StevieBond: New chapter and I like what I have, even though it wasn't easy.
Arnold: No one said it was going to be easy for you, right?
StevieBond: Hey I like a challenge, nothing more.
Kazuya: Anyways, there is so much more to come after this, much more.
StevieBond: Definitely, so enjoy reading the story, folks.
Unexpected Turn of Events
The next day followed and I was in my room, checking over the desert eagle pistol that I was still in possession of, you never know when there would be a ship takeover or not.
Suddenly, beeps went off around the ship, it was time for battle I guess. I left my room with the girls and hurried to the briefing room where Tact and Kazuya were waiting.
"Angels, we have a group of enemy ships approaching towards us and they are jamming our communications, therefore I cannot give you orders out on the battleground."
"That means you're gonna need me to be out there, right?" I asked.
"Correct, you'll lead the Angel Wing as it is your duty. Coco has already run a scan and there are no life forms detected on the enemy ships."
"Typical automated ships, at least they're easy to predict and shoot down. That means we can go all out without holding back."
"Get to the hanger and prepare for combat."
"Will do… come on Kazuya, you're going to see me in action for the first time."
We rushed to the hanger and got into our frames. Kazuya had to choose which frame to merge with. This time he went for Nano's First Aider, the only frame with two specials. Needle Fletchet and Repair Wave which worked the same say as Vanilla's Harvester.
We flew out of the hanger and out on the open space, I checked my radar to note that there were six destroyers and two cruisers, our objective was to eliminate the fleet, simple yet effective.
"Remember angels, if it gets too much for any of you out there, stay close to me." I reminded them.
"We'll be okay Arnold." Nano replied on my screen. "At least you all have me for repairs."
It was battle time and it felt good to be piloting my frame again. My frame carried the same offensive capabilities as before but it did get a reliability upgrade. The first destroyer was in sight and I took it out with my dual miniguns, a second one was close and I released my heat seeker missiles and more than enough were able to hit the target, destroying that one.
I did a quick radar check to see the others were doing fine, Nano, Apricot and Kahlua each took out a destroyer. I wiped out a third destroyer, just the cruisers remain. Then my spirit level peaked, a big smile went on my face as it was time for the drill.
"Okay Kazuya, here's my special in action…" I turned my frame to a cruiser. "SPIKE DRIVER!"
I charged my frame right at the cruiser as my big drill whirled into motion and it effectively tore the cruiser in half, causing it to explode. The others all took care of the other cruiser, there were no targets left.
"All targets destroyed." Coco said on my screen. "Great work Angels."
"Just like old times, eh?" Tact asked.
"Yeah, I guess so." I replied. "Angels, we're coming back to the ship."
We flew back to the hanger and got out of our frames, it felt good to be out on the battlefield after a long time. The Angels all did impressively well too, we went back to the bridge.
"Tact, the Angel Wing is back." I said.
"Good work everyone, you haven't lost your touch." Tact replied. "What's the situation, Coco?"
"I'm still unable to contact Seldar, eliminating the automated fleet doesn't seem to have worked." She replied before a beep went off. "Oh wait, I'm getting an emergency transmission from ABSOLUTE."
"Put it on screen and open a channel."
An image appeared on the big screen and my heart skipped a beat.
"Milfie!" I exclaimed. "So happy to see you my love."
"Arnold!" she replied. "I'm sorry but this is an emergency."
"Go ahead, Milfie." Tact said.
"I've come to warn you that the Central Globe is under attack, but I have no idea who's behind it. Forte may be able to help out if you hurry to Seldar."
"Central Globe, isn't that where the heart of ABSOLUTE is?" I asked.
"That will be enough…" I heard a sly voice on the screen.
Suddenly, a big shaped skeleton claw grabbed Milfie and the footage was cut off.
"EEEEEEEEEEK!" I heard her scream before the transmission went static.
"MILFIE!" I yelled, I was in a state of shock that happened just like that.
"Coco, re-establish contact!" Tact said.
"I'm unable to, the connection keeps failing." Coco replied. "It looks like the transmission from ABSOLUTE has been cut off."
"Milfie…" Apricot said in a sad tone. "…my sister."
"Don't worry you both." Tact said to me and her. "Milfie will be safe as the EDEN fleet can respond to any threat inside ABSOLUTE. She appeared to mention Forte as well being at Seldar, something must be happening there as well."
