but why should we spoil it for you? Anyhow, Hibiki may have found the perfect crib for the honor of Taarak, and in a matter of time, Misty will make her Dread pilot debut. Which brings to mind one thing: whose Dread expertise reigns supreme?
CHAPTER 6: NOT FRAGILE
The workshop of Parfet's was lined with all sorts of tools, with a worktable in the center of the room--and it was there that she, Duero and Hibiki were trying to repair the carbonized Pyaro on, but with not much success. Nearby, was the egg robot's now unhooked hard drive. Not too faraway, were B.C., Magno, Meia, Barnette, Misty, Dita, Jura and Gascogne, all mulling over the fate of the comic relief robot--until the engineer looked up and said, "It doesn't look good. He'll never work again. Please don't sue me, but we did everything we could, and so far, all we were able to save was his hard drive."
"Judging from the firepower he took," said Hibiki, "he took one heck of a beating. It's a miracle his hard drive stood up to the blow."
"What a waste!" muttered Magno. "Pyaro will be extremely missed...who or what did THAT to him?"
"I'll give you a few guesses," stated Gascogne, "and they all spell P-S-E."
"The Pereira Star Empire did THAT to Pyaro?" said Meia. "Whatever for? How?
And why?"
"How can you be sure it was them?" asked B. C. "And what were they doing on Taarak? For that matter, how'd they get there without getting detected?"
"Maybe all these answers can be found in his hard drive," said Parfet. "I'll hook it up to the main computers and we just may learn what happened to him."
While the engineer hooked up a trunk line from the computer to the egg robot's hard drive, Barnette murmured, "Pyaro...served us well..."
"...and he'll be remembered...with honors," agreed Misty.
"Poor Pyaro," wept Dita. "Now we got no one for laughs, big laughs."
"But you got me," said Jura.
"All set," said Parfet, turning to a computer terminal with a keyboard; from there, she entered the sequence before what was seen through Pyaro's digital eyes, overlooking the explosion of the female decoy, in the Sector 192178 E alley, came onscreen. Then, the robot's voice could be heard lamenting, "WHAAAAAAAHHHHH! What happened to you? Talk to me, my Juliet!" That was followed by rifles cocking and a voice rang out: "Freeze, you shameless Humpty Dumpty clone!"
To the surprise of all here, the scene changed--to a huge platoon of Pereira Star Empire Imperial Emerald Guard troops, their phaser crossbows all aimed at the egg robot.
"See, I told you," said Gascogne.
"Oh no! Imperial----" squwaked the robot comic's voice before a heavy potshot came from one of the crossbows; the screen went snowy and distorted while a female voice, crackled, "Let's get those files!"
" ---Pereira Star Empire shock troops...got to...," crackled Pyaro's voice. "...got to.
warn the others...OH NO! I'VE BEEN SHOT!"
No sooner were those words said, the screen went black, the sound went out, and Pyaro's hard drive, black smoke pouring out from it, shorted out and blew up in pieces.
'Well, that does it," said Duero glumly. "Guess they don't make hard drives the way they used to."
While Dita bawled her head off, Meia said, "They must've thought Pyaro still had that file in his hard drive, and when they found out it wasn't..."
"...they tossed him in the junk pile," said B. C. "What a brave sacrifice, indeed..."
"He gave his life to protect that file that Hibiki copied onto a disc," muttered Magno. "Those PSE devils...!"
"A disc?" said Misty. "At least it's safe for now."
"An' I intend to ensure it STAYS safe," stated Hibiki. "Ain't no STUU--------PID Imperial troops goin' to steal THAT disc--I'd crab the first one that tries!"
"Take a number, poop-a-doop," said Barnette. I want dibs on those PSE jokers myself."
"You an' me both," agreed Gascogne.
"That ain't the worst of it," said Jura, who was scratching her nose with her finger,
"Without Pyaro, we can't form Super Vandread."
No sooner had the blonde diva uttered those words, Pyaro, given the fact he was egg shaped, split apart, just like a real egg; soon after that, a strange thing happened. For right after the comic relief robot broke open, the blue fragment crystal of the blue Pyxis floated up and out from Pyaro's steely carcass--and it split in two.
"What in the name of Mejere...?" said Captain Vivian.
