This chapter's lateness can be explained in five words: I got an HTC Vive.

It's bloody awesome. My room's also a lot smaller, since I needed to make space.

I always have a plan for each chapter. Usually, nothing goes according to plan. Not in any major ways, but conversation start, head off on tangents, and things start to flow, leading me down a path I didn't mean to tread.

This chapter, it happened a lot earlier than I though it would. See if you can figure it out!

The Nirvana, for all of it's amazing functions and features, is not very aerodynamic. Oh, sure, it looks sleek, but it's massively unbalanced, top heavy, and it's just... big. So when four fifth of the crew decide to head down to the surface, it involves lot's of work. Gascogne and a few of her less lucky pilots had been forced to shuttle the majority of the Nirvana's crew to the surface of Rodrigo.

Did I mention that there's a giant enemy ship in orbit? Yeah. It warped in about five hours ago. All of the fighter pilot have since deployed and are acting as guards, since the threat of imminent death isn't enough to cancel vacation.

Just like in a beach episode. Some part of me snickers to itself.

Still, this leads to an uneasy standoff as I wait for the harvester ship to decide to come after us, surely dooming us all to a watery grave below supposing we don't burn up in the atmosphere. The pilots are uniformly discontent with the possible exceptions of Meia and me. As far as I could tell, she hadn't participated in the whole swimsuit mess the day before yesterday, nor Dita's little party. As for me, I wasn't planning on swimming anyway. The rest fly their ships are restlessly, their longing unconsciously showing up in their piloting.

Dita's being quite vocal about it too. "...and I was going to wear my new swimsuit!"

"Yes, Dita." Meia sighs. "And as I've told everyone else, we can't go down there until we figure out what the big ship over there is." I swear she shot me a glare through her video feed. "When that happens, We'll head down there right away."

I had given Meia a brief rundown of what was happening on Rodrigo. Brief in that it was a single sentence. "The enemy is harvesting spines and they use the rising tides to herd people into a central point for collection."

She had been grateful for the information, but realized quickly that she couldn't actually tell anyone that, because how would she know that? It made her more frustrated than normal, which meant my own mental health had been on decline.

Back when I first boarded this vessel, I thought BC was the hard ass, and Meia was just irritable. I've since been forced to revamp my opinion. BC's just the way she is because of her upbringing on Tarak. Meia is genuinely hell-forged.

"John, won't you combine-" Jura starts, her Dread edging dangerously close to my Vanguard.

"No, Jura." I jerk my controls away from the offending fighter and a bit closer to the planet. "We're busy right now." I ignore the subsequent whine coming from the oldest pilot and look down at the planet Rodrigo. Up at. Er, I'm upside-down according to planetary reference.

First person who quotes Ender's game at me gets shot once I get home. Sure, it's all well and good to pick an arbitrary direction and say down, but try telling your brain that. I can't exactly feel the gravity of the planet from where I am, but I'm still in it's gravity well, so the direction gravity is in is down. I'm upside down, and I'm going to stay this way.

Someone needs to convince the crew of the Nirvana that space is three dimensional, and it might as well be me.

Dita's Dread drifts close once again, and I subtly pilot my own ship away from hers. The two women have been jockeying for combination privileges ever since we got sent out here to defend the landing party. Emphasis on party. I can only thank whatever gods are out there that Meia isn't joining in.

It's what I like about her, to be honest. I never really cared for the manic pixie type or the overbearing lust buckets. No, I like the ones that'll snark right back at you when you get on their nerves. I like women that are strong physically and emotionally. Resolute. She kicks ass too, being one of the better trained pilots on the ship. I watched her spar once, and she wasn't even breathing hard after taking on two of the security team members at once. Hell, she even ticks off the physical characteristics box. Athletic, boobs aren't quite at gag-boob level, sharp eyes. My type, if you could call it that.

Unfortunately, she likes/loves me, depending on how I interpret her actions once I flipped out at her. I don't feel the same way, and I never have felt the same way. Sure, she's attractive, and if I had the chance I might screw her. Yes, she's fun to talk to. She's strong, snarky, and generally what I look for in a girl. Still, none of that adds up to love.

