GunDread SEED The Second Stage
Disclaimer: I do not own VanDread or Gundam SEED, period. So don't bother asking for any law-suits.
Chapter 10 Part 2
Consequences
( ): Thoughts
(" "): Psychic communication
--
On the planet…
Kyo wondered what the next step was, but it had little to do with the battle with the war with the Harvesters. The young man who had now regained all his memories and his past felt more lost than ever before. He had hoped that he would finally be able to find his family and reunite with them…but he now realized it was not going to become a reality…after the last memory he saw told him of what had happened.
(All this time…I…I've just been wandering and searching for things, places, and people…that are already gone.)
He was currently looking at the village that he stayed in, just as the villagers and the pirates were busy moving his Gundam from the cave for him to command and fly back to the Nirvana, the bridge crew reported in that there was currently no sign of the Harvesters and their forces, however, they knew that the Nirvana's scanners were hampered by the debris belt so they had no way of knowing for sure if they were or were not being followed by the forces of Earth.
"Having a hard time?"
Kyo looked and gave a cold glare at his new visitor, none other than Rabat himself, as the former trader, mercenary, and Harvester spy looked at him with tired eyes.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing, but I do owe you an explanation, don't I?"
Kyo was a bit confused at first and then recalled Rabat saying that he would tell Kyo just exactly what had happened to him. He still wanted to know just what made Rabat act this way towards him. He knew that Rabat hated him with a passion and would have done anything to find him vulnerable and kill him himself…just several days ago…the con artist had the perfect chance…but didn't take it…and even helped him find out about his past.
He couldn't figure out just why the man had done all these things, and even seemed resigned to die by his hand for what he had done to the human race. Since he was not yet going back to the Nirvana yet now seemed like a very good time to find out, and just as Tao and Diego came on the scene, Kyo decided that it was now time for Rabat to tell him just what happened to the man.
"Just what happened to you Rabat?"
Rabat then began to tell Kyo of what had happened to him all those months before, after his last attempt to land on a human inhabited world, the group listened to Rabat as he told them of the weeks he had spent inside the malfunctioning Seed Ship, how he had been placed in storage when the ship was hit by the cosmic storm and rendered inoperable, and his weeks of being subjected to the video and audio records of the ship, that finally broke him.
As Kyo listened, he felt a mixed pair of emotions, the first was satisfaction in the sense that Rabat finally realized the extent of his sins on the rest of his fellow humans when he sided with the Harvesters during the time he had been free. The second and last, despite how odd it felt, was pity, in the sense that even if he wanted to hold Rabat responsible for the crimes he had committed, even he didn't expect it to be that harsh. He wondered just how did Rabat manage to keep hold of his mind without being driven insane by the images he no doubt had seen, and the pain he had experienced.
"I deserved that fate, I finally got to see just what kind of people I had aligned myself with, those organ starved people did everything they possibly could to get prime organs, it never mattered if the organs were from men, women, and children. And I finally got to experience the suffering and pain I helped inflict on them, I saw their expressions and heard their cries for pity and mercy as they were being cut apart and kept alive until the Harvesters took every viable organ from you're body, they didn't even give you the decency to die immediately! They want you alive even as they tore out every part of you like you were a piece of meat, to get all the organs in good condition…and they will let you die only when you're nothing anymore…but a pile of refuse… Soon, all the pain and anguish would drive you mad, and you've beg for death…I guess I got away for now…I'm still intact,…but I wish now that I died instead, it would have been better they killed me…but with my ship's transponder not working, the Seed Ship that took me in saw me not as a threat to kill on sight, but another human to harvest. And I was allowed to see every inch of the sins I made…I was in hell, a hell that haunted my dreams until the day I die."
Despite his feelings of pity however, he believed that Rabat had learned the hard way on how dangerous it was to deal with people like the Harvesters, people who gave every sense of human compassion, morals, and ethics just to survive, the people he aligned with were no longer human beings in a sense, but were now nothing but raving beasts driven by their desire to live, even if that meant killing innocent lives. Considering all that he had learned, and Rabat no doubt now found out, the Harvesters cared little about him and cared only to be the only humans in the universe, despite the fact that the wanton slaughters they committed made them far from human at all.
As soon as Rabat finished his tale on what had happened to him for the past few weeks before he had arrived on the planet where Tao and Diego lived, he spoke about his arrival on the planet and his reunion with Diego and Tao.
"…after they managed to free me from the stasis cell, they outfitted me with some cybernetic limbs, and…I finally had some time to think about all that had happened ever since that day…and you were right you know….I did betray the human race and all for the sake of money….but there was another reason."
"That being what?"
"You…or rather, what the Paeksis here once said about you, I was here many years before, as an explorer, and while I was here, I heard about the spirits talking about the legend of one being standing against the Harvesters and defeating them. At first I thought I was the one who they spoke of."
("However, Sam was not the one the spirits spoke of Kyo…it was you.")
"Me?"
Diego nodded, along with Tao.
"After all, when the Paeksis first came to Earth it nearly destroyed human civilization, but you were the first to stop it, and somehow it preserved you, kept you alive…and made you stronger, and I guess you know why," Rabat replied.
Tao nodded in agreement.
("The spirits spoke of a savior of great power and will, who would come forward and stop the madness and slaughter of the former human inhabitants of Earth, who were forced into becoming raving beasts by what had happened in the Days of Despair. They do not realize that even with all of their accomplishments, they are only bringing the future of the human race further into darkness, and their madness would bring nothing but death and extinction to all humanity and leave us open to what other threats live beyond the stars, there are many threats beyond our own portion of the galaxy and humanity must stand united against such things, and the savior that the spirits spoke of would possess the greatest gift of human evolution, the SEED factor, the ability to see far beyond normal human perception and go beyond the physical boundaries. And the spirits spoke that only the one born of…you're blood-line could wield that factor at it's full capacity…and you are that one savior…after all, you saved the human race once, I can say that the time has now come to do it again…and this time…to save it from extinction.")
Diego then sighed and looked at Rabat.
("When Sam realized that he was not the one the spirit spoke of, he was very much upset, and when he left began to forget all about what he had learned while he was among us, we tried to warn him of the dangers out his own arrogance and pride, and we even asked him to actively seek you out, but he refused…we never expected him to betray his own people to the Harvesters, and part of us wondered if it was due to his disappointment of not being the one…but now, he learned what he should have learned…however, even with all his actions, such a lesson can be too hard to swallow.")
Kyo snorted a bit. "As much as I'd say otherwise, I guess I can agree to a point about that, so what happens now?"
Rabat, or rather Sam merely sighed.
"You should get back to Talark and Megele, they have to be warned about what is about to happen, the Harvesters' previously released fleet that were heading for the two planets are already half way through this belt. And their invasion fleet is not far behind them, you'll need this, if you want to stand a chance against that new super weapon they have."
Rabat then handed a pair of video disks to Kyo, the Gundam pilot wondered just what was in the disks as he looked at Rabat.
"I managed to at least hack into the Harvester Armada's data relays…the only consolation I had when I was in the Seed Ship…these were reports, and design blue-prints on the Harvesters' new super-weapon, which I have no doubt in my mind…you've already heard of…it was the one that incinerated Melanos."
Kyo nodded as he recalled what he had seen the last time he was among the Melanos people.
Rabat continued with what he had to say concerning what the super weapon was.
"It's based on an old weapon system that was build at the nearing end of the Z.A.F.T/ EA War, nearly four hundred and ten years ago…it was the GENESIS Weapon. The GENESIS during it's time was far worse than the nuclear arsenals used by the Alliance in the past since it could literally fry the whole of the planet, killing all forms of life on the surface through sheer heat and radiation since it used gamma radiation from it's nuclear reactors that are directed by Neutron Jammer Cancellers. After the war, all plans of the GENESIS were supposedly destroyed, but they were not completely lost. Unlike the first model…this Harvester version no longer is restricted by Neutron Jammers and can fire repeatedly it's gamma laser beam, since it does not need to replace it's targeting/focus mirror and since it's on a battle-ship…it's more a threat since it's mobile. That, with it's massive escort force and the numbers of weapons it has makes this a priority one target, but it's well armed and defended, the danger of it also added by the fact that it's armed with Phase Shift Armor. There is a weakness there, however I cannot be sure of what or where the weakness is…regardless, this disk contains some of the design layouts, so you may have to get creative on a possible weak point to exploit as quickly as you can."
Kyo nodded as he could understand just how much a threat this machine now was, he then looked at the second disk and wondered what was on this one.
"That…will tell you why the Harvesters are now obliterating human colonies instead of butchering the populations for organs…I can't say anymore than that."
Kyo looked at both disks and then at Rabat, from what he had been able to understand, there was no doubt on his mind that Rabat had changed, despite the fact that it was still not easy for him as a person to let go of Rabat's sins towards all human civilization. What he will do now with the information was up to him.
As he looked towards the rest of the pirates, who were now getting ready to leave the planet, he looked once more at the three people before him and also the village, he owed them a lot, even Rabat. So he did the only thing he could do…he walked back to Diego, Tao, and even the former Harvester spy…and bowed.
"Thank you…I'll make sure to do what you have suggested, though…there is still a lot for me to think about."
As he left to ride in his Infinite Freedom Gundam to rejoin the pirates…he wondered on what to do with all that he had learned in this planet, and what he should do now…the people, places, and things he had spent the last year and many months looking for were already gone, and now all he had left was the future…but the past was something that he still could not easily ignore.
--
Later…in the Nirvana's Observation Deck…
Kyo looked at the view of the debris belt as the Nirvana powered up and began to continue on it's mission to return to both Talark and Megele to warn both worlds of the soon to come invasion from the Harvesters, his mind still trying to come to grips with the last memory he had recovered, along with the very stark and painful revelations that it gave him about his past. He still couldn't believe that all he had been looking for wasn't just lost…but also forgotten and ancient
"Mr. Alien?"
Kyo sighed as he turned to face the voice, finding Dita looking at him with great concern, next to the redhead was Jura, Meia, as well as Sara and Mai, all five girls were very worried about him and the expressions told him loads on what they were feeling.
"What's up?" He asked as he turned around to face them all.
"We've been looking for you for quite a while Kyo, are you all right?" Mai asked.
"That depends on you're definition of all right, I've managed to get all my memories back…but now I don't know if I really wanted to remember them now."
"What do you mean? We've seen you're memories and most of them were good…" Jura spoke, as she, Meia, and Dita were in his mind previously, they had been beside him when he regained most of his past, so it was somewhat a surprise why Kyo seemed very remorseful when he finally had his memories back with him.
"I didn't mean I hated those memories Jura…far from it…it's just, when I gained my last memory right before you three woke up back on the Nirvana…I saw what happened to me and why my memories were sealed away…and I saw…what I lost."
"Lost?" Mai asked, not liking the confused and sorrowful look Kyo had on his face.
"I…did something to save my family…but in exchange…I lost everything I held dear."
The girls were confused as to why Kyo would say that, what had happened in Kyo's past that made him say that, what did Kyo lose in his past to make him say such things. Kyo could tell that it was one thing that they wanted to know about, and since he recalled it now with great clarity…he decided he would at least tell them.
"I was there with my folks back on Earth…taking care of certain family matters…namely my sister's first prom date, until something came up."
(Flashback to be shown later.)
--
In another part of the Nirvana….
"I can't seem to understand it…how could Kyo Clyne Yamato's name not be in the Colony records? I mean, there are some people on the Ikazuchi who have the last name."
Parfait, Buzam, Magno, Duero, Max, Gascogne, and Aleck were currently in the Conference Room to discuss the information that the doctors and the Captain had discovered concerning their comrade Kyo. The others were confused as to why Magno reacted the way she did when she read the data that was recovered from Kyo's ID card, the same one he used to sneak into Talark society and land a job.
Magno seemed very silent as Buzam also spoke.
"We don't have any records pertaining to Kyo's full name in the Colonization database, but that does not mean that it's not there."
Duero then spoke. "That is because Kyo was not born in the Colonization Era."
"What do you mean?"
Duero then took out a chart and high-lighted Kyo's biological data, and in that data chart was his birthday.
"Kyo was born on September 23, Cosmic Era Year 72. This calendar was in use on Earth and the outlying colonies in space…almost four hundred years ago."
The other officers were stunned, and Gascogne was the one who voiced out that very same shock.
"But if that is true…that would mean that Kyo is over four hundred years old! That would also make him far older than any member of the First Generation on either Talark or Megele! How is that even possible?!"
"That's not the only thing…we dug into the records more…and even reviewed the message pod Misty had on her when we found her, and found out that Kyo and his family were in the very same research station that had housed the first Paeksis prototype…and it while it seemed that they all, along with Kyo's relatives, who were Athrun and Cagalli Zala, the former was a General in the nation once known as the Orb Union, and husband to the latter who was Orb's Prime Minister, and who by blood is Kyo's aunt. It appears that Kyo had stayed behind to prevent the first Paeksis prototype from exploding, which at the time would have resulted in a disaster that would have wiped out all life on Earth…Kyo was presumed by the people of Earth in that era four hundred years ago as dead…and was considered a hero and martyr for what he had done. And that event…was in the message pod."
"Are you saying that Kyo was the one that prevented that disaster four hundred years ago?"
"Yes…and in that respect…that would also mean that Kyo's actions had led to the Colonization Era that our own ancestors had been born into…since it took approximately four hundred years for mankind to gain the needed technology and tools to colonize other planets. Had Kyo not stayed behind to prevent the reactor from exploding…then humanity would have been either wiped out, or slowly destroyed by time…neither our planet of Talark…or yours of Megele…or any other human world for that matter would have been founded hadn't Kyo done what he did four hundred years ago. "
"But…how could he be still alive if it had been four hundred years?!"
Duero once more showed the records and this time, showed the bulk of all his research on Kyo's genes when the Gundam pilot reported for the physical check-ups.
"When I ran tests on Kyo previously, I detected traces of residual Paeksis energy, naturally I suspected that those were results from his exposure to the Paeksis several months before, however, as I continued to do my research I discovered that first traces of the Paeksis were nearly months or even years old, unlike the new ones that I had found afterwards…meaning that Kyo had prior experience with the Paeksis before the incident onboard the Ikazuchi, though how and why was something that had eluded me…until today. Considering all the data and theories we have…this means that when Kyo was alive and in the station, no doubt to prevent the disaster with the first Paeksis reactor, the crystal must have somehow placed him in suspended animation and kept him alive for the past four hundred years, and while doing so, must have infused his genes with it's own energy, which would explain all of his physical and mental attributes, apart from his Coordinator heritage."
"How come he remembers none of this?"
"I suppose that he must have suffered a blow to his brain that caused amnesia, and it might have been the Paeksis itself that held the key to his past, he did mention to me once that the very moment he was exposed to the Paeksis on the Nirvana…his memories became more clear, unlike in the past where he could see nothing. As time passed, and his exposure to the Paeksis grew, just like when he combined his Gundam with the Dreads, or when he had developed a link to both the Gundam and Dita, Jura, and Meia…those memories must have been reawakened. All this information is what we can surmise, so there may be some flaws…however, all this seems to be the best data we can gather."
Magno nodded.
"We've got a lot to talk about with Kyo then…however, I have a feeling that we cannot talk to Kyo about this kind of information right now…I can imagine the shock of what he had seen and recalled must be difficult for him."
"But Captain…if what Duero says is true…then Kyo is more than just our friend and ally now…he is the savior of all the humans in every colonized world…including Talark and Megele! He has to know what his actions have done."
"I'm not saying that he does not deserve to know BC…but we have to consider what all this means for Kyo himself…think about it…he has been left behind by humanity for four hundred years, even if he has become a legendary figure, all the things he had been looking for the past years are no longer around for him to find…he has no home, he has no family, all of his friends, the friends he had when he was still alive are all dead now, his family no longer exists…I cannot say I know what he is feeling…but I think that he still cannot grasp that fact that everything he knew and remembered are already gone."
"The Captain is right Commander." Aleck replied as he too looked at the data.
