Updated Chapter notes: I must give Lipana the credit for pointing out my mistakes in the names of the four gods (I never did watch Fushigi Yugi that much anyways, so how the hell would I know!?) and would like to announce that that has been corrected. I would also like to thank The Earth Project for pointing out that one about the Pexanium-Stealth generators. I have corrected that in a way that would hopefully be satisfactory for most other people. P.S. this chapter's title has been changed due to the simple difference between a dragon and a serpent.
Author's Notes: Since I wrote these notes in advanced and posted it, this means that I've gotten at least three good reviews, or I just got bored waiting. It's hard to work like this… in the middle of the school year, but hey. I love writing fanfics with Vandread in them!!! Oh, and pardon my references to Fushigi Yugi, cuz I just ran out of ideas to with which to name the Capital Ships. Sorry too for stolen lines from Metal Gear Solid. Oh, I have to mention, this is an AU fic, Alternate Universe. Meranos has been harvested. Lest you forget, I should remind you that this occurs before episode eight.
Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread. No duh!!! I do own, however, the Capital Ship concept and original characters. Thanks a lot to Sid Mier's Alpha Centauri for technical inspiration and quotes!
Chapter 2: A Dragon's Onslaught
Governmental Nexus, Prime Gear, Mother World Earth
Wednesday, 1601 hours, EST…
Councilor Hendeller had just exited the meeting room, the Council Chairman's decision still lingering fresh in his memory. He could still remember what had happened. He had just finished his talk with that informant, when suddenly, an announcement sent the message that concerned a council meeting about taking drastic actions all through out the building.
"The situation has escalated far more than what we have expected. The destruction of nearly 30 of our Mother Ship battle groups was no streak of luck." The Chairman shook his head, "Oh, no it wasn't. They were all strategies that were planned well by the Arcadian Confederacy. I have decided that we have to take desperate measures. The military must make sacrifices." Hendeller began to imagine what the Chairman would do…
"As you all know, we have four Capital Ships protecting the four directions of our planet—north, south, east, and west—I hereby propose, that we are to send one of them to eradicate this menace before things get worse." This stirred up a slight murmur among the crowd of councilors and senators present during that meeting.
The four Capital Ships, named after the four Chinese gods who protected the four directions—Suzaku, the Red Phoenix who protected the south, Genbu, the Green Turtle who protected the north, Byakko, the White Tiger who protected the west, and, the Seiryu Blue Dragon who protected the east—were the largest of Earth's fleet. Created to become the overlords, each one of them was powerful enough to destroy an entire star system… including the star.
"The Arcadians already know of Nirvana's existence and in any worst case scenario, they would team up to create a threat far greater than what we originally expected to tackle. I am now open for nominations on which of them to send. Please vote now." A holographic image of the polls N, E, W, and S appeared behind him, the dim light reflecting on his pale, bald, head. He had just gotten that Meranos skin too.
Apparently, the one that received the highest number of votes was E, the Seiryu—the guardian of what was once known as the western hemisphere, which once included the North and south American Continents… that was of course, before the seas swallowed all of the land masses on the planet.
The Chairman looked behind him to see the results, and faced the panel again, announcing, "Very well, then, it has been decided. The Seiryu departs in an hour! This meeting is adjourned."
He smiled slightly, walking down the corridor of the building, staring outside at the rotating cogs that made the Earth look like a giant clockwork, and the raging polluted seas that rampaged several thousand miles below. Nirvana would be nothing more than a speck of dust to a Capital Ship. As for the Arcadians, they would not be able to destroy it as to the fact that as a Mother Ship is to its hangar full of pods, the Capital Ship was something like that to its hangars fully loaded with lesser Mother Ships and Planet Destroyers (first seen in Ep12 of the 2nd stage). However, due to the many Mother Ships to be controlled, each one was assigned an active crew of 10 on the bridge in case the Super Computer could not take it. It was also equipped with the ultimate weapons: four hull-mounted Grand Apocalypse Cannons, each one capable of blowing a hole through a planet the size of Jupiter, bigger, even a star, taking no more than 3 seconds to recycle and fire again. Further more, each Capital Ship had its own unique super weapon, which it used whenever it felt like it.
The Capital Ships were the pride of the Earth Fleet, the largest known vessels in existence. There was no way anybody could defeat that. Especially those on board Nirvana. Then it hit him… that bunch of spirit talkers had a legend about three great spirits who took control of the universe. Their names fit Nirvana's three special machines very well… Blue Giant, White Wing, and Red Claw. Ah, whatever. Their vocal cords have been removed long ago, so they were nothing to worry about. Hellender never believed in anything that could not be explained by science. It was the Chairman's idea to have their vocals harvested. That paranoid fool won't win the elections for the next term. I'll make sure of it.
