Chapter 10: Omicron Revisited
08:58 AM (Japan Time), Saturday September the 29th…
"… Real-space exit in 2 minutes…"
"Alright. Omega. Is all ready?"
"Yeah. We're on standby. The trick will be to use the EM pulses to make the generators go berserk and stop feeding the turrets."
"Good."
Omega was talking with Vadous over the radio as he sat in the pilot's seat inside of a small spacecraft docked in a huge room.
The spacecraft looked aerodynamic and was colored silver: the shuttle had a front Plexiglas view window and two short wings and tail but it didn't seem to have any visible means of propulsion: entrance was gained through an open hatch on the left side of the body.
Several seats resembling those of normal commercial planes were set inside of the cockpit: Subaru, Solo, Misora and Akatsuki were sitting in them by now.
"Ok. Good. Let's begin the checks… All green…"
The room's floor was just a giant platform suspended by steel columns on the borders.
The real floor, two meters below them, contained a set of fans which were currently stopped.
The whole room was about five or six meters tall and eight or ten meters wide.
There were two doorways placed on the edges of the platform which seemed to be locked down at the present.
"Real-space exit in 00:29… The bubble is up and running and to be on the safe side the opening will made on the underside, 500 meters from the lower end of the HQ… I can't risk a shot shooting straight inside."
"Of course. The Real Wave "chaff" is ready to be materialized and it'll help win some seconds for the HQ's energy cannons to lock on the targets and shoot at them… The missile planetoids go first. Each is about 1 km tall and 750 meters wide. They have a simplistic computer to receive ground commands and a power core for the orbital correction engines."
"00:11… Dump the atmosphere and get out."
"Roger."
Omega inputted some commands and the fans turned on to drain the atmosphere as energy fields formed over the doorways: the large hatch unlocked but Omega activated something to make the Plexiglas windshield blacken: the craft began to float outside of the docking bay and Omega made it descend.
"Sorry for blacking it but looking at the phenomenon of FTL travel can bring dizziness and nausea… It's only for a few seconds, anyway."
"Fine." Solo shrugged.
"Real-space transition!" Vadous announced.
There was a bright flash which was largely dimmed by the blackened window: Omega began to restore it to normal and they could see the shuttle was inside of a gigantic green-colored energy barrier which was already being bombarded by the orbital defenses of Planet Omicron, a planet about Mars' size and which had some landmasses and large oceans: it had a pale ghostly blue glow to it.
"Alright. Let's get to the hole and activate out bubble too: the lower turrets won't take long to zero on us and the same applies to the southern pole spheroid." Omega announced.
"Let's go Rambo style!" Akatsuki grinned.
"Shidou…" Acid grumbled.
"Mwah, hah, hah, hah!" War Rock laughed.
"Shut up." Subaru grumbled.
"Let's go."
Omega activated another bubble colored blue around them before exiting through a hole beneath them which closed: the shuttle shot forward and began to bounce off the Inferno of rounds shot by the orbital defense guns: Omega pressed a button and several masses of orbital debris materialized and the guns began to shoot at them while the missiles (about two meters tall each) also hit them and exploded.
"Good. More!"
"More and more and MORE~!" War Rock laughed.
"Oh. Be quiet." Blood Shadow complained from inside the computer.
"This isn't a moment to be joking around." Sigma grumbled.
"Ra…"
"Laplace agrees." Solo folded his arms.
"Alright. Let's shoot the sticky mines at the generators thus depriving some of them of energy: the trick here is that the whole ring is set to spin along with the planet but its rotation speed is slower than Earth so it'd take over 30 hours to finish a whole rotation or day."
"I see. So Twilight intended for that to be deterrence instead actual fire-power…" Subaru guessed.
"Maybe he's relying further in the turrets floating in the atmosphere just a few kilometers over the surface." Omega suggested.
"That could be it, too."
The shuttle kept on flying and materialized some red spheroids having a circle with four trapeze suction pads on it set on the four cardinal directions: they attached to the generators (a black cube with several ventilation outlets) and began to blink.
"It takes 5 seconds to detonate. Let's make another sweep."
"Alright." Misora grinned.
"Pororon! Let's clear the road."
