Chapter 10

The blue coding danced over the screen as Xenphyr adjusted the program's decoding speed with incredible skill. His fingers danced over the keyboard like those of a pianist, but with the speed and precision of a programmer. His eyes narrowed as he typed in a string of code into the program.

A few seconds passed before the program beeped, a signal that the first firewall was broken.

"Okay. Looks like we broke through the first one," he said.

"That's good," Ciel gasped. Her eyes were glazed over and her hair was hanging loosely from around her visor.

"And it took us only three hours."

"How many firewalls are there?"

"About two per file. That's a total of twenty, or two for each file batch that's been sealed away. And each set increases in difficulty, so the time will increase."

"Primus…"

"Look. Why don't you get some sleep? I'll handle the rest, but if the need arises, I'll call you, okay?" Xenphyr suggested.

"No. Forget about that. We both need to work on this."

"It's almost ten, Ciel."

"Still…"

"No buts. Let me handle it. I don't need to sleep, so you just let me handle it until morning, okay?"

Seeing as how Xenphyr was stubborn once his mind was made up, she reluctantly stood up and stretched before yawning.

"See? You need to rest."

She nodded wearily. "Okay. I will. See you."

"Night."

Ciel turned and left, leaving Xenphyr to his work.

During the course of the evening, he worked on trying to break through the next firewall. His efforts were hampered slightly by the absence of Ciel, but by one in the morning, he had broken through the second set of firewalls. His fingers were a blur of speed as he got to work on breaking the third set of firewalls. His eyes darted across the screen as he tapped into the main supercomputer's mainframe. A few failed tries later and he had succeeded in bursting down the third set around six in the morning.

At seven, Ciel entered the room, still tired from last night, but much better and fully refreshed.

When she entered his office, she was surprised to see him still up and working, screens and scraps of paper with a bunch of letters and numbers written on them littering the floor, his desk, and his private quarters. Xenphyr himself was sitting amongst a pile of screens and papers, his fingers still flying across the keyboard.

"Xenphyr?"

"Hey, Ciel," he said without even looking up.

"How's it going?" she asked as she sat down beside him.

"Good so far. I managed to break through the next two sets while you were sleeping, and I'm working on the fourth," Xenphyr replied.

"You need any help?" Ciel asked.

"You bet the slag I do! This firewall's tougher than the last one!" the Reploid snapped.

Ciel blinked in shock. "Really?"

Xenphyr nodded. "Yeah. This set's really difficult."

"Okay. I'll see what I can do."

She sat down and they both began working on it. The fourth set was harder to break through, but by eleven they had broken through. The fifth set was proving the toughest, however, as they had found the most secure set of files in Captain's memory banks.

Around five in the afternoon, after some intense hacking and probing, the fifth set of firewalls gave way and they began to work on the sixth set.

Again, Ciel fell asleep and Xenphyr worked through the night trying to break through. The seventh and eighth sets of firewalls gave way to his attempts at twelve at night and five in the morning.

The final two sets proved to be easier than the last eight sets of firewalls, as these contained memories of days before he met Shute and the other members of the Gundam Force. They worked together the next day to break them and by three in the afternoon, all twenty firewalls had been broken.

Ciel let out a sigh as she flopped back onto Xenphyr's couch. The Reploid was leaning back in his chair and she could see how haggard his eyes were. His hair was disheveled and his clothing was a rumpled up mess, but his eyes were still alert, despite their bloodshot appearance.

"Well, we did it," she murmured.

"Yeah. We sure did. The only question now is whether or not he'll even wake up, despite the effort we did," the medical officer said hoarsely.

"What do you mean, Xenphyr?"

The technician looked at her and his eyes clouded over.

"His body was heavily damaged, and a lot of his systems were damaged beyond repair, so his chances of survival are slim," he told her grimly.

"But…?" Ciel's voice trailed off, leaving her to imagine the worst possible.

Xenphyr shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe he will, maybe not. You can't really tell for long here."

She knew he was right. The Federation did have a knack for accomplishing the impossible…

But was it really worth it?


In Earth orbit three days ago…

Gene snarled as the lasers barely missed the nose of his ship. "Jim! Status on the engines, now!" he snapped.

"Um…" Jim glanced at the gauges for the ship's engines. "...about fifty percent power to all three thrusters. Why?" he asked, looking at Gene.

"Take 'em up to seventy!" the red-haired outlaw ordered.

"Seventy percent?! That's crazy!" Jim blurted.

"Not for what I've got planned," Gene said grimly.

Jim gulped, but did as he was ordered anyway. The ship's engines whined as power was fed into them, increasing forward thrust. Gene released bursts of gas from the maneuvering thrusters and put the ship into a turn that took them right out of a laser's trajectory. It exploded in the depths of space near one of the asteroids beyond the orbit of the planet called Mars, briefly illuminating the shielded colony they called Omega X, which also doubled as a max-security prison.