"I can't say that I also know how Kyo's holding up…but I can bet that he's still trying to grasp just what had happened to him…how would you feel when you recover all of you're memories and find out that everything you knew, and everyone you've loved for your young life…are all dead and forgotten and you are still alive? It's more terrifying than anything I can come up with."
Magno nodded as she looked at the data.
"Until Kyo is able to recover…we must give him time to get used to all that has transpired since his actions in that space station. I cannot even begin to imagine how he would feel if we suddenly start lauding him for things he had contributed to. He may have allowed humanity to grow and colonize worlds beyond Earth, but at what price for himself?"
--
Back with the Gundam pilot in question…
Flashback….
Kyo was busy running some last minute checks on his personal quantum computer for some of the older projects he had done ever since his graduation from college. The fact that he had built the computer from parts issued to military personnel spoke highly of Kyo's education on all matters electronic and programming. However, he was also very busy with another matter, he had finally recorded all the data on his Gundam, ever since it had somehow been modified by unknown factors, the former Guardian and Mobile Suit pilot was busy trying to get as much data as he could on what could have been the events and factors that had transformed his Mobile Suit into the current form it now had. He then looked at his cell-phone as a message on the screen told him that he had an incoming call from his old friend and former teacher, Orb Engineer Erica Simmons.
Kyo deactivated the security lock on the cell-phone and spoke to it, just as he finished the last details of his work.
"Hello Miss Simmons? Yes, it's me Kyo, what seems to be the problem?"
"Hello to you as well Kyo, nothing out of the ordinary, but I do need to tell you some very important details, do you have any plans tonight?"
Kyo looked at the time and it was nearing night time already. He did have plans and that was to take some time off from his duties as he still lacked some key data for his research into his Gundam which was still in the hanger where it had been stored. However, he did have another matter to deal with…and that was his sister's prom night.
Mira was very happy for the chance to go out on her school's prom, and like all giddy ladies her age she had fussed over what kind of dress would she wear, their mother had been very willing to help out and despite his rather busy schedule in research work on his Gundam, the eldest of the Yamato siblings had a surprise in store for his beloved sister's prom night.
"Not much, still have some paper-work left to take care of for the research I'm making on Freedom, and I have a present to give my sister for her special night."
"Special night?"
"Prom night, she's going out with Mwu tonight for their school celebration, and I plan to give her something nice for that occasion."
Erica seemed pleased by that bit of information as she spoke again.
"You seem to be very happy for that."
"Yes I am, by the way, what's this you wanted to talk about?"
"It's about that new crystal the scientists in the new research station are working on, have you heard of it?"
Kyo thought about it and recalled the information on the newly discovered crystal from space that emitted a very unique form of energy, as far as he knew the crystal was made of unknown elements, totally foreign to the human research tree, even those from Z.A.F.T hardly had any data on it. It was currently being studied by scientists from both Z.A.F.T, the Earth Governments, and Orb to be seen if it could be used in any way, most likely as a new power source.
"I've heard of it before, but I hardly knew much about it, why do you ask?"
"Well…I and some of my research team were temporarily assigned to the research station in question to do a more complete analysis when some of the scientists were on a break. I was able to gather the data on the energy wave lengths being emitted by the crystal and found that the wave patterns are amazingly similar to the ones being released by the crystal reactor in you're Gundam."
Kyo was quickly on attention at the bit of information as he listened more intently.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Positive. I ran several thorough tests on the gathered energy wave data from the crystal, and then the Freedom's own crystal reactor and they match, I then sent you a voice message in you're home, but no doubt it was erased, so I sent you the data via email…did you get it already?"
Kyo decided to turn back on his computer and check his email, he then found the folder and spoke to his old mentor and family friend.
"I've got the folder and I'll start reading it now, if there's anything I would like to ask, I'll give you a call."
"No problem, see you around, and say hi to your parents and siblings for me."
Kyo then directed his attention to the folder and sat back on the chair and began to read the information, and sure enough, Erica was right, there were very accurate patterns and energy readings in the information folder that she had sent him, not to mention images and physical descriptions of the crystal that was being researched, he even received some audio files that detailed what the scientists had found out on the crystal. Kyo looked over all the details and then directed his attention to his own data, pertaining to the crystal reactor in his Gundam, he opened the data files and records pertaining to the crystal's energy wave signature., namely from the circuits that had crystals fused into them.
As soon as he took out a record copy of the wave length, he did the very same thing to the data file that Erica had sent him, as soon as both files were ready for a data wave comparison, he activated the program and fused the wave files together.
…They matched perfectly.
"No way."
Kyo was stunned by what the computer was showing him, both crystals from two different sources, and in two different systems had the very same data wave lengths. This was still another very new and radical thing to discover for the young man and he decided to do a quick run for his work, and encoded the current data into a burner, he then took out a spare disk that he had and placed into the open tray, and a few minutes later, the data that he had gained on his Mobile Suit's modified nuclear/crystal hybrid reactor, along with the fused circuits, and the data handed to him by his old mentor Erica Simmons was now encoded into the CD, he then placed it in a nearby container and then when he was done with the basic screening run on the computer for any infections, he activated the shut down procedure and looked at the data disk carefully.
He juggled just what he would do, but then decided to deal with that later as he reached for the gift paper wrapped box he had on the table in his room. He then took out his cell-phone and decided to check in with the security in the base, where the hanger was that had his Gundam kept in storage.
"This is Major. Kyo Yamato, may I speak to the head of security/" The Gundam pilot said with a clear no nonsense tone to the one receiving his calls there in the base.
"Yes sir, I'll have Lieutenant Jon on the line in a moment." The operator answered and the Coordinator youth heard a slight tone indicating that he was being re-routed into the secure line in the head of security's main office. In a moment, and calm and strong voice came on the line.
"Major Kyo Yamato? What can I do for you sir?"
"What's the current status of the Freedom?"
"The Gundam is still here sir, the weapon systems are fully charged, along with all systems at full optimal condition, no one has tried anything on the Gundam sir, and they never will on my watch."
"That's good to hear, I will be needing the Gundam ready once I get there however."
"Planning a trip sir?"
"You might say that, I have some business to take care of in space, have the Gundam ready for me on the launching deck once I get there."
"Understood sir, we'll have you're Mobile Suit and ready for whatever you need it for."
"Thank you Lieutenant."
As soon as he placed away his cell and was now on the living room, he spotted his sister walk out in a very beautiful white dress, it had pink diamonds on the lower hem and had straps with rose designs on them and even an orchid shaped clasp on the left shoulder, there was even a slit on the right lower portion of her dress that showed her calves, Mira had on a pair of long gloves which were also white and a pair of light dancing shoes that appeared very comfortable on her. His sister looked very lovely in her ensemble.
"What do you think?" Mira asked her eldest brother with a shy smile as she showed the dress from front and back, and since it hugged her slender and well formed frame with grace and class, she was beautiful.
"Let me put it this way…if you and I were not brother and sister, I'd knock Mwu out and take you to the prom myself. You look wonderful sis." Kyo said with a sincere smile.
"Ooh, you're a meanie. I'll tell Mwu later about that, but thank you very much. Mom picked out the dress form me and Dad showed me how to dance with a guy, I've never done this before you know, I'm kind of nervous." Mira replied with a shy but happy smile.
"I understand you're nervousness dear, I was like that when I was you're age too."
Lacus said with a smile as she appeared from the room, dressed in a light blue dress shirt and soft cotton short pants with shoes. Lacus had been busy with matters back in the Colonies a few days before, but had been able to leave two days earlier to oversee the preparation of Mira's first prom night, with the blessings of the other officials in the PLANT Government Council.
"I was nervous in my prom night too sis, and I've got no doubt on my mind that Mwu will be as nervous as you are…though I think that he'll probably have a hard time thinking about being nervous once he sees you."
Kyo replied with a wide smirk on his face, namely how his friend would react to the sight of his sister dressed up the way she was.
"What do you think Kyo? I think the dress is a little too showy, just a bit though."
Kira asked as he came out from the room as well, dressed in a long sleeved party shirt in grey and he had black pants on and his feet had black leather shoes, and despite his dark garb, the Ultimate Coordinator was far from any black feelings as he looked at his daughter with pride, and then to his eldest son for the answer to his question.
"Mira looks beautiful Dad, I do have something for her though." Kyo replied as he revealed the box he had kept hidden and then handed it to his sister.
"Is that for me?" Mira asked in surprise, she had not expected her big brother to have a present for her, since he was rather busy and there was little time for them to be together as siblings, but the thought of her big brother, who had dealt with some bullies for her sake had a gift her in the most important nights of her young life was very nice.
"Yes, I think this will go on to you're hair very nicely."
Mira opened the box, and then found a beautiful hair pin and gasped at the sight. The hair pin was shaped like a butterfly landing on a lotus blossom. The whole thing appeared to have been made from gold and the butterfly was in red and white designs, while the lotus itself was in pink and gold, all in all, the hairpin was beautiful.
Kyo then took the item into his hands and placed it deftly into the right side of his sister's long pink hair and completed the look as Mira saw herself in the nearby mirror. Just as Aki came into the room with some of his toys, the little boy saw his sister and smiled warmly.
"Wow sis, you look great! Going out with Mwu tonight?"
All of the Yamato family smiled warmly at the youngest brother's intuition and laughed good naturedly at the fierce blush that appeared on Mira's cheeks at her little brother's guess.
"Aki! Stop that! But thank you for the opinion. Brother, are you coming to the party?" Mira asked Kyo as he stopped his laughter.
Kyo sobered up and replied. "I wish I could sis, but something very important came up and I have to go to space in a few minutes. However, I hope not to be long since I just need to run some tests there, I'll be back before you know it."
Mira was a bit sad but knew that her big brother always kept his word and hugged him, just as the sound of a knock came on the door, Kira went over to the door and checked to see just who was at their door, he then smiled back at his eldest and only daughter.
"You're date is here."
Mira smiled, just as Kira opened the door and in came Mwu who had a nervous smile on his face, as he was dressed in a well made and apparently well taken care of tuxedo and a set of pink roses with him, his smile towards Kira and Lacus was replaced with absolute amazement as he gazed at his date for the prom, much to Mira's embarrassment, and to Kyo and Aki's absolute amusement. The situation lasted for only a few moments, until Kyo spoke with a grin.
"Hey Mwu, are you going to gawk at Mira all day or are you going to give her the roses and get a move on?"
Mwu shook himself out of his stupor and blushed as he walked over to Mira and handed her the flowers. Mira smiled warmly and kissed him on the cheek, which had turned from light red, to pure crimson. Much to the Yamato family's utter surprise and humor.
Kira then looked at his eldest son and asked him something.
"Why are you planning to go to the PLANTS at this time of the night son?"
Lacus also had the same question on her mind, though she didn't asked it herself, she knew that something of great importance must have happened to get her eldest son to leave so soon, and early too, she and her husband had planned to meet up with Athrun and Cagalli later this night for a small reunion this night, along with Kyo's cousin Kyra.
Kyo told them about the data that Erica had sent him pertaining to the crystal that had been found by the scientists and was being studied, and the similarities the crystal had with the crystal/nuclear hybrid reactor in the Freedom. He then mentioned that he wanted only to go up to space and make some data comparisons and it seemed that he would have miss out for a bit on their planned outing this night. However, fate had other ideas.
Kira checked his cell-phone and found out that he had an incoming message, and as soon as he looked, it was from his sister Cagalli.
"What's up Kira?"
"Nothing much Cagalli, are you ready to meet up here in the house for the outing?"
The tone in Cagalli's voice however didn't bode well.
"Sorry Kira, I've gotten some things to do right now. Athrun and me are to take a short trip to the new station where the crystal that was found a few months before was being stored in the new research station there in space. I'll be away for a while so I don't know just when will I be able to join you all."
Kyo then asked for his father's cell-phone and Kira spoke to Cagalli that her nephew wanted to speak with her. As soon as Kyo was given the cell-phone he explained his findings to his aunt and then requested permission if he could go along with them to the station and bring his Gundam with him on the shuttle. Cagalli then replied to Kyo to wait for a few minutes as she spoke with both her husband and her daughter. After three minutes she spoke back to her nephew.
"Sure, I'll go to the hanger and have the Freedom ready to be transported into the main cargo shuttle, we'll be waiting for you there in the Launching Bay. Once we're there, we'll use the shuttle to go to the Mass Driver."
"Thanks. I think my dad will want to talk to you Aunt Cagalli."
Kyo then handed his dad's cell-phone back to him, but was suddenly surprised to hear his father's following statement.
"Can you hold a few more seats in the shuttle for me and Lacus Cagalli, we'll be coming along for the ride as well."
"Oh?"
"Yes, once we're done with whatever inspection you and Athrun have to do in the station we can get to having that outing once we get back to Earth, sounds fair?"
"I…suppose it might be, I'll make the arraignments Kira, anything else?"
Mira raised her hand and Kira then handed her the cell-phone and she then spoke to her aunt.
"Aunt Cagalli, can I ask if I can come with my parents?"
"What for Mira? Don't you and Mwu have a prom to attend?"
"Yes, but I want to see just what is it that has my brother so interested today, and I doubt being late for a few minutes from a high school prom is such a big deal anyway, please? I promise I won't take too long, and I'll be back here on Earth after all that is over."
"I don't know…all right then, but make sure that you're parents are okay about it, along with you're brother, you know how protective he is."
Mira smiled at that statement and replied. "I know, believe me I know. I hope to see you, uncle Athrun, and Kyra soon."
As soon as she handed the cell-phone to her father, she smiled at Kyo who was very shocked at what he had just heard, he had expected to only be there and back in a few minutes, taking the shuttle and then getting back to Earth in his Gundam, letting his aunt and uncle do their work, but now his entire family was along for the ride. He wanted to try and talk them out of it, however he couldn't find the exact sentences and arguments to help him.
Later…
Kyo sighed as he and the rest of the Yamato family, excluding his youngest sibling who was being watched over by Mwu until they got back, were now alongside him to the base where the Freedom was, he couldn't help but hope that nothing would happen to them on the way to the station and nothing disastrous would happen there in the station…
Boy, how wrong he was…
--
End of Flashback…
"I recall finishing the last of the re-routing procedures and I was about to escape if I could, but then an explosion knocked me unconscious, somehow the Paeksis in my Gundam at that time had activated and no doubt….kept me in stasis, until I woke up in my Gundam's cockpit, no doubt after the Paeksis wore off…I found myself in Earth, but the blast had rendered me an amnesiac, I took off in Freedom and went on to wandering the cosmos…and then found my way to Talark…and the rest…I think you already know that."
Kyo then sighed as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the floor as his memories of the events in the station played back in his mind's eye over and over again, he noted that the women before him were rather silent, not that he could blame them, he still had trouble getting used to what he had learned also.
"Wow! You're REALLY old Mr. Alien!" Dita replied as she looked at him in wonder.
Kyo looked at her with a look of slight surprise and humor.
"Please don't remind me of that Dita….it's not exactly comforting to know you're already four hundred and nineteen years old but still look nineteen."
Jura then looked at Dita with a tired expression. "I really wish you'd stop calling him that Dita, his real name IS Kyo Yamato after all…but why did you say you never wish to have those memories restored, I don't exactly understand it."
"Neither do I." Meia replied calmly though she showed great concern for Kyo since his expressions were those of great pain and that was the one expression she didn't want to see in his face.
Sara and Mai had the very same expressions of concern and curiosity in them as they gazed at Kyo waiting for an answer.
Kyo then replied.
"The….the reason I said that is the fact that I've been looking for my home, my family, and my friends all this time and hoping to at least find some answers to my own being, but now that I've gotten those answers, and know now what had happened ever since that day in the station, I realized that all my efforts have been for nothing…my family is dead, my friends are also dead, my home-planet is now an irradiated waste-land and the survivors are nothing more now that organ hungry killers and are nothing like the people I recall. All this time I've been looking for them all…they already died."
"I…I can't…exactly move on now with all this on my conscious."
"Why?"
Kyo groaned and looked at them with sad and lost eyes and replied with greater force.
