Author's Notes: This is a poor excuse to use up my ample time after getting some inspiration from a dream I had last night. I can also see that the result will end up poor due to the fact that I've only seen up to the fifth episode of the Second Stage… don't ask me where I watch it. Ah, what the hell! I never expect good reviews since I'm just an 11-year-old Filipino boy studying in the sixth grade of the International Christian Academy. Ever wondered how many Pexis generators of the mysterious kind exist through out the galaxy? Ever wonder who might, in his own right mind, DARE to challenge the Earth besides Nirvana's crew and successfully beat the crap out of them? Well this is sort of an answer to those questions. I'll be using pure English since I'm not that knowledgeable about Japanese. The weapons described may be a little too technical to describe in layman's terms so please bear with me… after all, a lot of you siguro, gustong malaman yung kahulugan nang Singularity Cannon, di ba? I'm Sorry for any misspelled words. Please Enjoy!!!
Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread (Although I wish I did so's I could do a lot of stuff with it).
War of the TitansChapter 1: Encounter with an Event Horizon… or Two
Governmental Nexus, Prime Gear, Mother World Earth
Wednesday, 1515 hours, Earth Standard Time…
Informative and Statistic images concerning recent battles with the ship known only as Nirvana scrolled in front of the recently upgraded body of Councilor Hendeller. He was still adjusting to his pale, newly attached skin that was harvested from Meranos. He liked it very much, although what the guys at council would say when they saw his new flesh was hard to tell.
The statistics weren't good… considering the fact that they had already destroyed one Mother Ship and two Harvesters, the biggest casualties since the operation to renew human life on Earth began. Maybe not. They had lost far more of their harvest fleet to the faceless organization known as the Arcadian Confederacy. And to think! They're just one ship! He thought, referring to Nirvana, How's that possible!? He gritted his pearl white teeth that were apparently harvested from New Abydos.
Just then, one of his informant agents appeared via vid-link, "Councilor, another three Mother Ship Battle Groups have been destroyed by those who give credit to the so-called Arcadian Confederacy. Also, the Arc-Con fleet has destroyed the Galvastan Station, which is a vital support structure."
"A loss of such a scale to this Arcadian Confederacy is more reasonable than what was destroyed by Nirvana. They are more of a threat to us than Arc-Con." He responded. Deep research has been done on the Arc-Con, as it was abbreviated, and turned up very disturbing results. Approximately 80 percent of all Military Brass, Researchers, Soldiers, and Personnel who were sent out to colonize the universe composed the populations on the 13 Colony ships that brought civilization to the Arcadian Star System. War Freaks, he thought.
Further research proves that the scientists who invented the Pexis were onboard as well, bringing with them one of the two original Pexis generators that had unlimited military potential: The Pexis Enigma. If the scientists that invented Pexis were among those who colonized the Arcadian System, they had all their time for Weapons Development on a scale superior to that of Earth's. The fact that it was created for unlimited military potential means that it would be deadly in the hands of those who know how to use it, and those who want to put that use into war technology. That was also true. Earth only used their Pexis to create harvesters, and a powerful fleet to protect them with, otherwise pick on the weaklings spread throughout the universe. Those Military wise guys were probably using Pexis to create a fleet beyond even Earth's wildest dreams for the sake of an extremely clichéd ambition of taking over the universe or something like that.
"I concur, sir, but Arc-Con has deleted a total of 27 Mother Ship Battle Groups and 78 Harvesters. Pexis Countermeasure Battleships (The ones that could separate Hibiki's Vanguard from the Dread he's combined with) are no use against them due to the Arcadians' incredible maneuverability and shields that could repel our attacks, and they have created a counterattack against us that jams our copycat systems ensuring that we can never copy their technology during a fight."
"Are you asking me to put either one of the factions on the priority one list? That is not feasible. Harvest for humanity's survival is always on top of the list!" he strained on the bulky life-support system he was hooked to, "I suggest instead, that we eliminate the larger threat, namely Arc-Con, which would reduce the smaller threat, Nirvana, to a mere nuisance, while maintaining Harvest Operation protocol."
"But sir—"
"That decision is final!" he waved at the controls and his subordinate's image disappeared as he was about to say another word. Clearly, he must put a stop to the Arcadian menace, before they discover Nirvana and team up, which was most likely to happen in this war. Then again, they were pirates after all, and probably would not get along with the military.
