"Where the hell am I?" a man groaned from the pilot's seat of a damaged F-22 fighter jet.
Holding his hand up to his cracked helmet the pilot of the fighter jet groaned again as he recalled what happened to him before he blacked out.
"Those asteroids" he muttered "And that light".
Feeling a massive throbbing pain in the side of his head the pilot grunted quietly as he moved his hand back and felt something warm and wet.
Moving his hand back in front of him his eyes zeroed in on a stain of fresh blood on his hand. "Fantastic" he muttered to himself.
Activating his jet's radio he flipped the communication switch and called out "Eagle Eye this is Mobius 1 do you copy?"
Static was the only response. "I repeat, this is I.S.A.F fighter pilot Mobius 1 to any friendly I.S.A.F units in the area. I was forced into an emergency landing in the ocea…"
Mobius 1's words trailed off. "I crashed into the ocean" he muttered to himself "I should be dead right now…Where am I?"
Finally looking out of his fighter's canopy the pilot's eyes widened when he saw what was in front of him.
"A…planet?" he gasped "I'm in space? Impossible".
Sure enough, far ahead of him and his fight jet was a planet. It wasn't much to look at, it seemed to be nothing more than a desert world and its atmosphere didn't even seem capable of supporting life.
"What am I supposed to do now?" Mobius 1 asked himself before his radio picked up a transmission.
"This mach battle will not only demonstrate the many capabilities of the Van-types, but also prove the strength of the might Tarak Empire"
"Tarak Empire?" Mobius 1 muttered to himself "What the hell is going on here?"
Turning his attention to his flight controls, the fighter pilot was relieved to see his jet's systems were still active, but was quite confused to see that his engine was still operational in the void of space.
"I'll have to figure that out later" he concluded "For now I need to try and make contact with these people".
Starting the fighter's engines, Mobius 1 locked his eyes on a large fleet flying above the planet ahead of him and his instincts told him that there was going to be trouble, but he had little choice at this point.
Closing in on the fleet ahead of him, Mobius 1 heard the ping of his radar which began showing many unidentified hits behind a large unmoving asteroid. "Here we go" the pilot muttered.
Turns out Mobius' gut feeling was right, a second fleet appeared from behind the large asteroid and started attacking the fleet in front of him.
An intercepted radio transmission had a panicked voice "We are under attack, cancel the exhibition. Scramble all pilots for a counter attack"
"What's going on?" another voice asked.
The panicked voice continued "It's the women they're attacking!"
"The women are attacking?" Mobius repeated "What is that supposed to mean?"
The first fleet's flagship opened its hangers and many humanoid shaped ships poured out of it to defend their fleet from the attack.
Slowing his fighter to a halt Mobius watched the humanoid machines attack the strange fighters from the opposite fleet "Maybe I should just hang back for a bit" Mobius felt a strong throbbing pain in his head and immediately hunched over gripping the front of his helmet with both hands grunting loudly.
"We are taking heavy damage we can't hold out for much longer!" the same panicked voice cried over the radio "Prime Minister!"
"Attention all Vanguard units! Unidentified ship lingering at coordinates Alpha 23, 17 assume hostile and destroy it".
Hearing the warning alarms in his cockpit go off, Mobius shot himself back to a sitting position and turned his fighter just in time to avoid an attack by one of the human shaped machines.
"That's not good" the I.S.A.F pilot muttered seeing several of the human machines flying toward him.
Flying straight past the first enemy Mobius easily flew between them and led them back into the battle trying to bait them into attacking each other. "I didn't do anything to these people why are they attacking me?"
Failing to shake his attackers, Mobius had no other choice. If they would not cease their attacks on him he would have to fight back.
"So be it" Mobius muttered before he made a sharp turn and fired a single missile at one of his pursuers hitting the human shaped machine in its chest.
"The unknown craft shot down one of the Van-types!" a voice cried over the radio "All pilots destroy the unknown hostile".
"Perfect" Mobius growled as the other human shaped machines started attacking him as well.
Leading a small group of enemies on a chase through the battle, Mobius easily evaded each of their attacks as if they weren't even firing at him before he turned around to shoot them down himself.
"Do these things even have pilots?" he asked himself seeing how horribly the machines were flying "I've seen I.S.A.F rookies who can fly better than that".