"Why? I've been looking for my family that have already passed away, I've been looking for my home-planet that now is nothing more than a barren and inhospitable mockery of the old planet I grew up in as a child, and yet you all still ask why?! I have nothing to go back to or to recall anymore! My whole family is dead and gone! Everything I grew up with and cherished as a child until now is nothing more than dust now! All the people I knew as friends and trusted comrades are dead! My home-land's nothing anymore!! It's nothing but a mockery of the beautiful world I knew as a child!! I have no past to go back to anymore, I have no home, no family, no friends… I'm all alone now!!"
The girls were understandably shocked by the sheer anger and raw emotion Kyo was now letting out and the look of utter despair in his face. Kyo looked at them and realized what he had said, and then with an apologetic look spoke as calmly as he could manage, but he knew that he could barely hold that came as memories filled his mind about his past, and the horrible truth that lay next to it.
"I'm sorry…I, I shouldn't have shouted at any of you, none of you deserve that…but I…try to understand. My family is dead for four hundred years…and so were my friends, along with my home, everything and everyone I cared and loved for is already gone. Even…even if I do find any descendants of my family and friends…they won't know who I am, they won't remember me at all, and that's because….because I'm supposed to be dead myself, The people who knew me are already dead for hundreds of years, and…and my home-world is not the same anymore. I…I know that you all will be there for me…you all always have been, and I can never repay you in any fashion for being there for me…but I…I can't just let this go…please…I need to be alone for now."
With that, Kyo turned and headed off to the men's quarters and to his room. The utter look of defeat and despair in the normal strong willed and brave man was very shocking and painful to the Megele women as they could do nothing but watch as Kyo left. However…Dita was not going to let this be the end of it.
"Mr. Alien! Wait!"
As the redhead tried to follow Kyo, she was suddenly stopped by both Jura and Meia, she looked at them in great surprise and was about to break free from them and try to talk to Kyo but their grips held her in place and prevented her from following the distraught Gundam pilot.
"What are you doing?! We have to help make Mr. Alien feel better, and not sad!"
Meia replied. "I know Dita, I wish to do the same…but I…I think Kyo needs some time alone for now, if you tried to talk to him the way he is right now, I doubt you'd get anywhere."
"But…"
Jura nodded in agreement though her own expression showed pain in being able to do something that could help Kyo come to terms with what he had learned and what he had discovered. The blonde wished she could say something to lift up Kyo's spirits, but she knew better.
"I have to agree with Meia, we can't do much until Kyo…until he comes to terms with it."
Dita was not liking the way the others were acting and began to cry, as despite her denials, she could see the truth about what they said, but she loved Kyo too much to leave him alone the way he currently was right now. And being the kind hearted girl that she was she let it out.
"I love Mr. Alien so much….it hurts not being able to help him now…why does he had to suffer so many things before he's happy?!"
Meia, Sara, Mai, and Jura were stunned at that tearful revelation, but a part of them felt that they should have expected that to come out from Dita sooner or later, considering that before they themselves got close to Kyo, only Dita was constantly beside him in the early days of their journey so it would make sense that her feelings for Kyo, in terms of affection would be the strongest if it was compared to theirs since they had not started feeling this way towards Kyo until now.
Meia and the others looked at each other and then to Dita and sighed as they helped the young redhead away, it seemed that regardless of the current situation, they had a lot to talk about, and in order for things to make some sense for them all on their respective affections for the Gundam pilot, they needed to talk to someone.
--
That certain someone was also busy on something important…
Magno looked over all the records and sighed as she reached for a hidden container. The contents appeared to be very important to the aged Captain as there was a very strong computer lock with a pass code on it. As she looked at the contents for a few moments and then re-sealed it she wondered on how to break the news to Kyo about the discovery of his heritage…and his status when it concerned what he had done nearly four hundred years ago.
(This will be really hard…for both of us.)
However, her thoughts on the matter were placed aside as a sound coming from her door's alarm came online, informing her that there was somebody at her door. She placed the container aside and then took up her walking stick and made her way to the door, but not before she took some pain medication and some water to take the pills down. As soon as she was done she opened the door.
Much to her surprise, she found herself being greeted by Jura, Dita, Meia, Sara and Mai, all five women seemed to have a very important thing to discuss with her, judging by the way they seemed very concerned and troubled.
"Hello, what brings you all here at this time of the day?"
Meia replied for herself and her comrades.
"Captain…we need to talk about, about what we can do to help Kyo with his situation…and how…we can make sense of how we feel for him. Can you help us?"
Magno had a strange feeling that something like this would happen, but she found nothing wrong with how things seemed to be going as she had told Kyo about the women's affections for him once. She then ushered all the girls in her room and decided that until later, her personal discussion with Kyo would have to wait.
--
In the men's quarters…
Kyo looked at the walls in silence and didn't say a single word as he sat on his bunk. He was happy that at least no one was in the area to disturb him, or else he would have lashed out at them, considering the storm of feelings and emotions inside of him, he was very much a mess.
The silence lasted for a few minutes until suddenly Kyo got to his feet and with a strong roar of grief and rage, began punching the walls, all the while crying as he began to recall the memories he had gained and compared them to what he had learned…he never felt so lost now.
All throughout his actions, Kyo merely shouted out incoherent words and sounds.
Kyo went at this for a few more moments until he tired himself out and he then placed aside his hands and sat down on the floor and cried as he recalled just how much he had regained, and just how much he had lost. Despite the pain in his hands from his punching of the walls, it could not compare to the pain of knowing that his family was gone for all time…and he was the only one of his family…in that time, to be alive. The sobs from the distraught Gundam pilot grew as he recalled the smiling faces of his mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, and cousin, along with his friends…and finally recalling the expressions of sorrow in the faces of his family when he was last with them in the space station.
As soon as he managed to control a fraction of the emotions inside of him, Kyo got up and went to his bunk and then took out from the nearby box something he had found previously as he lay down on the bed, it was a picture that he had found in the box that he now knew as the container of his family mementos. It was a picture of his entire family, his parents, siblings, his relatives, and his cousin having a day in the beach near their home.
He held the picture tighter to his chest as he leaned back on the wall near his bunk and then closed his eyes and cried once more as the memories of that day flooded him, making realize how bitter sweet it was for him to get those memories back.
This went on until he pulled his feet up to the bunk and curled up into a ball on the bed as he began to cry once more.
--
Hours later…
The Nirvana was almost half-way out of the debris belt and things had gotten back to normal, however normal was far from the truth as certain members of the crew were very busy with important matters.
In the men's quarters…
Kyo was still in his bed, and had just awakened, having managed to far asleep on the bunk, he groaned and shook his head and recalled what he had done and checked his hands, there were some bruises and a few aches, but nothing worse for wear and thankfully no broken bones, however he was still very much shook up by all that has happened.
This went on for several minutes until he heard the foot-steps of someone entering the room. He was still not completely sure about all the things that had happened so he naturally was not still sure about seeing anyone.
"I want to be left alone."
The person walking in continued and that forced Kyo to get a bit more depressed, and naturally angry as he still wanted some time to himself, so he quickly got to his feet and walked out to face the person coming in.
"I said I wanted to…"
"Be left alone? I know…but there's much you need to know….that is if you are willing to let an old woman talk to you?" Magno Vivian replied earnestly and as gently as she could seeing the flow of emotions that were there in the Gundam pilot's face.
Kyo's anger and depression melted somewhat as he faced the elder woman, despite how angry and despondent he was, he was not angry enough to lash out at Magno. He looked at the older woman very sheepishly and spoke.
"I…I'm sorry Captain…I didn't mean to yell and act like a…"
Magno waved away his fears and nodded in agreement.
"It is all right…I heard what happened between you and the girls earlier…I wanted to talk to you about that, and I tried calling you on the inter-comm. a few hours before, but you didn't answer. I see that you were asleep."
Kyo nodded as he let the older woman into his room and allowed her to sit on the bunk he had been in before, he then grabbed a nearby light weight metal crate and used it as a chair. As he sat down Magno looked at him with a very calm but concerned eye, the dry areas around his eyes and the way he moved told the old woman that Kyo had cried in his bunk, and she understood that, having learned Kyo's situation from the five women she had chatted with before told exactly what made Kyo so anti-social lately.
Kyo then looked back and replied in a calm voice.
"They told you everything…but I know that there's something else…what is it?"
Magno took a deep breath and then took out the same container she had in her room nearly a few hours before. She then pressed the key codes and the box opened with a hiss of air.
Kyo was curious as to what was the box all about, and his expression showed it. Magno then turned the box around and spoke as calmly as she could to Kyo.
"There's…something in this box that I have had for some time…and something you might recognize."
Kyo didn't quite understand what this was all about, and he was still very much weary on all that he had learned to be dealing with something strange as this.
"Captain…I don't mean to insult you…but I'm not exactly in the mood to be…"
"Please Kyo…open it and tell me if you recognize it. It's important that you tell me if you recognize it."
Kyo never heard this tone come out from Magno before and this made him even more curious and though he was still weary and exhausted from all the things that had happened, he decided to humor her, besides, he had never set foot in her private quarters in the entire time he had been on the Nirvana, he highly doubt that she had anything he would recognize.
As he opened the box, Kyo could tell that whatever was inside the box was well preserved, and he wondered just what was inside it…
Kyo got his answer and his eyes widened in shock and disbelief as he stared at what was inside the box…
It was a hair-pin…but not any ordinary hair pin…
Flashback dialogue…
"Is that for me?"
"Yes, I think this will go on to you're hair very nicely"
End of Flashback dialogue…
Kyo's hands trembled as he reached for the hair-pin, and since Magno didn't stop him, he took it and ran his hands over it, it had the same designs, the butterfly in red and white, and the lotus in pink and gold, the gold metal felt older, and had some tell tail signs of use…but there was no mistake about it, he knew this hair-pin.
"This…this…this is…this is the hair-pin…I, I…I gave this hair-pin to my sister! I gave this hair-pin to my sister Mira Clyne Yamato…on the night…on the night of her prom…and on the night of…"
Kyo nearly dropped the hair-pin but held it closer to him and he was stunned, emotions flowed all over him as he held the item in his hands, and he was shaking. As soon as he got a hold of himself, though barely, he looked at Magno in absolute shock.
"How…How…How did…W-W-Where did you get this?! How could you have my sister's hair-pin?!"
Magno smiled gently and replied.
"It was given to me by my mother on the day of my…wedding, as it was given to her by her own mother on her own wedding and so forth…it was the hair-pin of my ancestor…you're sister Mira."
"No…that…that means that…you're…"
Magno nodded and replied with no trace of a lie in her tone and in her eyes.
"Yes…I am Magno Vivian…Yamato…Mira Clyne Yamato's great-great-great grand-daughter, and you're niece. I'm happy to have met you…in person, Uncle Kyo."
--
The Harvester Invasion Fleet…
"My lord…"
"Report."
"The advanced force has detected an incoming signature that will be breaking through the debris belt in their current location, it appears to be the Nirvana, they are getting ready to engage with them and destroy them on sight."
"How many of the fleet can engage the Nirvana before they reach the Talark/Megele system?" The Harvester leader asked as he ran a few checks of his own.
"At least several massive squadrons of Cube Fighters and Seed Ships, the other battle-ships will still need to clear the debris belt despite the fact that they are only a few more hours away from the system. They will be in position to attack Megele and Talark soon once they have cleared the belt."
"How long will we be able to engage the Nirvana and the two worlds as well?"
Approximately several days, the Resistance continues to harass our fleet…"
"I do not care about their actions…I want all ships to be ready to break through the barrier once we have arrived, have all Mobile Suits, Cube Fighters, and Gundam units ready for battle until then, if any Resistance forces arrive to halt us…I want them obliterated on sight, is that understood?"
"Yes my Lord."
--
Back on the Nirvana…
Kyo Yamato was still in shock and disbelief at what he had just heard from the elder woman before him…he had thought that he was truly alone now that he had regained his memories seeing as out of his original family, he was the only one of them who was still very much alive, but now the fact that Magno had Mira's hair-pin and saying that she was his niece threw him off the loop. He was in a stupor for only a few moments until he regained his wits and spoke once more and spoke.
"How…how can I be sure that this is not some sick joke?"
Magno nodded with a smile. "It is no joke…if you would like, I would like both of us to take a blood and DNA test to prove that you and I are indeed related. There's so much I want to tell you, but I want you to be assured that what I have told you is the truth."
Kyo thought about it, and decided that if this was the only way to see if what Magno told him was true, if it was, there was a lot more for him to consider. He got up and still held the precious hair-pin he gave his sister four hundred years ago and followed the elderly woman who just might be his niece.
As soon as they arrived in the Medical Bay, they were greeted by Duero, Max, and Paiway, who were still busy with several of their own assignments and workloads on the Nirvana's crew, and the two men kept their silence when they faced Kyo, warning that until Kyo came to terms with his past they were not to breath a word to the crew about it. However, that certainly didn't mean they would not do their duties as physicians while on the ship.
"Greetings Kyo, Captain, what brings you here?"
"A blood and DNA test...for both of us" Magno replied, as Kyo looked rather uncertain about the whole thing, but was willing to try and find out if everything the Captain had told him was true, and if this was the only way, then so be it.
Duero became somewhat confused as to what was going on, as far as he could recall, Magno Vivian had not taken too many physical examinations, due to her old age, however he knew that she did have some physical conditions such as a heart condition which would hopefully be treated back on Megele, in the pirate base since the supplies and technology in the Nirvana were not that well supported. He however could tell from the expressions on both Kyo and Magno were serious about this test, thus he didn't waste time asking and got the equipment ready for the blood and DNA test.
The blood extractor was a small device, nearly the same size as a larger pen, but it took a blood sample from a person that was only one drop and contained it in a film strip that could be installed into a computer and the computer would begin the DNA test. The device was able to have two strips in it so it can take more than one blood sample.
Both Magno and Kyo winced slightly as the device took some blood from them when they showed their palms, both Duero, Max and Paiway then went to work as the eldest of the McFile siblings slid both strips into the computer and ran the DNA test. The screen showed the two blood samples of both the pirate captain and the no longer amnesiac Gundam pilot. Duero then spoke to Magno and Kyo.
"I would like to ask what sort of test you would like me to run on both you're blood sample, and Kyo's, Captain."
"Run a genetic comparison and see if there are similarities in DNA structure."
Duero was even more curious as to what was going on, along with his fellow members in the Medical Bay, as far as he knew, along with Max and Paiway, this kind of test was only done if there was a chance that the two recipients were descendants of the same family line, but there was no way that both Magno and Kyo were related…the age and time gap was too wide.
"Are you sure?" Max asked.
Kyo who had been silent for a bit, decided to speak.
"Yes, and Duero…run the scan through the parameters of looking for the X and Y chromosomes."
Duero recalled that in his research in the past few months that this was a way to trace ancestry and in the case of X and Y chromosomes, it was a way to trace ancestry to both male and female ancestors. He was now even more curious as to what was this all about and made the arrangements. As soon as the data was inputted along with the needed search parameters, the computer screen showed the search begin done along with the tests and then the data was displayed as Kyo and Magno's respective DNA strands were shown to have some similar genetic traits and information, and to really hit the target home, the computer displayed the results.
- Scans of DNA strands from subject Kyo Yamato and Magno Vivian show a 60 similarity due to maternal and paternal lineage-
Conclusion: Both subjects share a common ancestry to both maternal paternal lines, though subject Magno Vivian has several DNA markers from other DNA lines.
To say the medics and the nurse were shocked out of their wits was a vast understatement, even Kyo himself was stunned as Magno merely nodded as the results were displayed. Duero and Max then faced the two but no words came out of their mouths as they looked at the captain and the Gundam pilot, as if trying to find ANY physical resemblance between the two.
Paiway however was the only one to phrase the whole situation very effectively.
"YOU BOTH ARE RELATED?!"
--
Later…
Kyo was now walking alongside Magno and despite the fact that there was now indisputable proof that he did have a family relative related to his sister Mira, he was not very sure referring to her as his niece was such a wish suggestion, as despite the fact that he outpaced her in the age department, by nearly four generations, he was still chronologically and biologically younger than her, suffice to say it was very uncomfortable to know that.
