Chapter 6

The next few hours were the most anxiety filled hours of his life. Waiting for information on his friend's condition was nerve-wracking as it was, and to top it all off, a call had come out a few minutes ago about trying to raise the wreck of the Titanic, making things even more nerve wracking. As Shute manned the radar during this run, he wondered if Captain was okay.

"Shute! Where's the enemy's position?!" Sayla asked harshly.

"Um, hold on!" Shute peered at the screen, making out the little sigil that marked the Dark Axis and Duel Academy team-up. "They're about fifty meters north of us!"

She narrowed her eyes and growled. "Slag! That puts them right on top of her!"

"Uh, Commander, you might want to take a look at this!" Henku reported.

"What?" Sayla snapped.

She turned and her eyes widened as the familiar purple gate they knew so well opened up in the space above the wreck's ocean position.

"Are there any subs in the area?" she asked Syrus urgently.

"Uh, yeah! There are! There's the Earth Zone and Primus Alpha!" Syrus said.

"Good. Tell them that they need to protect the wreck at all costs!" Sayla barked.

"Right!" The boy turned to the comm and began to transmit the message.

She turned to face Jaden, who had just come in from his gun. Streams of water dripped off his armor and onto the floor. "What's the situation on deck?" Sayla asked him.

"Well, from what I can see, there's about ten of our guys down and one whose leg's been blown off by a misfired grenade," Jaden replied.

"Any fatalities?" Sayla inquired.

"Last cannonball assault left five dead."

"Slag! Names?"

"Um, Henry Kinjo, Greg Tobias, Otto White, Andrew Song, and Brandon Storm."

"They were good soldiers, and loyal to the cause. It's a shame they had to go that way."

Jaden glanced at the monitors displaying the wreck's position under the sea. He could see the shape, but other than that, nothing else.

"What about the wreck?" he asked.

"Syrus! Sub positions!" Sayla snapped.

"Um, one fore and one aft of the wreck. Seems like they caught on and are instigating their own plans for defense!" the light haired boy exclaimed.

"Good. Put the sub commanders online and route it to the bridge!"

"Right!" Syrus pressed the communications button.

The screens came online and the sub commanders' images flared into view.

While this was going on, Shute took the opportunity to slink away from the radar and down towards the infirmary.

He quietly opened the door and slipped inside, turning on the lights as he did so.

Cerverau was waiting for him as he approached Captain's bed.

"Cerverau…" Shute hesitated, but Cerverau caught on to what he wanted to do.

"Shute, you know you're not supposed to be here," the engineer said calmly.

"Please, just let me see him," Shute pleaded softly.

"…Sure. Just don't take too long."

"Thanks."

The engineer left the med-bay, leaving Shute by his best friend's still form.

"Captain…"

He grasped one of the limp hands and squeezed gently. He half-expected Captain to not squeeze back, but he did. He gasped in surprise and his eyes widened as Captain's eye screens flickered and came online.

"Shute…?"

"Cappy…CAPTAIN!" Shute let out a cry as he threw his arms around the Gundam, careful not to aggravate his injuries to the point of passing out.

"Shute, how long was I out?" Captain asked.

"You were out for a few hours, Captain," Shute said, his voice muffled by Captain's body.

"A few hours?"

"Yeah. Doc Han said that it was a miracle you even survived!" the boy murmured.

"A…miracle?"

"Yes."

Captain let that information sink into his processors. "What about…the wreck?" he asked.

"I don't know. All I know is that—" He was cut off as the ship's comm buzzed, Sayla's voice echoing throughout the ship.

"Shute! We need you in the bridge stat! Repeat! Come to the bridge, pronto!"

The comm went dead as he looked at Captain. "Sorry, Captain, but I have to get back to the bridge."

"I understand, Shute."

With that, he ran out of the med-bay and up several flights of stairs to the hallway that led to the bridge.

When he arrived, he could see a few officers standing around the main table and one holding a pointer to the image above it.

Sayla and the others were gathered around, studying the image, which he now realized was a large map displaying the ocean floor and in the middle of the image was the biggest shipwreck he had ever seen.

He approached the group and stared at it in awe and amazement.

"Is…is that…her?" he asked, his voice a mere whisper.

The others turned to face him.

"Yeah. That's the Titanic, Shute," Zane said.