The Nirvana, Patrol Sector 17Beta, Near Arcadia Romano
Friday, 1148 hours, NST…
"What do you mean we're being boarded!?" Meia retorted at BC, who was in contact via com-link, "Why couldn't you detect it!?"
"They used some sort of Stealth device to mask their ships. I don't know how the hell they snuck up on us." Replied the second-in-command of the ship, "One penetrated point is about 300 yards from the cafeteria. Several defense points have been set up to box in the intruders."
"I'll see what I can do here."
"Good luck." She ended the transmission.
***
Lieutenant Alfred McLinder pumped his plasma rifle as the Stealth pod approached the hull of the pirate ship. There were four other men with him, all trained and experienced elites. That was when the Colonel called up, "Remember, Lieutenant, I want all of them alive. Subdue them only. No blood is to be shed on that ship, understood?"
He let out an irritated sigh, So much for killing time, "Thanks for reminding me, sir. I was just thinking about blowing a hole through one of them pirates." He placed the rifle aside and brought out his Graviton gun. Gravitons were the particles responsible for gravity, just like photons that were responsible for light. Using Graviton Guns to control the said particles, they could allow them to concentrate on the target, redirecting the center of gravity to the target's form. Targets most often ended up as balls of crumpled matter with a diameter of half an inch. They were going to need them for entry.
He was a member of the best Covert Operations group in the Confederate army: The Phantom Unit. That name was quite suiting for them, and quite literal. Armed with the best elimination and subjugation weapons, the Phantom unit was an all terrain stealth party. Protection from full body Pexanium-Stealth armor, a variant of Pexanium armor that had a thinner layer of the alloy but was equipped with a Thermal-Optic-Acoustic stealth device, or Therm-O-Ac for short, to ensure virtual invisibility, made them undetectable.
The standard issue transport vessel for them was the JM-325A Stealth pod, which was protected only with a foot's thickness of titanium, shields that got it through most firefights unharmed, and a Singularity powered Stealth Generator that absorbed light, radio waves, and all known existing concepts that might give their existence away to the enemy. It was the ultimate smuggling spacecraft.
He felt the slight rock as the pod made contact with and attached itself to the Nirvana's hull. The slide hatch opened, revealing a slick metal surface. "Alright, guys, Stealth suits on," he turned back to see nobody sitting on the buckled seats. The buckles were still on, though. The four plastic holds caused a gaseous hiss as they went back up to their containment vaults as though ghosts had lifted them. McLinder knew that they were already behind him, they were just invisible, waiting anxiously for him to crumple the wall into a ball of steel, allowing them to burst inside, guns blazing… maybe not.
Well, there was that Trauma Gun that fired a centimeter large shock probe that embedded itself an inch deep into the target's body, releasing a 100,000-volt electric shock that could knock a guy out cold. It was similar to a Taser, although it did not have the wire. The probes had their own individual battery charges. As long as it was non-lethal, it was all right to use. Lethal… its root word was Lethe, one of the rivers that flowed through the artery of the underworld in Greek myths. Good thing the stealth generator included weapons being used.
He cocked his gun to wall level, switching the intensity to Molecular Death. The steel surface groaned as several dents began to appear at the perimeter of the circle, and spread inwards. Soon, the hallway was in sight, along with several figures in dark gray suits, laser rifles pointed straight at them. As soon as the wall was nothing more than a rough sphere, which dropped to the floor, the Mejeelians unleashed a wave of yellow laser fire that of course, bounced off the Pexanium.
As soon as the women realized, or thought they realized, rather, that nobody was there, they lowered their weapons and started laughing. Idiots. McLinder smiled as he saw their surprised reactions when he gave the command, "Let 'em have it, boys!" They were probably thinking, 'Oh, my God! I'm hearing things!' or, 'Ghosts! Ghosts are boarding our ship!'
A few sparks burst forth from unseen gun barrels, delivering a shocking payload to the defenders, knocking all eight women out. He stepped out of the pod and into the larger area, deactivating his cloak as soon as he blasted the nearby camera that was keeping a vigilant eye on the hallway. Four figures seemingly materialized behind him. His men had deactivated their suits as well. "Phantom leader to Phantom teams two to seven, we're in the house!" he announced as he switched the stealth back on.