The mines began to detonate and some of the guns stopped working as the generators got taken out: when moving towards the left they did see a gigantic green energy bubble from which some greenish beams of energy shot out, hitting the center of each turret cylinder's and blowing them up in a soundless and smokeless explosion: another seven shot out while combining into one and then splitting to take out turrets and generators: the shuttle speeded forward while climbing over the Equator and heading for the spheroids: a gigantic red laser shot out of nowhere and Omega cursed as he violently flung the craft to the right.
"What the fuck!"
"An invisible spaceship?" Subaru wondered.
"Boss! Did you see THAT?"
"Weird. I did scan with IR 2 minutes ago and found nothing."
"Heck. This thing must've been in reserve or Twilight has brought it from somewhere else and just now ended the FTL travel! IR: on!"
A Real Wave screen formed and displayed an even greater spheroid which could be about 10 times bigger than the one they'd been heading for: it had countless round holes with red edges on them and had a black matrix over the surface.
"Fuck. 100 lasers in one face: that means a total of 400 lasers and this thing's rotation speed, given its size, is huge! It completes a whole turn-around in just 70 seconds! And these lasers can aim up and down too: we need to take it out! Laser for laser, Boss!" He growled.
"Leave it up to me. Focus on the remaining turrets and bring up more chaff: I need 60 seconds to divert all energy to the main gun and shoot it: the destructive power should be enough to blow that up: if not I'll try to ram into it with the barrier and see if the intense EM will fry up its circuitry…" Vadous replied.
"Fine. Hold on!"
Omega veered back and headed down to begin moving to the right while following the orbital ring: he deployed more chaff to make the guns be confused: Omega shot out more mines and some also adhered to the turrets to blow them up: he began to fly closer so that the lasers from the spheroid would hit the turrets' core and blow them up.
"Let's get rid of these and then we'll land."
"OK!"
"Another 15 seconds… Almost there!" Vadous reported.
"Good. We can stall for that."
Omega speeded up and kept on luring the laser spheroid to shoot at their side's turrets while circling the rear of the planet: a gigantic green laser then shot out from the bubble and split into nine which began to split into smaller lasers: these hit the guns inside of the opened hatches and began to blow them up as they bounced off: Omega speeded up and headed there because the spheroid got engrossed in trying to hit the bubble shield: each hole was wide enough for the shuttle to fit inside: Omega dropped some mines and blew up the engines before forming some torpedoes and flying away.
"They'll blow it from the inside."
In effect: the spheroid suddenly imploded and the explosion broke it into many pieces which began to de-orbit and fall towards the atmosphere: Omega maneuvered and got behind one.
"This will serve as shield from the atmosphere turrets: Boss will focus on those by moving the HQ closer."
"Good. About time." Solo calmly muttered.
"Twilight wasn't taking any chances, huh? I guess he'll put up some desperate struggle. We'll need our best."
"I want a piece of the fucker, too." Solo reminded them.
"Of course. Take as many as you want." Omega calmly replied.
"Fine."
"Let's go."
The craft began to dive into the atmosphere and, after crossing a layer of thick clouds, they saw the countless turrets floating over the surface of the planet which were busy shooting at the remains of the spheroid but it turned out they were too thick and the lasers bounced back at the source: Omega flew across the debris and spotted some smaller ones falling down from orbit, too.
"Aha. The north missile spheroid… The southern one will be next but its debris will fall into the southern areas…"
"Good… That lowlife's defenses are falling one after the other."
"Sure. Let's hurry to the human settlement and, from there, access the cavern. But maybe it's been sealed by now and we'll have to go through the tunnels… I dunno yet."
"We'll find out once we get there, anyway." Shidou shrugged.
"Hum? Transmission from the surface…? Well, well, well. Let devil bite me: it's Laser Man's Number One Fan."
"What? What does that mean, you?"
"Who knows, Mr. J?"
Joker happened to be the one transmitting to them and Omega simply came up with some sarcasm on the spot.
"Laser Man…? A "Darkloid" we didn't get to see?" Subaru wondered.
"Yeah. Tabuu used the guy once and Akatsuki met him: looks like this guy, with the tubes and the trapeze head: he's got a white slit instead of eyes."
"Hum! Don't compare me to some foolish pawn, you lowlifes."
"You want a piece of us? We're coming for you." Akatsuki taunted.