He guessed the shipwreck to be less than nine hundred feet, somewhere in the early eight hundred eighties. The width seemed to be about ninety five feet in length, and her sides were coated with rust, but the paint still stood out. The two masts on her were disintegrating, but they still stood for now, one fallen across her bow. Debris littered the ocean floor around her, the most notable part being two of her great funnels, the fourth lying across her stern, the first having been lost years ago when she sank. On the side was a huge gash that stood out below the water line, a scar from that horrible collision almost a hundred years ago. The name stood out, barely visible, but it was there. It read Titanic.

It seemed impossible that the ship was still intact, but it was by some dumb miracle.

Shute stepped closer, reaching out a hand to the image. He wasn't sure why, but he felt a strange sort of reverence when staring at the image of the wreck.

"She…she looks…" Shute was lost for words.

"That's what happens over time. Things eventually rot away, no matter where they are, unless you're in space," Zane replied.

"The thing that gets me though is why Crowler and the Dark Axis want this thing," Kicker said. "I mean, due to the Act, shouldn't there be a special team down there or something?"

"It doesn't matter, Kicker. Crowler's got ways to try and get that wreck," Meisha replied.

"Still, what would the Dark Axis want with her?" T.J. asked.

"You know, that's a good question," Jaden remarked. "Why do they want her?"

"I think it might be to repair the Komusai," Zero said.

"Repair? Or to rebuild?" Zane hissed to the knight.

"Either one."

"What about the Magna Musai? They could be looking for the metal to rebuild that," Shute suggested.

"I don't think so. From what we've seen, there's no way that they could be looking for a small wreck only 882 feet long," Baston said.

"Magna Musai? How big was it, Shute?" Sayla asked, beginning to understand where the boy was headed.

"Um, from what I can recall, it was about as big as the Gundamusai, but with much more firepower and it was able to carry the Komusai. I'm guessing that it was about five hundred feet long and four hundred feet wide."

"…"

Sayla's eyes widened as she grasped the severity of the situation.

"That's more than enough metal to rebuild the Magna Musai!" Baku gasped as his eyes shrank in horror.

"In short, we're faced with an interplanetary crisis here!" Syrus blurted.

"Yes. That's it," Zane simply said.

"We have to find a way to stop them from raising her!" Shute exclaimed. He placed both hands on the console as he said this.

"We're trying to! Any idea as to what the Dark Axis sub is doing?" Jaden asked Henku.

"Them Dark Axis freaks are positioning energon charges all along the hull, and they've got a detonator on board Crowler's yacht. My guess is that they offered him a part of the wreck to use on his ship!" the corporal shot back.

"Energon charges? What kind?" Sayla snapped.

"Class A-6 Beta charges! Those things can generate enough force to lift a two hundred thousand ton spacecraft from even the stickiest Gilarian swamps!" the man replied.

"Not good! They detonate those and they'll force the wreck right up from the sea floor and up through the sea until she breaches the ocean surface and right into the Zakorello Gate!" Sayla hissed as she clenched her fists.

"But, isn't there water in her corridors and compartments?" Baku asked.

"Yeah, but the force from the A-6 Beta energon charges is more than the pressure of the water down there, so they'll force her clean out of the water, providing that her hull doesn't give way after all this time!" Sayla snarled at the Musha.

"What happens if her hull gives way?" Zero quiered.

"Then she breaks in two and sinks to the ocean floor, unable to be recovered," Zane said simply.

"Well, then why don't you just blow her up?" Bakunetsumaru remarked.

"No way we can do that! The Shipwreck Protection Act was developed specifically to prevent such a thing from happening, Shute! We do that, we violate one of the most important laws of all time!" Sayla shouted harshly.

"Sorry," Baku squeaked, his face turning red beneath his mouthpiece.

"Nah. It's okay. I always thought that it would be better to do so, but I guess not," she said. She turned back to face the screen image. "If they blow the charges, then it's all over. We have to stop them now."

"YES, SIR!" The cry echoed throughout the ship, even down to the sea floor.

The sub commanders were grim-faced, but Sayla knew that they too felt the same way that they did: that they could and would win this fight.

"Okay! Captains Branson and Kumis, prepare to open fire on my command, but only at the Dark Axis sub! Got that?" she asked.

"We hear you loud and clear, Commander!" Kumis replied in a soft-spoken voice. She may have been a pretty lady, but she wasn't one to mess with.

"We'll hold them off and stop them from raising her!" Branson agreed.

"Let's hope you two know what you're doing. If you accidentally hit one of the charges, then we're all in trouble. So don't screw this one up!" Sayla hissed.

