The welcome sight of the stars reappearing around him was certainly encouraging, but Rei didn't start to relax until he had checked his instruments. Only after they confirmed that he was just outside the Sol system did he finally allow himself to grin. He was just about to radio the Doji when a beam cut through the dark, nearly hitting his interceptor.
He quickly decided that the call would have to wait a moment. Pulling the fighter craft into a sharp turn, he zigzagged back and forth. More and more lasers zipped past him, several nearly catching him. It appeared the Uruseins had been expecting visitors. Two battleships were rapidly closing in, and the interceptors he was already dealing with were about to have a lot more reinforcements than he could handle.
Remembering his orders, Rei fled away from the system, expertly weaving back and forth to avoid his pursuers. Splitting his concentration for just a moment, he flipped on his comm. channel and made the call back to Oniboshi.
"Safe," he bit out quickly, hoping they would figure it out. His obligation fulfilled, he pulled the interceptor in another wide turn and circled around to give his attackers a taste of their own medicine.
The Doji emerged from subspace directly into intense fire from an Urusein battleship. Unfortunately for the Uruseins, the Third Fleet's infamous flagship was in a class all of its own. The nearly unscathed Doji opened fire in return, their much larger guns ripping through the battleship with ease.
Invader glared irritably at the ravaged battleship. "That idiot, this isn't exactly what I would call safe."
As if on cue, Rei's interceptor came into sight, chasing a couple of enemy fighters.
"Well, at least he's still kicking," Invader chuckled. He glanced out the window and saw that another battleship was closing in. "Let's go ahead and take them out before the Lamu gets here."
"We've got a lot more company on the way," the radar officer called out. "Looks like most of Second Fleet is buzzing around the system.
Invader grinned. "Let them come. Those idiots probably don't realize what kind of hornet's nest they've stirred up."
"Three Fukujin battleships are on their way," the communications officer announced as he attempted to monitor several channels at once. "Additional forces from Seyruun, Tengu, Rezo, and Meiroon should be here soon as well." He paused as another message came in. "There are several battleships from Planet Elle who will be here in about five minutes."
"I didn't even ask them to come," Invader chuckled. "I guess Princess Elle just didn't want to feel left out."
Shinobu watched in mute horror as the Mendou estate burned. Even from halfway across Tomobiki the fire and frequent explosions were clearly visible. Visible only as a dark shadow across the stars was the kilometer long Urusein battlecruiser that continued to rain destruction upon the area.
A soft footstep sounded on the roof behind her. "Isn't there anything you can do?" she asked quietly, already knowing who it was.
"You know that we're not allowed to interfere," Inaba replied regretfully. "We do not shape fate, we only maintain the myriad possibilities." He shook his head. "There's nothing I could do about something this big anyways."
She shook her head. "Can you at least tell me if Shutaro-san is ok?" she asked angrily.
"Not for a little while," he grimly replied. "When a soul leaves this plane, it takes time for all the possibilities they carried to fade away." He fell silent as he observed the extent of the damage the oni were doling out.
Shinobu shivered and leaned against him. "I was just talking to Shutaro-san the other day," she murmured sadly. "He finally had a girlfriend, and he seemed so happy this time."
"Fortune isn't very kind sometimes," Inaba sighed. He'd barely even met the guy before, but no one deserved a fate like that.
The minutes passed by slowly as the oni ship continued its barrage. Finally Inaba had had enough.
"Are you ready to go?" he asked quietly. "That thing could move this way at any time."
"I'm not going with you," Shinobu replied firmly, not taking her eyes off the distant flames.
"We've talked about this," Inaba insisted worriedly. "I can't bring anyone else. I'll be lucky if they don't boil me alive just for saving you."
"My parents are in this house," she responded, her voice suddenly devoid of emotion. "Every single one of my relatives and my friends live in this town. I've lived here my entire life. I'm not leaving."
"What good is it going to do you to die with them?" he asked plaintively.
"It wouldn't be fair for me to be the only one with a magic door to safety," she replied. "I really don't think I could live with myself if I left them all like that."
He bowed his head in surrender. "So you're certain about this?" he softly inquired.
"Yes, Inaba, I am," Shinobu replied. "I'm sorry."
He smiled sadly. "Then I'll stay as well."