"Hmpf… Akatsuki… The other world wasn't comfortable enough for you, I take it." He taunted next.
"Sure. There were no "Sweet Candies"." Akatsuki dully replied.
"No logic as well." Acid added his own taunt.
"Hmpf… Whatever… Come and be decimated once more!"
The transmission got cut as Omega flew past the turrets and began to shoot lasers at the ground of the "human settlement", that group of houses along with that main building built in a valley close to a crudely designed brick-made covering for something: a forest could be spotted not too far from there and there also was a hill having a square made of tall concrete walls erected at the start of it.
"That square…!" Subaru muttered.
"Yeah… I know… We got pawned by Death Shadow there… Too bad we didn't get to beat the guy…" Akatsuki muttered.
"Hmpf…" Solo didn't let that impress him.
"Sure was a walking dreadnought…" Misora sighed.
"Totally." Blood Shadow muttered with a sigh.
"Huff. And need to have the head checked, too." Sigma muttered with some defeatism.
"Let's be positive." Omega told them.
"OK!" War Rock grinned.
The craft finally landed and Omega equalized pressure: they could see some craters formed by the lasers detonating the Giga Mines hidden there: the group climbed off and headed for the structure.
"Let's go! Denpa – Henkan!"
The Denpa – Henkan squad assumed their new forms as Blood Shadow and Sigma materialized: they began to attack the construct and it soon collapsed inwards and down a large shaft: they hit the bottom some seconds later.
"Good. This is it. Let's go down!"
"Let's go!"
They all dropped down the shaft and formed some Real Wave jetpacks to slow down their descent speed: they turned on portable flashlights next to check on the insides: the shaft was very irregular and looked like it'd been made in a natural way.
"So this is the shaft through which the meteor carrying Death Shadow's beat form dropped down… The meteor widened it from the hit and then began to bounce down the walls until it fell down… It's gotta be about 30 meters wide… That thing's legs were barely two meters long and the main body two or three meters… So the other shaft he used to escape, the one the excavation team built, had to be pretty narrow…" Rock Man deduced aloud.
They reached the end and entered a wide cavern: they could spot an elevator shaft some meters ahead consisting of four metallic beams and encircling segments of steel which allowed for the elevator to keep on descending: there also was a large hole close by which had a weird shape like that of a creature: there didn't seem to be anyone but they did spot a Real Wave screen displaying the status from the orbital and atmospheric weapons: 80% of them were non-functional by now.
"Che. Joker warned him and he'll have us find him across these gigantic tunnels made over 5 years ago. Let's hack into a work-station and use the camera feed." Omega grumbled.
"Yeah… Let's climb up into the truck garage." Rock Man sighed.
"Hmpf… Mere cowards, the lot of them…" Burai scoffed.
"It's some stupid and worthless trap, anyway." Harp Note shrugged.
"Sure thing… IR doesn't pick anything in a 50 meters radius." Acid Ace was scanning the surroundings.
"Mwah, hah, hah. IR and RI! Real Imagination!" Sigma laughed.
"Shaddup." Omega snapped at him.
"YIKES!"
"There we go again." Blood Shadow sighed.
They stepped into the elevator and ended up in a vast round room where some cargo trucks were parked at plus another three entrances which were unlocked: the central part had a round cargo elevator built into it which had descended down a shaft cut into live rock: this rock glowed with the bluish halo they'd seen earlier and the fog seemed to originate from the shaft: the room was devoid of life and the doorway to get in and out was wide open.
"The red carpet, huh?" Acid Ace guessed.
"There are some Jeeps over here." Harp Note called out.
"Like one year ago… Feels like it was forever ago." Burai muttered.
"Ra… Yu…"
"What? No. I'll drive. I don't trust your driving skills."
"Yu…"
They climbed into the Jeeps: Rock Man, Burai, Harp Note and Acid Ace picked on and the 3 Musketeers picked the other: they turned them on and began to travel up the tunnel: Viruses, Heel Wizards and Noised Wizards popped out.
"Let's not waste all "Copy Cancellers" at once. Let's use one when they block the way. The rest of your shoot default attacks." Omega instructed.
"Fine. Go, Laplace! Clear the road, you rubbish!"
"Outta the way! Grrr! My blood's boiling! Eat this! And this! And that!"