"I…still…I still can't believe that we're really related."
"Kind of hard to wrap you're mind around it then?"
Kyo nodded solemnly. "Pretty much."
"I can understand that, it's not exactly easy for me either, I'm already a hundred years old, and you're far older than I am, and yet…far younger too, it's also rather, difficult. But we need to talk about other matters…"
"I know, but just call me Kyo for now, I'm still not used to the idea that I'm you're uncle Magno, I also have some questions for you as well."
"Fair enough…so what is it you want to ask me?"
"What…happened to my family….you're ancestors after I was, considered dead?"
Magno sighed a bit and smiled slightly as she gazed at her uncle, and knew that he deserved an answer to this question.
"Our…you're parents continued their duties in making the peace a reality and they pushed on, but they never forgot you, neither did you're sister, and brother. When they got married and had children, they…would tell stories about you….who you were, what you've done, and why…you were no longer among us. Every first day of the New Year, they all would go to you're…monument to pray for you, tell you stories of what happened in their lives and would always take care of you're monument there. And you became a great figure in our family history. When…Kira and Lacus died, they requested they would be buried alongside you and that request was granted…their tombs were placed in close proximity to that monument where they knew that you were buried in, the same was said for you're uncle and aunt, they also requested to be buried near you. After which….my ancestors and you're uncle and aunt's descendants continued the tradition, and they did many important things for the human race…but to the outside world….you became a martyr and hero."
Kyo was somewhat silent at the words as he heard the story of his parents, but was then surprised to hear that he was considered a hero and martyr.
"What do you mean?"
"It has something to do with what we have today Kyo, and is the main thing I wanted to talk to you about."
Magno then headed to the direction of the Bio-Park's main observatory, and as they arrived, Magno leaned on the rail and spoke to Kyo.
"You did something incredible four hundred years ago…you saved the human race from being totally wiped out by the explosion, even if you were thought lost. The people of Earth never forgot that in that time and named you as the human race's greatest child and defender. Even as time passed, and you're history was forgotten by the other generations, those things you did were always remembered by others, until you're name and deeds became legendary…. And you're actions on that space station four hundred years ago, allowed us to develop all the technology and knowledge we had to go beyond the outer reaches of our solar system, establish colonies…and reach out towards the stars."
"And that means that all human worlds that exist now…from Anpathos, Melanos, Taisia, the planets you've visited….and even Talark and Megele, they would have never been founded, colonized….and inhabited if it wasn't for you doing what you've done all those centuries ago. If you did not stop the explosion, humanity would have been wiped out completely or suffered the fate of the Harvesters if there were indeed those who survived in that time, only they would have died out as well. The people of the colonies owe you their lives, their ancestors also owe you their lives, and that means that even the crew of the Nirvana, if they ever know of it or not…owe you their lives, and so do the people back on both Talark and Megele. I also owe you my life, so does my son, and my husband."
Kyo was stunned by all that information as he looked out towards the park and thought it all over. It was hard to imagine all that information being true…which in truth, it was. The idea however was rather large for him to grasp quickly and in truth it was rather hard to swallow the fact that he had single handedly saved the human race from being wiped out, he recalled how his parents, family friends, and his relatives had done the same when they were in the Three Ships Alliance to stop the Z.A.F.T forces and the EA in the last battle of the First Bloody Valentine War. But for him to be shouldering the reputation and the knowledge of being the savior of the human race was not exactly something one could easily live with.
Magno could tell that from her uncle's expression that it was still very hard for him to accept the full impact of what she had just told him, she knew that it was hard enough for him to accept the truth of his memories, and then it was even harder to accept that she was related to him through his sister despite the chronological age gap and the biological age gap between them, and then to realize that he was responsible for the salvation of the human race long ago and allowed the colonization of the planets he had visited before…suffice to say she understood that it was a lot to take in.
"Kyo…"
"I still can't believe all that…"
"I know, I cannot say that I truly know how you feel about all this, but I want you to know that all that I have told you is the truth and is no lie, and I will give you time to get used to all that you now know…but I want to thank you for all that you've done, if…if my ancestors, you're parents were alive now, and they learned what you've done…they would be proud of you."
It was then that Magno got a call from her communicator, she took it out from her robes and opened it.
"Yes?'
"Captain, this is Buzam…we'll be passing the debris belt in a few more hours, however, we're picking up a strange set of signals coming from the outer fringes of the debris cloud, it might be anything, but we need you on the bridge now."
"Understood." She then turned to face Kyo and replied. "I have to go."
"Sure."
The elderly woman then left and headed for the bridge, leaving behind her uncle to decide for himself just what to do now with all the information he had just gained.
--
Later…
Kyo was currently in the Paeksis reactor and looked at the crystal core, this crystal was where it all started after all, even if it was now a more advanced version than the one he had to deal with nearly four life times ago, it was still very much the same thing that had nearly wiped out the human race before and the same thing that saved him.
He didn't know why he was here, but he was here either way. He then looked closer and wondered if the crystal would react to him now that all of his memories were now his again, and the only chance he had of finding that out was by being here, he sat down on the gang-plank and leaned back on the rails, closed his eyes, and focused his mind into trying to speak to the Paeksis, the same way the Paeksis had the ability to touch his mind.
In a moment he felt the darkness in his vision be replaced by the same sea of green that he saw many times in some of his interactions with the living crystal.
"Can you hear me?"
The Paeksis responded, but this time in a clear human voice. The same male voice that he now recalled as his father Kira's voice.
"What is it Kyo?"
"Why did you save me? And why do you speak to me using my father's voice?"
"We saved you because it was due to what we sensed and learned about you, you have a great uniqueness and nature that made us see the full potential of the human race, and we speak this way, because you made us so."
"Me?"
Another voice spoke, and this time, it was in his mother's voice.
"Yes, when you were placed in suspended animation in order to protect you from the explosion, we were able to read you're mind before we had to seal you're memories away…we saw everything of who you are, you're past, you're life as a child, growing up in a way that is far stronger than others you're age while in the military, we saw you live you're life as a student, a brother, a son, a man, and as a human being. You've seen and felt both the good and bad sides of human nature, and you have shown the strength and will of the human spirit. You fought for what you believed was right and more…while you were there, we made ourselves in the likeness of your parents, not to control you but to help you make your way in the world. The fragment of us that was in your Gundam unit housed you're memories…and when you're parents were buried next to your monument we reached out to them and touched their minds as well, to learn more about humanity, along with your aunt and uncle's own memories. When we learned enough we transported those memories directly into the reactor here in the Nirvana, and as such we created…personalities to aid you in this journey."
Kyo was confused at that statement. "Personalities?"
"You're Gundam, the Infinite-Freedom was given the personality of your father Kira, to act as you're protector. Did you not wonder why there is a sense of great familiarity between you and that Gundam you piloted ever since its transformation?"
"Are you telling me that my father's…soul is in my Gundam?"
"In a sense, yes, that is why it has a psychic link to you and responded to you when you were in danger and apart from it. The reason it never acted that way was that it needed you to remember a portion of your parents' own sayings to trigger that personality or persona to exist. And it has proven itself to be very strong, the 'soul' of your father has saved you quite a number of times as well."
The other voice then spoke. "The second personality that exists is you're mother Lacus, and it resides within this ship…here in the reactor itself."
"What?"
"Do you recall you're mother telling you how she gave the Freedom Gundam to you're father when his first Mobile Suit was nearly destroyed?"
Kyo recalled that story very well, as both his parents told him about their respective view-points on that particular event many years ago. After his father had somehow survived, although with injuries, his mother and an old friend, named Reverend Malchio saved him and after helping his father find his own path, gave him the Freedom Gundam even if it placed her and her family in the line of fire.
"I do…what does that have to do with my mother's soul being in you?"
"Just like what you're mother did for you're father in that time, we downloaded all the data concerning the Freedom's design and beamed it to the three Dreads piloted by the three women you could form GunDreads with. When that happened, we transformed their Dreads into the Gundams they now use as they will need this sword to defend you as they could not do a lot by either strength and will alone. Just as you're mother Lacus handed the Freedom to you're father Kira to help him in his plans to help end the war, the Gundams given by you're mother's soul to the three women will help them both end the war with the Harvesters, and to defend you."
Kyo was silent by this new set of revelations and the voices then replied.
"Though we only are copies of you're parents, we are living beings ourselves, and we know that you alone have what is needed to help humanity in this dark time, we communicated this to our other selves and they too know that you have what it takes to defend humanity and the future…despite the loss you face, you were never alone to begin with. You loved you're parents and family, thus now that you remember them, you must cherish them and live for them, defend the future of the human race, and give hope to those who need it. You and your family have done that once…and now it is time to do that again."
Kyo opened his eyes and looked at the Paeksis and recalled all the things that he remembered as a child, his lessons from his parents and relatives, his own struggles and triumphs, and his joys and sorrows, and finally his experiences with the Nirvana crew and various other people in this universe.
The future of humanity was always fragile and fraught with dangerous paths, in his father's words, humanity is always in danger of repeating the mistakes of the past, and many wars would be fought, lives would be lost, lives would be changed, anger and hatred would grow…but even with all that, humanity whether Coordinator or Natural (at the time), all desire peace and a future, the future that allowed them to live and find their own way, and have freedom….and as long as he gave his all to defend that future and the human race…then he was doing the right thing and this was what it truly meant to be a human being, and a Coordinator, just like George Glenn had once stated before his death.
This was the future, and although humanity was once more in the brink of war, all he had recall were the people and places he had met and seen, and the people he cared about…here on the Nirvana, to know that the future was still there and it would always need to be protected and nurtured, for those who lived now, and those yet borne as he recalled Ezra's baby, Lacus, and the countless others who were also about to be born. He and his family, friends and fellow Guardians fought with their all to defend it once…
Now with the Harvesters as the enemy….it was time to do it again.
The alarms of the Nirvana suddenly sounded and BC's voice came on the comm. System, telling them to prepare for combat, the Harvesters have arrived as they had managed to pass through the debris belt and were now on an interception course for the Nirvana to destroy them.
Kyo Clyne Yamato took a good long look at the Paeksis and then into his hands, and clenched his hands into fists and turned around, making his way to where his Gundam was.
--
In the bridge…
"How many?" Buzam called in as she and the rest of the bridge crew were on battle-stations. Magno was already in the command chair and looking over the data on her own tactical monitors.
"At least several large squadrons of Cube Fighters, along with several groups of Seed Ships, judging by their configuration and the lack of any Harvester Mobile Suit signatures, these must be part of the fleet the harvesters had sent out previously." Belvedere reported as she scanned the incoming forces.
"Ezra, do we have any way to contact Megele or Talark now?" Magno asked the gentle bridge officer.
"Negative Captain…we're still too close to the debris belt to send out a good signal."
"Oh well…I guess that means we have to fight them then. BC, have all Dreads and Crusaders ready to fight, launch the Gundams as well."
In that moment, Kyo appeared and the rest of the bridge crew cheered his appearance and Magno could somehow tell that something had changed her uncle for the better as he was seen running system checks on his Gundam.
"Good to have you back Kyo, how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine, don't worry about me Captain Magno." He then gave the elderly woman a warm smile. "Or should I just call you Maggie instead, after all…despite the age gap, you are my niece after all, is that okay by you?"
Magno smiled back ignoring the sounds of shock and disbelief in the bridge as Buzam, Belvedere, Amarone, Ezra, Celtic, and Misty looked at her and Kyo in great surprise at that revelation.
"Of course, that is if you don't mind me calling you Uncle as well. We have a bit of a problem though, the debris belt is still jamming our communications so there's no chance we can get a clear signal to tell them about the Harvesters, not to mention some of our long range scanners are offline. We'll need to break through them in order to get clear of the debris belt and get a clear communications line to both worlds."
"I can handle that Maggie, don't worry about that, I just hope that I get to meet that husband of yours on Talark soon and see that son of yours, he must be a man by now. I'll lead the strike in and once we clear a path through the Harvesters, send the signal immediately."
"Understood Uncle Kyo, be careful out there."
"Don't worry about me, I'll be back, we've got a future to defend, and as long as we all live, we will fight for that future and see it through."
Kyo's image vanished, just as Magno looked at the still stunned bridge crew, she gave them a sheepish look and spoke.
"It's a long story."
--
Kyo was at first stunned as questions suddenly flooded his cockpit from both the Crusaders and the Gundams as Dita, Meia, Jura, Sara, and Mai expressed their disbelief in the fact that he was related to Captain Magno in such a way.
"I'll tell you all about all of that later, but it will be long."
As he was given the launch signal by the bridge crew, he ran his hands on the cockpit of his Gundam and then held the controls well. He then spoke to it.
"I will make you proud of me father, and you as well mother. I will defend the future as I have once, and I will always be ready to defend it."
The Gundam's OS glowed somewhat brightly at him on the screen, as if the personality of his father Kira, hidden inside the machine heard him and was proud of him, he felt that same emotion fill the cockpit as he powered his Gundam and launched, and this time, said his full name as he went out to fight.
"KYO CLYNE YAMATO, INFINITE-FREEDOM, LAUNCHING!"
In a flash, the Gundam was launched out of the Nirvana, activated it's Prominence Phase Shift Armor activating, and it's crystal feathers exploded out from the wings as he took out his Gundam's beam sabers and got ready to lead his team of Crusader pilots and his fellow Gundam pilots into another battle.
The still basic Cube Fighters had no idea what was about to come their way as they charged in an attack vector.
--
Unknown to both the Nirvana and the Harvesters…
He placed on his helmet and checked his Mobile Suit's systems, as soon as he was given the green light by the OS of his Mobile Suit, he began to power up the machine and took off. The moment he left the ground and was now halfway towards the sky, he turned as a communiqué came to him, it revealed Tao and Diego. And the only thing he could read from the mute men was a text message in the screen.
("Are you sure of this? You realize that you might die, Sam?") Tao asked the former explorer, Harvester agent, con artist and trader.
Sam, who was known as Rabat by the vast majority of the universe nodded solemnly and replied.
"I know, I deserve death for all the pain and suffering I have inflicted on this universe, but now, I have a chance to make my life mean something."
("Even if it means that you will die in this fight?") Diego asked in message.
"Yeah, will you do as I asked of you?"
("Of course Sam, we will help the Resistance find a way through this mess, but you know that we cannot predict everything, despite our ability to commune with the spirits, there is only so much we can do.")
"I know…are you're people going to be all right?"
("They are already in the stealth shuttles and have left the planet with the Paeksis fragment to keep it safe, though if Kyo and the pirates fail when the time comes…no place will truly be safe, however, the Paeksis has faith in him, and he carries the fate of not just his friends, but of all of us as well…may the spirits guide you Sam.")
Sam nodded as he guided his Mobile Suit into the void and tracked the trajectory of the Nirvana, hoping only for two things, to finally do what he should have done so many years before, to aid humanity in their darkest hours, and finally make amends for the lives he helped destroy while serving the Harvesters, and he also carried a very important bit of information, one that concerned two people, Kyo Yamato himself, and the Harvester Council Leader, who carried a great secret that could truly be deadly….a secret that both he and Kyo shared…in blood.
Sam had called himself an idiot for not telling Kyo the information before, however, he knew he had good reasons for such an act, even he could not believe it himself when he read the information, and it finally made some sense as to why the Harvester Leader had personally entered this battle when he should have been content to only lead his people and help them survive. Sam had met the leader before, though only in communications…and never in person, but in those encounters, he felt and sensed something in him was…off…very off…and his presence…reminded the former mercenary and con artist too much of Kyo now…but this presence was different when he thought back on it…it was darker…more sinister. It was as if he was an evil version of the Gundam pilot, and after reading the data…he now knew why.
He hoped he could reach the Nirvana in time…
--
In the space just outside of the debris belt…
"A-Team and B-Team, focus on defending the outer area of the space in front of the Nirvana, retreat to reload but make sure to cover each other. C-Team and D-Team will fill in the gaps and prevent any flanking maneuvers from the Harvesters, we have to make sure they don't blind-side the Nirvana. Is that understood?"