"Yes, sir!" both commanders replied, saluting sharply.

The screen shut down to display the image of the enemy sub, this time positioning three charges next to the bow right where the gash was.

"Okay! Open fire, NOW!" Sayla shouted.

The screen split down the middle to reveal the subs, each one taking aim from their hidden positions at the Dark Axis sub.

The bright blue underwater lasers lanced through the dark water, creating streams of bubbles in the water. The beams impacted against the third propeller of the Dark Axis sub, creating an explosion of bubbles that clouded the underwater cams.

Everyone waited with baited breath, expecting the assault to have succeeded.

The bubbles cleared, revealing the sub's propeller still intact and still working. A few moments passed and the sub was dashing madly for the surface.

Dread filled Kicker as he watched in stunned realization.

"NO!" he yelled.

The sub was finished with its work, so now it was heading topside, in preparations for the detonation to take place.

"Both of you get your afts after that sub! Stop it from approaching Safety Zone Gamma!" Sayla snapped.

"Sorry, Commander, but it's too late. They're at the safety zone!" Branson snapped.

"HARD A PORT! ENGINES AT FULL SPEED!" Sayla yelled to the helmsman. The man replied, pressing a button that rang the engine room. "Commander wants full speed! Try and get as much power out of her as you can, boys!"

"Roger!" the chief engineer replied.

The helmsman fired up the three thrusters on the starboard side, turning the carrier till the bow was aimed at the Zakorello Gate.

Satisfied, Sayla turned to Jaden.

"Get to the bow gun and fire at that gate! If we can't stop the raising, then we can at least stop them from getting their hands on her!" she snapped.

Jaden nodded and bolted for the door as fast as he could, but it was not to be.

A low rumble shook the ocean, and bubbles began to form. Large explosions could be seen beneath the waves and a large batch of bubbles formed off the bow.

"SLAG NO!" Sayla yelled.

It was happening.

The image of the ship showed the bow beginning to rise from the force of the charges. It wasn't much, but it was something for the remaining two Dark Axis lords on board the Komusai.

"Hahahahahahahahah! That ship is ours!" Zeta laughed gleefully.

"Dah! I agree!" Dom said stupidly. He had a look of glee in his optical sensor as he gripped the gun controls for the Komusai. "I blow human ship to bits!"

"No, Dom! Not yet! Let them watch!" Zeta sniggered.

"Dah…"

The front of the ship settled down into the silt, but the second batch of charges near the stern went off, forcing the whole length and weight of the ship out of the sea floor in a jolt of incredible energy. The ship was forced from her resting place, and, being carried on a sea of bubbles, neared the surface at an incredible rate of speed. Zeta grinned, but just before the wreck broke the surface, something unexpected happened.

Kicker snarled as he strained with holding the 46,328 ton ship against his shields, trying to prevent it from surfacing. The force from the charges had given the wreck incredible thrust from the ocean floor, but he knew that sooner or later it would die down. It depended on how long he could keep this up. If he failed now, the ship would be sent into the gate, and take him with it.

"Hurry up, for Primus sake, Sayla! I can't hold this much longer!" he grunted into his comm.

"Keep her steady for a few more minutes! We're still working on getting the energon repulsor online!" Sayla said.

"How much longer?!" Kicker cried.

"About ten minutes, give or take."

"Just hurry!"

The comm went dead and he was left straining against the century old vessel.

He upped the power to his shields, but even that didn't do much to lessen the strain. Thoughts of what could possibly happen flitted through his mind, ranging from severe weather to time warps opening and history repeating itself in the present day.

During this time, Sayla glanced at the blue, green, red, and gold mech as he strained under the incredible pressure before turning back to the work at hand.

The energon repulsors were the latest naval weapon. A single repulsion blast could repel even an electromagnetic strike, leaving the ship still able to function in the middle of an electrical storm. The device looked like an energon grid generator, but it bore a satellite on top rather than a large oblong oval shape to disperse the repulsion blast.

One such repulsor was installed on the Autobot Hero. In theory, if it could be used to repel an electromagnetic blast, then it could also be used to repel the wreck back down to the ocean floor without harming her.

"Okay! Last connection secured, Commander!" a technician yelled as he looked over, his face streaked with oil and energon from the lines.

"Good! Power it up!" Sayla snapped.

"Powering up the repulsor now!" the engineer manning the controls yelled.

"What's the status?" Sayla asked, turning to face Zane.

