Chapter 4

The room was filled with silence as Angel stared up at the ceiling.

"Anna?" said Angel.

"Yes…?"

"Has anything happened while I've been," Angel asked, "knocked out?"

"Nothing really," started Anna. "we're going to be sent on an assault mission towards that carrier that was looking for us." Anna kept going. "it seems, that we're going in a couple of hours." Anna looked at her hands, and she looked back at Angel.

"This'll be pretty hard," said Angel. "They'll be pretty surprised when they find that we're going to attack and kill them all…"

"Yeah, I think," said Anna as she looked out into the hall. "look, we should go find the others." Anna got up and helped Angel stand up.

"Let's go," said Anna, as they walked out of the room.

~In another part of the base~

"I hope Angel's okay," said Jonathan, as he looked through his book.

"Yeah, you hope he's okay," said Claire, "as long as we don't disturb you while you're reading your book!" Claire laughed, took a sip of her soda and pulled her hair back. Claude laughed, and then looked at the wall.

"I wonder what's happening at the carrier while we're gone…"

~In the carrier~

"Where are they?" screamed Jun. "they should have come back by now!" He looked at the flat screen, as he blinked.

"Damnit!" said Mr. Perry, coming into the room. "they've left!"

"Where could they be?" asked Jun, as he looked through Xero Votal's manual. The rest of the crew's instructors were standing behind him, sitting.

"Look, if they've left, the Votals still have the tracking devices." Said Joseph. "We can still find them, you know that, Jun."

"Yeah, the tracking devices…" said Jun, as he looked through the manual, flipping more pages. "Tracking, On!" he yelled, as the system computer responded.

"Searching," came from the system. "Searching." The five instructors, and Mr. Perry sat down, waiting.

It must have not been more than an hour later that it finally responded.

"Votals Found!" it exclaimed. "Votals Found!" The system located them on Pluto, next to the South bend colonies.

"It seems that they are in some sort of underground base, Mr. Perry."

"Destroy anything that gets into your way," Mr. Perry started, "and kill the pilots, if you find them."

~Back at the base~

Angel and Anna walked down the hall, half embraced, half normally walking.

"You know, we haven't had any time with each other before we got drafted for this crappy mission," said Angel, as he kissed her on the cheek. "we should actually talk, and it looks like this is the time…"

"Yeah, that's pretty true," Anna looked back at Angel, and gazed into his eyes, as they stopped walking. "here's the room that everyone's waiting in." They both strolled into the room, still embraced, and everyone was sleeping on either the couch or in a chair. They looked over to Jonathan, who fell asleep on the floor.

"Where's Claude?" Angel asked as he looked around the room. "Where is he?" He looked toward the window, and Claude was asleep in a chair with a book over his face.

"Awwwww," said Anna, "how cute!" Angel and Anna both walked over to the couch and sat down.

"Remember that conversation that we missed because we had to study for that stupid trig test?" said Angel, as he held her hands.

"Yeah, that one where we all lost sleep over," said Anna, "and where I had to go so shortly," Anna hugged him, and rested her head on his shoulders.

"You're right," said Anna. "we should do this more often," Anna gazed into Angel's eyes again, while their eyes met, face to face.

"I love you, Anna," Angel said as he looked deeper into her eyes. "I see my whole world existing in your eyes, your beautiful eyes,"

"That's so sweet," said Anna as she slowly leaned toward him. Just then, a crash of sound ruined the mood, and so Claude woke up.

"What, mom?" he looked up as his eyes showed that he was half awake. Angel and Anna let go of each other and leaned back at the same time.

"Hello, Claude," Angel and Anna said at the same time, in unison.

"Oh, damn," said Claude, "I'm so sorry, I don't know why I always do something to ruin the feeling."

"No, it's okay, Claude," said Anna, with a smile on her face. "come on, sit down with us."

~In the Command room of the complex~

A man in a light blue uniform walked over to a desk, surrounded with screens. There were other people in the room who were half asleep.

"Hey, Joe," said one man who was at another desk, examining a radar.

"Hey," said the man in uniform.

"Oh my god…" said one man, as he looked at the radar. "Sir, look at this…" Another man in a dark blue uniform, trimmed in red jogged over and looked at the radar. Once he looked at the radar, his eyes flashed wide open, and he ran towards the intercom. He pressed the button, and spoke into it.

"Sir, we have a problem," Suddenly, two large explosions rocked the complex, shaking everything.

~Upon the UEO carrier~

"Direct Hit, sir!" one of the radar men screamed. "It should have severely damaged the base!"

"That's good…" Mr. Perry said as he stepped out from under the dim light. "the rebels should be rebelling any time soon, now…."

~Back in the complex~

Rubble was everywhere, as most of the room collapsed, killing almost everyone.

*Cough*

"Guys, are you all alright?" Angel screamed as he pushed his way out of the rubble. Mumbles are mostly what Angel heard as he pushed his way around.

"Angel, are you okay?" screamed Anna as she was on the other side of the room. Out of nowhere, rubble kicked up, and Claude stood up.

"Ow, that rubble hurts, ya know?" Claude said, as he rubbed his head. He laughed and walked around to look for Jonathan and Claire.

"Jonathan? Claire?" Angel threw over a large pile of rubble and he saw Jonathan curled up on the floor, under the table. "awww, it's a baby!" Jonathan looked up and hit his head on the table and screamed.