Gene glanced at the tactical radar on the screen in front of his face, his lips pursed in a straight line. He ran through the current battle plan and discovered there was a major flaw.

"Oh crap!" he swore.

The laser cannon had been modified to include radar tracking, capable of homing in on the signature of the enemy's vessel and continuously tracking it no matter what moves it pulled.

He glanced at Suzuka out of the corner of his eye. "Location of the gun! Now!" he ordered.

"It's still on our tail. The laser's charging again. In a few minutes it will fire, so we must prepare to dodge," she said without hesitation.

"Aisha, what about the range? How far?" Gene asked.

"That gun seems to have a range of…how much range does it have?" she asked, glancing at Jim. He sweatdroppped.

"Fifty mile range for maximum power," the boy said.

"Uh…does that include double?" the CtarlCtarl asked.

"Huh?" Melfina's head jerked upward in the pod she was currently using to interface with the ship's more advanced systems. "Double the laser power?"

Aisha shook her head. "No. Double the range."

"That…that means that…" Her voice trailed off as she tapped into the radar systems of the ship, her intelligence merging with that of the ship's AI. "Gene! Turn to starboard and give full thrust as well! That should buy us some time!" she exclaimed, her voice shrill.

"Roger that!" Gene said. The outlaw punched the ship's controls and the red Grappler ship darted to the side as a huge blue laser lanced across their previous path.

"Geez! Talk about a close one," Aisha yelped.

"Gilliam! How long until the cannon fires again!" Gene snapped.

"About three minutes. Not enough time to turn and get some distance between us if that is what you are thinking," the AI replied.

Gene slapped his head. "Just great! Anyone got any ideas as to how we can shut the cannon down?" he asked.

"We could try using the Assault Bolt," Melfina suggested.

"What do you guys think?" Gene asked his comrades.

"I say go for it! It's not like we've got anything to lose, aside from our lives, so let's do it!" the CtarlCtarl said.

"I agree. We have a better chance of using it and winning than winning without it, so let's go for it," the female assassin said, nodding.

"We may have no other choice," Jim agreed.

"Okay. It's settled then. Gilliam, power up the Assault Bolt and let's hit 'em hard!" Gene said to the ship's console.

"Roger, Gene."

The ship's powerful generator kicked in and the Assault Bolt began to charge.

The powerful weapon fired just as the massive cannon let loose its own blast of energy, the two beams canceling each other out in a massive explosion of light before it faded.

"Grappler Combat activated!" The whole crew shouted out the words as the twin Grappler arms on the sides of the ship activated. They extended outwards as the ship sped over to the moon colony, Grapplers extended. Each arm pushed against the cannon and with a burst of thrust from the engines, the Outlaw Star's powerful Grapplers began to turn the cannon upward towards space with a whine of protesting hydraulics. The weapon shuddered, making the whole ship vibrate with the building energy as the laser again charged up.

It would take mere seconds before they could fire the cannon, which was what Gene and the others couldn't afford to let happen. The powerful thrusters whined as Gilliam and Melfina pushed the ship's engines to maximum power. With the hydraulics the Federation had built into it, they were evenly matched, and the cannon's barrel was aimed at the planet, meaning that if it fired, the beam would strike the planet and blow a huge crater in its surface. And that, they couldn't let happen.

"C'mon, c'mon, c'mon! We need the power!" Gene muttered angrily under his breath.

The ship's engines were now at critical overload. Gene felt sweat breaking out on his face and forehead. The whole bridge seemed to be full of tension as the Outlaw Star was pushed to its limits and beyond. Aisha's eyes were wide as she watched the process of descent and ascent cancel out due to the efforts of man and machine.

"Gilliam, turn off the safety and amp up the engines to overmax! We need it now!" Gene snapped.

"But…" Melfina looked at him from her capsule nervously. "Who knows what could happen?"

"I'd rather take the chance than not take it at all. So, let's do it!" Gene hissed.

"…Right." The bioandroid nodded her head.

The safeties were shut off and the ship's entire frame shuddered as pent up energy was sent racing throughout the wires and circuitry that made up the vessel.

"NOW!" Melfina yelled.

The thrusters whined and screeched as the smaller Grappler vessel pushed the cannon upwards and away from the planet, sending unheard screeching of hydraulics throughout the depths of space just as the laser fired.

They began grunting as the ship shuddered from the intense vibrations.

"Break off now!" Jim yelled.

With a screech and a loud roar of space thrusters, the red-colored spacecraft shot away from the cannon as the beam reached maximum output.

The beam fired off into the depths of space, exploding as it hit an unseen target.