What happened next took everyone by surprise--for that matter, it all happened so fast before anyone could react. Put simply, the first half of the Pyxis fragment flew and implanted itself into Barnette while the second half did the same to Misty. At the same moment, down in the Nirvana's engine room, the huge blue Pyxis, glowed and pulsed a few times before several comet like tendrils shot out from it, headed down the halls to Parfet's workshop and engulfed the four Dread pilots, the soon to be Dread pilot known as Misty, and the Van pilot, aka Hibiki, the blue pulse stars shifting direction and heading back down the hall; six empty spaces where Hibiki, Misty and the four Dread pilots had been were all that remained.
"They're gone!" said B. C.
"And just MAYBE," said Gascogne, "I think I know where they went."
"To the Dread hangar no doubt," said Parfet.
"Well, here we go again...," said Magno.
"Amen," agreed Duero.
Before reaching the hangar, the six stars merged into one big star, flying down the hall,
to the surprise of much of the female crew of the Nirvana, till it entered the hangar; again,
it split into six different stars, then five of the stars reached and engulfed the Dreads for
Meia, Misty, Jura, Dita and Barnette while the last one did the same to Hibiki's Van. After
a short interval, the stars turned loose the Dreads and the Van, revealing them as crystal
covered forms which shattered and dissolved, their ships looking the same as before.
After that, the stars fused back into one glowing crystal, like a glass Christmas ornament.
For a few minutes, the crystal puled on and off with blue light-
---------till it broke apart in countless pieces, revealing a good as new crew of Hibiki and co,
who stood in a daze, as if they had been on a marijuana trip.
"N-not again with floatin' in that Pyxis thing," muttered Dita. "Y'know..., that was the same thing we went through which enabled our Dreads to fuse with Hibiki's Van, right?"
"Seems that way," agreed Barnette. "That means that now my Dread and Misty's Dreads can fuse with Hibiki's Van...hey, that means we can join in the fun! I wonder what my Vandread's goin' to look like?"
"As long as neither mine nor your looks like a crab like Jura's," stated Misty.
"BURRRRRRRRRP! No thanks with an F," grunted Jura, her standing a bit wobbly.
"That'd b-be compeatin' with mine, to say the least."
"Y'know...," said Meia. "if that Pyxis fragment that came out of Pyaro fused with Misty and Barnette...then MAYBE there's STILL a chance to form Super Vandread--you with me so far?"
"Fine 'wit me," said Dita.
"Safe an' sound," said Jura.
"What do you think?" said Misty.
"Yup," said Barnette.
"Uh uh," said Hibiki, who was pulling out his pack of cigarettes.
"Uh uh?" said the Dread leader. "Why not?"
"Lissen yoo jokers," said the hothead, "remember the gripin' I got twixt Dita an' Jura over who would combine with my Vanguard? I ain't gettin' in no stinkin' brawl with you nincompoops over who gets to combine with me an' I don't need no B.S. from the likes of Barnette an' Misty givin' me a lot of birdlime!" From there, the Van pilot headed for the hangar exit the led out to the hall.
"Hey, whatchuu think you're doin'?" demanded Barnette.
"Headin' out to the park section for a smoke," replied Hibiki, who had just pulled out a cig and lit it with his butane lighter before taking a few puffs from it.
"Hibiki!" gasped Dita. "You got a cigarette! You just hand those over, STAT!" From there,
she and the other Dread pilots ran up to the mechanic, their faces livid.
"Hey, why don't you get off my case?" snarled the hothead. "I got a life, an' you dum dums wanna dictate it!"
"Listen you," said Meia, a bit testy, "if you think I wouldn't report you to the captain for your new habit, you're ultra mistaken. Please understand, I am trying to save the life you claim you've got, lest it be lost to cancer caused by smoking."
"Duero said something similar like that to me before." said the Van pilot. "So why don't you report me?" before taking a drag.
"You just be careful what you say," warned the Dread leader. "I can arrange that when you least expect it, and someday, you may thank me for doing so, when it comes to saving you from such an unwarranted habit like smoking."
Blowing a few smoke rings in the air, Hibiki asked, "Then how does one define unwarranted?"
"And how would I know that?" said Meia.
"Listen to Meia, why don't you?" said Jura. "Smoking is bad for your health. What possessed you to purchase those cigs in the first place?"
"With the way things is goin'," replied the hothead, "smokin' is the only way I can deal with all the B.S. I am up against. 'Sides, it calms me down."
"Calm you down?" said Misty. "They ain't calmin' you down, they're makin' you stupid! There's other ways to calm down."
"There IS such a thing," said Barnette, "as the right way. We care for you so much...we don't wanna lose you, Hibiki..."
"So?" said the Van pilot. "All the other fellas on Taarak smoked as well."
