gi and hakama.
"I don't know," BC, said standing up from her leaning position resolutely. "Meia, Hibiki, be careful. We have an unknown object out here approaching the harvester. Be careful."
"Roger," Meia said, paying little attention to the jabber her companion was putting out.
"Wait commander," exclaimed Celtic Midori, her own monitor attracting her attention. BC was at the blue haired woman's monitor in a second.
"Oh no…" BC breathed out.
"Okay, let's focus and get this over with Hibiki," Meia said as she helped him dodge a couple cube class enemies. "Dita, I'm leaving you in charge of the B group, Jura you take A."
"Roger," was the simultaneous acknowledgement.
"And be alert. We're not sure exactly what's going on with that new contact," she advised. Reaching up with a hand to the ceiling of the cockpit, she touched a button producing holographic radar on the side of the cockpit.
"What's the big deal?" Hibiki asked in confusion. "It looks like a cube ship," he said staring at the blip on the radar screen.
"Your right, just a little bigger," Meia agreed.
"Never mind that," Hibiki said, with
a grin. "You want a piece of me?" the
cocky man asked as a group of enemy fighters approached the speeding
vandread.
"Wait a second," BC said as she pondered upon the situation. "If that's a cube fighter, then… Oh shit," she yelled. "Double the scanning radius, of the radar," BC ordered leaning with one hand on the console as she looked at the screen.
"What is it BC?" Magno Veran called from her chair as she oversaw the actions of the battle.
"Sir, if that's an enemy cube, and it didn't come from the harvester…" BC started.
"You think there's another ship," the leader of the Nirvana told her second in command. The old woman placed a scratched her chin as she contemplated the theory.
"That's what I'm checking sir," BC replied. "Let's see," she muttered, waiting for the updated radar to be displayed. As the blue sphere's radius increased a white blip appeared on the edge of the screen.
"It can't be," Celtic said in disbelief. "Is that-"
"- a flagship," Magno finished for her. "BC, let's get out of here, we're not prepared enough to take on a flagship right now."
"Attention Meia, get all your dreads back to the hangar immediately. We have a flagship approximately 12,000 G.R. from our current destination," BC relayed.
"Well this is going to be close," Magno said intensely as she gripped the arms of her chair as the battle enfolded before her eyes.
"Detecting a high energy ouput from the harvester," cried Amarone Slantheav as the operator looked at her monitor. "Commander, the blast is heading right into the unknown contact."
"What are they up to?" Magno asked.
"Hold on, rapid energy augmentation. Captain, the unknown contact seems to be some sort of energy amplifier," Amarone informed. "It's aimed… Captain the blast is heading straight for the Nirvana!"
"Bart get us out of the way," Magno yelled with adrenaline. "Let's move it."
"Did you hear that," Hibiki asked as the cockpit seemed to gain an awkward silence. His heart was full of confusion as he heard the events transpire in front of him.
"Yeah," Meia acknowledged solemnly. "They're not going to get out of the way in time," she said in an expressionless voice. She pressed a few buttons in the cockpit, calculating something that filled her heart with a sad smile of regret, with a little happiness. "There's one way they can be saved," she said.
" Not much choice is there?" Hibiki asked, a small grin making it's way onto his face.
"If we hit maximum velocity, we should be able to alter the trajectory of the blast so that the Nirvana avoids it," Meia agreed. "I'm up for it if you are."
"Well then it sounds like a plan," Hibiki agreed.
"Hibiki, it's been fun," Meia said placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Kinda sad to see it all go away, but yeah it has," the man agreed. "See ya around maybe, Meia."
"You too Hibiki," Meia said as she returned her hands to the controls. "You ready?"
"Hell yeah," the man yelled excitedly. "Let's kick some ass," he yelled as the Hawk-like Vandread lurched forward toward the incoming energy blast.
Dita watched in terror as her friends' Vandread met with the incoming blast. In a flash of light, the blast was flying on its altered course, missing the Nirvana. And as the radar flashed the word lost for where the Vandread had once been, Dita let loose a cry of one name in an utterly heart wrenching sob: "Hibikiii!"
****
A light sheen of sweat covered the face of Dita Leibely as she sat upright in bed. Her breathing came in short gasps as the dream remained fresh in her mind. "Just a nightmare," she whispered to herself, getting up and walking towards the door. Without out even thinking she had walked down the hall network of the Nirvana till she came upon the room of one Hibiki Tokai.
"Dita," a voice called out. A blond haired woman stood next to the door, a look of worry present on her face.
"Jura… did you just have a dream?" Dita asked, remembering the previous events regarding dreams.
"Yeah," the blond replied. "What do you think it means?" Jura asked in confusion as she leaned against the wall and slid down it until she was crouching close to the ground.
Dita took a breath preparing to answer the question when a sudden blaring noise filled her ears. As the noise alerted the crew of the Nirvana of an upcoming battle, Dita could not shake the feeling of foreboding she was experiencing. "Oh no…" she whispered in fear.
****
Distant Early Warning- Rush (Album: Grace Under Pressure)
An ill wind comes arising
Across the cities of the plain
There's no swimming in the heavy water
No singing in the acid rain
Red alert
Red alert
It's so hard to stay together
Passing through revolving doors
We need someone to talk to
And someone to sweep the floors
Incomplete
Incomplete
The world weighs on my shoulders
But what am I to do?
You sometimes drive me crazy
But I worry about you
I know it makes no difference
To what you're going through
But I see the tip of the iceberg
And I worry about you...
Cruising under your radar
Watching from satellites
Take a page from the red book
Keep them in your sights
Red alert
Red alert
Left and rights of passage
Black and whites of youth
Who can face the knowledge
That the truth is not the truth?
Obsolete
Absolute
The world weighs on my shoulders
But what am I to do?
You sometimes drive me crazy
But I worry about you
I know it makes no difference
To what you're going through
But I see the tip of the iceberg
And I worry about you...
Absalom, Absalom, Absalom
The saga begins…
Coming soon:
Vandread : Dreamline
Chapter 1: Sweet Miracle