A/N: This was supposed to have gone up days before, but our damn ISP's been acting up...it's annoying as hell! Anyways, SHOUT-OUTS!
Rick Forrest - Wow...this is one long-overdue update, huh? I'm telling 'ya, sleeping for only 3 hours everyday for a week really takes its toll. Anyways, it's gonna be over soon (our prelims exams I mean). Thanks for the review! :-)
Stelok - Glad to hear from you again! :-) Suspense isn't one of my forte genres, but I'm happy you think the story's exciting. I'm a real grammar-freak; ergo my writings all (or almost all) seem well-written. Thanks for the comments!
MistressCoCoLoVeR - And double thumbs-up to you as well for reviewing! :-) I'm also glad that you likey this fic, and that you think it's interesting! I'll try to make it even better in succeeding chapters. Thanks again! :-)
And that's that. Wow...I love hot chocolate milk at 3:30 in the morning...better than coffee (for me)! :-)
Anyways, here's the continuation...enjoy! :-)
CHAPTER 4
Repercussions
"Dita...! Hey...Dita!"
Dita stirred, waking from the blackness that dominated just right after the intense light. It all seemed to have happened hours ago.
'Huh? What...just...?' She thought groggily, now becoming aware of the voices around her. She realized that she was lying somewhere cold...metallic.
"Leader...?" She began tentatively.
"Oh good," it was Jura's haughty tone, "you're finally awake. We've been trying to wake you for a long time, you know?"
"Sorry..." She began again, even more tentatively, waking little by little.
It was Meia who now interrupted. "It's all right, Dita. You okay?"
"Well, yeah...um, leader, where are we?" The apprentice-pilot looked around. "Where are our Dreads? Were we thrown off or something...?"
Jura answered for Meia, but she couldn't hide the worry in her tone. "Well...we don't know exactly where we are, or where our Dreads are. While it's possible that we might have been thrown off, we also don't know exactly how we got here. We haven't been able to contact our ship, though we've been trying through Meia's wrist-com since waking up, so we don't know also where they are."
"It has only been a few minutes since Jura and I awoke." Meia added. "How long before that since the explosion...is anybody's guess."
Silence dominated the next several minutes. The three pilots, most especially Dita, worked mostly on gathering their wits and finding clues as to where they were. Meia checked her laser pistol in the while, just in case it would be needed. She carefully holstered it afterwards behind her.
The area they were in looked like the main hall of an abandoned ship; the walls of several conjoining rooms were crumbled down. The oxygen-generating and artificial-gravity systems seemed to be up and running, which suggested that it had been used very recently.
'...only too recently...' Meia thought, considering their surroundings. 'Could this be...?'
She did not have to complete her thought, as Jura called out to them from the expansive doorway at the far end of the large room. "Leader, Dita! Quick! Look at this!"
When the other two had reached the place, Dita let out a gasp. "Isn't that..." She pointed straight forwards.
It was unmistakable; they were now in a hangar of some sort. The humanoid-shaped Vanguard, its sleek black metal plating revealing it to be unused and almost untouched in its dock, had told them all that they needed to know at the moment.
"Then this is the Tarak ship, huh?" Jura asked no-one in particular. "But where are all the men?"
At the corner of the room, slightly obscured from view by some rubble, were some objects that they all recognized instantly.
"Hey! Our Dreads are here!" Dita exclaimed, instantly running to the females' crafts.
"But how...?" Jura began, throwing Meia a confused glance.
"Like us, perhaps..." was the curt reply.
The other shrugged. "Maybe...well, I think I'll check up on our gear," she said, also walking towards the Dreads.
Meia surveyed the area, rather confused herself. Like the other places in the ship, the interior looked like it had been torn asunder by an immense force. No holes or openings had been made towards the outside of the ship, though; they were at least safe from the dangers of the empty space. 'But how did all this happen...and where are the pilots and mechanics...?'
Meia backtracked to the previous room they had been in. 'Maybe the command center's somewhere here as well...' she thought, in hopes of finding a way to control this ship, or at least a more reliable way to contact their own ship...if it was still in one piece...
The Dread leader spotted a large door, which looked like it was guarding the entrance to somewhere important, at the middle of the long wall of the room. She reached it and tried to get it to open, but to no avail. It was shut tight, so much that not even air could get to the other side.
She looked around once more. Aside from the way she had just come from and the locked doorway, there was only one other passageway in the room. Where it led, perhaps none of them knew...she only hoped that there would be something useful there...
Stepping inside over some rubble, she realized that this was the infirmary. Crates of first-aid littered the floor among the remains of sick-beds and pieces of concrete.
She was about to leave when one of the large stones moved.
'What the...' she thought, nearly in a panic, raising her pistol. "Who's there?" She commanded, her cold tone devoid of the slight fear she felt inside. "Show yourself!"
The figure, now free of its former rocky burden, stood slowly. Meia noticed that it was definitely human, and that it had a white garment and long hair. "A...Mejale...?" she said uncertainly.
The other responded in a low and steady, though completely exhausted, voice that was unmistakably masculine. "I'm sorry...but I'm not a Mejale. I am a doctor, however, of this ship."
She was slightly disappointed, but unperturbed nonetheless, and maintained her aim at the Tarak. "Then tell me...what happened here?"
"Maybe you should...be the one telling me that. I'm not quite sure myself...that strange light...might have had something to do with it..."
Meia was now slightly agitated. Perhaps he wasn't cooperating fully. "Tell me!"