She gave him a panicked look. "Don't do that," she pleaded. "You don't even belong here."
"Tough," he replied decisively, wrapping an arm around her waist. "I didn't really belong in the Bureau either, but that never stopped me." He was silent for a moment. "I think that if I belong anywhere, it's by your side. I'll stay with you until the end."
"Inaba," she whispered. "Don't do this."
Inaba shook his head and gazed sadly at the clamorous streets around them. Most of the residents of Tomobiki were now awake, and many of them were trying to flee the area. He knew that even if the streets weren't so crowded there was little chance any of them would be able to escape the town in time.
A muffled creak came from deep within the wreckage that had been Shutaro's private hanger. A deep rumble steadily grew louder and louder, until at last the rubble in one area started slowly but surely to move. As it continued, more and more debris sloughed off, revealing the hard lines of the German tank beneath. With a loud roar the tank pitched forward out of the rubble, the last of the debris from the roof sliding smoothly off the back.
The thick smoke pouring from the sprawling mansion hid the area from the oni warship overhead as it continued to systematically raze the Mendou estate. A few foolhardy F-15s were still attempting to harass the battlecruiser, but most had already either withdrawn or been shot down.
Shutaro peered frantically through the periscopes as the newly freed tank ground to a halt. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't stop himself from shaking. He had barely gotten Sayomi into the turret and thrown himself into the separate driver's compartment when the hanger had finally collapsed, completely burying the tank.
It had taken but a second for the situation to trigger both his claustrophobia and his fear of the dark. Usually he drove with the hatch wide open; with the hatch secured the narrow compartment felt like a metal tomb. Only the frantic urge to escape the destroyed hanger had enabled him to find the controls and propel the tank forward.
Now that the tank was free, his fear was starting to incapacitate him. Shutaro clamped his teeth together and closed his eyes, trying to calm down, but it wasn't working. He had to fight the uncontrollable urge to throw open the hatch, knowing that the thick black smoke outside would rush in.
His eyes shot open as the sound of Sayomi's voice came clearly through the intercom.
"Shutaro-san, are you all right?" she asked tentatively. "It sounds like you're whimpering."
He forced himself to breath deeply. "I'm fine," he managed to croak out. "Is everything ok back there?"
She glanced around the more spacious turret. "There's no damage that I can see," she answered. "Are you sure that you're ok?"
Shutaro bit his lip. Hearing her voice helped, but without her physical presence his fear was still getting the better of him. "Not really," he admitted shakily. "I don't know if I can do this."
"Are you hurt?" she demanded.
"No," he managed to reply, his teeth starting to chatter. "I just don't do well in dark cramped places."
She frowned. "I don't understand," she replied hesitantly.
"I have this phobia," he slowly explained, forcing his voice to remain steady. "Whenever it's totally dark or really cramped, I panic."
"I see," she replied worriedly. "Isn't there a light up there? I've got one back here."
"No," he replied, not bothering to check. That was something that he certainly would have installed if they made it out of this. "Do you think you could just keep talking? It's calming me down a little at least."
"Sure," she replied, feeling the tank start to lurch forward again. "What do you want me to talk about?"
"Anything," he quickly responded. "It doesn't matter."
She wracked her head for something to talk about. "This tank, it's your favorite, isn't it?"
"Yes," he replied, carefully scanning the ground ahead of them. "It's a genuine Leopard 1A3 main battle tank, straight from the factory in Germany."
"How did you get it?" she asked, noting happily that it sounded like he was calming down.
"My father bought it while he was on a business trip over there," Shutaro replied. "I mostly collect WW2 German military vehicles, but this one is much nicer."
"I remember watching you drive it around the estate," she told him. "That seems so long ago."
He swerved hard to avoid the deep crater that suddenly appeared before them. "Yeah, my parents were really irritated after I tore up the front lawn one summer. I was only allowed to use it back in the far eastern corner of the estate after that."
She smiled. "That must have happened before I was launched."
He nodded. "I guess so," he replied. "I was only about twelve, I think."
"Shutaro-san?" she asked hesitantly.
"What is it?"
"Where are we going?"
"I don't know," he answered. "The smoke is starting to clear out a little, but I'm still not sure what direction we're heading."