"Not good! In another five minutes, the ship will break water and enter the gate!" Zane replied.

"Power levels!" Sayla snapped, turning to face the engineer.

"Fifteen percent! It'll take at least another ten minutes for it to reach one hundred percent!" the engineer replied, his face tense as sweat began to form on his forehead.

"Kicker!" Sayla yelled as her hand flew to the comm unit on her headset.

"Sayla! How much longer, slaggit?!" the human/machine cried.

"Try to hold out for another fifteen minutes!" Sayla pleaded.

"I can't! You know that!"

"Please! The repulsor is online, but it'll be another ten minutes before it reaches one hundred percent power!" Sayla protested, hoping that he could hold out for ten more minutes.

"JUST HURRY!" Kicker cried. Then the comm went dead.

"He'll do what he can! In the meantime, try to close that fraggin' gate!" Sayla shouted.

"On it!" a gunner shouted. He aimed his weapon at the gate and opened up on it, but the bullets passed through harmlessly "SLAGGIT!"

"Twenty-five percent and climbing!" the engineer cried.

Another gun opened up on the gate while one of the fighter jets, a Harrier jet, hovered off from the flight deck and buzzed the yacht and the Komusai.

"Thirty percent!" he yelled.

Lasers and cannonballs and bullets flew through the air in the most intense naval battle the world ever saw.

"Thirty-five!"

"HURRY!" Kicker screamed at Sayla's ship, even though they couldn't hear him.

"Forty!" the engineer cried. His eyes darted over the readouts.

The boy strained as hard as he could, upping the power to the shield using the Energizer Matrix.

"Forty-five!"

Zeta laughed in glee as the ship strained to break water.

"Fifty! We're halfway there!" the engineer cried.

Dom fired like crazy at Kicker, but T.J. and Meisha opened up from the ship with their weapons.

"Fifty-five!"

"NO!" Zeta snapped. "You won't win this one! That ship is ours!"

"Sixty!"

Kicker's systems were beginning to overload as he gritted his teeth.

"Sixty-five!"

Sayla watched as the gauge crept higher.

"Seventy!"

Jaden opened up on Crowler's yacht with the bow gun just as a cannonball fired from one of his cannons.

"Seventy-five!"

"Hold on just a little longer!" Meisha called out.

"Eighty!"

"Atta boy, Dom!" Zeta crowed as Dom began blasting back with the guns on the Komusai at Kicker. T.J. took the chance to fire off a barrage of lasers at the Komusai, blowing the other bullets to bits.

"Eighty-five!"

"Keep it up!" T.J. yelled as he kept blasting with his guns.

"Ninety!"

"This is it!" a Zako blurted. All the Dark Axis Zakos were eagerly waiting as the old ship strained to break the water.

"Ninety-five!"

Kicker let loose a scream as he increased the power of the shield, hoping that this would end in their favor.

"One hundred percent! We're at maximum power!" the engineer cried hopefully.

"NOW!" Sayla yelled. The engineer drew back his fist and pounded the button down, the satellite turning to aim at the wreck, now almost halfway out of the water, Kicker almost inside the gate, optics burning brightly, crying out in his determination to stop it.

The repulsor fired.

The intense bright blue beam of energy lanced out and struck the air above the wreck, right below Kicker. Almost immediately, the energy created by the energon charges was canceled out by the repulsor and the wreck was lowered back into the water by the repulsion beam in a froth of bubbles and water.

Kicker sighed with relief as he wobbled on his flight path back to the carrier.

"NO!" Zeta shrieked in the cockpit of the Komusai. "WE FAILED?! $#%^!#"

"DAHHH!" Dom burst out crying as Zeta swore. The red ship turned and flew off, a bright white yacht with the DA sigil on it following.

The Zakorello Gate closed up and dissipated, leaving an aircraft carrier full of stunned beings behind.

The silence reigned for another full minute before it was broken by a single whistle, and then cheers from five thousand throats. Their mission was a success, even if it was by a very close margin of only fifteen seconds.

The cheering lasted for a full half hour before Sayla fired her gun into the air to get their attention.

"Good job out there, troops! We not only saved the Titanic, but we also rescued students and stopped the Dark Axis and exposed Crowler for who he really is! A dirty, rotten, slaggin', traitor! So keep this in mind: we may have won today, but we may lose tomorrow, yet never give up! Never give up, never surrender, and never forget!" she said.

"YEAH!"