"So if those 'fellas on Taarak'," said Dita, "'cided to pilot their Vans head on towards a Harvester flagship, would you do THAT too? Smoking is bad for your health!"
For a moment, Hibiki paused, taking a long drag from his cigarette, before blowing the smoke in the faces of the Dread pilots, so while the ladies coughed and gasped, he hightailed it down the hall.
"What do you mean the hard drive of that robot had no trace of that file?" demanded the PSE Empress known as Brittany Pereira, who was, along with the other senior officers of The Empire in the Hohenzolleren's central council chamber, talking via the projected digital telescreen, to Sotto Voce (who looked like a blonde floozie), the Admiral of the Cygnus, which was the Imperial carrier that was between Taarak and Mejere.
"Not a trace," stated Admiral Voce. "If the file had been in the hard drive, it's already wiped clean,
so we just tossed that bad egg known as Pyaro into the junk pile."
"Then the file is lost!" complained the irate Empress. "That $ Hibiki Tokai! He must've mistaken the file for a virus and erased it! Wasted! What of the map for The Pyramid Of Titan?"
"No results so far," replied the Cygnus' Admiral. "Our Emerald Guard is searching the Mejere capital city so far, having already searched on Taarak. Which reminds me---a tiny spacecraft, came past the Cygnus from Mejere in such a hurry, so we suspected some kind of tomfoolery at hand and used our cannons to blast it to submission. So if we come across anything of value, we'll let you know."
Sighing, Brittany said in a bored way, "Carry on, then. But just remember what I said."
"Understood, Empress," said Sotto before the screen vanished from sight.
Turning to her colleagues, the Empress stated, "So it seems we're up against yet another impasse. I admire that Hibiki's courage, but if he tried to stand up to me, he'd regret it to a tee, for just as I can use use my sorcery to finish off Rabat...so can I use it to rid the so called Van pilot."
"With all due respect," said General Steg, "just what is all the fuss over a map?"
"Fuss?" echoed the PSE ruler. "That map, so the pundits say, is for the interior of The
Pyramid Of Titan, where within its underground tomb is a valuable gem known as
The Key Gem. With it, we can unlock The Pyramid Of Europa, where hidden in its core,
is The Green Pyxis, one of my secret creations, which will power our ultimate weapon."
"The ultimate weapon," said Admiral Chimali, "and all it took was for that Rabat to steal a copy of our plans for it, and that Hibiki wiped it out."
"What we DO know," said Rear Admiral Eos, "is that seeking out that map for The Key Gem is now our first priority. But who can say that those Mejere pirates may come across that?"
"All the reason to believe that we should hurry to seek out that map before they do"
stated the Empress. "At that stage of the game, there can be no bloody margin for the
worst of mistakes."
"Out of curiousity," asked Major Taltli, "you said The Green Pyxis was one of your creations.
Does that mean you made several of them?"
"That I did," replied Brittany, "in three different colors--red, green and blue; the green is spoken for, the red was finished off with my Harvest fleet last year, after what H. T. and co. did, and the blue supplies the power to the Nirvana pirate ship. Just think--three crystalline orbs of pure living hybrid high ionized matter/antimatter plasma energy..."
"You mean," said the General known as Tsitra, "that you also created those Pyxises in addition to those Harvesters?"
"Right said, General," said Brittany. "Only how was I to know the Red Pyxis, along with the bio clone I created, which would lead The Harvest, would turn not only the said Harvest and my fellow Earth colleagues against me during the beginning phase of construction and seek out their own independant conquest, in the name of harvesting humans for their own ambition in creating their own race? Since their defeat, I've reclaimed my control over them, and used what was left of their genetic work, in order to resume my cloning creations."
"A multi faceted sovergin, to say the least," said Xaltocan, the Admiral. "So the bio clone was that boy on board the giant gun ship with The Red Pyxis."
"Correct," agreed the PSE ruler. "Time to carry on with out task at hand."
"Dearly beloved, we're gathered here today, to pay our last respects to an old friend that served well, and was around for laughs--big laughs. And Pyaro was his name."
Thus spoke Magno Vivian when she stood along with B.C. and Parfet (who was holding Pyaro's
carcass over her head) on a cat walk that spanned over a molten steel pit the was part of
the Nirvana's recycling and foundry section; several of the crew, Misty, Hibiki, the Dread pilots,
and the rest, stood nearby, Dita and Eara crying their eyes out (and Ezra sobbing, "Now I'll never
hear him say 'Pyaro 2' again!"), Hibiki smoking and the rest of the Dread gals somber like
zombies.