"Roger!"
Barnette was happy that every member of the Dread pilots were following their orders and held their own with the Cube Fighters that were now getting into range. The Dreads had incorporated some new technologies and improvements in the many encounters with the Harvesters and these upgrades have proven themselves time and time again, however, she knew that the true power of the Dreads were not just the improvements, but also the increased skills and experience of the pilots. They have yet to defeat the new Harvester units, namely the Mobile Suit series they had designed and incorporated into their ranks, however, she knew that it was under the Crusaders and the Gundams' design to battle them, since they had lost a considerable number of Dreads in their first battle with the new Harvester Mobile Suits, thankfully they didn't lose any of their veteran and rookie pilots. This made them realize that they had to deal with the Cube Fighters and the Seed Ships, while the Crusaders, Gundams and their pilots dealt with the Mobile Suit units.
She then focused on the battle as she locked into the several Cube Fighters and managed to eliminate two and evaded the retaliatory strikes of the other survivors, and blasted them apart. She smiled a bit as she saw the Dreads and their pilots under her command do an excellent job in holding the line and hitting the harvesters whenever they had a clear shot and were able to evade retaliatory action. She made sure to have the SwitchBlade on standby, just in case things get too dicey for her Dread to be used alone.
The area before the Nirvana was filled with missile trails and beam bolts as the two sides began to increase the ferocity of the encounter, and due to the fact that these Cube Fighters were not totally modified, they were the ones getting the worse of the exchange as there were many of them now floating in the background…the pirates were not going to relax however, they had learned enough to not take the Harvesters lightly.
Kyo was busy leading his fellow Gundam pilots along with the Crusader Squadron as they closed the gap. Many of the Crusaders' were armed with the Aero Form Pack which gave them an even better advantage in space warfare, he then left Sara and Mai in charge, giving them orders to help maintain the defense of the Nirvana as the Seed Ships' continued to release more Cube Fighters and attack the two forces of the pirates.
Three Cube Fighters tried to attack him head-on, but he blocked some of their shots with his beam sabers, swatting their attacks aside and then sliced two into halves and quickly flew underneath the third and fired his Gundam's CIWS guns, hundreds of bullets lanced out from below to shred the Cube Fighter and turn it into a burning hulk.
Three more attempted to attack from the front and sides, but Kyo then used the I-Freedom's wings to block the shots coming from the side and charged at the one firing from the front, he evaded the attacks and placed away his Gundam's beam sabers and as the three charged in unison, they were greeted by beam fire from both the Gundam's two beam rifles, and the fused plasma cannons from the shoulders, destroying them before they could fight back. He then turned and fired both the beam rifles and plasma cannons, along with the fused rail-guns as several more Cube Fighters tried to attack him, those units were destroyed quickly, however several more tried to attack through the debris clouds. Kyo took out one of his Gundam's anti-ship swords and slashed several of the would be ambushers as they tried to fire, he then placed one of his Gundam's arms right in front of the Cube Fighter and fired several energy darts right into the face of the Cube Fighter before his Gundam. The Cube Fighter exploded as he moved away to assist the rest of the pirates.
Dita used her Gundam's beam shields to block several attacks made by some Cube Fighters and then used her beam sabers to take out two of them that tried to blind-side her, she then took advantage of her shields to move aside and fire her Gundam's own CIWS guns at the Cube Fighters, shredding two of them, she then took out her beam sabers and cut down another pair that charged at her, and managed to stab two more in the eye with her beam sabers. She then guided her Gundam away and fired her Mobile Suit's abdomen cannon at several more Cube Fighters, destroying several and hitting a Seed Ship, with that she quickly got some distance and got ready to aim the rest of her weaponry.
In a moment, she activated her HiMAT system and dodged several more attacks and quickly released her Gundam's DRAGOON cannons and aimed them at the incoming force of newly released Cube Fighters, as soon as she had a good lock on the targets, she open fired, several Cube Fighters were totaled, along with a few more being heavily damaged, and the beams also slammed right into a Seed Ship damaging it further.
Meia used her Gundam's collapsible shield to block several more shots from the Cube Fighters as they tried to overpower her Gundam, she used her Gundam's rapid acceleration, which was greater than either Jura's or Dita's to evade the next barrage and then turned around to fire her beam rifle and plasma cannons in rapid succession to eliminate more of the threats, she then placed aside her beam rifle and took out one of her Gundam's beam katanas and then powered up the energy emitters on her Gundam and once it was done, she activated her HiMAT system and jetted out with her Gundam's wings wide open and began to dive in the formations of Cube Fighters, along with the newly released reinforcements. Several groups of Cube Fighters were turned into nothing but burning wrecks as the energy covered Gundam streaked past them and into them.
As soon as she was done, she deactivated the energy emitters and was now free of the energy field that surrounded her, and with one powerful descending slash, Meia's Gundam was able to use it's beam weapon to slice down several Cube Fighters in a row.
As soon as she was able to, she retracted her shield and took out her beam rifle and used both weapons at the same time, the rifle to handle long range targets, and used the beam katana to cut down those that tried to get close to her. As soon as she was done, she jetted back, placed aside her beam katanas and went on to use her plasma cannons, rail-guns, beam rifle, CIWS guns, in their full bombardment mode, while using the shield to block incoming strikes, the aqua-haired girl was using the training Kyo gave her in order to utilize the multi-lock on feature of her Gundam's weapon systems with going into SEED mode. And the results were explosive as many Cube Fighters were either torn to shreds or blown apart..
Jura used her beam sabers, both of which were in beam whip configuration to slice down several incoming Cube Fighters that tried to strike at her, she normally didn't use her beam sabers in this configuration, but the added flexibility and combat edge given by this weapon configuration was very useful in certain battle-field conditions, and she had practiced for as long and as often as she could in using the weapon mode. Jura then reverted the beam sabers to their normal configuration and placed one back on the charging rack and used her shield to block several incoming barrages from the other Cube Fighter units coming right at her.
As soon as she was able to block more shots aiming at her, she sent the energy bolts, with interest, right back at her foes, destroying several more of them quickly an effectively, as soon as she was able to finish using her shields, she used the hidden cannons and guns to catch more Cube Fighters off guard, destroying more Harvester units, until she took out one of her Gundam's anti-ship swords and cut down three in rapid succession and then cut down two more. She then took out the other anti-ship sword and cut down six more with one precise swing, using the CIWS guns to finish those that were too close for her swords to hit. Jura then guided her Gundam away to get some fighting and maneuvering distance, placed aside her anti-ship swords and sued her beam sabers and went on the defensive, blocking several more shots from the Cube Fighters, and used her Gundam's won hidden guns to do enough damage should pursuing them be too dangerous.
Sara used her Crusader's deadly arsenal of ranged firepower very effectively, ripping apart several Cube Fighters with either the hyper beam cannon rifle or the heavy rail-gun, she used the rail-gun to destroy larger concentrations of Cube Fighters, while she used the hyper beam cannon rifle to aim at Cube Fighters that were either alone, or working in pairs, this allowed her the chance to cut down more foes quickly and effectively. She then placed both weapons aside and used her beam saber and sonic resonance sword to destroy several fighters that got too close for ranged weapons to work and used the head mounted assault guns to cut down several more and slow the others down, allowing her enough time to cut them down before they could do any serious damage to her Mobile Suit.
As soon as she had a clear avenue of attack, she placed aside both the beam saber and the sonic resonance sword and used her beam cannon rifle and rail-gun in combined form to destroy several more Cube Fighters that tried to close in, while she managed to force them back, she then locked on the groups and fired several salvos of missiles from her Mobile Suit's attached missile pods. The attacks were enough to both confuse and destroy more the Earth made fighters as they had been expecting a salvo of beam and rail-gun fire from the Mobile Suit. Sara smiled as she saw the Cube Fighters explode and then directed the rest of the Crusader Squadron.
Mai took out her sonic resonance sword and cut down several Cube Fighters as she dodged their incoming weapons fire, as soon as they passed her, she struck, and turned the Cube Fighters into two pieces respectively. She then used her Mobile Suit's CIWS guns and the beam rifle after placing away her sonic resonance sword. The girl fired several salvos and destroyed several Cube Fighters, along with causing some considerable damage to those that were caught in the cross-fire.
She then took out her Mobile Suit's anti-armor knives and used them to attack several more Cube Fighters as she dashed into their ranks, she attacked and got out as quickly as she could. The last thing she wanted to happen was to be caught in a cloud of the harvester units and be surrounded, as soon as she got away, she took out both her beam saber and sonic resonance katana and struck deep into their ranks.
Mai used her martial arts training to even up the odds and made short work of the close opposition and still managed to keep her distance so as not to be suddenly overwhelmed by the Harvesters in a dangerous way, she then fired her CIWS right into a few of the Cube Fighters as they tried to get even closer to her, and fought her way past them using her anti-armor knives when both her beam saber and sonic resonance katana were not adequate for the close quarters fighting. As soon as she was clear of the mess, she took out her beam rifle and began to fire, while still using her training to evade the incoming fire and thanked her Mobile Suit's armor design for defending against the shoots she could not avoid, along with the disposable beam shield emitters that she had on her Mobile Suit.
The Crusader pilots were able to switch to their various Form Packs in order to handle the numbers of Cube Fighters and the results were explosive as they placed their training with the various weapon systems several weeks before to bear on the hapless Cube Fighters that were only basic units. The Crusaders switched the different Form packs in order to confuse the enemy and the results were coming in the shape of wreckage as the Cube Fighters were not fully able to adapt to the Crusaders' constantly changing weapon systems and tactics.
The Dread pilots were also raking in the kills as they used their long range combat skills to the test and eliminated as many as they could, Barnette had began to use some tactical maneuvers she herself had developed in her time using the SwitchBlade Gundam in it's Mobile Armor configuration and found the moves to be very compatible with her own Dread, so she began teaching the maneuvers to her fellow Dread pilots and the skills proved useful in the current battle.
The Dreads used hit and run moves that they themselves have used, along with team tactics, and sniper style attacks to weaken the Cube Fighter squadrons that were coming in, along with the reinforcements that the Seed Ships were sending out in a regular stream. The Dread pilots however were not going to try and attack the Seed Ships directly as there were still too many Cube Fighters in the areas before them.
That was up to the heavy guns as the Nirvana got into the act as the sections that housed the plasma cannon batteries of the pirate ship opened up and began to power up their weapon systems.
--
It was at this moment however, that new arrivals came on the scene…
"Status?"
Tei Romanova, Captain of the Talark Space Defense Fleet Ship, the Firestorm, was currently on recon patrol on the sectors near the debris cloud, next to the orbital mine-fields that acted as a warning barrier between them and the world of the women. Recently, the military council had ordered routine patrols to be placed near the mine fields to increase security since there had been rumors of the women finding ways to bypass the mine-fields and evade the sensors of the mine-fields themselves.
He didn't know if the brass was pulling his leg or not, but with the very heated situation on their world after the whole Ikazuchi mess nearly a year ago, the council were not taking any chances, and here he was, doing recon patrol duty in a place that supposedly could not be penetrated by the vile women of Megele.
(Oh well, it is an order, but just what would we find here anyway?)
"Sir…we're nearing the mine field."
"Understood."
Tei then spoke out his name, rank, serial number, and his position into a special recorder and when the recorder showed that it now had gathered all the relevant data from his voice patterns. He then faced the comm. Officer and handed him the recording.
"Send out the code to ensure that the mines know we're not the enemy."
"Yes sir, transmitting code now."
Tei looked out towards the void of space and was about to head back to his captain's chair and finish drinking his glass of water, when the radar officer called in.
"Sir…I'm picking up strange energy fluctuations a good distance from us, it seems to be discharges made by…energy weapons…and explosive weaponry, it's faint considering the distance, but very persistent."
"Can you pin-point the exact location?" Tei asked as he ran his thoughts as on what could be happening, there were no other Talark patrol ships out here in this region that he was aware of, and the fact was that as far as he knew, the only beings who used energy weapons were the female fleet. This merited investigation, but they would have to pull back for now and get some assistance…just in case they had to encounter the hostile women of Megele.
"We are pulling back, get a message to Fleet Command and have them assemble a small but well armed and equipped fleet ready to investigate possible activity by the women near this sector."
"Yes sir!"
As his ship was about to leave, Tei wondered just what else was going to happen soon, and he wondered just what was it that was going on in that suspected battle zone that seemed to be in his area, but he was not going to go there alone and find out, after all, he had only a medium class cruiser and despite his male pride, he was not going to go there for the glory of it. His men were his responsibility, and he wasn't going to waste precious lives in a dangerous game unless something of great value was gained from it.
However, he was not aware of the fact that he and his men were NOT the only ones on recon work tonight.
On the other side of the sector of space was a Megele medium class cruiser, named the Red Rose, which also happened to be on recon duty as well. Her captain was Heidi Matrell, a young but very dedicated, by the book female officer who was on the mission to see if the pirates were still around, the brown haired and blue eyed female officer had been assigned on this mission a year ago in order to prevent the female pirates from harassing more of their own ships and also to prevent them from getting more recruits.
She knew enough about the pirates as being political renegades and people who had no home, and while it was understandable that they would resort to piracy, it was difficult when they took away other women to join them in what they were doing, and even raiding their own home-world's ships at many times. It was that portion of their operations that galled the military of the all female world.
"Anything on scanners?"
Heidi asked the bridge crew of her ship, the sooner they could get the reports in, the sooner they could finish the patrol. Normally she would have liked the chance to covertly sneak into Talark space and cause some havoc, but since the men have upgraded their security and the mine fields still being in place as they are, along with the automated defensive stations, the idea was too risky to try.
"Nothing yet Captain, there seems to be no activity as of yet."
"All right…how far are we from the perimeter of the mine field made by the men?"
Heidi said with barely concealed disdain. She had some bad experiences with the men's military forces a long time ago, and she was in no mood to be caught off guard, however she did learn one very important lesson that day…even if the men were not as technologically advanced as they were, they were not to be taken lightly in any combat situation.
"We're still at a good distance to avoid the mines' and stations' sensors, but if we get too close, we might trigger there scanners."
"All right then…keep me posted."
She turned to face a small table near her command chair, and on it was her light break-fast, which had some bacon, eggs, toasted bread and some hot cocoa. As she ate, her second in command came to her and saluted her.
"Ma'am, permission to speak?"
As soon as she finished half the plate and also half of her hot drink, Heidi nodded. "Go ahead."
"I don't believe we'll find much of interest out here ma'am. The pirates have not made any major raids on either us…or the men for nearly a year now…"
"I know what you mean…but we can never be sure."
Sure enough, the bridge crew got into contact with what appeared to be some sort of activity on the outer perimeter of the debris belt, just as they were able to detect the presence of the Talark ship the Firestorm as the ship was heading back to contact a portion of the Talark Fleet to investigate something.
"Captain…we've picked up the trail of a male ship, it seems to be fleeing from something." The female officer said in a curious tone.
"Hmmm…have long range scanners track that ship and contact Megele High Command….whatever those men have found must be of great value for them to suddenly turn tail and run."
The second in command was surprised at her commander's decision.
"Captain? Why can't we just attack them cause even more hurt for those men? We have the chance and they are cowards after all."
Heidi shook her head, she doubted that the men would just leave this kind of situation without good reason.
"The men don't leave unless they have a good reason to run away from a fight, I fought the men before in a covert mission, and they have not been idle…they have improved and neither were they cowards… I will not risk a full scale engagement until we get all the data right….is that clear?"
"Yes ma'am, but what would make the men leave so suddenly?"
"I honestly don't know…"
"Captain…we're picking up energy fluctuations, faint but active ones… like the ones emitted by energy weapons, and explosions…hard to determine what is going on…but it appears to be some sort of battle going on in the area where the male ship was before it began to leave."
Heidi and her second in command were looking at each other and then Heidi sighed and spoke.
"We need to establish contact with the Megele High Command ASAP, I want this ship to stay here and await reinforcements. Whatever is happening out there, it was enough for the men to pull back no doubt get reinforcements, and that does not happen often when they are concerned…and we will not attempt to investigate until we have some support as to deal with what is happening out there."