"Shock Note!"
"Wide Wave X!"
"Charged shotgun shot!"
"Demon Lasers!"
"Plasma Gun!"
The combined attacks blasted a lot of the enemies and the Jeeps drove through them: they heard an engine hum and they saw another Jeep starting to chase them: the remaining "Anti" members happened to be onboard: Omega spun the wheel of his Jeep.
"You keep on forward! We'll deal with these!"
"Come at full power!" Sigma taunted.
"Let's go." Blood Shadow calmly cocked the shotgun.
"Fine." Burai calmly replied.
"Let's go." Rock Man calmly rallied.
"Yeah. Yo! Flat – chan! You lose!" Harp Note taunted.
"That bitch!" The imposter snapped.
"Those jerks!" "Anti" RM growled.
"Those punks!" "Anti" Burai grumbled.
"Get a new hairstyle in Las Vegas!" Acid Ace laughed.
The first Jeep sped forward and crossed a doorway which was shut behind them: a garage some tens of meters ahead of them opened and a figure shrouded with a black tunic and hood and who could be about a meter and ninety tall drove off: this Jeep had a Heel Wizard operating a machinegun mounted on the rear and which began to shoot at them but Burai skillfully dodged.
"That height! It has to be Twilight!" Rock Man guessed.
"There they are!" Harp Note muttered.
"Hold into something." Burai warned.
"Heh. Some action!"
Burai speed up and began to move around to dodge until he was close to the forward Jeep with only about 10 meters splitting them: he flung the Laplace Blade and it deleted the Heel Wizard and broke the gun.
"There."
"Kyoudai~… Awaken!" Grave Joker's voice rang out.
"That trick's outdated. Better go see Mr. Hollywood!" Acid Ace taunted back with a grin.
Grave Joker materialized in front of them, about 8 meters north, and began to load his G Meteor Laser: Acid Ace jumped off the Jeep and landed with the feet first atop Grave Joker's shoulders: he shot one blank-range attack at the right shoulder and then signaled the floor: a Giga Mine formed beneath the right foot and exploded, thus making Grave Joker hit the floor face-up: Acid Ace landed atop him and began to shoot a Mad Vulcan.
"Go on ahead!" He called out.
"Roger!"
"Hmpf! So the pawn bites! Interesting!" Grave Joker taunted as he warped and stood up again.
A new doorway shut behind the group of three driving the Jeep and they spotted two curved doors slowly closing in front of them: the enemy's Jeep speeded to the max and made it through but their Jeep couldn't because the doors closed and they had to stop.
"Shit. The heavy-duty elevator… I remember that it took some minutes to go down or up." He grumbled.
"There should be some emergency use shaft in case you're trapped inside and you need to evacuate." Rock Man argued.
"Good point. Let's search for it. We might beat them to the higher level and pick another Jeep to ambush them." Harp Note suggested.
"Fine."
They climbed down and soon found a door with the banner "EMERGENCY STAIRCASE" there: they opened it and began to climb an ascending spiraling staircase.
"Why is everyone so fond of these? The Cyber World in that marine fortress thing and Tabuu's Tower had them." Rock Man muttered aloud with some annoyance.
"'Cause Staircase – chan wants to feel yer feet!"
"How rude!" Harp Note complained.
"Pororon! Guess that." Harp muttered.
"Hmpf…" Burai was unimpressed.
They reached the top and exited into a new corridor: they saw that the shaft doors were still locked so they rushed into a garage nearby and picked a new Jeep while pushing the other two to form a barricade and block the corridor.
"Good. But let's not get confident." Burai warned.
They heard a loud hum sound and the doors slowly opened: the Jeep shot forward and jumped over the barricade: Burai cursed and gave chase: they spotted that now it had two missile launchers built into it and two Noised Wizards were operating them.
"Grua~h!" They roared.
"Cleanse your teeth." Harp Note muttered with some sarcasm.
"Hmpf. Guess that." Burai looked slightly amused.
"With Rocky Toothpaste!" War Rock laughed.
"Oh. Shut up."
"Go, Laplace!"
Burai shot the Laplace Blade but it bounced off some kind of bubble shield and he picked it back: Rock Man drew an Impact Cannon and waited: a hole opened for the gun to shoot out and Rock Man shot faster: the blast blew up one of the missile launchers and deleted the Noised Wizard by extension as well.