I never figured love out. It's not those things I mentioned, or at least not only those things. There's something else, something that drives you to protect someone else without regard to yourself. I've never felt that. Though, given my actions back on the sand planet, some might say otherwise. Maybe I just love everyone? I snort at myself at the thought. I generally want to stab people, not shower them in affection. As one of my college friends would say to me, "You're not racist or sexist. You clearly hate everyone equally."

I idly rub at my arms, trying to get rid of the freezing sensation. The Paksis still hates me for whatever reason, and it doesn't seem to want to let me thaw any time soon. The red Paksis was fear, right? It responded to fear and anger, and that turned our Paksis afraid as well. Though, I never figured out how the two were related. Do sentient space spheres have siblings the same way we do?

Anyway, I'm not some giant ball of fear. I'm not afraid of anything I've come across yet. That leaves anger. I'm not a particularly angry person, I don't think. I like to think I'm generally congenial unless I'm really really tired, or drunk, or out of options...

A video screen pops up in the corner of my vision. Meia's face fills it. "John, you're leaving formation." All business, which allows me to jam all my musings into a corner of my brain on get back on task.

I glance at my positional data. "Oh, whoops. Correcting." The line should have gone dead, but she keeps it open even as I return to my place, dodging yet another maneuver from Dita.

I clear my throat once, twice, and then turn back tot the holographic projection. "Is there something you need?"

"We need to discus a few things in private. I haven't had the opportunity to talk with you in a while."

I narrow my eyes. It's true, since Meia has commander duties all the time and I'm generally in the cell, the Reg or in the pilot seat. Most of the time if we can talk to each other, there's several other people who are within earshot. Privacy has been at a minimum, even in my own "room." "Alright. This channel is secure enough. What's up?"

She turns her head to the side, slightly uncharacteristically. "No, I think I'd rather ask this in person."

I shrug. "Alright. Though, I can't say my room is exactly secure, given it lacks one wall."

"My room's secure."

It take my brain a moment to catch up. Did... Meia just invite me to her room? Wasn't that supposed to be the running gag of season two? With Dita?

Uh oh.

I keep my face neutral. "Ah, I guess. Well, time to get back to guarding." I close the connection. Maybe I've been spending too much time with Meia.

Before I can do anything else, something slams into me from behind. I twist around in my seat to find Barnette's Dread shoving me at the enemy harvester. Immediately the comms start bursting with yelling and orders to return to formation. Barnette backs off, but I have a much harder time getting my own craft under control.

"What was that for?" I manage to pick up Dita's voice.

"I-" Barnette begins, but Jura cuts her off.

"I will now combine with John!" The red Dread leaps from formation at me, still having trouble trying to stop the spinning. So much spinning.

The warning klaxon starts up, warning us all of an impending attack. It seems the harvester has launched a few of the cube type ships.

I reach back and grab the sword off my back. It's not like I can aim at anything, but I doubt any of the robots are stupid enough to get too close while I'm a whirling ball of pointyness.

My doubts ended up being for naught. I feel it through my entire body as the blade slams through first one, then another of the enemy robots, my viewport flashing between the planet below and the robots surrounding me, some of which are cut in two. Newton's laws also give me an assist, each collision's equal-and-opposite effect slowing my rotation down to more reasonable levels.

Once I finally get my bearings, I hardly have any time to react before four of the square bots latch onto me and start dragging me towards the planet. One of them reaches over and grabs the sword out of my hand, throwing it back at the Nirvana almost casually.

"Oh, you bastards." I reach out and punch they eye of the robot clutching my left arm with my right, then bring up my knee to its center of mass. despite the damage I'm causing it, it holds on.

The edges of my armor start to glow as the clump consisting of me and four robots enter the upper edges of the atmosphere. I remember learning that it's not really mostly air friction this high up, but compression, but I'm not sure how well that applies in this universe. Whatever it is, I'm not that likely to survive it. After all, back on the sand planet we used those umbrella things to survive our descent.