I had to regain my composure, no matter how hard it was for me right now. "Why would there be something going on in Seldar?"
"Cause the Chrono Gate at NEUE is located near Seldar and that only complicates matters."
Apricot sniffed. "Milfie…"
"Angel Wing, I advise you all to take a break. Kazuya, come with me to my office."
"Okay Tact." Kazuya replied.
The rest of us left the bridge and I went to my room and so did Apricot, I could tell that she would need time alone and I was the same. I was still in shock, who or what kind of heartless creature in the whole wide galaxy would wanna kidnap Milfie?
I heard a beep go off outside my room. "Yes?"
"Are you okay in there?" Apricot asked. "Cause I wanna speak to you."
"Sure thing, I'll come on out."
I left my room and walked with Apricot to the centre room with the benches. We often sat here and talked about many things, mostly about Milfie and we often smiled about it. But this time, we were both distraught at what we just saw and heard. But Tact was right, Milfie and I had faced far much worse situations than being kidnapped and EDEN's fleet is one of the best.
A while later, Kazuya walked on by and sat by us. "Cheer up Rico." He said. "I'm sure Milfie is safe."
That didn't seem to work, Apricot was beginning to shed a few tears and I was not far off. I could tell that he was struggling to cheer her up.
"I think Kazuya has a good point." I said glumly. "I'm sure everything will be okay in the end as it always has."
"Arnold, if I may say something." He looked at me. "You're taking this very well."
"It's because I already knew the possible dangers that Milfie would face when she became a gate keeper." I looked down. "There was always a chance that something like that would happen, even if I didn't want to believe it."
Apricot began to feel sleepy and she rested her head on Kazuya's shoulder. I think the stress and anxiety probably exhausted her. "Milfie…" she muttered.
"She's dreaming about her sister I think." I said quietly. "It reminds me of how Milfie sometimes bakes desserts during her studies with the dimension gates."
"I can't move…" Kazuya said and he was right, if he moved, he would wake her up.
Then Kahlua and Nano turned up. "Hi there you three." Nano greeted happily.
"Shhh." I said. "She's sleeping."
"Ahhh, isn't that cute?" Kahlua teased. "Rico likes you already, Kazuya."
"And are you feeling okay?" Nano asked me.
"I've been better." I replied. "But as I said before, you don't need to worry about me, as leader of the group I can't let myself be weak in the eyes of our enemies."
Kahlua nodded. "That may be true, but we want to help you as well. We know how much Milfie means to you and Rico."
I smiled. "Thanks girls."
Apricot then turned and hugged me, still daydreaming about her sister, only to then wake up and realize that it's me she's hugging.
Kazuya gasped, he knew what was going to happen…but it didn't.
"Sorry Arnold." Apricot apologised. "I thought you were my sister."
"Wait a minute…" he said. "…Rico didn't throw you in the air when she touched you, how come?"
"Well, you could say that I am a special case. But in a more accurate way, I think it's that…because I'm engaged to her sister and that Apricot here tends to think of me as a big brother, she trusts me completely."
"It's true." She added. "He's our leader but he's also like a big brother to me, a big brother that I never had."
I blushed a little bit.
"Anyways, you're looking better now." Kazuya said.
Apricot smiled. "Yeah, I'm okay now. Thanks for trying to cheer me up, Kazuya."
"It's alright."
"And you're right Arnold, I'll believe in my sister's luck and hope for the best. You should as well."
I smiled. "Oh I will always believe in Milfie's luck, speaking of which, let's have a picnic to lift our spirits up."
"YAY!"
"To the viewing park!" I said in my hero voice, glad that my humour is back too.
A day has passed after we had our picnic and we felt much better. It was a quiet late morning, only to then be called to the bridge by Tact, so we rushed over to where Tact was waiting.
"Angel Wing, reporting." I said. "Any updates?"
"We just received a transmission…I think you all need to see this." He replied sadly.
"Playing transmission." Coco said.
An image of Forte appeared on screen, well this just got more awkward.
"Attention everyone on the Luxiole, I announce today that Seldar will now be taken over by me and my forces." Forte declared. "The royal family is now under my custody and a new order will be established. I warn you, any attempt to show resistance will be met with force. End transmission."
I was stunned and couldn't believe my ears at what I just heard. "No way." I dismissed. "Was that really Forte?"