"Just now," comtinued the boss,"Pyaro gave his robotic life--if you can call it that--to protect a
valuable computer file, and to get it safely in our possession, in the hopes we can study it,
and learn just what's in it. He picked it up, and passed it on before sacrificing his life to
a new enemy known as, accoring to Gascogne, The Pereira Star Empire, which MAY be
intent on picking up where The Harvest left off. Whatever their reasons may be, we've got
to be prepared. Which brings to mind, the reason for the reunion I set up: y' see, a week ago,
I was on the horn with the goverments of Taarak and Mejere, and they said to me that with
The Harvesters out of the picture, we, the Nirvana crew have been earmarked to head for the
planet Earth and recolonize it, for a future generation. Right now, over the past few days, we
had tech experts from the Hale-Warp company, from planet Balderon, upgrade the Nirvana
with their new state of the art combination engine drive and hyperdrive system. That way,
what used to take months, maybe half a year in space travel, can now only take a minute or two.
That, combined with the arrival of the new nemesis--The PSE, that is--will be a real test for sure,
for all of you. As such, we've got a week to make ready, stock on supplies, train our Dread crew,
upgrade our weapons and battle expertise--and ready the new suites for Hibiki, Duero, Parfet
and Bart. Anyhow, getting back to Pyaro, we must never forget what he did, in the hopes he
will always be remembered...Pyaro...he will be missed..."
That said, Magno turned to Parfet, who intoned in a ritual like way, "Pyaro...we bring thee back to the metallurgical afterlife where you can rest in peace, safe in the hope that you may be reborn as a new alloy, be it Dread or otherwise. Rest in peace, Pyaro."
From there, the Nirvana engineer hurled the burnt out egg robot down into the molten steel vat, before he melted and vanished from sight, now a part of the red orange liquid alloy used by the foundry. That done, the captain spoke to those gathered here with, "That concludes the service."
Within the bowels of the Nirvana hangar, preperations for Misty's debut as a Dread pilot
were underway, Hibiki getting ready in his Van, and the other women in their Dreads, prior
to a training session that Gascogne had set up out in space near the said Nirvana. Right now,
Misty was in the cockpit of her green Harvester clone drone turned Dread when Meia came up
to her and grinned.
"Sister!" chirped the newcomer. "I feel so nervous! My first flight in my own Dread! I feel like I could take on the whole Empire--that is, when they step into the picture."
"Who wouldn't?" agreed the Dread leader. "S-O...you finally ready?"
"Does a bear growl in the woods?" replied Misty. "Only one thing: what kind of training's Miss Gasco got in mind?"
From the cavernlike hangar, the shout of "GASCOGNE!" rang out from the said suppy shop leader. After that, Meia turned back to Misty and said, "You know that Harvester flagship Gascogne commandeered? She's going to use it for the training in which she'll launch its machine drones for target practice so we can sharpen our pilot tactics. That way, if and when we do take on The Empire, we'll be ready. Well...I've got to get my Dread and so should you." She kissed Misty in a quick way before adding, "Good luck," and ran off.
"What's the status?" asked Magno.
"Many Dreads and one Van ready to launch," said B.C., "and Gasco's already piloted the flagship to a safe distance from the Nirvana, and is standin' by."
Just then two telescreens came--one of Meia, the other of Gascogne. "All set, just give the word, boss," said the latter.
"Were're ready," said the former.
"Launch, all of you!" said the boss.
And launch they did, Meia leading the Dreads, with Hibiki's Van trailing them, while a handful of yards before the Nirvana was the Harvest flagship, piloted by Gascogne who muttered, "Let's see what that thing can do..."
While the supply shop head waited for her cue, Meia led the Dread fleet across the starry
field, saying over the comm, "OK, you jokers, here's our chance to sharpen our peak performance.
So don't hold anything back against those drones--just don't, whatever you do, take any potshots
at the yellow flagship--Gascogne's piloting it, so let's rock-a, rock-a, rock-a, rock-a one for our
first training session--oh, and be careful!"
"ROGER!" called the other pilots in unison.
At that moment, Hibiki's Van charged foward, the hothead--smoking a cig, no less, said,
"Outa the way! Beep-beep! I wanna kick BUT-TOCKS!"
"Hey, poop-a-doop!" said Barnette. "You can't smoke in a Vanguard! How can you see the controls in all that smoke?"
"With practice," replied the Van pilot. "Hang on an' I'll turn on my air cleaner system.
