The last thing he remembered was the sound of cannon fire, alarm bells and Richelieu's voice screaming out to him, begging him to stop.
Then everything went to black.
Slowly though, he could feel his senses returning to him. He could feel his body was sore, no doubt from the ordeal of what transpired.
For a moment, he wondered how the afterlife would look like. Would it really be like how stories, novels and other media interpret it? Would he find himself standing in front of shining gold gates waiting to be welcomed in? would he awaken in a field of dazzling flowers underneath a clear blue sky? Or would he find himself in a familiar café where three friends awaited him.
The answer of course, was none of that.
As he opened his eyes, he saw that none of his hypothesis were true. Instead of imagining a myriad of different settings the afterlife had in store for him, he found that he was sitting in some beige colored room. It reeked of disinfectant and had the steady beeping noise of some machine in the background.
"Hey now, try not to move too much. You're still reeling from that concussion," said a voice to his left.
Of course, those words of caution were not followed. He rose up, only to have a sharp pain hit him in the head and forcing him to go back down.
"I told you," said the voice.
Now he opened his eyes fully to get a good look at the person speaking to him. To his left, there was a man dressed in a slightly modified navy uniform, holding a scribbling pad. The man looked to be in his early to mid-thirties, had black hair and black eyes. In other words, he was a seemingly normal looking man.
"Glad to see you're awake," said the man, flipping through the pages. "You gave everyone quite the scare back there Alec."
For a moment, Alec wanted to ask how the man knew his name. But he quickly understood that he was in a hospital room and this man was understandably reading the notes left behind by the doctor who looked after him.
"What… what happened to me?" asked Alec, slowly rising up again. This time though, there was no sharp pain in his head, making it possible for him to sit up straight.
"Well you pulled off a crazy move, even by my standards," replied the man "consider yourself lucky that you didn't sustain any lasting injuries."
"I'll have Vestal come check on you a little later but if these readings are anything to go by, you should get discharged in a couple of days," he added.
'Vestal?' repeated Alec in his mind. In all the time that he was on the base, he never came across someone with a name as unique as that.
"Um… ", said Alec "what about my friends? Are they safe? Are they okay?"
The man looked like he was about to answer, but heard a knock on the door. Quickly figuring out who was waiting on the other side, he smiled quietly and said "sounds like they know you're awake."
"I should get going now," he said, walking to the door "we'll be seeing each other soon, count on it."
"We will?" wondered Alec "but I don't even know your name."
"You make a good point," said the man "I know your name, it's only fair you know mine."
"I'm James Harper, nice to meet you," he said with a smile and opened the door.
As much as Alec wanted to register the name and recollect anyone on the base who had that name, he was more focused on who was waiting outside the door. When James went out, Alec saw a number of familiar faces coming into the room.
Given the nature of his departure, he understood if they all felt a little awkward around him, no doubt struggling to come up with the right words to say.
"WAAAAHHHHH," wailed Pamiat before jumping on the bed and hugging Alec "I thought we were going to lose you Alec."
"Alec you idiot," sobbed Tashkent, coming to his side "why did you… why did you have to go and do something so stupid like that?"
"Sorry girls," he said rubbing Pamiat's and Tashkent's head "it was the only thing I could think of to save all of you."
"Seriously Alec," said Gangut, wiping away a few tears on ger face "just promise that you're not going to do something as crazy as that again."
"Cross my heart," he replied, making an 'x' mark on his chest.
"That aside," he continued "how did I survive?"
"The Commander saved you," replied Richelieu
Alec remained silent. It was as though Richelieu spoke in a language he had no clue of.
After about a few minutes of trying to process the information just relayed, Alec finally spoke and said "Say what now?"
"The Commander, he saved you," replied Richelieu.
"HUH?" shouted Alec, nearly falling off his bed, but Bremerton and Reno quickly pushed him back.
"You mean the Commander?"
"Yes," said Richelieu.
"THE COMMANDER?" he repeated
"Yes," said Algerie.
"The badass that beat Omega?"
"Yes," said Essex "why is that so hard to believe?"
"Because the other worlds and the different dimensions," he blathered "I thought we couldn't cross into that world and vice versa."
"Well apparently they found a way to accomplish that," said Bearn "I for one would love to know the technology behind that and how he turned an island into a flying fortress."