"Yes Ma'am!"
--
Back in the battle between the pirates and the Harvesters…
Bart looked over the battle-zone as the targeting systems of the Nirvana was now able to lock on and destroy the Cube Fighters and the Seed Ship support. The Dreads, Crusaders, and the Gundams moved out of the way, giving the bald navigator and heavy gunner of the pirates the clear strike on all the Harvesters. In that moment the bald navigator locked and fired all of the ship's fire-power.
The Nirvana's plasma cannons fired out the massive beams and the fire smashed right into the newly arriving Cube Fighters and the ones that managed to evade being obliterated by the squadrons. This time, none of them were going to escape as the beams smashed into them and reduced them into nothing but burning wreckage, the beams also avoided hitting the Dreads, Crusaders and the Gundams as they arced and looped over the fighters. In less than a few minutes, the Harvester forces were utterly obliterated.
Celtic then replied that they could now send out a clear signal to the two planets, and Magno hoped that soon, they could tell the people on both their respective worlds exactly what was going on and who were the Harvesters. Magno then decided to check the progress of their converted Harvester battle-ship.
"How long will it be before the Harvester ship we captured is through the debr5is belt?"
"At least another hour." Ezra reported as she checked on the scanners.
However, things were not going to get any easier as their sensors picked up something unexpected and very much unwanted. The mine fields…
"Captain! We've detected massive numbers of incoming mines! They appear to be the ones used by the Talark military!"
The bridge crew were not happy to hear that, along with everyone else in the Nirvana and their forces as they all saw the mines suddenly coming to life and now heading towards their current location. The power of one mine was strong, considering the sheer size of one and the massive amounts of explosive materials inside of them, an entire wave of them was even worse. If any of them were able to hit the Nirvana, they were going to be severely damaged.
"Bart! You and Duero know the pass-words for that?" Magno asked the bald navigator of the Nirvana, believing that since both their original male crew-members might have the codes to bypass the mines.
However, Bart replied bleakly.
"I'm sorry Captain, but even if me and Duero are First Class Citizens and military personnel, only higher ranking officers or government officials have the authority to bypass those mines."
"Max, Aleck?"
"No Captain, even we don't know the codes, and from what we've heard, the codes have to be voice activated."
"Maybe we should just blast our way through them?" Jura suggested as she prepared her weapons.
"Bad idea Jura….we can use the mines to slow the Harvesters down long enough to mount a good defense for both Talark and Megele, we can't just destroy them." Kyo Yamato replied, but he knew that they were now stuck in between the hammer and the anvil.
If they blew up the mines, they would deprive the two planets' first line of defense, and if they didn't find another way to break through quickly without triggering the mines, they would be blown apart as well.
Buzam saw the situation they were in as utterly desperate and they had little time for this, and she then began to reach for the green jewel located near her neck portion of her outfit.
However, before anything could be done, the mines were suddenly stopped, they seemed to have received the codes from somewhere other than the Nirvana and this both calmed and confused the bridge crew just as the Dreads, Crusaders, and the Gundams were now back in the Nirvana. The pirates however realized that while the orbital mines and auto-defensive battle-stations were no longer after them, it hardly meant that they were any safer…
As large numbers of ships…signifying a fleet was now currently heading in their direction, however it didn't take long for another fleet to be detected by the pirates, and it also didn't take long for the two fleets to be identified.
"Captain, there are two fleets, one from Talark, and one from Megele…heading right for us." Belvedere announced.
Magno realized that since both worlds were still very much at war with each other, she doubted that she and her fellow officers would get far in trying to reason with the two fleets, and there was the fact that if both fleets would arrive, they would no doubt start shooting each other the moment they saw each other, and judging by the number of signals the scanners were picking up, there were large numbers of Dreads and Vanguards in the area, they had to do something to avoid a blood bath, that was the last thing the pirates needed on their hands if they needed to come forward and form a chance to cement an alliance between Talark and Megele.
"How long with they arrive at our location?"
"Two hours."
Magno nodded and realized that this was enough time for them to make some needed changes and make plans, what she had in mind would a very desperate gamble and this would be VERY risky to say the least, but as far as she could sense, this was the only chance they had.
"BC, I want you, Kyo, Duero, Max, Aleck, and Gascogne in the Conference Room immediately, Bart, I want you to return the ship to the debris belt, try to evade the sensors until I give you other orders."
"Yes Captain."
--
In the Conference Room…
"What you're suggesting captain is risky to the extreme."
Aleck said as Magno outlined her plan, and in layman's terms, it was for the crew to surrender to the respective fleets, the women would have to be taken by the female military, while the men would have to side with the Talark forces, both groups would have to try their respective best to reason with the people on their worlds, as prisoners.
"I have to agree there Captain, there is no guarantee that this plan might work." Buzam replied, concern showing on the silver haired woman's face.
"It's not like we have any choice on the matter, we cannot afford to fight our way through either fleet to safety, that would just make our respective cases even harder to win and it would no doubt cause them to think we're out of our minds, even more so if we tell them about the inevitable Harvester invasion. This is a very risky chance, I'll give you all that, but it's far better than all of us getting into a needless fire-fight with the two factions we need to unite to face the Harvesters."
Magno closed her eyes as she thought about all the things that had to be done for this to be successful, and then faced her uncle, who looked at the rest of the group and her.
"What do you think uncle?"
"The plan has a lot of risks Maggie, but it might work, since if both our groups can at least try to reason with both sides, there just might be a chance, though I still think it's risky, for the guys, we're going to need a spokesperson, and that person would have to be a high ranking member of the Talark military, even if Max and Duero are both 1st Cass Citizens, Bart being a military cadet and having family connections, and Aleck being a top instructor in their military, I doubt any of them have the needed rank and social/political muscle to say anything that has great weight to the Talark government, so I rather doubt we have anyone with that kind of qualifications."
"Is that true?" Magno asked, directing her gaze at the men in the room in question.
Aleck, Duero, and Max nodded in agreement, and the elder male replied for his younger comrades.
"Kyo is correct, none of us have the needed political, social and military weight and strength to say anything, and Bart's connections on our world are only limited to his family's food pill production, he hardly has the needed military connections, and I rather doubt that he would be even allowed to speak in front of the government since he was once considered nothing more than a nuisance back then."
Gascogne however spoke out.
"Don't mind me asking…but is it that you and Kyo…are related?"
"Why do you want to know that?" Kyo asked in surprise as Gascogne, now wasn't exactly the right time for this kind of discussion, and neither was the situation.
"I just want to know what was going on, how in the heck are you two related?"
Magno couldn't help but smirk at her Register head and spoke.
"I'm afraid that now is not exactly the best time for us to get into that discussion Gasco, but I promise that I will personally tell you all that once the time is right, however, I do have two suggestions. Gascogne, I want you to send out a broadband transmission on the coded frequency that our comrades use...just in case things go down south."
Gascogne nodded. "You want me to contact the others and ready a rescue?"
"Yes, and my second suggestion is that Buzam would have to speak for the men. After all she…or rather HE DID grow up on Talark."
Buzam was somewhat surprised at that announcement and looked at Magno with trepidation.
"Captain, W-W-W-What are you suggesting?!"
Magno smiled a bit. "BC, do you really think that I won't eventually find out about you're little secret? I may be old, but unlike what most would say, I am not senile. I knew that you were a spy from Talark, and you naturally are a HE, not a she. You never bathe with ANY member of the crew as far as I knew even if you're body was no doubt surgically altered to be female, you are very familiar with the language of the men, even if the information was heavily coded, you show exceptional skills with weapons normally used only by men and you showed exceptional skills in melee combat. Another thing I did notice is that you didn't act like a woman of Megele in certain matters, namely when Duero and Max had that discussion on Talark birthing methods, I was not very happy with that kind of information but you seemed very much relaxed on such matters, I was somewhat surprised at that until I thought that there would be only two possibilities, the first was you had gone to Talark, but I doubted that since the men would no doubt have killed you if you were a true female, and the second was that you would only be familiar with the procedures if you WERE born of the process. I am willing to bet ten to one that you are a man once we take a blood and DNA test, namely for a certain DNA marker known as the Y-chromosome."
"What is a Y-chromosome?" Gascogne asked.
Magno nodded with a smirk at the muscular woman. "I'm not very surprised you don't know about that Gascogne, you were born and raised on Megele and you are therefore only familiar with the way Megele females reproduce. I on the other hand, am from the First Generation and I did have a son with a man before I lived on Megele. When children were born in the older days before the founding of Talark and Megele, the gender of the child was determined by two pairs of chromosomes, the X and Y chromosomes, a child with two X-chromosomes would be born as a female, while a child with both a X and Y chromosome would be born as a male. The fact is that on our world of Megele, we only have female children due to the fact that when an ohma and a fahma donate their DNA to fertilize an egg, the only chromosomes present are the X chromosomes, thus all children on Megele are female."
"In the case of Talark however, since all of the people living there are male, then if they were to donate their DNA to have a child, then there was a very strong chance that either a male or female child would be born on Talark since as I have explained, males have both X and Y chromosomes, and therefore, when they donate their DNA there is still a chance a female child is born since there is a chance the fetus would gain two X chromosomes and be born a female."
"Really?! So that would mean that Talark COULD have females in their population?!" Gascogne asked, totally wide-eyed with the amount of information she had just been exposed to.
"Yes…which is why I won't be very surprised that the men of Talark, in the effort to keep their people focused on seeing women as the enemy of men, would be always meticulously checking each fetus in their 'birthing' factories to ensure that only male children are born."
"So that was what Kyo meant when he told Jura that she would have a 50 chance of having a baby boy if they DID…uh couple?"
Magno grinned impishly while Kyo looked at the other side of the room with his face being bright red.
"Pretty much." Magno said as she continued to speak towards Buzam.
"Another thing is that very same chocker you always wear Buzam, namely that stone itself." Magno said, pointing directly at the green stone.
"I wondered why you never seem inclined to have that taken off, it may look fashionable in a certain way, but it would no doubt be very uncomfortable…unless it was over what would be an enlarged larynx, or as many in the past would call it, an Adams Apple, yet another anatomical feature that can only be found in men. The other use for it, apart from hiding that feature is to hide what I believe is a vocal modifier, that you use to change you're voice to sound like a woman's since even if you physically alter you're form, you would still not be able to change the voice patterns of a male due to the different auditory qualities men have."
Magno then smiled at the silver haired female or male and spoke calmly.
"Now then…if I am very wrong in my assumptions Buzam, or whoever you really are, then I would suggest that we go to the Medical Bay and have that blood test so we can see the truth…or would you prefer to deactivate that device and speak to us in you're REAL voice?"
Everyone, including Kyo Yamato looked at Buzam, in order to see just what the silver haired pirate officer would do with what Magno had said. Buzam then sighed deeply and then pressed her left hand on the green stone, and sure enough the stone was a vocal modification device as the normally green stone turned red, and Buzam looked at them all, but mostly at Magno…and then spoke in a deep, strong voice…the voice of a man.
"I was wondering if you really knew about my real self, and I know now that you did, but why didn't you tell you're crew that I was a spy?"
Magno smiled serenely and replied.
"And lose one of the most capable officers I have? Don't be silly, I don't do such things…make no mistake however, if you had done something to hurt the crew, I would have changed my tune and have you removed and reveal you for who you really are. But you've served with great honor and distinction, and most of all, in all the time you have been among us, there were quite a number of times that you could have warned you're fellow men about our raids, and you would have betrayed us, but you have not. Tell me…"
"My real name is Tenmei Uragasumi, and you are right in saying that I would make a good spokesperson for the male side…since I am Commander in Chief of the Talark Covert Intelligence Division."
Duero, Aleck, and Max were shocked in knowing that the one they considered to be the female second in command was actually the head of their Covert Intelligence Division, one of the more shadowy branches of their government.
"All right Tenmei…tell me now…what was the big reason why you never betrayed us to you're fellow men, even if you had every opportunity to do just that?"
Gascogne herself was looking at Tenmei with undisguised surprise as well. "That's one thing I would like to have answered as well! It's kind of hard enough to know that you're actually both a man and a spy, but to know that the Captain knew about that and never said a word is something else!"
"I doubt any of the crew would have followed Tenmei if they knew that she was a HE at the time. Would you have done so also? Besides, there would have to be a very good reason as to why HE had not betrayed us to the men even if he had the chance to do just that, now then, would you like to answer that question?"
"You are still willing to trust me, even if you know the truth about me?" Tenmei asked with some still lingering doubts.
"Of course I am."
Tenmei sighed and replied to their questions.
"When I was assigned as a spy to your crew I was pretty much like the other men back home, I despised women and despite being calm and collected since it was due to my ingrained hatred towards females from back home, and it was my task to spy on the pirates to gain information on Megele's combat abilities and technology, it would make sense since you raid both Talark and Megele convoys. However….as time passed, I began to tolerate, trust and even enjoy the company of the crew…none of you match any of the descriptions of being monsters that I had grown up seeing on Talark."
"Thank God for that…" Magno said with a smile.
"And…over the times we've been travelling together, I began to understand and see things in a far more different light, namely the errors that were being taught to the others back on Talark. They say men and women would never be able to live together, but I am doing that very same thing with you all in this ship for the past year, and I saw how the men and women from our respective cultures have been able to thrive and survive working together. Therefore, I made sure to only send data that would keep my superiors on Talark satisfied, but not enough to betray the crew to them. And with Kyo and the others here on the ship, I can tell that we have a chance to bridge the gap and put aside this 'Battle of the Sexes'. We are all HUMAN after all, and we need to stand united against this coming Harvester invasion."
"I thought so, and I am happy that with you're help we might have a fighting chance."
Kyo Yamato however wasn't entirely convinced.
"That's all well and good, but we don't have that much time right now, let's not forget that we have seven Harvester battle-ships already a few hours from this current position and if we take too long in trying to convince both Talark and Megele to work together, they'll be right on top of us, and even with all our upgraded tech and weaponry, along with the converted battle-ship and it's forces, I rather doubt we can hold them off forever, not to mention that we can't use the same strategies we used before to beat their fleets out here…we have to stand and fight."
Aleck, managing to get past his shock agreed with Kyo's statement.
"Kyo is right…if we're going to pursue this plan, we'll have to come up with a back-up plan in order to make up should the first fail, the last you want is to be forced in doing is to come up with one while the enemy is already trying to tear you to pieces."
Magno nodded.
"It will have to be a coordinated effort then, and if the Harvester Armada does show up…then we will have to hope that their appearance along with the evidence we have will be enough to convince the two worlds what we have told them is the truth. One the first part of this plan, we'll have to split up, Tenmei will still need to reveal himself to the crew and allow yourself, along with the other men to be taken back to Talark, there, we can hope that the men there will listen to you all, and if it fails, Tenmei will have to rescue them and head back to the ship…which I have no doubt will be held in dry dock by the men since the Nirvana is part of the Ikazuchi. On our part, we'll no doubt be taken to trial for being pirates and political dissidents, we'll use that time to give out our evidence and if that fails, then we hope that the transmission we will send to our other fellow pirates will be received and they will come and rescue us. If that goes well…we'll need to get ready for the attack and hopefully hold off the Harvesters long enough, though how we can hold off seven battle-ships is beyond me, they won't be the same like the Mirage Colloid equipped one we have."
"What kind of force do the pirates back here have?" Kyo asked, his military mind already trying to determine a good working strategy should the veteran pilots get involved.
"We have another Megele Cruiser, the same model that we had when we raided the Ikazuchi, along with the same number of Dreads and pilots like what we have here on the Nirvana." Gascogne replied earnestly, seeing the risks they were all about to step feet first into.
"Hmm…we're still very much out matched then…but hopefully with enough tactics and strategy, we might be able to pull this off. I however would have to tell the Crusader pilots to security lock the OS in all their Mobile Suits, and even tell Jura, Barnette, Meia, and Dita to security lock their Gundams' respective OS as well…if the men of Talark found them and began extracting any data, they might just use them to cause even more havoc on this plan and use the data to create weapons that they might use on Megele. The one thing I can't figure is what I'll be doing."