The tank shook hard as a stray blast struck the ground nearby. Shutaro gritted his teeth and poured on the gas, pushing the tank to its top speed. After a few more moments the smoke cleared and the tank barreled across the estate unhindered.
Shutaro kept going for a couple more minutes, making sure they were in the clear before he brought the tank to a gradual stop. Throwing open the hatch, he stood up, eager to escape the stifling compartment. His joy to be out was quickly replaced by renewed fear as he caught sight of the vast tiger striped ship hanging in the sky overhead.
He gazed slowly around the estate. It appeared that they had somehow ended up on the huge lawn in front of the mansion. Every visible building was already either leveled or a blazing torch, and it appeared that most of the trees on the estate were on fire as well. The oni ship's shots where becoming more and more infrequent, and he could only guess that they were running out of things to destroy.
He heard one of the turret hatches clang open behind him.
"Shutaro-san, don't you think we should keep going?"
He glanced around at Sayomi's worried face. "Can you contact the command center?" he asked, his voice dulled from shock.
She went still for a few moments. "I'm not receiving any response," she announced hesitantly. "The only nearby chatter I'm picking up is from those pilots."
He stared at the side of the mansion that had connected to the command center. The flames and smoke were thick in that area, and he could only hope that everyone had evacuated in time. Sighing heavily, he clamored up to the top of the turret and dropped down through the other hatch. Grabbing the radio, he set it to the frequency their air force used.
"All Mendou Air Force pilots, please disengage from the target and retreat to a safe distance."
"Young master, is that you?" a grizzled voice responded incredulously. "Are you still on the estate?"
"This is Mendou Shutaro," he affirmed, watching as the remaining jets obediently swung away from the ship. "Do you know if the command center was able to evacuate?"
"We tried to bring in a couple more helicopters after that thing started firing, but they didn't make it," the pilot replied sadly. "Command went quiet a little while ago."
Shutaro bowed his head. "Ok," he replied quietly. "I'm leaving the estate now and heading into Tomobiki. As long as that thing doesn't start attacking the town, everyone needs to just hang back. I don't know if help is on the way or not, but there's nothing more we can do here."
"Roger," the pilot affirmed. "Are you sure you don't need air cover?"
"I don't think it would do any good," Shutaro replied. "Just get on out of here."
"Roger," the pilot replied.
Shutaro put the handset back on the hook and clamored slowly back out. "We're leaving," he told Sayomi. "Go ahead and seal yourself back inside."
She nodded and ducked back in, pulling the hatch shut behind her. Shutaro lowered himself carefully back down to the driver's compartment, but kept the hatch open this time. He turned the tank towards the direction of the front gate and started slowly forward. He took one last glance behind them as he reached the gate, then turned around and steered carefully into the streets outside.
Invader hadn't been this hopeful in months. The makeshift fleet was pushing steadily forward, their superior numbers overwhelming the Urusein forces at every turn. Earth was in their sight, and it appeared that their victory was only a matter of time.
"We're detecting a large number of ships approaching from the outer system," the radar officer suddenly announced. "It appears to be Urusein reinforcements."
"Damn," Invader cursed. "How many ships do they have now?"
Jirettai left the radar station and stepped forward. "Most likely we're seeing their last ditch efforts," he commented. "It looks like their throwing everything they have at us."
Invader sighed. "Has their been any more word from Earth?" he asked worriedly.
"Not a peep, boss," the communications officer responded.
The warlord turned his attention back to the battle raging before them. The Uruseins were still clustered rather thickly around Earth; apparently they had been well prepared in case something like this happened. He could only hope that Mendou hadn't been targeted already.
Shinobu watched perplexed as a lone tank rolled slowly down her now empty street. It was far from the first tank she'd seen emerge from the direction of the Mendou estate this evening, but all the rest had been larger and had rumbled through in neat columns. As it neared she was able to finally make out the driver peering out of the open front hatch.
"Shutaro-san!" she called out happily.
Shutaro slowly brought the tank to a stop, Shinobu's house being his intended destination. As he had feared, she was still there, perched neatly on the roof no less. To his surprise Inaba was sitting there next to her.
"What are you doing?" he yelled irritably. "You should get out of here."
She shook her head. "What's the use? If that thing attacks Tomobiki, we don't have a chance of escaping. If you keep going a few blocks, the streets are still pretty jammed."