I jam one of my thrusters on, effectively shifting out center of balance and forcing one of the bots to take the pressure of reentry.

The ocean planet below us slowly begins to expand, a glittering jewel marred by the fireball we make as we soar above it. The robot I have placed to use as a heat-shield is doing a great job, its hull glowing quite nicely as its edges whittle away, shards of molten metal flying away from us at great speed. These cube type are clearly not made for reentry either, given how fast the first one melts to slag. I quickly move another one under my feet like a skateboard, and then wave my hand to move the hot air around in the cockpit. Either the Paksis stopped attempting to freeze me to death or that's just how hot reentry is.

I glance upwards to find that two Dreads had decided to follow me down. I would bet everything I own that Jura's one of them, but then who's the second? Both of the ships ore glowing with heat, making it too difficult to see what color their paint scheme is, or even if there's any paint remaining.

As my second ablative plate finally disintegrates, I pry the blinded robot off my left arm and hold it against me like a toboggan. I'm fairly close to the surface of the water now, and I want to slow my descent before I hit the water at terminal velocity.

Whatever terminal velocity ends up being on Rodrigo.

The two Dreads pull up even with me, and I wave with my free arm. I still can't see who is in either of them, but that's not really much of a concern right now. The surface of the ocean is coming up awfully quick.

I have just enough time to wonder if Vanguards are able to float before I hit the water at something like mach two.

My head slams into the front panel of the Vanguard, my brain exploding with pain. A thousand stars light up my vision, making it harder to see through the steam from the water boiling around me and the spray I kicked up from landing, shortly replaced by bubbles boiling away as my mech is swallowed by the waves.

Have you ever been something that sinks? You get surrounded by a crushing sensation. Not only does the water pressure make your ears pop, but the water quickly darkens and your eyes tell you that the world is closing in on you.

That one part of my mind, the part that likes to watch what I do and snark at me, notes that the Vanguards do not, in fact, float.

Something else crashes into the water, though I can only feel it due to all the bubbles. A second later I feel another bump as something else lands in the water, and then another, and another-

And then one last giant one that manages to slam into me.

Machinery whirs around and around, and before I realize what's happening, I'm looking up at a glowing sphere about five feet across hovering around a central pillar covered in buttons.

Oh, god. It looks like Jura was successful in her efforts to combine with me. Wait for it...

Vandread Jura rises from the ocean, water streaming off of it in tiny waterfalls. Where the water gets caught, it boils away quickly, our brief stint in the ocean not being long enough to cool the craft down completely.

Around us, a few of the robots that survived reentry surface as well. Unlike what I remember from the show, these are not pristine, untouched models as if they were fresh out of the harvester, but melted, twisted, and in some cases barely hovering. One of them tilt's the top of it's body sideways, making it look like a curious dog.

Jura starts pressing buttons and laser shoot out of a few disks I hadn't seen up till this point. The lasers destroy the crippled enemy units and the ocean becomes quiet for a moment.

Only a moment, as Barnette's Dread soars by just overhead, paint mostly gone from the heat. "Jura! Are you alright?"

"Of course!" The blond responds, already looking like she's about to launch into an "o ho ho" laugh. "And now my magnificent form is-"

A screen pops open with what looks like Barnette's view of Vandread Jura.

Jura freezes in place slowly turning red, then purple. Someone says "crab" over the radio, and the color drains suddenly. "NO! This ugly thing can't possibly be my Dread!"

"I warned you." I mutter under my breath. "Not my fault you're way to stuck up." I start pressing buttons on the central column, only to see the overhead sphere changing with every button. None of them are having the desired effect of making us move. Instead, I turn around in my seat and start fiddling with the control surfaces on the outside ring of the cockpit.

Jura continues to whine, but I've gotten very good at tuning things out recently.

Of course, then the ship lurches and starts rocketing forwards, and I look back to see Jura throwing a full fledged temper tantrum against the controls in front of her.

Meia's voice comes in over the radio. "Are you two alright?"