Magno thought that over and replied.
"You'll have to keep out of sight uncle, we will no doubt be needing you're help at some point in this whole plan just in case we need help, but I think there just might come a time you'll have to talk to both leaders."
Kyo thought about that and nodded, hoping that he just might be able to help them all in this matter, as they finished the finalizing the plans they had in mind, the only thing he could find utterly humorous about the whole thing was on how Bart would react if he found out that Buzam was a man.
(Man…since Bart has that not so well hidden affection for Buzam, I think finding out she's actually a he will really throw him in the loop!)
--
Later…
"Do we really have to do this Kyo?" Meia asked as she was in her Gundam's cockpit, already in the process of security locking her Gundam's OS.
"I'm afraid so, the last thing I want is the men getting their hands on our Mobile Suits and using the data they might get to cause even more problems."
Kyo replied as he checked their progress. The Gundam pilot was currently in the Hanger Bay, directing all of the Gundam pilots, including Max and Duero to lock out their Gundam's OS to ensure no one could just download any combat data from their machines. He then turned to another comm.-monitor and called in both his seconds in command of the Crusader Squadron.
"Sara, Mai, how are things on you're end?"
The two women replied as they read the data displays in their respective Custom Crusaders and the Crusaders of their fellow pilots, all of whom were already following Kyo's orders to pass-word lock the OS of their Mobile Suits.
"The OS lock-down is almost complete Commander, we've just got a few more to lock down here." Sara said as she ran over the list of the pilots who have already, or were in the process of, locking down the OS of their Mobile Suits.
"Kyo, what are you planning now after this?" Mai asked as she also finished locking down her Crusader's OS.
"Not sure yet."
"Mr. Alien? Are you REALLY related to the Captain?!" Dita asked as she looked at Kyo intently, no doubt trying to find ANY physical resemblance between the aged woman and the Gundam pilot. She still could not believe that Magno and Kyo were related, and he was the Captain's…uncle. Though she didn't know what the term meant, she could tell that it told her that Kyo and Magno had a blood tie for some reason.
"I want to know if that's true too!" Jura said as she looked at Kyo, no doubt also trying to find any physical resemblance between him and Magno. The blonde was shocked to know Kyo's past and was happy to see that he was not mopping about it when he was in his Gundam, but to hear that he and Magno were related really threw her on the loop.
"To tell you the truth Commander, I want to know about that too, and I know it's not just me, and Mai, but practically the entire Squadron wants to know if that was true."
Sara replied, her expression mirrored that of Mai as well, the two were somewhat shocked to suddenly find out that their commander and the Captain were relatives, and they too were looking at Kyo very intensely, as if to see if there was any physical resemblance between him and their elderly Captain.
And Kyo knew for a fact that Meia was also looking at him intently, as if she too was trying to find out any resemblance between him and his elderly niece, this had actually been happening ever since the announcement and they were NOT the only ones, practically the entire crew, including his male comrades were looking intently at him, as if they too tried to find any physical resemblance between him and Magno
And to tell them the truth, he was getting rather annoyed by the looks.
"Look, I'll tell you all about it later, right now we've got some work to do."
As the girls realized that they were not going to get anything else out of the Gundam pilot, they left the matter be, allowing the Gundam pilot enough time to digest what was happening all around him, after he and the other senior officers, including Tenmei were done, they set their plan in motion and it had required them to set things up quickly… as soon as he, he had the Crusaders and his fellow Gundam pilots make the lock-down, while the rest of the crew began their work in sealing off portions of the Nirvana and getting ready to be taken away by the Megele military.
However, it certainly wasn't going to be easy for anyone. Having worked together for many months, the crew had gotten very close, in his opinion, the hardest hit were none other than the resident couples from both planets. When Duero and Max had related their intentions, but not revealing the back-up plan they and the others have cooked up, to return and try to reason with their people, even at great risk of being branded traitors, Barnette and Parfait were understandably shocked, concerned, and afraid of what might happen to them. The two couples had grown closer and even though they knew that something like this was bound to happen the moment they were back in the home system of their respective planets, it certainly didn't make parting from one another any easier.
Duero and Max likewise were concerned for the safety of their female companions, since they knew that as they were pirates, they were not the most trusted members of their world, and would be placed in prison, however, they would be in even worse punishment if they began to support the idea of men and women working side by side, the two men could only wonder at how that would be received by the Megele government. Besides that, the two men were not keen on letting them be harmed since that was a very large possibility.
It had taken them some time to consider what they were about to do and Kyo thanked fate that they were able to get ready for this and just see where this would lead. Even Gascogne and Aleck didn't like the idea of the parting since the two had grown somewhat closer than before, though as far as the Gundam pilot knew, they were not THAT close, or he could be wrong.
Kyo quickly shook his head of those thoughts and then thought about his own situation, since he was the inevitable wild card in the plan, Duero and Max have decided to have him and his Gundam stored in the deepest bowels of the Nirvana in order to avoid being detected by either the Talark or Megele military forces, and they would give him a specially modified communicator that he could use to contact them on Talark should things go down south, not to mention the communicator was modified by Gascogne as well in order to listen in on Megele communications, the former Megele military officer had told her that she suspected that sooner or later things might get bad, and even if she had faith in the rest of their pirate comrades, namely the veterans, she was certainly not going to take chances and told Kyo to be ready to back them up.
That part was somewhat confusing and somewhat unorthodox since that meant that if something went wrong with the rescue of the female crew…he would have to fly with the Infinite Freedom Gundam right into Megele space, all on his own to help them out. That part didn't frighten him in the least, it was the possible encounter with the Megele military that made him worry. He knew that there was no way they would allow a man to step into their territory and do whatever he wanted. This naturally meant that even if he had no intention of it, he would have to fight the Megele Navy the moment he entered their space.
Despite his reservations, he decided to hope that it didn't come to that as he went back to the bridge and waited as Magno gave Bart the order to take the Nirvana out of the debris cloud. They however planned to move the Harvester Battle-ship out of the debris field with it's Mirage Colloid systems online and keep it's forces safe, the pirates decided to keep the ship away from the battle until they were ready, they would use the ship later as evidence of the Harvesters existence to the populations of their respective worlds, and as back-up in the coming battle.
For a moment, if the plan to have the veteran pirates on their side worked and with the converted Harvester battle-ship on their side, Kyo couldn't help but feel that they were doing their own version of the Three Ships Alliance that his parents, relatives, and family friends had been part of when the last days of the Z.A.F.T/Earth Alliance War that led to the Second Battle of Jachim Due.
As he looked at the screen of them now revealing themselves to the incoming Megele, Talark fleets, he waited for the rest of the senior crew to drop the bomb load. He only wished Bar would be all right when Buzam…or rather, Tenmei revealed the truth about himself, he just knew this was going to be really close, and really dicey.
--
Later…
"This Talark Home Defense Force… 34th Fleet, Captain Terrance Harden, identify yourselves!"
The Talark Fleet appeared to have changed their designs somewhat as they appeared to have greater armor and much faster turrets on their ships and it appeared that some of the ships were even colored golden, though why some of these smaller ships were in a deep golden sheen was unknown at the time, however these smaller ships appeared to be very well armed and armored. Several large groups of Vanguards were in the area…though they didn't look like the same types of Vanguards as the ones that Crusader Squadron had used before they re-designed them.
The new Vanguards appeared to be even better armored and armed, and it appeared that they now possessed some built-in weapons of their own. They even resembled in some way the GuAIZ model that Aleck piloted, however, they were armed with what appeared to be rail-guns on the hips, in the same design specs as I-Freedom's own folded rail-guns and had what amazing as it sounded, a beam rifle, and what appeared to be a flight-pack to allow for greater speed and flexibility, it seemed to have a back-pack that had a variety of melee weaponry, all of which were very nasty in design and use. There were also heavy assault guns installed on the head and there was even a high grade alloy composite shield. ()
Apparently the pirates were not the only group in the Galaxy who modified the Vanguard designs as the host of Vanguards were now closing in and surrounding the Nirvana, weapons at the ready.
The Megele Fleet however having none of it and deployed their Dreads, and from what could be seen, the Megele ships were now arming up their beam weapons. The Dreads also began to close in on the Nirvana, and they too were ready and willing to fire at both the pirates…and if it came to that, the men of Talark.
"This is Megele Home Defense Force…29th Battle Fleet, Captain Maria Trance, I am warning the Captain of the Talark Fleet not to interfere with this operation, if you do, we will open fire."
"That will be your own mistake if you fire on us then…Captain." The male officer in question said with great venom, as if waiting for any order to open fire on the Megele force, this was the result of the ingrained hatred between their cultures…the very same thing the pirates intended to stop before it destroyed them all.
The male officer then spoke to the Nirvana.
"I repeat, who are you and what are you doing with a ship with the transponder signal of the Ikazuchi?"
Kyo looked briefly at Buzam/Tenmei, and nodded slightly.
The disguised male nodded as this was the predetermined signal for them to implement their desperate gamble. Tenmei/Buzam then pressed the stone on his/her throat and the stone then glowed red and he then spoke in his natural voice…this startled the living daylights out of everyone of the crew, with the exceptions of Duero, Max, Kyo, and Magno, who already planned this ahead.
"This is Tenmei Uragasumi, Commander in Chief of The Covert Intelligence Division. The Ikazuchi has returned and is hereby surrendering."
This was Kyo's cue as he took out some restraints and quickly bound Tenmei's hands and began to escort him to the brig. As the two walked near Magno, she gave them a quick smirk, that both returned as well as they made their way to the brig for phase two of the plan they were placing into action. Magno then replied to both Fleets.
"This is Captain Magno Vivian of the pirate forces, we have declared our surrender, all forces in the ship will stand down immediately. All our male occupants shall be within the brig and will not be harmed."
The Captains of both fleets now knew just who they had managed to capture, and quickly the two began to have an argument on what to do with the pirates, along with the men who they supposed were prisoners of the pirates. This gave them enough time to make the rest of the arrangements.
Bart was flabbergasted at what he had just learned.
"BUZAM WAS A MAN?!"
--
"You ready for this?" Kyo asked as he spoke to Tenmei as he activated the laser bars in the cell. The disguised male spy smiled a bit at the Gundam pilot as he too was getting ready to make his own move.
"I am, I know that you of all people are more than capable at this venture…considering who you are really are and you're blood line."
"Tenmei, let me ask you something…if you found out who I was at some point before all this happened in the journey, and my past, and what I did nearly four hundred years ago, and I asked you to fight the Harvesters…would you do it?"
"What do you mean Kyo?"
"I want to know this…would you follow me because I am Kyo Yamato, the savior of the human race and of what I did as a legacy, or would you follow me because I am Kyo Yamato, and I want to protect the future?"
Tenmei thought about that and began to understand what Kyo was pushing towards. The Gundam pilot and Coordinator wanted to know if he would follow him to defend the future out of merely obligation or of his own free will. Kyo had just shown to him that he wanted people to fight with him not because he was a historical figure, a legend and the one who they owe their lives to, but because he was doing the right thing and wanted to protect all life and the future.
Tenmei nodded and replied with an answer.
"I would follow you Kyo, not just because you are Kyo Yamato, the man who saved humanity nearly four hundred years ago, and allowed me and my people to be borne…but because you are my comrade, and a friend."
Kyo smiled and saw the arrival of Duero, Max, Aleck, and Bart, he then faced Tenmei and nodded grimly.
"You ready to implement the plan we have…just in case things don't go very well?"
"Yes, I know that Bart and the others will have to be interrogated and no doubt kept in prison…if the Government has truly been hiding the information concerning the Harvesters, I'll get them free from there and meet up with the rest of the crew…though hopefully I can get into contact with men who might be able to help us, since part of my job back then on Talark was to locate anyone who might have doubts about the war with women...even Duero and Max's Alpha, though we never made a move on them at all."
Kyo nodded once more and went over to Duero and Max, and replied to the two of them.
"It's time to begin…see you guys later."
Kyo made his way into the bowels of the ship, towards the only location where he could avoid being found by any member of the crew from the Talark or Megele forces. He had managed to hear just what the terms that were decided upon by the Captains of both Talark and Megele Fleets, the men, including Tenmei were to be taken by the Talark forces while the women were to be taken by their Megele military brethren, as to the final fate of the Nirvana, since it was the Ikazuchi, part of the Talark military, and the pirates being nominal enemies of both sides, the ship would be impounded by the Talark military and kept in an orbital docking station between the Megele/Talark border.
As he arrived, he used the modified communicator to keep track of the activity on the ship as he kept an eye on his Gundam unit. The communicator finally told him of the arrival of both Talark and Megele boarding parties, this was a very risky plan he and the senior officers had come up with, and he only hoped that it would succeed.
--
Later…
Whump!
"Don't move!" The slightly muffled and altered voice called out as the women military forces, wearing the frightening body suits and face mask began to take over the female section of the ship.
Meia grimaced as she was quickly taken down as she tried to protect Lacus and Ezra from being manhandled by several of the female soldiers…but she could do little as the one who had knocked her down aimed a laser rifle to her head. Despite her instincts telling her to fight back and protect both the mother and her baby, her practical side told her that she would accomplish nothing if she tried to fight back…and thankfully, the female soldiers didn't hurt Ezra or Lacus.
However, as she got to her feet with the assistance of the soldiers, she could tell that many of her fellow crew-mates were also being herded towards the docked shuttles, all of them would no doubt be flown directly to a military vessel under heavy escort and then taken directly to Megele to stand trial.
All throughout the ship, the pirates were quickly being rounded up by the female soldiers, Dita had managed to pack away the boxed lunches she had prepared in advance for Buzam, Kyo, Duero, Bart, Aleck, and Max, before she, along with Paiway were herded away, Jura and Barnette managed to seal away their most valuable possessions, along with the 'other' items they had collected, that spoke of the relationships that could bloom between men and women, however Jura still insisted on brining the book that spoke of co-gender procreation, Parfait and her engineers had enough time to ensure that the Paeksis would still be working fine once they were allowed to go back, just before they were taken by the guards, Gascogne managed to lock down the Register, along with the help of Sara and Mai before they too were taken away, the security forces of the pirates were forced to lock away their weaponry as they were taken away, along with the Dread pilots who had also managed to security lock their Dreads, the Crusader Squadron pilots had to bid their Crusaders farewell as the Mobile Suits were in the Hangers where the men were going, the female Mobile Suit pilots hoped that they would see their beloved Mobile Suits soon as they were also being herded away towards the shuttles. By then the women were already being taken away as the shuttles, under Dread escort, left the Nirvana to meet up with their main ship.
The men on the other hand were already inspecting the former Ikazuchi and were naturally surprised by the changes done to the ship that was once part of their first fleet into space, they however were told to keep away from the sections that were taken over by the women pirates and focused on getting to the location where Tenmei, Duero, Max, Bart, and Aleck were being held 'prisoner' so to speak, the men however were surprised to see the collection of Mobile Suits that were part of the Nirvana's defense forces, including the Gundams that were there, namely the SwitchBlade, Morpheous, Templar, Crimson Edge, Silver Lightning, and the Azure Angel, along with the Crusaders. They never expected to see such formidable looking machines of war to be in the possession of the women and their crews planned to have the units analyzed to see just what sort of units were these, and to get combat data that could truly help Grand Pa and their war with the women…however, the men were finding it hard to even access the basic functions of the OS of each machine as Kyo's instructions to the pilots to security lock their Mobile Suits proved a very strong deterrent to the male engineers that tried to get past the security and access the OS to make the Mobile Suits and the Gundams work. Thus the men had no choice but to leave the Mobile Suits alone, and this was a strong blow to their pride as they had not found a single trace of their trusted Vanguards…what had happened to the Vanguard compliment of the mighty Ikazuchi when the women had taken over it?
(Unknown to them all, the Crusaders WERE the Vanguards that they were looking for…just in a whole new body design.)