Shutaro gazed down the street, seeing brake lights flashing in the distance. "Can't he get you out of here?" he asked plaintively. "Aren't you even going to try?"
"I tried to get her to leave," Inaba called down to him. "She wouldn't do it. I'm sorry, but I cannot force her."
Shutaro shook his head. "Shinobu-san, stop being an idiot," he called out to her.
A rumbling from down the street caught his attention, and as they watched a slightly larger tank slowly approached. As it drew near, a man popped up out of the turret and saluted.
"Commander Hiroshi!" Shutaro greeted him. "I'm glad to see you made it out."
"Your father had us ready to evacuate if there was a serious attack," the commander explained. "I heard from the flyboys that you were heading this way."
"What's the situation out here?" Shutaro demanded.
"It's pretty bad on the other end of town," the commander admitted. "We've got most of our infantry out there forces trying to move things along, but it's bedlam. Most of the people in Tokyo are panicking, and the roads throughout the region are at a standstill."
"What about the armored division?" Shutaro asked.
"We couldn't get very far with all these crowds," the commander explained. "I've got them spread out in a loose defensive line a couple of blocks up."
"Very good," Shutaro complemented him. "What is the self defense force doing?"
"The government's forces still won't work with us," Hiroshi replied irritably. "JSDF says that if Tokyo itself is in danger, then they'll fight, otherwise they aren't budging."
"What are they thinking?" Shutaro muttered. "Ok, go ahead and get back in position, I'll join up with your line in a moment."
"We have orders to get you to safety if anything happens," the commander firmly replied. "We're clearing out a landing spot in the park so we can get you airlifted out of the region."
"Have you heard from my father since the attack started?" Shutaro demanded.
"Not since the first few minutes," he admitted.
"Well, in the absence of my father, I'm taking command," Shutaro barked out. "Continue clearing out a landing spot and see if we can get some civilians out of here."
"Understood," the commander reluctantly agreed. "We're already evacuating citizens from the airport, but you're right, we can get a few more out that way."
"Let's get on with it then," Shutaro ordered. He looked down. "Do you know if the helicopter Ryoko and Grandfather were on escaped?"
"I believe it was going to head towards Okinawa," Hiroshi replied. "We've been busy with evacuations, so I'm not really sure about its status."
"Fine," Shutaro replied shortly. "You're dismissed." He turned back towards Shinobu's house as the other tank made its way back up the street. "Shinobu-san, are your parents still here?"
She shook her head. "I pretended I was leaving with Inaba so that they would go without me."
"I want you two behind that defensive line," Shutaro ordered. "We'll try to defend Tomobiki if it comes down to it, but you're not going to sit there in the middle of it."
She huffed, unused to Shutaro bossing her around. "I'm not leaving my house," she yelled back.
He gestured wildly towards the burning estate. "My parents didn't want to leave their home either," he retorted, his patience stretched to the limit. "For all I know, they're still in there."
Shinobu gazed in shock at the burning building. She'd spoken with Shutaro's parents on many occasions, often in that very house. "Ok," she finally relented. "I'll at least move out of this area."
He nodded. "Inaba, make sure you keep her safe."
The rabbit suited man nodded. "Ok," he promised. "Thank you."
The allied fleet was besieged on both sides, but they were still holding their own. The Doji had been at the forefront of the battle for well over three hours now, continuously pushing towards Earth, even to the point of leaving their flanks vulnerable at times.
The Lamu, on the other hand, was keeping itself firmly in the center of the fleet. Carriers of her size were rare in the galaxy, and Invader had no intentions of losing another one. Especially not the one named in honor of his own baby girl.
Invader paced nervously on the bridge as battleship after battleship appeared in their path. Uru was putting much more of their resources into this could than he had imagined. Even if they had boosted ship production for months, their home system had to be practically defenseless by this point.
The warlord abruptly halted his pacing as a newly arrived ship was sighted and put on the main screen. "Is that what I think it is?" he demanded.
"Yes sir," the radar officer affirmed. "It's the Izanami."
Jirettai stepped forward, shaking his head in amazement. "What is that doing here?" he asked quietly. "I didn't think that it ever left Uru."