Pexis Monitory Room, Arcadian Research Main Bldg., Arcadia Prime
Friday, 0620 hours, Arcadian Standard Time…
Doctor Atriums Glaider stared through the viewing glass at the throbbing, green, luminescent orb imprisoned within several metallic encasements, which in turn, was enclosed into its tight space by a horde of green crystals. Why is it reacting like this? Pexis Enigma-Omega is by far the most superior design in human history! A greatly upgraded and modified version of the original Pexis Enigma, Enigma-Omega was what Arcadia considered the 'Ultimate' military condiment in the universe.
Why it reacted as though it were exhibiting aggression towards something that threatened its very existence was a mystery. The only other Pexis that even comes close to Enigma-Omega's level of power is that old, beat-up crap toy that the Alpha Generation left on Earth! THAT, he stressed mentally, is not even a hundred Gigamatrixes close to Omega's power output range!
What's wrong, girl? He was like Parfet in the sense that he knew, or thought, rather, that whatever does work, scientifically speaking, was alive. Hell, he even thought that atoms were alive for the fact that they moved. He was 26, born into the Gamma Generation, the third since the colonization of the eight-planet Arcadian System. Green eyes, silver hair, and the features of his face bore a striking resemblance to his grandfather, the lead researcher of the team that invented, and continues to improve, Pexis.
He was thinking of a reason to Omega's unusual behavior, when he saw it—the color red—it was embedded deep into the sphere's vibrant green; discreet, yet visible. Red—the color of the original Pexis Enigma design. Or rather, what his grandfather, Dr. Johan Glaider said its color would change into once its efficiency went down low enough due to overuse and poor maintenance. Scared of big brother? Why? You were born to be far greater than he was, is, and will ever be.
It beat in what appeared to be a reply. "Well don't be. You've been taught to protect yourself. We'll help you."
"Talking to your grandpa's 'little bundle of joy' again, Arty?" commented his colleague, Dr. Carter. Unlike the Glaider clan, Carter was strict about the definition of living. If it reproduces, respires, and eats, it's alive. If not, then it's either non-living, or dead; end of story.
Glaider nodded, "I guess so. I've picked up several more phenomena that would be useful to apply in military technology. Feed it to Pexis, and let's see what she can make of it."
Carter popped the optical disc into the drive, and marveled at what research had turned up with now. Statistics displayed recent information on Temporal Activity. According to this data, they had the technology required to engage in Temporal Mechanics: the control of time itself. Its use in warfare would turn the tides of any battle. When you are badly beaten, all you have to do is turn back the clock, freeze time in the current combat area before the fight starts, send in reinforcements, then, when all of your ships have boxed the time-frozen enemies in, un-pause, and destroy them. It was that simple. Or it was going to be, rather, when Pexis made that war fantasy a reality.
"Think our little girl can make us a Time Control Device?" Carter asked.
"No problem." Glaider began to fumble with the controls causing the throbbing green power source to pulsate even harder, and make weird, indescribable noises.
Abandoned Building, Zefha Avenue, Prime Gear, Mother World Earth
Friday, 1100 hours, AST…
Colonel Roy Flint watched as several patrolling Beatleoids passed the avenue between their building, and the one across the street where the second squad was camped. He looked back at the four men behind him, giving them the signal to take their places at the windows. He contacted the second squad using his vid-link, giving them the signal as well.
There were ten of them overall. Armed with the latest combat gear Arc-Con had conjured using Pexis Enigma-Omega, they were the advanced party sent to scout for the main operation that was to take place very soon. Plasma Rifles for Standard issue, DM-14 deatomizer grenades for demolition, BH-29 Singularity cannons if ever the going got tough, and full body Pexanium armor for protection.
Pexanium, as researchers coined it, was an alloy with a composition of 35 percent Titanium, 25 percent Adamantium, 20 percent Iron, and 20 percent Pexis Energy. It was forged together by Enigma-Oh, as some people called Pexis Enigma-Omega. Created to withstand even the most powerful of Earth's Plasma Cannons, its existence would not be possible without Pexis.
As for the Singularity Cannons, they used high-powered neutron collapse generators to create a temporary Black Hole that grew larger the longer the cannon stayed online. They were restricted to keep it on for more than five minutes. The reason? That was enough time to give it the mass to exist independently of its energy source. In the event of that happening, it would continue to suck in matter and grow at monstrous speed until it swallowed up half the Arcadian System. Only then would it vanish, taking with it everything it has eaten.
The last Beatleoid passed by, followed by a convoy of trucks containing livers that have been harvested from Toleida. He peered at the targets through his sniper scope. Always blow up the gas tank, he thought as he aimed for the hovering vehicle's visible gas tank. He spied his teammates who by this time were in position. All he had to do was let out the first shot, and the others would follow.