"I do not know...really." His voice remained the same, as if no weapon was ever pointed at him. Still, there rang the truth in his words. "I am just as clueless as you are..." he trailed off, slumping into unconsciousness once more.
Just then the plodding of approaching footsteps was heard nearby, and Meia turned a bit to see Dita and Jura marching towards her. They were dragging along another Tarak; though this one was blonde and clad in a brown uniform.
"We found him somewhere under the collapses in the hangar," Jura said almost smugly. "I had to knock him out when he looked like he was about to scream..."
"And the communications on our Dreads...?" was the leader's only reply.
Dita answered with a smile. "We got a link! Mostly static, though we've gotten a few words with them. We think they're alright, but the com-link gets cut off a lot..."
Meia sighed in relief. At least they now knew where they were, and that their ship wasn't devastated. 'Now if only there was a way...'
"...eia! Meia! ?"
It was her wrist-communicator. Someone was trying to contact them. Meia quickly answered. "This is Meia! Jura and Dita are with me. Is that you, Ezra?"
"Thank goodness..." the voice on the other side responded, the transmission now beginning to clear up even more, "We've been trying to contact you for a long time..."
"How is the ship? Everyone...is everybody all right there?"
"Yes, everything seems to be fine, but there have been some...um, Parfet calls them 'technical complications'. She says it's nothing life-threatening, though, and she's very excited! You all know how she is when she's like that. All the other Dreads have come back only recently...and we even found that gold Vanguard you were fighting; the pilot seems to be alive and well, though now under custody, of course. You three are the only ones not yet back."
The Dread leader gave another relieved sigh. "That's good to hear. Anyway, we appear to have been transported somehow inside the Tarak ship. Can you locate us?"
"The Tarak ship..." Ezra said thoughtfully, as if something was out of place in her mind.
"Is everything okay?" Meia asked after an uncomfortably lengthy pause.
"Oh! Yes, yes...um, let's see...the Tarak...oh, here!" she stammered. "We've got a fix on your location and are now sending service ships to help you out. Don't worry; you'll be home in no time."
Jura grabbed Meia's wrist and spoke into the communicator. "And we've got two Tarak crew here. We don't know what happened to the rest. Make sure to bring suitable transportation for them as well," she hastily added, emphasizing the word 'suitable'.
'Hibiki...Hibiki Tokai...'
A voice was calling him. His name reverberated throughout this...this...wherever this was.
It was only then that he noticed that he was barely aware...more like merely 'conscious'; not quite 'awake'. He was floating...he felt so light. There was only a blue and black chaotic haze all around him.
"Who's there...?" he said aloud.
'Hibiki Tokai...'
"I'm Hibiki Tokai! Who are you?!" he was now irritated.
Then, death-black silhouettes began to shape in the azure disorder. Human figures...they fixed their faces on him, as if staring him down with concealed eyes.
'You punk! You'll never amount to anything!'
'You're all talk and no action! Go back to where you came from!'
'There goes that idiot again! Give him an inch and he takes a whole mile!'
He recognized those voices...those who he worked with, who he spent time with in the past; those who kept putting him down.
They were all the same...
"What did you say?! I'll show you...!"
'Where is your proof?'
"Huh?"
'Proof...that you are alive...that you are who you say...Hibiki Tokai...'
"I...I...don't know..."
It was that feeling all over again. The feeling of loneliness, and inferiority, washed over him, like many times before. Maybe he really was no more than a fool, who talked a lot but had nothing to show for his words...
"I...but...I will have it..."
His reply was quiet, but defiant and confident. He couldn't be sad now...his pride was at stake.
'Prove yourself, Hibiki Tokai...!'
He was about to answer, but no words formed in his mouth. Then he slowly lost himself, once again drifting off into total blackness.
It took only an hour and a half for the rescue crew to arrive and pick up the three pilots, the two found Tarak (now prisoners), the one other Vanguard, and whatever useful things they could find from the Tarak ship. Meia, Dita and Jura rode in their own Dreads, which they observed to be surprisingly perfectly operational even after the whole ordeal. Now, the party was mobilized and headed back to the Mejale pirates' ship.
What was left of the Tarak ship that the three pilots were in, they realized soon after they had set out, was nothing more than a half of what was once the original. At one side was a familiar insignia, which Meia recognized to be the one etched on the shut doorway. A good part of it had been cleanly severed off, as suggested by the lack of telltale rough edges in the area.
It was then no big question on their minds where the detached sector had gone, since a more horrifying sight beheld them: almost the entire expanse of the surrounding space was wrought with total chaos. Chunks of ships and pieces of metal and debris littered the vacuum, almost overwhelming even the stars with their sheer number. It was as if a great, vicious war had broken out, and only the spoils remained.
"What...happened...?" Dita uttered silently.
"This is just...horrible...!" Even Jura was taken aback.
Meia's eyes widened only slightly at the sight before her. Sure, they had been involved in a battle just awhile ago, and the consequences needed to be realized. The damage was done. There were winners and there were losers. Certainly they would have to get used to it...
'...like I am...' she thought forlornly.
She automatically set her eyes to scan the area, a habit she had acquired being on the battlefield a lot, as well as being the ever-vigilant leader of the Dread squad.
Then she noticed something out of the corner of her vision...something that didn't quite fit in with the rest of the ruins...
She broke from the formation and cautiously flew to the site. It was nearby what looked like the remains of the mysterious ship they had seen...
...it was a cold gray, metallic...box, something like a...
"Team, we've got a safe-pod here! Send for inspection and retrieval at once!" she shouted into the com-link.