"So you mean he's here now," said Alec
"Yep, and it's not just him," said Bremerton "he brought the rest of the factions with him."
"Damn. Guess that means this war is at a turning point now. Man, I would have loved to have met him."
"What are you talking about?" asked Tashkent, raising her eyebrow.
"The Commander, I wish I could meet him but all things considered, he's probably pretty busy now."
"Alec," said Bremerton "you did meet him."
"When?"
"He was the one who let us in," replied Richelieu, pointing her thumb at the man who Alec saw when he opened his eyes.
As Alec tried to come to grips with the fact that that seemingly normal, unremarkable looking man was Omega's greatest enemy, he did not notice how oppressive the atmosphere in the room became.
"That aside," said Rossiya, finally speaking up "Alec…"
"… this is the second time you've ran off to try and kill yourself."
"Hmm?"
"We let the first one slide in consideration of your past and all," continued Chapayev.
"But this time though," said Algerie, making sure to lock the door "this time we won't be as considerate."
"Uhhh… you heard the Commander right, I need to recover and that means no hurting me," said Alec in a desperate attempt to stave off what was coming next.
"Oh, don't worry about that," said Intrepid "we're not going to kill you or anything, and after we're done Vestal can patch you up."
"Richelieu," he said, looking at his last chance of escape "say something to them, anything."
"Divine," said Richelieu under her breath.
"Huh?"
"PUNISHMENT!," she yelled.
Meanwhile outside, James heard a familiar voice yelling from the room he just left. He put his hand on the doorknob, momentarily considering to intervene but then he moved away.
Until he knew the whole story and Alec's relationship with these new girls, it was best that he did not interfere.
Leaving Alec to his fate, he quietly made his way through the hallway to his next destination. All the while, he was busy thinking about the two latest revelations.
'The Northern Parliament and the Iris Libre. If I didn't see it myself, I would have had trouble believing it.'
"Darling~" said a familiar voice in a sing-song way.
"Well hello there Akagi," he said, turning to greet her "what are you doing over here?"
"I finished my work with the Sakura Empire and decided to keep you company," she said, reaching out and holding his hand "I figured you'd be here after we got word about that human who helped Rossiya, Richelieu and the rest."
"Well they're busy catching up," he said "I'm going to check on Saint Louis and the rest. Want to keep me company?"
"Of course," she replied and the pair went to another room where Saint Louis, Neptune, Ibuki, Izumo, Monarch and Roon were resting in separate beds. Aside from a few bandages here and there, the only one who looked like she took considerable damage was Saint Louis, who had her forehead all bandaged up.
"Just in time," said Vestal, greeting Akagi and the Commander as they entered the room.
"How bad?" he asked
"Nothing that the PR class can't shrug off," she replied, then handed him another pad "I wanted you to take a look at why they were here in the first place."
On hearing this, the six bed-ridden girls all gulped at the same time.
"Let's see here," he said, scrolling through the pad "Ibuki rode a Siren bomber into another, Roon tore apart a heavy cruiser with her bare hands, Izumo got two battleships to shoot each other down, Neptune skewered three robots and used them to destroy another nine robots, Monarch and Queen Elizabeth got into a competition to see who could knock the enemy planes the farthest and Saint Louis headbutted a battleship so hard, it flipped over her and sunk into the water."
"Girls," he said staring them down "that's pretty impressive work."
Akagi chuckled at his reaction, while Vestal did not share the same sentiment.
"Don't encourage them," she said to him before turning to the injured party "and you lot: just because you see our Commander running around and doing crazy things, doesn't mean you should imitate him."
At that statement, the six girls let out low groans, indicating how they were against the idea.
"Also Commander," said Vestal "during the mop up, Phoenix and Brooklyn found a human female among the wreckage."
"She alive?"
"Yes, but only time will tell when she'll wake up," Vestal replied "we've got her hooked up in another room and I'm regularly monitoring her condition, but I can't promise you she'll recover as quickly as Alec did."
"Do you know her name?" asked Akagi "if she has any family in that base, they must be worried sick about her."
"The girls only recovered half of her name tag in the wreckage: Alexis.. no last name."
"If there's anything else, please let me know," he said and Vestal nodded.
Now assured that the girls were okay, the Commander and Akagi headed out the room. As they were leaving the hospital, they saw a human female coming towards them. She was flanked by Suffolk on the right and Kent on the left.