He breathed deeply and exhaled, his breath condensing at his visor. Placed his finger at the trigger, waiting for the right moment. The target was in place as he squeezed. He recoiled as two bright yellow shots burst forth from the barrel of his gun. The truck exploded as the Plasma bursts hit their mark. Almost immediately, the other four trucks blew up as the street was filled with golden plasma beams from his team's firearms.
The enemy had no time to react. One after another, the escorting crimson, insect-like titans lost a leg or shutting down due to their CPUs being destroyed, which unfortunately for them, were external. Fortunately, Beatleoids were slow to react and in less than a minute, they were all down. The sabotage was successful. Now all they had left to do was vacate the area, return to HQ, give them the signal, and the 'cleansing' of the Mother World would begin. Or so he thought.
That was when he heard a firefight erupt in the other building. He contacted the second squad. Lieutenant Alfred McLinder's image appeared on vid-screen, his subordinates letting out plasma shards in the direction of the door of the room, "What the Devil's going on over there, Lieutenant!?"
"Sir!" the Irish-descended soldier replied, "We've got Jell-Os in the hallway! We're currently holed up in the staging point room, and we're low on ammo!" Unlike super-concentrated photons, which comprised lasers, plasma's composition was superheated or ionized particles.
Those were up to 1,000,000 degrees or higher. Jell-Os, what the Arcadians called those laser-refracting globs of green goo, (first seen in episode four of the 2nd stage) were therefore vulnerable against plasma. Unfortunately, they had ammunition limits. Flint heard one of McLinder's men yell, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" as he saw a deatomizer grenade lob outside the door. A second later, a loud blast was heard as it detonated in the hallway.
"Hold your position! We'll come for you as soon as—" Flint was cut off as several green blobs broke into their own room, spurting acidic glump balls the size of marble potatoes. They hit two of his men, and he watched as the liquid seared through their Pexanium suits, and ate into their flesh.
Without second thought, he drew his Plasma rifle and emptied the magazine at the slimes. Having no time to reload, he brought out his Desert Eagle .50 caliber, a family Heirloom and 21st century favorite. He unloaded the eight-bullet magazine at them, in a One-bullet-per-enemy manner. Just as he was reloading, another batch flew into the tightened space, unleashing a rain of green acid, smoldering his and his two remaining teammates' armor.
The force of impact sent him down to the floor where he lay motionless, feeling the slime tear a hole in his suit and slowly begin to gnaw at his skin—
He was disturbed by a female voice transmission via audio-link, "Colonel, a Spacecraft identifying itself as Nirvana has entered the immediate vicinity. SOP states that the commanding officer must hail any approaching ship. Please proceed to the bridge at once."
Private Quarters, ACS McDread, Patrol Sector 17Beta, Near Arcadia Romano
Friday, 1105 hours, AST…
Colonel Roy Flint agitatedly removed his VR headset as the image of his first mate vanished after giving the message about an unidentified Ship. Agitated because he did not expect that Jell-O ambush to occur at all in that scenario. He thought he was prepared, prepared for anything. He placed it on hard mode not expecting the events to change so dramatically.
He shook his head as he strapped on his uniform. He was a field officer, alright, but he was starting to get old, so they stuck him into commanding the ACS McDread. At age forty and still running around on this poor excuse for a Battleship, VR was the only thing that kept him strategically fit, while the onboard recreational facility kept him physically fit.
At least he got to command a patrol-type Battle Group, which was more than enough to destroy an Earth Mother Ship Battle group… as long as they followed SOP.
He trudged out the sliding door with his .50 Deagle in its holster at his side. Earth's Mother Ships were a real pain in the ass, but unidentified ships were worse. You could never tell the difference of a pirate ship from a cargo transport if ever you saw one.
The Nirvana, Patrol Sector 17Beta, Near Arcadia Romano
Friday, 1130 hours, Nirvana Standard Time…
Magno Vivan stared at the ominous size of the Arcadian Mother Ship, which was similar to that of an Earth Mother Ship, although it was somewhat smaller. How they created such massive ships was no mystery. Creating a large fleet with ships of that size and even far bigger was. Data files have proved it. Although rich in natural resources, all of the Arcadian System's eight planets were still very limited in their stock of raw materials compared to Earth's natural wealth since the 20th century. Of course, that was just what the Data files said.
"Boss," BC disrupted Magno's contemplations on Arcadian technology, "We're receiving an incoming transmission from the Arcadian ship, which has identified itself as the ACS McDread."
"Very well, then. Bring it onto the main screen." The past-a-century-old woman said as she nodded.