OK, it's on, no cig smoke. Anyhow, I worked on a new three step combine Vandread
strike system: now that Barnette and Misty can combine with me, here's how my system works-
we approch from the front, an' I combine with Meia, then we strike from the front, then circle
'round an' change with Barnette, strike, then head from behind an' combine with Misty an'
strike."
"Don't you mean five step system?" asked Meia. "You forgot Jura an' Dita."
"Naa, forget those bimbos," said Hibiki. "They ain't worth it."
"Bimbos?" said Dita. "Ain't worth it? You've got a colossal nerve to say that!"
"We're part of the team, remember?" charged Jura. "You can't just omit me an' Dita outa the fun!"
"Hibiki," said Meia, "what chuu got against Jura and Dita? You'd think you'd get along since a year ago. Listen, we'll save them for last, right now, we've got training to do, got it?"
"Grrrr, whatever!" grumbled the mechanic. "Let's just get ready to rumble!"
From her control bridge inside the Harvest flagship, Gascogne saw the approaching Dreads on her telescreen before she said, "Showtime..." From there, she pushed several buttons on the giant flagship's central control panel. Instantly, many Harvest carrier pods, loaded with drones, detatched from the sides of the flagship and headed for the Dread fleet, each pod launching several machine drones along the way towards the Dreads.
Not too far away from the activity was the capital starship Minotaur class carrier of the PSE, known as the Cygnus, where, up in the bridge tower, Admiral Sotto Voce had been staring at the onscreen activites of the events on Mejere and the carrier itself, when General Zimri Judas, who looked like a blonde version of Dita, came up and said, "Admiral, we've detected several ships 1200 yards from here, in the space twixt Mejere and Taarak. One's big, one's medium sized and the rest, they're much smaller, like fightercraft."
"Onscreen and magnify at 15." said the Admiral.
The projected digital triangular screen came out of nowhere, showing the place where Gascogne and
co. were training before the image changed to a closer shot of the action, which was depicting the Van,
and the Dreads using combat flight tactics to wipe out the Harvester Drones in several displays of aerial
hit and run methods, Hibiki's Van, combined with Meia's, taking out a hefty squadron of those said
Drones. Behind all that, launching the pods, was Gascogne's yellow flagship.
"Incredible," said Voce. "I thought the Empress' Harvest creations were inactive. How'd that one get reactivated?"
"For that matter," said Judas, "why is that flagship yellow? And those fightercraft--where'd they come from?"
"Never mind that," said Major Marano Godwin, who looked like an aloof brunette debutante. "If I didn't know better, I'd swear that was a genuine Vanguard from Taarak."
"Where? Which one?" asked Judas.
"Over there," said Godwin. "That yellow ship with the sword that just detached from the silver bird craft."
"Impressive...," said Voce. "A genuine Vanguard, indeed. I didn't think the Taarak builders built something so ancient, so obsolete--wait, that blue ship off to the right...is that what I think it is?"
On the screen, on its right hand side, floating in a safe distance from the action, was the Nirvana;
for Admiral Voce, elation spread her face as if she had found the first fish of the day.
"So that is the famous Nirvana we heard so much in song and story," said the Admiral. "The Empress might be interested in THAT. But first, let's crash the party and get to know our hostess known as Magno Vivian." Turning to the helmswoman, who stood on a platform in the center of the bridge, using two appendage type joysticks, she said, "Set your course for grid coordinates 802/701."
"Understood, Admiral," said the helmswoman, who shifted the sticks into different settings,
while Voce turned to Judas and said, "General, prepare the fighter crews and the gunners."
"Understood," said Judas, with trepidation.
Within a minute or so, the Cygnus, along with the surrounding Diamante fighter ships turned 'round and headed towards the section of space where the Nirvana and the mish mash melee were at, unaware of the upcoming danger ahead.
Holy ambush, Batman! The Nirvana crew may be meeting The Pereira Star Empire sooner than they thought--the hard way. Can Misty's Dread training pay off? For that matter, can her Dread, as well as Barnette's combine with Hibiki's Van? And while we're on the subject, can our fave hothead put out those cigs before heading into the breach? Can he change his mind and combine with Dita and Jura? And how will the ratings for Vandread and Gonzo turn out? Anyhow, for Hibiki's sake, tune in tomorrow, to guess the outcome, same Van time, same Van channel. Oh, and for the sakes of Dita and Jura, hang on to your rice!
--a440.
Next: Chapter 7: Bombs Away Dream Babies