Spotting what looked like a spear tip fighter jet, Mobius watched several of the human shaped machines grab onto the red fighter trying to force it out of formation.
"The enemy of my enemy" Mobius said as he turned to pursue the red spear head shaped fighter "I still feel like I'm going to regret this later on".
"Ah! What are these things? They're getting in my way" a female voice cried over the radio.
"Don't worry about the Vanguards" another female voice ordered this one sounded cold and emotionless. "Just concentrate on the enemy flagship".
"What is that? That's not a Vanguard!" the first female voice said seeing Mobius' F-22 flying along side her before it slowed down and got behind her.
"Come on keep steady" Mobius muttered as he waited for his targeting system to acquire the human machines latched on to the red fighter. "There we go" he cried silently using his index finger to pull the trigger on his flightstick, firing the machine guns of his fighter.
The guns of the F-22 fired faster in the void of space quickly tearing through the armor of the human shaped machines forcing them off of the red fighter.
After shooting the enemies off of his temporary ally, Mobius accelerated and turned away from the red fighter before turning his attention to what he assumed to be the enemy's flagship.
"Pay back time" Mobius growled diving toward the hull of the enemy flagship and firing two missiles before pulling away.
"You think that one's on our side?" the same female voice asked over the radio after seeing Mobius attack the enemy flagship.
"It's possible, but we can't let our guard down just continue the mission" the emotionless female voice ordered.
"We've breached the hull boarding team move in" a female voice cried after the hull of the flagship was blown open.
"We can't" a panicked voice replied "The Vanguards are forming a wall around the hole".
Mobius activated the microphone in his flight helmet "I don't know who you all are, but we're working toward the same end here. You agree to not fire on me and I'll help you out. Deal?"
"That voice" one of the female pilots said "Is that a man?"
A new voice, also female, but strong and commanding answered Mobius "We'll agree to your proposal for now. But just so you know we're not here to make any friends".
"Really?" Mobius replied in a carefree tone "And here I thought trying to kill someone was your way of saying hello. I'll be sure to stay out of your way once this is over".
Flying head on toward the line of Vanguards protecting their flagship, Mobius switched to his special weapons reserve and fired four XMAA missiles before immediately switching back to his regular missiles and firing two missiles at another two, successfully wiping out the entire defensive line.
"Splash all targets, cleared to move in" Mobius announced before following one of his temporary allies into the flagship.
Watching the blue fighter ahead of his crash through the flagship, Mobius slowed his speed to better navigate through the tight spaces.
"I can't stop!" the pilot of the out of control blue fighter cried. A young, panicked female voice.
"Pilot respond" Mobius requested after watching the blue fighter crash through the halls ahead of him. "Repeat; pilot respond. What's your status?" Hearing his cockpit's warning alarm Mobius looked up and immediately threw his flightstick to the left to avoid colliding with a wall.
"Dammit, there's not enough room to turn around!" Mobius yelled "I have to try and land" he said to himself, slowing his airspeed and lowering his landing gear.
"Alright" he muttered "Landing gear, check. Course, not like I have a choice. Let's do this".
Slowly tilting his fighter's nose downward, Mobius steered his fighter into a landing position before pulling up and allowing the back wheels to touchdown before he set his fighter back into a level position.
"Almost" Mobius muttered as he waited for his fighter to slow to a halt.
The warning alarms in his cockpit went off signaling an emergency. Immediately looking over his shoulder Mobius saw another of the strange fighters speeding toward him.
"Holy hell!" he yelled as he ducked his head down and covered himself, just as the fighter zoomed over his F-22 and crashed through the wall ahead of him.
Looking up, Mobius sighed as he looked back over his shoulder and saw no damage to his fighter "Too close, I need to get out".
Opening the canopy to his fighter, Mobius jumped out and heard the sound of gunfire in the room that the other fighter crashed through and unholstered his Beretta M9 handgun and took cover behind some of the debris.
"What the hell?" Mobius muttered seeing the strange flightsuits the pilots were wearing "What kind of space suit is that?"
The two pilots were in a very bulky, think leathered flightsuit with helmets that looked like steel monster faces, definitely an unusual sight.
Watching the two pilots duck out of their cover, they held their right arms up toward a window and fired a single laser like beam from their fist at a single guard who was hiding behind the window.