Six other Phantom teams went in before them, and they were already having fun traumatizing women all over the ship. McLinder's group was headed for the cafeteria, Of all the Goddamned places we could've been assigned to take over! The thing was that their Cloaking Devices used three things: One: A special light absorption system that absorbed light on one side of the armor and projected it to the opposite side (Think Die Another Day!).Two: a special thermal adjustment system that changed the suit's surface temperature to match the room's temperature, and three: A singularity that was specially modified to suck in sound, and only sound.
The only side effect was that they could not make sounds or communicate with each other without using their specialized ZEMO contact headsets. Even if the pirates did see somebody, their armaments were completely useless against the pexanium suits. Unless of course, they found out about the armor's only weak point: the visor, which was made out of regular breakable plastic. Then again, who cared? After all, all the majority was armed with were their laser firing rings. Only some others who were privileged got to use laser rifles.
He could still remember Dr. Glaider's words when he unveiled another one of his masterpieces during the annual Pexis Convention, "I didn't place weak points because I think of natural balance. I tend to think of my inventions as people, and their weak points as character flaws, because people are people when they're imperfect. Only God has the right to be otherwise." Tch… scientists and their wacky abstract thinking.
***
Meia hid beside the sliding door, along with Dita and Hibiki, several other lightly armed people with them. "Remember the plan," she said, reminding them of their defensive plot, which was simple enough. When they come in, we kill the lights. They'll be forced to use night vision. When that happens, we turn them back on, and let them have it. Night vision goggles amplify available light a hundred times over. That ought to blind them. Nobody in the cafeteria knew, however, that the enemy was unseen. Ever since BC ended their talk, all attempts to reestablish communication with the bridge, hell, the rest of the ship, have failed. Everybody understood the plan, and it sounded quite reasonable… that is, of course, if you were going up against somebody you could see.
The door slid open, and everybody anticipated a heavily armed strike force to storm in. One second… nobody passed. Another few moments… still nobody. Just as she was about to say that it must have been a false alarm, Dita felt a powerful current surge through her body. That was the last thing she felt before everything went black.
"Hey, what the—" Hibiki was cut off as he blacked out as well, the blue electrical currents still slightly lingering on his form as he lay on the floor.
That got Meia's attention. She realized it then, that they were invisible. That's why nobody saw anyone entering! "Everyone! Scatter!" a moment too late. Everybody else was down. In slight panic, she lifted her ring to chest level and let out a random shot. She was surprised when it ricocheted off the thin air and hit a nearby potted plant. What the!? One of them was standing right in front of her…
Slowly… the figure materialized. "That's not gonna do you any good, girl." Meia could almost see him smiling sadistically, probably planning to torture everybody who was still alive. "That's right. Be afraid. Be very afraid."
She noticed the material for his visor was not identical at all to the rest of his armor… It's a long shot, but—she sent another laser shard at the armored soldier, recoiling as two or more of his invisible companions let loose their electrifying rounds at her. She shouted in frustration as she slumped to the floor. The beam pierced the eyeshade and hit the man square between his peepers, but Meia Gisborn never saw him drop dead. She was already unconscious, lying on the floor in a heap, before that happened…
Four other men in Pexanium-Stealth armor deactivated their cloaking devices. "This is Phantom leader to Phantom teams two to seven, McDonald's sector is clear, repeat, McDonald's sector is clear." McLinder said, "Though we have a man down."
Location Unknown
Friday, 1426 hours, AST…
"Help me!" screamed the childish voice of a young girl. Although what he heard was identical to a human voice, Dr. Atriums Glaider knew that human it was anything but. He was floating in an endless sea of lime green light. "Why are you so scared these days, girl?" He answered in a paternal voice.
Pexis Enigma materialized in the form of a girl no older than 10. She had shoulder-length dark green hair with a pink hair bow, was wearing a pink jacket, purple shorts, and a pair of socks and sneakers. "The Dragon. It comes, it will destroy us all."
"What do you mean a Dragon? If you know it'll destroy us, why do you ask for my help anyway?" he was curious. Then it appeared; a white and blue machine that used a powerful energy blade to slash what appeared to be an Earth robot, which was at least 10 to 20 times its size into two. "This is the offspring of my other being, my sibling if you will. Find it and ask for its help. Only then will we be safe from the enemy."
"You have another sibling?"
"Please. Big brother's pet Dragon is coming to kill everyone in this star system! Don't let them die!"
"I don't understand. What do you mean, Enigma?" he'd always had conversations with the Pexis, but she was never as panicked as this, before.