"One down."
"Hmpf. They forget about the weakness of the shield: you need to loosen it up to shoot." Burai grinned.
"They didn't do the homework." Harp Note shrugged.
The chase continued and Rock Man shot out the second cannon: the Jeep suddenly braked and theirs couldn't stop on time so they hit the barrier and the Jeep whined before dropping into the ground: the enemy Jeep sped forward while Burai struggled to ignite it again: the Jeep whined and began to function again.
"Luckily they're designed to restart in a few seconds. That guy only triggered the emergency shutdown." Burai muttered.
"If we keep on this route we'll eventually reach the main entrance which is located close to that hill with the armored chamber inside of it: there's a landing which they could've used to land their shuttles. Maybe he's even parked one to flee the planet were things to go awry."
"We need to contact Vadous and warn him. But he should be suspicious if he sees a shuttle lift off and that Omega hasn't contacted him."
"He'll be eating donuts by now!" War Rock laughed.
"Yeah, yeah." Rock Man wasn't impressed.
"More like Dragon Hell's inventions." Harp Note sighed.
"Huff. You needn't tell me." Rock Man sighed as well.
"I saw those dishes and I understand that defeatism." Burai muttered as he rolled his eyes.
"The Dragon Despair Club!"
"Pororon! Be quiet, cha."
They soon spotted the vehicle again but this time around it had what looked like rail-guns installed: there were a total of five and these ones could interact with the shield to shoot out without opening it up: Rock Man, though, tossed a suction mine at the shield and got attached there before it began to tilt.
"There goes!"
The mine went off and overloaded the shield, the generator of which had been placed on the middle rear seat: it smoked and blew up so Burai flung the Laplace Blade and destroyed the weapons.
"Hah. That shield was weak." He scoffed.
"Of course: I'm sure he grabbed it in a rush." Harp Note wasn't surprised either.
"Anti Shield Hero!" War Rock laughed.
"Patent it and sell it to some RPG." Rock Man drily told him.
"Mwah, hah, hah! Bravo, Subari~!"
"Pororon! Cha keep the trap shut and do us a favor." Harp was getting annoyed by now.
"Wha~t?"
"I see sunlight further on ahead and a ramp. We're close." Burai called out to them.
In effect: the tunnel headed into a large ramp which climbed towards the surface and light came in through the opening: some hydraulic pistons had been placed to move it up and down.
"It's real. It's not a "Real Wave": they hadn't been invented yet."
"Hold into something. I'm going to push it."
"OK!"
Burai hit the speeding pedal and shot forward: the enemy Jeep had almost climbed the whole ramp and it was starting to lift but they managed to get in just in time and come out into the surface: this part of the planet had several hills scattered there and they could see some flashes and such in the evening sky.
"Vadous must be destroying the remainder of the defenses on the other side of the planet… Good…" Burai looked in a good mood.
"Target: 12 o'clock!" Rock Man called out.
"They're heading for that hill: there seems to be a garage inside and I can make out some viewing windows: maybe it's a control tower which controls the tunnels' entrances." Harp Note spotted.
"Fine."
"The shutter's closed." Rock Man warned.
"Shutters and whatever… Go, Laplace!"
Laplace shot forward as the Jeep climbed up the grayish rock hill and headed for the rocky peak climbing about 100 meters skywards: he hit the shutter and cut it into two horizontally: Harp Note spotted the figure rushing inside of an elevator and closing the doors.
"They're going up. Guess there must be something there: maybe Crimson or some tool to power-up." Harp Note suggested.
"Could be, yeah." Burai shrugged.
"No tools will save their hide." Rock Man icily muttered.
"That's what I wanted to hear." Burai looked animated.
"Ya… Ru…"
"He wants ya to cross-dress!" War Rock joked.
"How stupid." Burai growled.
"Totally!" Rock Man and Harp Note complained.
The Jeep reached the garage just as the elevator came down: they rushed inside and spotted that it only had two floors: ground floor and 1F so they headed upwards: the elevator pinged and they exited into a small unadorned hall: two large metallic doors were partly open in front of them.
"Ready? Let's go!" Rock Man rallied.
You can't run away anymore! Twilight! Time to settle the score!