Gene smirked as the stars shimmered, exposing another vessel.

"Wait. You knew?!" Aisha yelped.

"Hey. Sometimes you get lucky," he said, his eyes locking onto hers. "It just happens that we picked it up a few minutes before we entered this system, so I asked Gilliam to keep an eye on it during the time we were engaged in combat. That's why I wanted to aim that cannon into space."

"Oh."

"Gene. Incoming transmission," Melfina reported.

Gene nodded. "Patch it through."

The screen was brought online, but instead of the other vessel's captain, like he had been expecting, it showed static as a strange sound emitted from the speakers. The sound was strangely like that of a vibrating tuning fork, but it became fainter as the static cleared to show a human face.

The man in the image, Gene guessed, was the head of the moon colony.

"What in Primus name did you just pull?!" he snapped.

"Look. I'm not one for big explanations, but I will say this: Had we not intervened, you might have been blasted to pieces!" the outlaw shot back.

"You think I'm gonna buy a load o' slag like that? You could be in cahoots with that enemy vessel you blasted!" the man snapped angrily.

Gene let out a low growl as he stood up in his seat. "Look here. We're not ones to really help people, but we will help even if you don't like it! Plus, are you aware that the Dark Axis is already working to achieve their goal of becoming gods? Or are you unaware of that as well? Because if you are—"

He was cut off by the man on the screen. "Wait! How'd you know about that?!" he yelped.

"We're one of the Renegade vessels, the Outlaw Star. I'm Gene Starwind and this is my crew. Melfina is the bioandroid in the capsule back there. She controls the ship's more advanced systems. Aisha ClanClan is a CtarlCtarl, and the only one on the crew. Twilight Suzuka is the assassin over there and this is my partner Jim Hawking. Gilliam is our ship's AI, and the one that controls the Grappler ship. Our last member, Evac, is in the cargo hold. He's in recharge, so he probably missed out on the fight," Gene said, motioning to each of his crew as he introduced them.

"..." The man was silent as he took in the information. "That still doesn't explain your presence in Federation space and the enemy ship that you just blasted with our cannon."

"Look. We're here to ask to aid you in your fight. That's why we're here. As for that ship…" When his voice trailed off, the man's face suddenly seemed to harden as the realization dawned on him.

"You can't be serious…I mean…no ship would even…" he murmured in shock.

"I have the footage to prove it," Gene said softly.

"…Hold on."


On Earth…

President Warren looked up from her desk as the comm link beeped. "Yeah? Go ahead."

The image of Tyre appeared on a screen in front of her. "President Warren, Tyre here. We've got a bit of a situation going on here."

"What is it?" the President asked.

"There's a group of Renegades here that claim to be fighting against the Dark Axis. Their ship is called the Outlaw Star and it's a Grappler ship. Ever hear of them?" he asked.

"Wait. Grappler ships?" She had heard of the Grappler class ships from Optimus and Sandra. She knew that they had a system of Grappler arms that could be used in what the pilots called Grappler combat, a fight where one ship had to destroy the other ship's Grappler arms by using their own or whatever weapons they possessed. The ships also had capsules for beings called bioandroids, beings that could hook up to the ship's systems and boost them to new levels. Each ship also had a secret weapon, and in this case, it would be some kind of a beam weapon.

Tyre nodded. "Yeah. You hear of them before?"

"Sandra and Optimus told me about them. If it is a Grappler ship…" Her voice trailed off.

"Well, they want to help us out. They say they're aware of the Dark Axis' plan to become gods, and they just used our cannon to blast a Dark Axis vessel. And…well, I'm sure you can figure it out," Tyre told her.

Her eyes widened as she began to grasp the horrors that lay within the enemy vessel.

"You can't be serious…" she murmured.

Tyre's face was grim. "I am. He says he has footage."

"Okay. Tell him that he can land, just keep an eye on him. If he tries anything, kill the outlaw and his crew, if he has one," President Warren said seriously. Even though she suspected they were honest, it was best to not take any chances on the ground that the Dark Axis could be working through them.

Tyre nodded again. "Yes, and he does have a crew."

"Okay. You know what to do," President Warren said.

"Right. Tyre out."

The screen shut down as she glanced skyward. "Renegades that fight for peace…now that's unusual…"


At the university…

The first thing that he heard was Xenphyr's voice. He sounded worried, but at the same time, relieved.

His eye screens flared briefly before his eyes came online. He opened them and immediately closed them as the light struck them. "AH"

A strong hand was placed on his shoulder as he struggled to sit up. His body was gently pushed down and someone began covering him up.

"Take it easy, okay? Just let your body rest. After this, everything will be explained…" a voice said softly.

That was all he remembered before he passed out again.