"I'm fine, but Jura's reverted to about seven years old." I comment. "Also, her cockpit has more buttons than a closet full of coats and none of them are labeled. I don't know how to pilot this thing."

"Well, figure it out quickly. You're on a collision course."

"With the city?" I ask.

"Nope." Meias voice tightens slightly. "You're headed right for the float that most of the crew is stationed on."

...FUCK!

I start poking more buttons, but then something occurs to me. If Jura's flailing got us moving, then the controls are on her side. I kick the floor, sending me arcing around the cabin and slamming sideways into Jura's seat. She complains, her tone of voice shifting up another octave, but I continue to ignore her blithering. God, I hate people like her.

I manage to press a button that slows us down to a crawl before we collide with anything, and figure out the controls enough to at least choose a direction of travel and stop before we reach the float. Jura had stopped ranting once I had hip checked her, and is now sulking with her knees to her chest.

Once we're hovering over the float and I judge that the crowd had backed up to a safe enough distance, I snap my fingers in front of Jura's face. this startles her out of her sulk.

"What?" She snaps.

"Figure out how to eject me." I say. "It's the fastest way to return your Dread to nor-"

"NO! This can't be right! My Dread has to be the most beautiful, so stop being so uncooperative and FIX IT!"

I raise an eyebrow at her. "I'm trying to, Just figure out how to eject my Vanguard-"

"No, I want you to fix my combined form, NOW!"

"...You want me to fix the combined form? How?"

"Make it beautiful!"

"...I don't have any control over it's form. As far as I know, only the Paksis has any control over that kind of thing."

"Liar! You were trying to convince me that my Dread would be ugly, so you must be influencing it!"

You know what? I can't even fault her for that conclusion. How would I know what Vandread Jura would look like before we combined? I shake my head and go back to pressing random buttons. Usually, the Paksis is the one in control of when we separate. I think. Before, we'd always separate right before we docked with the Nirvana, aside from the one time I forced Vandread Dita apart by sending a spike of fear through Dita. Maybe there isn't an eject lever, in which case I'm stuck in here until the Paksis sees fit to kick us apart.

Jura looks like she's about to blow her top, I don't think I can scare her in this state, and I am not looking forward to having to spend more time than is necessary. "Jura, I don't have any control over this. Heck I don't even think it looks bad, just not very aerodynamic."

"Fix it!"

"I can't." I put ice into my tone. "This is what your combination looks like. Get over yourself."

"No!"

...This is going to take a while, isn't it?

Eventually, Vandread Jura seperates, and our two ships land on the float.

I say float, but it's massive. If you imagine an outrigger canoe with the float as the central hull, it could use American Super-carriers as it's outrigger pontoons. The thing is massive, allowing for aircraft and spacecraft to land and take off with plenty of room to spare. In fact, it even has building which have been set up as changing rooms and a kitchen or two. Seems like the kitchen staff isn't getting much of a break.

I want to ask where the hell they got this thing, but I'm not sure I want the answer.

Anyway, I'm currently lying down on a beach chair, on a massive float on an ocean planet called Anpathos. Not Rodrigo. I could have sworn they never named this planet in canon, but I guess that doesn't stop the real version having a name.

Surrounding me is the average male's idea of a perfect beach. Screw "two girls for every boy," With most of the crew down here already, it's something like two hundred to one, if not more. All of them are wearing swimsuits from modest one pieces all the way to the "barely there" swimsuit that is held on by either sheer force of will or glue. Not sure which.

I have my eyes closed, not because I'm above the influence, but because I don't want anyone getting any ideas. I'm still not sure why the girls in this universe act one-dimensionally, if it's some part of their upbringing or if they're programmed that way or maybe just the universe screwing with their heads, given it's a harem series.

"Johnny, come on and let's go swimming!" Zan tugs on my arm.

"Yeah, Mister Alien! Let's go!"

Of course, ignoring those two won't get me anywhere since they already have massive crushes on me. I slowly open my eyes to find two pairs of eyes looking down at me expectantly. Zan's wearing a white and yellow stripped bikini with ruffles on the front of the top. Dita's got on some sort of green tankini that is tight enough to reveal her curves.