"I can confirm that the message was indeed from Forte, but I have little information to conclude what's going on." Tact replied. "Judging by those enemy ships from before as well as the lack of communications from Seldar and ASBOLUTE, I can only sum up that a coup d'état has been formed. But our destination is still Seldar as planned."
"Tact, that reminds me." Apricot said. "I was at the engine room with Maria earlier and she says that we don't have enough resources to make the trip."
"We also have reports of dwindling supplies on-board and this is because of your laziness with the paperwork." Coco said.
Tact sighed. "Alright, I'll take responsibility on this matter. Coco, use my personal code to send a transmission to a certain frequency."
"Understood." She sent it and then she got a reply back, requesting a channel.
An image appeared on screen…and it was Mint Blamanche!
"Hi Tact, you requested me?" she asked. "Oh hi Arnold, long time no speak."
I smiled. "Hi there Mint, it has been a while since you became Branch Manager."
"Hi Mint, we are in need of supplies for the Luxiole." Tact said.
"Then I will help for sure." Mint replied. "I heard of the transmission from earlier, please send me the details as I like to know more."
"I have sent the coordinates of where we are." Coco said.
"Thanks, then here are the coordinates for the rendezvous point."
Tact then turned to us. "Angel Wing, I would like you all to help out and catalogue what we need on the Luxiole before we arrive at our destination."
"You got it Tact, we'll get started right away." I replied. "See you again, Mint."
We left the bridge and we split up to make the process easier. I took care of the supplies needed in the hanger and the engineers requested that we needed spare armour plates and ammo crates, due to my frame's miniguns having bullets.
Once the supply situation was taken care of, I grabbed the angel member's reports via papers and brought them to Tact on the bridge. "Here you go, Tact. Our supply report is done."
"Good work, Arnold. Now to send the transmission." He replied. "And for now, we wait…"
But we didn't have to wait for long, as a space shuttle soon approached the Luxiole, requesting permission to dock inside. I was very impressed that it didn't take long for supplies to arrive. Tact seemed to have came to that idea as well.
Suddenly, sirens went across the entire ship, a screen displayed a few security guards being knocked down and a girl in a uniform who tore her outfit away, revealing herself to be Anise, the space pirate we dealt with earlier, she threw a knife at the security camera, cutting the footage off.
"Damn!" Tact said. "She appears to have infiltrated our ship and disabled the security system. Arnold, explore the ship and apprehend her as soon as possible. Use force if necessary."
"I'm going now Tact." I replied before I rushed out of the bridge and I notified the other angel wing members to be on the lookout for Anise.
It was then that I received a call from Kazuya who was down in the engine room where Maria was tied up. I rushed over to see the other angels and I untied Maria who explained that Anise had tampered with the engine before telling us that she was going to the hanger. We left the engine room immediately with me running faster than the others with Nano not far behind.
When I got to the hanger, Anise was at the loading dock and was about to move closer to the Braveheart frame. I didn't want to do this, but I had to take a drastic measure.
"Not another step!" I exclaimed, pulling out my desert eagle pistol at her.
She turned around to see me holding my gun. "Wait…you're carrying a weapon?"
"You're god damn right!" I smirked, I always wanted to say that line.
"But I thought angel wing members weren't allowed to carry firearms."
"That's rich, coming from a space pirate that doesn't play by the rules." I put on my serious face. "Now if you take one more step towards that Braveheart, I will pull the trigger."
"Gah!" Anise was frustrated, she knew I had her cornered and it wouldn't be long before the security would arrive. "You would dare to shoot a girl?"
"Well I took one out with my big drill many years ago one time."
"Shut it, I don't have time to listen to your stories…if you shoot me down, my boss will not hesitate to kill your friends!"
I blinked. "Your boss…you mean you're not working alone?"
"No and I'm doing this for a good reason you know."
"And what reason might that be and why resort to stealing the frame which is what I think you were going to do."
"I'm not telling you…now you better let me go if you wanna see your love again."
"Milfie…don't toy with me! How do you know about that too?"
"We're coming, Arnold!" I heard Nano exclaim as she ran up towards her.
"Time for me to go!" Anise yelled as she threw out a smoke bomb.
*BANG*
I fired my weapon, only for the bullet to hit the smoke bomb, creating a huge amount of smoke around me. I had to move away from the smoke until it faded away. Moments later, I noticed that Anise was inside Braveheart and she flew out of the hanger just before the doors were closed by Kazuya.
"Dammit, she got away!" Tequila moaned.