The image of a stiff pencil-necked man either in his late thirties or early forties appeared on screen. He wore the navy blue uniform of all Arcadian officers. The marks on his shoulder denoted his rank as Colonel. He was wearing a navy officer's hat, (a dark blue one in this case) with some gray hair sticking out from under it. He spoke to the leader of the pirates with a heavy southern accent "This is Colonel Roy Flint of the Arcadian Confederate Patrol. State your business in this sector."
"Ease off, Colonel," Magno replied reassuringly, "We're just passing through. May we be given clearance to take through this sector? We're in a hurry to return to our home world."
"If my information is correct," the Colonel answered, "and it always is, you are from Mejeele, yes?"
"It seems as though you are mistaken, Colonel." Magno chuckled "Some members of our crew are from Tarak."
"Forget the little mistakes. Nobody is perfect. If you're going through, then go now."
"Thank you, Colonel." His image vanished from main screen. She eased off into her chair, returning to her ponderings of why the Arcadian armada was so damned large, when all of a sudden, the alarms began to wail. So much for the Arcadians.
"Earth Vessel at nine-o'clock," Belvedere said, as the image of the all too familiar purple Flagship, along with three copied Vandreads appeared on the magnifier windows. A fifth Mag-Win popped open, showing the pods unleashing hundreds to thousands of red cube fighters that, surprisingly, though not suddenly, made their way towards the McDread instead of the Nirvana.
BC was just giving the order for the Dread squadron to dispatch and engage the enemy when Magno interrupted, saying, "Wait. Let's see what say the Arcadians have in a situation like this. Show the footage around the ship."
"At once, Boss." The silver-haired woman complied, relaying the pirate leader's orders.
A small projectile spewed out from one of the cannon ports of the Patrol ship, detonating as it impacted with the Mother Ship's hull, creating a blast wave that rocked the vessel, not to mention the entire fleet, though, doing no physical damage whatsoever.
"This should be interesting…" she mumbled to herself as several of the Arcadian vessel's hangars flew open and out stormed at least a hundred of the Confederacy's own classy, oddball-shaped Fighter Craft.
***
Meia watched the vid-window from the comfort of her table in the mess hall, her plate holding her half-finished lunch, spoon, fork and knife at the sides, a glass half-filled with orange juice standing beside it. The Vid-win showed five uniquely larger craft emerge from the Arcadian patrol vessel's hangars. At least Nirvana was not the enemy's target this time around. Strange… usually in a battle of this intensity, they were always the ones besieged. Now they were just like somebody staring into a fishbowl, observing the goldfish tackle with the lobster.
Those five are probably SpecOps or something, she thought. She paid more attention to how those specific interceptors acted than to the miniature swarm of other Arcadian fighters that were taking several red cubes down at a time just before using a pair of powerful plasma cannons mounted under their wings to tear multiple pods apart. They had stayed away from the battle; constantly facing the Earth's herald Mother Ship.
It was at this point that she saw the copy of Vandread Dita making its move towards the McDread… McDread, she thought, Funny name. It was probably planning to destroy it using its dual shoulder-mounted beam cannons, which was perhaps the case since the pair of crimson rods were pointed directly at the Patrol Mother Ship.
As the Dread Squadron's leader had guessed, blood red energy began to form at their tips and sent a discharge headed straight for the Arcadian vessel, cremating anything that got in its way. To her surprise, however, instead of piercing the said ship, the beams instead, bounced off heading outwards towards space, erasing anything in their path.
"Interesting…" she heard a male voice say. She found the source as she turned her head to see who it was. It was a longhaired person sitting at the table next to hers… the doctor, Duero McFile. He too, was observing the fight with keen interest.
Then she saw it; one of the five larger craft shifted its view to the copy of Vandread Dita. The stupid computer-guided machine must've gotten the Arcadian's attention. Its underside split to reveal a deadly looking weapon. She was expecting a large blast to emanate from it and wipe the Earth version of the hybrid mecha out of existence, but instead, a small, white, soft, energy-based projectile burst forth and hit its target square at the torso.
A small, warping ball of space and time appeared at the portion that was hit and began to grow. Judging from what she thought she saw, Meia considered that shift to be some sort of artificial black hole, Impossible, her logic told her, nobody has the technology to replicate a black hole, you moron! Her logic was put to shame, however, as the warp began to suck the struggling war machine in, the gravity being so powerful that the parts that were nearest to it began to stretch into what appeared to be strands of metallic spaghetti.
The small ray remained on, the black hole growing in size as it prolonged its life. It was a useless fight; Vandread Dita's fake was completely consumed by the singularity, every trace of its existence vanishing as it reached the Event Horizon. As it disappeared, the Arcadian fighter deactivated its weapon, the black hole dying out all the same.