"...Can't swim." I lie. then close my eyes.

"We'll teach you!" Zan insists.

I don't want to swim. I want to bask in the warmth of a real star while I have the chance. I haven't had the chance to do that in way too long. I open one eye and glare at Zan. "Why don't you go ask Duelo or Barnette or..." I shrug.

"Because I want to swim with you, Mister Alien!" Dita says like it's the most obvious thing in the world. To be fair, it is pretty obvious.

I sigh, giving up for now. The two girls start hopping in place once they recognize that I'm getting up, and then they practically drag me to the water's edge. The float has a ramp wide enough to accommodate maybe six or seven cars side by side dropping into the water, and that ramp is thoroughly clogged with pirates.

Sexy pirates.

I look up at the star, letting the warmth spread over my skin as the women drag me to the waters edge. Once my feet start slapping into water rather than dry... land? I look back down.

Dita draws me down to about waist deep into the ocean and starts to give me the standard kick and paddle instructions, clearly intending to use the excuse to hold my hands. Instead, I take off towards open ocean, executing a probably abysmal crawl, but at least it's fast and effective.

Also, can I just say how nice it is not to need glasses or contacts? Those suck, and I can't wear them when I'm swimming. This has to be the first time I can actually see when I'm swimming. Not that there's much out here, aside from girls. Underwater just fades to murky blackness, I can't see any ocean life. I wonder how that works, given that most of the oxygen on earth comes from ocean growth, and that's how I assumed this planet got it's atmosphere from. Maybe Earth retrofitted this planet with an atmosphere before abandoning some people to breed for... Wasn't it the nervous system? Maybe just the spinal cord. I was never quite clear on that.

I play with the two, and several of the others who got caught up in a big swimming volleyball game for a while, then go back to my seat when it seems like nobody's looking.

I really should have known better. As soon as I close my eyes, another familiar voice reaches my ears. "Would... Would you like to grab something to eat?"

I open one eye back up to find Meia standing over me and fidgeting. "Meia? Didn't expect you to get in on the festivities."

Her cheeks color. "Yes, well, all of the other girls were talking about their swimsuits so much I... well, what do you think?"

I sit up and let my eyes move away from her face. What I see almost causes me to blanch. I was expecting quiet, reserved Meia to be wearing a wetsuit. Actually, I was picturing a less form-fitting version of her pilot suit. Instead, what I got was essentially the black part of her suit without the white, with an allowance for some extra material to cover her breasts. The suit even stretched down the back of her calves and covers her shoulders and biceps the same way her normal suit does.

"What? Does it look strange?"

"Uh, no. Just not what I was expecting. You said food?"

Slowly, as we continue to talk well after we had finished eating, I realized I was in trouble. Officially, truly, deeply.

I used to have a girlfriend. It didn't end well, largely due to my actions. Before her, I had a few people that had flirted with me at one point or another, whether I realized it at the time or not. All of them, all of the girls that I liked to hang out with and that liked to hang out with me, had a few things in common.

They're all intelligent. They could all hold high level conversations. Right now, I'm talking to Meia about my small robot, and she's been contributing to the conversation, not just listening passively. They've all been the sarcastic type. Meia's not quite there, but she's been growing a dry wit since we've been spending so much time together. Continuing on, she also knows how bad I get, which only my previous girlfriend knew. She knows what to talk about to keep my interest.

Lastly, the stupidest, most coincidental thing about all of the girls that I've noticed in the past, they all start with the letter M.

No, I'm serious. Meg, Malyssa, Marisa, Mari, and now Meia. After Mari, I made sure not to hang out with girls starting with M. I somehow forgot that rule when I got here. Probably since she spells her name with an "め". Or... I don't think I've seen a lick of Japanese text since I got off Tarak. Maybe she does spell her name with an M. I'll have to find some Japanese text to see if my head automatically translates it like I do words.