The other groups of men had much better luck, relatively speaking as they were able to get to the brig and begin to free Tenmei, Bart, Duero, Max, and Aleck. The younger soldiers and officers congratulated the five men and told them how lucky they were that they were still alive and breathing, and had their livers intact. The five men (albeit one of them looked more like a woman than a man) merely nodded and agreed, and as they were directed to the shuttles awaiting to take them to their home-planet of Talark, the men who were part of the plan mentally ran over it once more, and sadly, the only one of them who was not in the loop was Bart who seemed intent on trying to avoid looking at Buzam/Tenmei.
The Talark spy however noted the look on Bart and seemed concerned somewhat at the bald navigator, though he knew just what was up with Bart, he could do little as they still had a plan to accomplish…along with a back-up, just in case things went wrong.
Back in the Nirvana, the men were able to use the auto-pilot function to guide the ship to a nearby dry dock port and lock in the Nirvana, this allowed the engineers and techs of the male forces to make their studies of the ship in relative peace. Near it were several cruisers and those acted as a screen to ensure that no one would try to take the Nirvana…despite the fact it no longer resembled the ship that they had last seen before the pirate attack and after, the men still saw the Ikazuchi as sovereign property of Talark and thus were not willing to give it back to the women, however it appeared that the women's forces were only interested in taking the pirates and as such, didn't bother taking anything that belonged to the women from the ship.
--
In the bowels of the Nirvana…
"Okay…let's see if we got it right…there, that should do it."
Kyo Yamato smiled as he finished his work on the communicator so he could hack into the comm.. network of the Talark men and keep track on how things would go for the guys down there, he hated not telling Bart about the plan they had cooked up in the Conference Room, but time was against them and that meant that it had to be made on the fly.
Right now, the Gundam pilot was with his Gundam in the lowest levels of the Ikazuchi and yet close enough for him to access a nearby launching deck that appeared to not be used by anyone, not even by the pirates or the men, but thankfully it was in good working order and he didn't have to worry about clearing any debris and give away his position. He disliked the idea of not having anything to do while he was in the ship…but they had a plan going and he could only hope that things were going to work out, if not, then it was going to have to be Plan B, and get ready to face the Harvesters in combat, though hopefully, they would have a chance to convince at least SOME of the men to side with them, along with some of the women. However, that would depend on a lot planning and coordination.
He decided to stay and wait, and listen to what would be happening down there.
--
On Talark…
"Good work Commander Tenmei! All the data you have sent us has proven to be very helpful in keeping things stable here on Talark for the past year, we were surprised when you had somehow disappeared and now you have returned, alive and safe no less."
The Prime Minister, the very same one who was in command of the Ikazuchi nearly a year ago was the one who was briefing Tenmei, along with several key military officials, one of whom happened to be the very same portly, balding older officer who was his second in command.
"Yes sir! What happened was unexpected but I have managed to send as much data as I could, which is why I would like to inquire on the status of several message pods that were sent here by me previously…have they been received?"
Tenmei was currently in his older but still well made and pristine officer's uniform that was sandy yellow and the badges of his rank and station as Commander in Chief of Talark's Covert Intelligence Division. However the picture of the male dressed back in his older uniform…coupled with the surgical alterations made to make him look for female than male was a little…distracting, so to speak. Namely with the new medal he had on the left side of his uniform.
"Hmmm…unfortunately we have not been able to recover any message pods from you lately, as we have been rather busy with other matters, neither have our scouts been able to report any message pods from you in the last year…are you sure that you have sent them?"
Tenmei kept his expressions on neutral the whole time…something was not right.
"I believe so, the pods were launched a few months before, when I was able to evade detection and send the latest data, I also sent more pods to Talark high-lighting the encounter with an unknown force, known to me as the Harvesters."
The portly officer raised an eye-brow at that statement.
"Harvesters? I am afraid that we are not entirely aware of what you are speaking of Commander, without the pods we have no idea what they are….I want you to file a full report on you're time in the Ikazuchi while being in the pirates today, as of now, you will have time to take some shore leave and get used to being home again. Is that clear Commander?"
Tenmei realized that something was indeed happening here, during his time back on the Nirvana he had been able to talk with Aleck and learned enough of the previous state of the planet and the populace. He hoped that the people on his world were told about the threat of the Harvesters and got ready for them, however, the actions he saw and what the officers said told him that something was not right. However he knew enough of his world to know that talking now would be useless until more evidence was shown. This made him wonder about the message pods and the rest of the data, but he had little time now to file a report…considering that the Harvesters' advanced fleet was soon to arrive.
"Yes sir!"
The Prime Minister then spoke to Tenmei.
"Once you're done with you're report, I think it would be best you report to Medical and have those removed soon, it is rather distracting for you to be wearing the uniform with those on you're chest."
Tenmei knew what he was referring to and merely nodded.
As soon as he was out of the room, he headed to his quarters at the best speed he could manage without causing disturbance, as soon as he was in the room, he quickly made his way to his personal console and began to type in his name and pass-word. The console flashed and he began to search for any mention of the data pods that he had sent before. However, much to his surprise, even with his rank and security clearance, there was nothing in the archives…it was only when he used another high level pass word that he found out the fate of the message pod he had sent before…
It had been received, but had been deleted…by the order of the First Generation, namely Grand Pa himself. He then searched for any mention of the other pods, and found out that they were sealed away, not to be opened by order of the First Generation.
Tenmei shook his head, the data he had sent had indeed been ignored, and even if he could point out their existence, there would be no doubt that the data would be destroyed, without that data to support his part in the plan and his arguments, there would be no way he could convince his fellow men of the danger. He then decided to hack into the data feed and eavesdrop on the Prime Minister and his officers.
He found that the Prime Minister and the rest of the generals were going to be having a discussion in a meeting room, and thankfully, as the Commander of the Covert Intelligence Division he still had the authority to covertly watch the proceedings. He did so and sure enough, he was now allowed to listen and witness the meeting without being detected.
--
In the meeting room…
"So what do we do about the Ikazuchi, our reports tell us that there is no way to remove the features the women have placed into the ship…it's a big annoyance at best."
One of the officers commented. However, another one then spoke out.
"That will be handled at another time…we must discuss the facts that the men we have rescued from the women had now been talking about the Harvesters and the threats they pose…not to mention, they have been speaking about working together with the women to face this threat."
The Prime Minister snorted and looked at the group of his fellow officers.
"I will not allow such talk of aligning with the women in this room. As for the men in question, they have no doubt been polluted by their time with the vile pirates, and have to be re-educated into not forgetting their loyalties and allegiance to Grand Pa! This threat of the Harvesters will be handled by us men! To prove ourselves better than the women of Megele, we will face these Harvesters when they show themselves…once that is done, we shall deal with the women. What of the machines our techs have found in the Ikazuchi?"
"The techs report that the machines are highly advantaged units but have some vague similarities to our new Vanguards, we believe that these units were once Vanguards themselves, however, several of the units appear to have come from other places and three of them seem to be extremely powerful. However…"
"However?"
"They appear to have very advanced security locks on their programming and operation systems, we have not seen anything like them and our engineers are having a hard time breaking past the defenses in order to get any relevant data that we can use. It may take a few weeks or months."
"Keep the Ikazuchi in dry dock then, until we get past those safe guards, I want every scrap of combat data those units have so we can use them to crush the women."
"What of the men sir? If they cannot be re-educated?"
The Prime Minister looked at all the data and then brought up images of Duero, Max, Aleck, and Bart, the five men were already being interrogated and were being beaten by several of their re-education specialists. The Prime Minister sighed as he looked at the events, it was such a pity, they were good men, but they were too far gone, having gained so much vile ideas, and spreading them to anyone they could on their world…it was a heresy that they had to correct, but the men were very resistant.
"If we cannot save them…then terminate them."
Tenmei realized that his part, and that of Duero, Bart, Aleck, and Max in the plan they had come up with back on the Nirvana had failed and they had to go with Plan B. He quickly connected his communicator to the Talark communications net and typed it to the frequency that Gascogne had given him…it was time to contact an old friend.
--
In the Nirvana…
Kyo listened in as his communicator beeped a few notes which told him that it was Tenmei on the line.
"Tenmei, I'm here, go ahead."
"The part we have played in Talark has failed Kyo, I've just learned that they have indeed deleted the data I sent here a few months before, and the secondary batch of data I sent has been locked away by Grand Pa…I can't access it as only the First Generation can do that."
"Damn it…there goes the neighborhood, how about the others?"
"They are in the interrogation center, being re-educated as we speak, and it seems that soon, they will be terminated."
"Crap! We can't have that Tenmei!"
"I know…I'll contact some people I know of who might be able to help me down here in Talark to rescue them, we'll have to meet back on the Nirvana, it seems we'll have to go with Plan B."
"Looks like it…good luck out there, I'll keep watch on the Megele side of things."
"Understood, Tenmei out."
--
Talark…
Tenmei realized that what he would do would no doubt brand him as a traitor to Grand Pa…but with what was coming towards them all now, he had no time to think about these things. He quickly began to type in several communications codes and he managed to contact a certain someone.
"Greetings Commander Tenmei…what do I owe the pleasure of this call?"
"I'm afraid this isn't a social call Instructor Hiryu McFile, this concerns you're sons."
"I'm listening."
--
On Megele…
"This is…this is…sacrilege!!"
The voice belonged to a woman who appeared to be wearing robes of a judge and right now it seemed that she was about to lose her cool the hard way…considering the fact that she was holding a book which spoke of a VERY interesting topic. She placed the book aside and glared at the people she was judging, and they were none other than Magno Vivian and her fellow pirates, right now, the one being trialed was none other than Jura Basil Elden. Misty was among the women due to the fact that since the former resident of Mars was a female she too was mistaken as a pirate.
The judge glared venomously at Jura and her fellow pirates, she had expected a quick trial, but the very second she had began to judge the pirate crew on their crimes, including piracy, and political dissension…they began to talk about their encounters with the Harvesters and…told her that, in order for the women of Megele to survive…they would have to…work together with the men of Talark…work with men?! It was an insult and a spit in the face of Grand Ma! But what this blonde…witch had just told her and shown her beat everything she had expected…
The thought of having a child….with a…with a…MAN was too disgusting for her to swallow.
"HOW DARE YOU SPREAD IN THIS COURT SUCH HERESY?!"
Jura however was NOT going to back down despite the arctic glare the judge was giving her.
"That is NOT heresy! That is the truth and I stand by that!"
"So do I!" Barnette said, rising from her chair, despite the fact that several female guards, armed with laser rifles were now aiming those same weapons at her, threatening her with bloody force if she tried anything. Barnette however was not going to relent until Gascogne grabbed her hand and gave her a shake of her head.
Barnette was resistant for a few moments and growled as she sat back, prompting the guards to lower their weapons and step back.
"HOW CAN YOU EVEN SUGGEST THIS GARBAGE?! This BOOK is nothing but a pack of lies, and yet YOU believe them?!"
"I do!"
"So…you're willing to give birth yourself to such an…ABOMINATION?! Then you are a witch!!"
Jura got even angrier. Misty couldn't help but smile at the way Jura was standing up to this harpy judge and whispered to Meia, who was nearby.
"I have to admit…that blonde certainly has guts. I never knew she was that determined."
" Neither did I…" Meia said as she looked at Jura, with wonder and pride.
"Witch?! You've got some nerve!!"
"I have had enough of this farce!! TAKE THEM TO THE ASTEROID PRISON COLONY AND LET THEM ALL ROT THERE!!"
Jura glared as she and the pirates were taken from the court room and were to be taken to a nearby prison colony near the debris belt. That was the same place all female criminals and political dissidents were sent in exile, it seemed that Megele had truly turned a blind eye to the truth they had with them and a deaf ear to their words. Magno sighed and realized that they would have to go with plan B.
--
As the convoy ship that carried the pirates docked with the prison colony, the pirates were able to glimpse the facility where they would be placed in for the rest of their lives, they have heard much about these stations and Meia herself shuddered a bit, as when she was younger, and was still a thug on the street, the mere mention of the asteroid prison made her shiver. However she knew better than to let her fear crowd around her now. The guards in the shuttle were dressed with normal clothes and carried heavier laser rifles, showing that they were not in the mood for the pirates to try anything anytime soon.
As they entered the corridors and soon arrived in the main cell blocks, which for some reason or another were not like the ones in the Nirvana which had energy bars but rather pure metal, it didn't take long for the rest of the colony's prison population to notice them…however, instead of welcoming them in a very hostile manner, as prisoners would normally do, the women in the prisoner blocks were surprised and awed.
"Magno?"
"Magno Vivian…here?"
"She's really real!"
"Captain Magno! Here! Help me get out of here!"
The guards however were not going to let this keep on happening at all.
"Quiet! Any more trouble from you and you're food will be cut!"
The other guards also went on to enforce the order for silence among the rest of the prisoners, with threats and promises of retaliatory action for their words. However, those threats were not enough to quiet the prisoners who saw Magno and her crew as they continued to shout out to Magno…it seemed that Magno and her fellow pirates, both the ones from the Nirvana, and the veterans left in the asteroid base on Megele have become quite the icons of resistance among those who had grown tired of the trivial competition and pettiness on Megele..
"Take us with you!"
"We want to join you're crew!"
"Please help us out of here!"
"You're real heroines!"
"I can't believe she's really real!"
Magno couldn't help but slow down a bit and so did the other pirates as the cheers, greetings and pleas for their assistance filled the entire area, and it did not lower down in both scope and power, even if they were now placed in the prison cells of their own.
However, Magno had faith on a lot of things, one was that they had a plan to help them all now, even if the first part of the plan had failed to come to fruit, the second was that the rest of their pirate crew, namely their veterans would be on the way to rescue them…and third was the fact that just in case the military had a plan to trap the pirates all together, then her uncle would be the one who would rescue them all.
--
True to Magno's suspicions…
"Ma'am, we are in position and ready to move on the prison colony, just in case the rest of the pirates intend to save their comrades."
A brunette female officer spoke to her Captain as she and the rest of the crew in the main command ship of what appeared to be a large Megele battle group of at least six medium class cruisers and one larger battle-ship, the very same command ship the officer and her superior were in.
The female Captain, with dark black hair and metal grey eyes nodded in satisfaction as she and the rest of her crew were ready, along with the other ships that were under her command, she was assigned this post when the pirates that were captured were sentenced to be thrown into the prison colony, and the Intelligence Bureau on Megele told them to prepare, just in case the rest of the pirates show up, it was time to end their resistance to Grand Ma and capture them all in one fell swoop.
"Good, have the rest of the fleet be ready to cordon off the area the very moment the rest of the pirates make the strike to rescue the others, the intelligence bureau agent has told us that the rest of the pirates will no doubt have received a distress call from their comrades before they had been forced off the ship that they were in. And once they are all here…we can capture them all."
"Yes ma'am, did you hear what those pirates aid during their trial…about those Harvesters and the idea of men and women…working together?"
"I have…and I think it's nothing but a pack of lies! Nothing but lies, why should we work with the men to deal with these so called Harvesters?! We have far greater weapons and technology than those foolish, idiotic, and inferior barbarians, so why should we have to work with them?"
"One of the pirates…even suggested…that it was possible for…"
"Don't even say those things, such an act is an unforgivable insult to all our fellow women and daughters! I will not have any mention of such things on this ship…is that clear!!"
"Yes ma'am…forgive me!"
"Done…make sure that the trap will be set before the pirates arrive, and tell all our forces to remain out of sight until the time to strike has arrived for us."
"Yes ma'am!"
--
Unknown to the female officers however, a certain someone had been able to hack into their communications and found out about their orders and objectives.
Kyo swore and got his Gundam ready, just in case. However he had one problem, if Tenmei didn't get enough support in case things go wrong with his rescue of the others in Talark, then he would have to go down there and help out as fast as he could, but that would cut down the time he had to get to Megele considerably to help Maggie and the others from being captured. So all he could do was wait as much as he could and wait for a good result from Tenmei's plan to bust Duero, Max, Bart, and Aleck out.
--
To be continued…
--
Looks like the plan was busted…and now the rescues begin!!