She heard somebody choking on his or her food, a familiar, panicky, childish voice trying to comfort the one in pain. The only person who ever caused the possibility of choking on his food on this ship was Hibiki. Why? Because he ate like a monster, taking in at least three or four spoon's/fork's/chopstick's loads of food before swallowing without chewing. I take that back, she thought, he puts food into his mouth nonstop. It was surprising that he only choked this time around. It was somewhat amusing to hear all that commotion occurring while a one-sided battle was being fought just a few hundred kilometers from their position.
The battle was, no matter how anybody looked at it, going the Defending force's way. The copy of Vandread Jura had gone on a collision course with the Arcadian ship, leaving a gaping hole. Gascogne… she shook her head at the thought. As miraculously as the lasers of Vandread Dita's clone bounced off the ship's shields, the opening sealed off, looking as though nothing had touched it…
As for the copy of Vandread Meia, the weapons on board the McDread were more than sufficient to utterly obliterate it, as to that fact that it fired some sort of missile that split into ten more, which in turn divided into twenty more, thus, producing a total of 200 warheads born of the original. They were all homing projectiles, so they chased the raven-like mecha to no end until the poor bastard copy slammed into a heavily damaged Arcadian fighter, stopping long enough for all 200 to catch up and desecrate it. Now if Hibiki and I were piloting that thing, the story would be different. Her strategic mind had already completed a different scenario of how it could be prevented if that situation occurred to her and Hibiki.
No sooner than the Earth Mother Ship beginning to power up its main cannon did the five special Arcadian craft truly take action significant to the battle, besides destroying Vandread Dita's duplicate. They took up formation directly in front of the Earth vessel's main weapon and engaged what she recognized as formation Sigma 18: Pentagon points. Of course, they would have a different name for that.
Just as the mauve warship unleashed its bright yellow discharge of plasma, a blue, web-like structure generated within the empty pentagon-shaped space in between the five. The web absorbed all of the blast, apparently distributing the plasma energy to its five holders.
Within a moment of that happening, their undersides opened to reveal the same weapon she first saw used on the doppelganger of Vandread Dita, although there were, of course, five of them. They each fired, the beams intersecting at one point. That intersection was somewhat close to the Earth vessel.
Most cubes and pods were attacking the five, but the pummeling didn't last long, since now, the other Arcadians were bent on protecting the fivesome as though they were the key in destroying the enemy.
The energy at the intersection point began to grow until finally, a white beam emerged from the side facing the great craft and entered the main cannon port. Meia noticed the center of the Mother Ship become flimsy and begin to warp. The warping area began to grow in a matter of seconds, the point of its origin becoming virtually invisible. The singularity began to suck the rest of the Mother Ship in, pods, cubes, and spike balls being pulled in tow by its powerful gravity. A few seconds passed, and the entire Earth fleet was consumed by the black hole, the Arcadians deactivating both the web and their weapons, the hungry mouth of the singularity disappearing all the same.
All fighters returned to the McDread's docking bays as coldly and professionally as they left it.
Meia looked around the cafeteria. Apparently, some were no longer watching the event. Others were captivated and were gawking at the Arcadians' superiority to Earth. Hibiki had gulped down his glass of water, calming the alarmed Dita down, after which he began his eating machine habits all over again. Jura and Barnette were no longer anywhere in sight, Probably went somewhere to make out… they always looked like a fitting couple anyway. Duero had left long ago, leaving a clean table where he once sat, eating.
That was when her com-link suddenly chirped.
The End of Chapter 1.
QUOTE OF THE DAY—TOPIC: SINGULARITIES MECHANICS (CONTROL OF BLACK HOLES)
"Yes, yes, we've heard all the philosophers babble about 'oneness' being beautiful and holy. But let me tell you that this kind of oneness sure isn't pretty, and if you're not careful, it'll scare the bejeezus out of you."
—Anonymous Lab Technician
Morgan Link 3D Vision, Live Interview, ALPHA CENTAURI
Author's Notes: Hope that wasn't too bias. Anyways, I'm just eleven years old, for crying out loud! Nobody's perfect, you know. I know Meia was quite silent this time, but isn't she like that most of the time? Besides, I didn't have enough time to put more of anybody else in… I'm sorry if I didn't meet anybody's requirements for a good story. I'll try to make better ones next time. If you have a flame or two, please be reminded that I'm still very well a minor… and a very sensitive one at that. Please forgive any foolishness that might have shown up here.