"Hey Commander," said Kent "this lady said she wanted to meet you."
"Thanks Kent, you two can go now," he said and dismissed the two.
"Are you… are you James?" asked the woman.
"Hmm? How do you know my name?"
"My friend Manny, he spoke a lot about you," she replied.
"The old man," replied the Commander, his eyes widening a little "where is he? Is he alright?"
"Unfortunately, no," said the woman, lowering her head "Manny stayed back to try and buy time for us to escape the base. Were it not for his sacrifice and others like him, a lot of people wouldn't be alive."
At this point, Akagi noticed something strange about her partner. Given from his reaction, she quickly surmised that this Manny person was someone important. Hence, when hearing the news that someone you know died, you'd understandably be saddened.
Akagi expected him to grip her hand a little tighter, but found that did not happen. He seemed oddly quiet and calm despite the bombshell that just got dropped on him.
"By the way, I'm Whitney Friedkin, President of what's left of the GoS," she said, introducing herself.
"What exactly happens now James? Omega controls much of the world right now and we lost far too many lives in that last attack. The way I see it, humanity's on its last legs."
"I don't see it that way. Maybe right now Omega has the advantage but I don't think that humanity's done for. I'm positive there are plenty of pockets scattered around the planet, all hiding and keeping their head down for now. All they need is a sign to bring them together."
"And we're going to give that to them," added Akagi.
"Omega used her advantages to gain the upper hand and has mostly seen victory after victory. But now its our turn to strike back."
00000000000000000000000
Meanwhile at a special facility in some part of the world, Gamma and Alpha watched a pod door open. Through it, a fully healed Omega came out. She stumbled forward a little, causing the pair to come and help her but she stopped them.
The two watched in silence as their leader rose to her feet.
"How many did we lose?" was the first question she asked.
"We're the only ones who survived their attack," said Gamma, lowering her head "as for numbers… we lost thirty percent of our fleet."
"What?" gasped Alpha "how? How could we have lost so many?"
"Lady Omega… we committed a significant force in that attack to wipe out the enemy."
"Even now I still don't understand," she added "I ran the data through numerous simulations and the result is always the same. We had the numbers on our side, we had the superior technology and yet: his fleet wiped the floor with us."
"Even when we three faced him in combat, it was us on the defensive. How? How can a human be that strong?"
"With him here, it won't be long before the rest of humanity unites under him," said Omega, followed by her hitting the ground.
"Damn it," she hissed and lamented her situation "we were so close. Victory was at my fingertips."
Gamma and Alpha were at a loss of words. As Omega continued to curse her circumstances, a holographic screen suddenly popped up in front of her.
Curious, she looked up and saw the message the screen displayed. Her eyes slowly widened while the edges of her lips curved into a wicked grin.
"It seems like we're not out of this fight just yet," she said.
"Alpha, how many facilities do we have on 'that' planet?"
"At least twenty my lady."
"Good, send out the command and bring half of them here."
"But if we do that, we'd be letting our enemies gain the upper hand."
"That won't be a problem for us," said Omega "Gamma, head to six of our facilities here and bring back the black box."
"My lady, that is a dangerous move to make. If we do that then we halt production in those facilities."
"A necessary risk. I need as many forces as possible to buy me time to complete the project."
Those last few words caught the pair's attention.
"Does that mean…"
"Yes, Project Antiochus is now in the final stages of development."
AN: hello all and thank you for supporting this work. As you can tell from reading this chapter, there's still a lot more story left but it wont be happening in this fic. The final arc will be in a new fic that I'll start working on once I figure out a good title. I got away with introducing some new characters here and hopefully I'll be able to pull it off in the upcoming story too.
To anyone that might have got mad at me for that bait-and-switch with Alec, I am sorry. Alec is an integral part to the story and will play a significant role in the final battle, but he was never destined to face off against Omega. Omega's opponent has and always will be the SKK.
Also, and most importantly. Thank you all for supporting my work. I really appreciate it when you take the time to post a review or two for a new chapter especially Ultimate Kuuga and HeronLsL who are very encouraging people. Please continue this support in the final arc and if possible, share this story with other AL fans. I know its not the most well-written story on this site, but I love the game and want to share that with other fans.
Please look forward to my next work and thank you all once again.