"Arnold, are you okay?" Apricot asked.
"Cough, cough!" I replied. "It's okay, it's just normal smoke…I can't believe I pulled the trigger, only for it to hit the smoke bomb. I feel really stupid!"
"I'm sorry I didn't get to the hanger doors in time." Kazuya sighed.
"It's alright." I assured. "We'll get it back…for now, let's go to the bridge and let Tact know what's happened."
We went up to the bridge and I explained what had happened.
"I'm sorry to hear that, I take full responsibility for this defeat." He said.
"But why just you?" I asked.
"Because it's been nothing but peaceful for four years and I've gotten too used to the calm atmosphere."
Moments later, the actual supply ship appeared out of Chrono drive and boarded the hanger, now our supplies for the ship had really arrived. I was even more surprised that Mint herself was on the ship and she met us in the tea lounge.
"Nice to see the Angel Wing together." She commented, gaining our attention.
"It's all thanks to my leadership of the group." I replied before I gave Mint a friendly hug. "Have a seat here."
"Thank you, Arnold."
She sat with us whilst Tact explained the situation.
"I see, well I can assure you that I am familiar with Anise and I know the location of where she operates."
"Wow, you do have your sources." I replied.
"But if I may confess, I was the one who sold a shuttle ship to Anise that she used to steal the Braveheart."
"Huh?!" Tact exclaimed. "But why?"
"It's because Anise is from a legitimate group of treasure hunters, but I have been regretting that transaction since she has engaged in acts of piracy."
A beep went off on Tact's uniform.
"Tact, the repairs in the engine room have been completed." Coco said. "Resupplying will take 20 minutes before we can enter Chrono Drive."
"Got it, thanks Coco." Tact replied, ending the call. "Alright angels, the meeting is over."
"Understood." I replied as we left the lounge with Mint asking for Kazuya's attention.
Later on, after the resupplying was finished, we received coordinates of Anise's hideout and we were on standby for deployment. As I got into my frame and flew out, I saw a laser fire on a shuttle, exploding into pieces and revealing the Braveheart that was merged with an Emblem frame I hadn't seen before.
"Arnold, I've been ordered to pilot a shuttle and get a hold of the Braveheart." Kazuya said on my screen. "Keep me safe until I get there."
"Roger Kazuya." I replied.
Suddenly another laser fired but the Luxiole got in the way and took the attack, it almost hit the bridge part, I wondered if Tact was okay after that blast.
As Kazuya was able to get to the merged frame and brought it back to the hanger with Anise, Coco then appeared on my screen.
"Arnold, Tact Mayers has fallen down hard as the laser hit the bridge, his head has been cut and will need medical attention." She explained. "Once again, you are to command the upcoming battle, please be careful out there."
"Damn…understood." I replied. "Kazuya, are you ready yet?"
His face appeared on my screen. "I'm here and inside the Braveheart, I've merged it with Anise's Emblem Frame and she calls it the Relic Raider."
"Alright Angels, let's get ready to go. We're about to enter a battle…wait is Anise fighting alongside us?"
Then speak of the devil, her face appeared. "Yeah, I want payback for when Dieta destroyed the shuttle I borrowed from Mint."
"Dieta, is that who your boss is?"
"Was…but not anymore, anyways we can't waste time here, those ships are about to face us."
"Okay okay…let's have a look at the radar." I pulled up the map on our screens. "There are eight destroyers and two cruisers and this huge battleship here."
"The Dieta Dist." Anise said. "That's Dieta's flagship."
"Hmm, that flagship could be a major problem for all of us. Our objective is to wipe out the Dieta Dist. That should cause the other ships to retreat, let's engage!"
The girls and Kazuya nodded and the battle started. We took out the destroyers and a cruiser on our left so there would be some breathing room. The enemy flagship began to start moving but at a slow pace.
"Here I go…" I heard Anise say. "GENOCIDE BOMBER!"
A small pink sphere was released from her frame and it engulfed the entire flagship.
"Ha ha ha!" she laughed. "How do you like that, Dieta?"
"To think I enlisted you in the first place!" I heard Dieta exclaim. "I will return!"
"Enemy flagship retreating, other ships are retreating as well." I said. "Let us withdraw and return to the Luxiole."
We boarded our frames in the hanger and Nano went off quickly to treat Tact for injuries in the infirmary whilst Anise was taken into custody by security.