So here I sit, thoroughly enjoying myself and hating myself for it. It's so unfair of me to lead her on like this. Dita and Zan too. They deserve much better than me. What am I but some sort of psychopathic replacement for a good man? Sure Hibiki had his flaws, but he was a good person. I'm just a selfish prick who likes watching anime.

Silence falls as the star starts to get occluded by the horizon, turning the sky all kinds of shades of red. I was expecting more exotic colors, but I guess this planet is earth-like enough to be similar in this regard as well. I start to sing under my breath, just loud enough to reach my own ears but wiped away by the wind.

There's no hate, there's no love
Only dark skies that hang above
I call your name as I walk alone
Send a signal to guide me home
Light the night up, you're my dark star
And now you're falling away

But I found in you, what was lost in me
In a world so cold and empty
I could lie awake just to watch you breathe
In the dead of night, you went dark on me

I stop there, feeling like I've expressed myself well enough. To my surprise, Meia continues. Not very well, she's slightly off key, but not so bad that it's impossible to listen to.

You're the cause
The antidote
The sinking ship that I could not let go
You led my way, then disappeared
How could you just walk away and leave me here
Light the night up, you're my dark star
And now you're falling away

But I found in you what was lost in me
In a world so cold and empty
I could lie awake just to watch you breathe
In the dead of night you went dark on me

I join in for the rest of the song.

Blinded I can't do this on my own
You are all I've got to guide me home

I could lie awake just to watch you breathe
In the dead of night you went dark on me

Dark on me
Dark on me
Dark on me
Dark on me
Dark on me

I could lie awake just to watch you breathe
In the dead of night you went dark on me

"I'm surprised you know that one." Meia says after a small amount of time. "It's not that well known on Mejare."

"Remember, I come from a different universe. I think." I remind her. "That's a song I know from back then. Also, Zan's been teaching me a lot of Mejaren tunes, ones that I don't know from back home."

"Really?" Meia asks.

I nod. "Yes. I especially like fly away. Been trying to master it, but the voices are a bit too high for my voice to work with them."

She bobs her head in understanding.

We fall back into a comfortable silence, and again I curse how well we get along together. I can see history repeating itself in front of me.

I need to fix this, and I need to do it now. I need to impress on her that I'm not a good person, that she should shift her attention elsewhere. How do I accomplish that? I never figured it out in reality, so I delve into my anime watching habits for reference material. Hey, it's an anime world, maybe anime logic will help. I get about as far as that particular thought before I remember that the majority of anime like to portray love as a mostly permanent thing, even when rejected and the subject of the love marries someone else.

By that convention, I can't get her to realize how bad a person I am. I'll have to just make it clear verbally and try to spend as little time as I can around her. In that order. I take a few deep breaths to make sure I'm calm. I am. I can do this.

"Meia."

"Yes?"

"I realize that-"

Between my eyes and hers, a screen pops out of nowhere, the hologram projecting BCs strained face. "John, tell me you're ready for combat."

I can almost hear my thought process grinding to a halt and reversing. "Sure, I can be. What's up?"

"The ships above have made their move. We think that our enemy is harvesting these people's spines. Worse, the population thinks that the harvesters are some sort of god."

"I hate fanatics as much as the next guy, but so what? Just let them get harvested."

BC grimaces. "We can't get out."

I blink. "What?"

"The captain and are are trapped here by the rising tide. We can't get out of here unless the water level falls. We need you and the other pilots to stop the harvester before it gets us."

That... I... Oh fuck. I whip around to look at the section of the float where the Dreads are parked. It's too dark to see, so I hope Jura's still sulking on top of her Dread. If I remember correctly, Jura and Hibiki barricaded the planet while the Nirvana cleaned house. Lots of lasers. I just have to get blondie on the same page. "Alright, I'm on it." I reply, and stand up to head for my Vanguard.

Beside me, Meia looks at me curiously. "Have a plan?"

I nod. "Get Jura to stop sulking, barricade the planet, everyone else pelts the enemies with lasers until they go away."

She considers this for a minute. "I'll trust your judgement. By the way, what were you going to say earlier?"

I can't do anything but sigh.