"Lasers?" Mobius asked himself "Perfect".
Spotting a single man with what looked like some kind of assault rifle in his hands trying to sneak around the two pinned down pilots; Mobius made a decision and decided to take the side that didn't attack him.
Once the lone solider was close enough, Mobius bolted out from his cover and grabbed the soldier's arm and pushed it up toward the air before thrusting his knee into his stomach and then bringing the handle of his handgun down on his head after he hunched over.
After knocking out the lone soldier, Mobius took cover next to one of the pinned down pilots. "How ya doin'?" he asked surprising the pilot.
"What?" the pilot gasped. The voice was female "Where'd you come from? Are you a man?"
"I'm the pilot that helped you get in here" Mobius answered "And yes I'm a man, don't see why my gender would matter at a time like this, but I'm not going to ask questions. We're pinned down and won't be going anywhere unless we work together".
"Forget it" the pilot told him "I'm not working with a man".
The pilot ducked out of her cover to fire her laser, but a bullet grazed her arm and she flinched leaving her open for another shot.
"Get down!" Mobius barked pulling her back behind cover "Still think you don't need my help?" he asked her "Listen I really have no idea what's going on here, but whatever it is the fact of the matter is we're just going to be sitting ducks here unless we can move and move fast. If you have any allies nearby we need to get to them before the enemy surrounds us".
The female pilot didn't respond, she remained silent, but Mobius could tell even through her flightmask she was sizing him up.
Mobius quickly peeked his head over their cover to check the area. "Listen!" he yelled ducking back down just as a bullet flew by his helmet "If you think you can keep them focused on this spot I should be able to sneak around and take them out".
The pilot harshly rejected his offer "Forget it, I'm not trusting my life to a man, I don't care how bad the situation is".
Mobius shook his head "What the hell did I do to deserve this?" he asked himself before looking back at the pilot "Well good luck to you then, I'm out of here".
Staying crouched, Mobius quickly made his way around the crashed fighter and to a staircase against the wall, making sure the two hostiles in the window were focused on the pinned down pilots until he reached the door.
Finally reaching the door, Mobius reached for the handle, but stopped and made one last look back over his shoulder. "I'm going to regret this" he said "I'm going to regret this in a big way".
Letting go of the door handle, Mobius continued to ascend the staircase and circled around behind the two men who had the pilots pinned down. Kicking open the door, Mobius grabbed the soldier near him and used him as a shield while he shot the second guard twice in the chest.
Once the first guard dropped to the floor, Mobius released the guard he restrained and immediately slammed the handle of his gun into the back of his head knocking him out.
Standing at the shattered window Mobius looked down to the pilots and yelled "All clear, you're welcome" before turning around and exiting through a door next to him.
Once he stepped through the doorway a laser was fired and the shot missed his helmet by a mere inch.
Mobius froze and looked at the one who shot at him, another woman.
"Don't move" she ordered "Drop your weapon and get in the group with the rest of them".
Mobius shook his head "Yeah I don't see that happening. In case you forgot I'm the one who cleared the way for you to get in here in the first place".
"There's a good question" another female voice said to his left.
Looking to his left, Mobius watched as another two pilots removed their monster shaped flightsuits, both of them were women. The first was the same height as Mobius and wore a pretty revealing black dress. She had blonde hair that reached down to her waist line, for all of her curves and features however, Mobius immediately zeroed in on her green eyes.
The other was a bit shorter and wore a gray flightsuit; her hair was light blue and separated in style. The front hung just over her eyes in a spiky pattern while the rest of her hair was straightened back in a fan style that stopped just past her ears, again Mobius immediately zeroed in on the eyes of this one. The look in her eyes showed a cold expression.
"So why did you help us?" the blonde haired one asked Mobius.
Mobius kept his eyes on the two pilots next to him "Those strange machines attacked me unprovoked" he told her "I saw they were attacking you as well. There's an old saying, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And whoever these guys are, they're definitely my enemy".
The blonde haired woman rested her hands against her hips "Is that so? You make it sound so simple. I'm actually surprised a man is helping us".
Just then the two pinned down pilots that Mobius helped walked into the room "Whatever his reasons are he's still a man. I say we throw him into the escape pod with the rest and get rid of them" one of them said. Considering she was holding her left arm, it must've been the same one Mobius saved from getting shot.