"She hasn't in over 600 years," Invader grimly replied. "She's supposed to be their last line of defense." He gazed at the immense battleship in awe. The Doji might be the largest modern Oni battleship, but in the very distant past their race had built ships that were far larger. What those ships had lacked in numbers they had more than made up for in armor and firepower. It was said that these ships had greatly hastened Uru's resource depletion.
Now, millennia later, only the Izanami was left of that mighty fleet. The rest had long ago been cannibalized to build the smaller but more efficient fleets that the oni had used to control their burgeoning empire. She might be ancient, but Invader knew that her systems had been upgraded dozens of times over the centuries.
"What are we going to do?" Jirettai asked. "That thing's over three times as our size."
"I'm well aware of that," Invader responded. He sat down in his chair and quickly called up the Fukujin commander. "Bishamonten, I assume you've noticed our latest adversary."
"We sure did," the Fukujin replied. "It's that old relic, isn't it?"
"Don't underestimate her just because she's old," Invader cautioned him. "She's nearly as maneuverable as the Doji, and the guns are much more powerful."
Bishamonten laughed. "No offense, Invader, but Fukujin ships are a little more advanced than yours. We can just sit outside her range and pick her apart."
Invader sighed. "If you think you can handle it, then I'll leave her to you."
Shutaro sat nervously on the edge of his tank's turret, watching the oni warship. Now that the sun was coming up, the vast ship was even more menacing to behold.
He checked his watch for the hundredth time. It was already half past six, and still there was no sign that any reinforcements from Invader were on their way. With the subspace relay gone, they had no way to know if help was coming at all.
"Are you still doing ok?" he asked softly.
"Yes," Sayomi called out from the commander's seat inside. "I'm fine."
"You just haven't said anything in awhile," he replied.
"I'm just trying to conserve energy," she explained as she carefully probed the gaping holes in her skin.
Shutaro peered in and blushed as he realized she had taken her ragged top off. "Are you sure you don't need to be looked at?" he demanded, turning his eyes quickly skywards.
"There's only a few people at the lab who would know what they were doing," Sayomi replied. "And they were evacuated yesterday along with everyone else."
"I wish you would take a helicopter out of here," Shutaro told her. "The techs will probably end up at the Okinawa base sooner or later."
"I told you before this all started that I wouldn't leave your side," she retorted. "I'm not going anywhere without you."
He sighed. "How's your battery power?"
"I've got a couple more hours if I'm fully operational," she replied. "I can always go into standby mode if it gets too low."
"What's that mean?" he inquired.
"Basically all sensory and movement functions are shut down," she explained. "Don't worry though. Even if I run completely out of power, I'll be ok. My memory doesn't require an active power source to retain my data." She gazed up at him, noting amusedly that he was pointedly looking away. "I'm glad my new skin was supposed to have been ready soon. It'll look a hundred times better than this one did."
"That one looks pretty realistic," he bashfully observed.
"The seams on this one are way too visible," she murmured as she slid her shirt back on. "With the new one it should be almost impossible to tell that it's not real skin."
He coughed nervously and carefully kept his eyes directed away. "All this waiting is driving me nuts," he admitted softly. The distant fires on the estate were still burning, and even after all this time no one had heard a word from his parents. Despite the sinking feeling in his gut, he refused to believe that they weren't just busy somewhere else.
Sayomi was quiet for a moment. "I wish there was something I could do for you," she finally said, reaching up to grasp his hand. "But it seems like all I ever do is bring you more trouble."
"If you hadn't pushed me back in the garage earlier, I wouldn't even be alive right now," he reminded her.
"And if it wasn't for me, you would have been safely on that helicopter in the first place," she replied.
"Honestly, I never intended to get on the helicopter," he admitted. "I was just going to make sure you were on board and then go back."
"Shutaro-san!" she exclaimed. "Why would you have done that?"
He shook his head. "You wouldn't understand. How shameful is it for the heir of the great Mendou Clan to go running off at the first sign of trouble?"
"Then I'm glad we didn't make it to the helicopter," she grumped. "You obviously need me around to keep you from doing stupid things."
"It's not stupid," he retorted.
"Yes it is," she insisted. "You're still being stupid for staying here instead of going somewhere safer."
"You're still here too," he dryly reminded her.
"I never said that I wasn't stupid," she replied haughtily.