"Ahhhhhhh!" screamed Jonathan. "Don't scare me like that!" Jonathan looked around, then pulled some rubble over, to look for Claire.

"Ouch!" screamed a voice. The four pilots ran over to the source of the voice, who was Claire. "My leg, It's pinned down…" Angel tried to help her out, but she screamed in pain.

"My leg, it's pinned under a rock," said Claire, as she somehow squeezed out of under the rock. "ow… there… It's okay…" She bent her leg, and she started stretching. Everyone had an astonished look upon their faces as how to she squeezed out of under the rock.

"What are you guys looking at?" asked Claire, as she pulled her hair back. "Let's get down to the Votal bay!" After standing around like idiots for two minutes, the five pilots started their run down towards the Votal bay. Explosions, followed by more explosions rocked the rest of the base while at the same time, also released more rubble. Screams, and blood could be seen everywhere as the pilots saw that a couple of people were crushed by the rubble.

Approaching the Votal bay, besides seeing that most of it was unharmed, they saw that many people who were not killed or injured by the rubble moved into the bay.

"Get into your Votals," screamed the man who looked like he was the leader of the rebel force.

"We will," screamed Angel. "where are they?" The man pointed straight ahead, into a garage like area. Angel started running and the others followed.

"Guys, you know what to do," screamed Angel, as he climbed up the ladder towards the cockpit of his Votal.

"Yeah, we know!" replied almost everyone, as Claire remained silent climbing up the ladder.

~Back on the UEO Carrier~

"Sir, should we send out the Eva Votals?" asked the radar man.

"Go ahead," said Mr. Perry, as he took a puff of his cigar, letting the foul-smelling smoke out into the atmosphere. "they should be coming soon."

~In the Complex~

"Those bastards," mumbled Angel as his Votal warmed up. "Crap, where's an exit?!" As the view switched to the Votal's eyes, he looked around. "Where is it?" Looking through the looming darkness of the area, he saw a large gaping hole that was large enough for a Votal to fit through.

"Guys, follow me!" Angel's Votal hovered off the ground and flew towards the gaping hole. The wideness of space once again surrounded them as they flew off towards the carrier.

~Inside the carrier~

"They're starting to fight back, sir!" said the radar man, "there are also five Votals approaching."

"Exellent…" Mr. Perry said as he walked back into the shadows and into his cabin.

~Outside of the Carrier~

"Let's attack, guys…" said Angel, planning a strategy. "spread out, and Claude,"

"Yeah?" Claude responded.

"Get the engines," Angel started again. "Claire and Anna, Get the exits of the Votal bays,"

"Yeah," responded Anna, as Claire sat soundlessly in her Votal.

"And Jonathan," said Angel. Jonathan suddenly popped up, like he was jerked out of sleep.

"Yeah?" He yawned, then shook his head to get himself awake.

"Engage as many Votals as you can," said Angel.

"What?!" screamed Jonathan in confusion. "I can't take on more than one at the same time!" Jonathan screamed as he looked at his weapons.

"You know what you have to do, get going!" screamed Angel as he looked toward the looming carrier.

"Me and you, one on one…" Angel mumbled as he sped toward the carrier. He looked toward the cargo bays as Eva units poured out of the openings. Suddenly, a large cloaked Votal appeared in front of him.

"Angel…." Said the voice.

"Who the hell are you?" screamed Angel. "get out of my way!" Angel motioned, and he pulled both of his light katanas out.

"I," said the voice, "am death…" The Votal quickly disappeared, then struck Angel's Votal sharply in the side, leaving a large slash mark in it's place. Angel looked through the damage report, and the left leg was inaccessible.

"Bastard," Angel muttered as he started to charge the Votal. Attempting to slash through, the enemy Votal disappeared and Angel stopped to look around.

"Asshole," he mumbled, "where the hell are you…" Angel looked around, and then got an idea. He made his Votal take out the Reitan rifle, and then he started looking around again.

"Infrared Search…" a couple of lights started blinking, and then he looked around. Suddenly, he saw an outline of the enemy Votal.

"Gotcha," said Angel. Angel aimed toward the legs to disable the stabilary boosters. A large explosion came from the barrel of the rifle, and it smashed into the other Votal, ripping the legs off almost instantaneously.

"Good shot, Angel." Suddenly, something clicked in Angel's head that made him think of someone.

"Mr. Perry," screamed Angel, "You bitch!" Angel started to continue. "you killed a lot of innocent people in that base!"

"You think I killed them…" said Mr. Perry. "Yet?" Out of nowhere, a large missile came out of the carrier, flew in the direction of the complex.

"No!" Angel exclaimed as he looked toward the missile. Nothing but, anything could have been more helpless, due to the suppression of the once thought prosperous government. Again, more explosions rocked the area next to the carrier, and the engines started to self-destruct. Explosions ran through the ship as the ship ignited in flames.

"We'll see who has the last laugh, Angel…" Mr. Perry said as his crippled Votal headed toward the other colonies.

"Bitch, I'll see you in hell too…." Angel said as he looked toward Mr. Perry's Votal. Just then, the rest of the pilots came to where Angel was.

"Angel, your Votal," said Anna, "It's badly damaged…" Suddenly, another voice came up on Angel's headset.

"Follow the ship that's leaving the base, we'll lead you to another one. Clear out the area and follow us."

"Yeah, sure…" Angel said as his badly damaged Votal and the rest of the crew followed, heading into the unknown part of space.