"Nice to see you to" Mobius retaliated in an aggravated tone "You still haven't thanked me for saving your ass back there".
"I didn't ask for your help!" the woman barked.
"Barnette that's enough" the blue haired woman demanded "Have Paiway look at your injury. As for you" she continued shifting her eyes to Mobius "Get in line with the rest of them".
"I'm pretty sure I've made my position on that matter clear" Mobius said to her "I'm not getting in that group". Mobius paused to look around at everyone in the room with him "You ladies have a real problem with thanking someone who helped you".
"Wait where's Dita?" the one called Barnette asked, taking off her flightsuit.
A girl just as tall as the one with blue hair, this one had dark green hair and violet eyes. She also wore a pretty revealing outfit only this one was a skin tight flightsuit that only covered between her legs and up her sides and abdomen, splitting off just around her breast.
"Wasn't she with you?" the blonde haired one asked her.
The green haired pilot shook her head "Last I saw she was crashing through the halls screaming her head off".
"This Dita" Mobius began catching their attention "Does she fly that blue fighter? Bulky on the sides and flies pretty clumsily?"
"You know where she is?" the blonde haired pilot asked him.
Mobius slightly nodded "I have a pretty good idea. You agree to stop threatening me and I'll take you to where her ship is".
"You're still offering to help us?" she asked him.
"More or less" Mobius said to her "As long as you don't attack me I have no reason to not help you, follow me" he told her before he walked out of the room and back to the giant hall where he landed his F-22.
"I had to land here, around that corner down there" he pointed at the place where he flew his fighter through "That's the last place I saw you're pilot, I tried contacting her before I landed, but I didn't get a response".
The blue haired pilot looked over her shoulder "Jura let's go".
The blonde haired pilot nodded "Alright I'll follow you".
"Well I hope you find her" Mobius said "As for me I'm getting out of here".
"You're not going anywhere!" the blue haired pilot snapped "I still don't trust you, so I'm not letting you out of my sight".
Mobius felt a twinge of pain just above his left eye and grunted as he placed his hand on his helmet "Fine, but just make it quick so I can leave already".
Following the two pilots down the hall, it didn't take long for them to find the missing pilot, watching from a balcony they saw a young red haired girl chasing a young man, probably in his teens over a pile of rubble, cheerfully yelling for him to wait up and stop running.
"That your pilot?" Mobius asked.
"You see that Meia" the blonde haired one asked "She's chasing a man".
"Jura let's go, we don't have time" the other pilot said jumping down from the walkway and running over to the red haired girl before tackling her to the ground.
"She's quite the authority figure isn't she?" Mobius asked.
The blonde haired one, Jura looked over to him "So why exactly are you so willing to help us? You don't seem too worried that we'll attack you as well".
"I'm hoping that won't happen, but I'm prepared for it" Mobius admitted "You all seem really hostile toward men and I don't really know why, all that matters to me is getting out of here, finding out how the hell I got into space and then getting back to Earth…if at all possible".
"Earth?" the blonde pilot asked "Why would you want to go there?"
Before Mobius could answer, Meia yelled up to Jura "Jura we need to leave the main section of the flagship is preparing a missile and their targeting us".
"Fantastic" Mobius growled before turning around "Good luck to you I'm getting out of here".
Not waiting for the women to follow him, Mobius quickly ran back to his F-22 and climbed back into the pilot's seat. "Alright, looks like they've all cleared out of the room ahead of me, that's good cause my only way out is to blast through".
Preparing his missiles to fire at the wall ahead of him, Mobius felt a massive surge of pain in his forehead and grunted loudly as he hunched over with his hands grasping at his helmet. The pain immediately grew worse, it felt like a giant nail was being forced through his temple and wiggled around.
"Dita!" he heard a voice gasp over the radio.
"We can't wait any longer we have to go" another voice replied.
"Someone help me!" a panicked voice cried just as the pain in Mobius' head spiked and vanished.
Mobius was breathing heavily, the pain in his head was completely gone, but for some reason he felt like he was falling. Painfully opening his eyes, he saw the three female pilots and the boy the red haired girl was chasing. They were all falling into an endless liquid like, blue light.
"What is this? Are we going to die here?"