The image of a man appeared. He was slightly short, with long, messy dark blue hair going down his back. He also wore a dirty yellow bandana, and what appeared to be third-class Tarakian clothing. Three women materialized behind him, one a blonde, another a red head, and the third, who had a striking resemblance to the Prime Minister's daughter. With a little bit of makeup and fashion changes, nobody would be able to tell this one from the real McCoy. Behind them emerged three fighter craft and a humanoid battle suit. The mechanical warrior was a deep yellow, while the ships colors were to their owners respectively, red, blue, and white.
The four people and the war machine vanished, while the three strikers changed form. The blue interceptor became a masculine humanoid robot, while the white and red fighters became bird-like and crab-like, respectively. The three merged with each other to form the first machine Glaider saw. "What is this?"
"Find them and the Plagma. Bring them to me."
"Plagma? You mean Pexis Plagma? What for?"
"They are essential for our survival." she began to whimper.
He remembered the three machines, they reminded him of an old story he had heard from his grandmother, "The jeweled beings—the Sapphire Titan, Diamond Eagle, and Ruby Crab—are the concubines of Corsieda, god of justice, and will herald his arrival when he comes to bestow peace unto our universe."
"Don't cry. I'll find them for you."
"However, they cannot do it alone. They need the Sarkaeder forces to help them. Please hurry. A foolish mortal is going to condemn them to their demise if you don't." The Sarkaeder forces, the Confederate Fleet's most powerful division, was comprised of five battle groups that specialized in five different operations.
"The Sarkaeder? Why? Can't they handle it by themselves?" he hated it when people spoke in metaphors. Although he was a scientist, a thinker, he did not like solving puzzles and riddles, "Who is going to condemn them?"
"This human—" the picture of a Confederate officer came into view.
"Colonel Flint? I know him. He's one of the greatest soldiers of all time. He should be with the Sarkaeder, not on a patrol ship."
"Still it does not matter. He would've done the same thing. He has captured my sibling along with the four machines and their masters. They are to be taken here at once. Be warned, however, that the Dragon is very near! Roy Flint will not be able to condemn them. Have them extracted while there is still time."
"But I cannot do that." He had no power at all over anything but himself. The only person anybody listened to was the Confederacy's Prime Minister, Balder-Moore Durleinon, and his daughter, Elena, an Admiral of the Fleet who was placed in command of Sarkaeder Battle Group Ceres not because of her social standing, but because of her accomplishments in the military… all done excellently in the 21 years of her life.
Sarkaeder Battle Group Ceres was named after Ceres, the grandmother of Hades' bride. It was composed of 1200 Battleships that had extremely high armor and shield levels, and was designed for defensive purposes. Each one carried an innumerable number of Garrison-class fighter craft. Protected deep in the fleet were 20 Planetary Shield Generators, PSGs, which could, as their names implied, shield themselves one planet each. If you needed impenetrable defense for your planet, then Sarkaeder Battle Group Ceres was the fleet for the job.
"You are the lead researcher, are you not, Dr. Glaider?"
"Well, I—"
"Then it's settled. You must convince the leaders of your government to release them and call for their help." She vanished, leaving the silver-haired scientist to think about what had just happened. How was he going to convince Flint to let them go? He needed to talk with the minister, or an Admiral of the Fleet at least, to get to the old man.
Battle Ship Hangar 12, ACS McDread, Patrol Sector 17Nova, Near Arcadia Romano
Friday, 1439 hours, AST…
Colonel Roy Flint examined the pirate ship that stood just a few hundred meters away, behind the safety of the viewing room. It measured a little over a kilometer in its general size, having four main areas that intersected at a circular point. After getting that message from Arcadia Prime concerning that ship's identity, which was on the planet Mejeele's most wanted list, he had it hijacked with seven Phantom Teams.
Apparently, one was probably enough, but he wanted to catch them completely unprepared. They lost one man, though. That pilot had been observant enough to see the difference between Pexanium and plastic. She reminded him of Fleet Admiral Durleinon, Minister Durleinon's daughter. As for the man they had lost, his name was Fox Spike-Hammer, a Sergeant, and three-year-long member of the Phantoms. He was a good man. The funeral was to be held in a few days.
They should be waking soon enough. He was disturbed as his first mate contacted him when the alarms began to wail, "Flint here. What's going on, Laura?"
"Sir, we have eight Earth Mother Ships headed straight for us!" came the panicked female reply.
"What about the other patrol groups?" he kept cool. Panicking during a battle caused hesitation. Hesitation, in turn, caused countless deaths and increased the possibility of defeat a hundred fold for every second wasted due to a hesitant commander's folly of taking too long to make decisions. God, only three hours, and they sent another one! Make that eight more!
"We've made contact already. Unfortunately, the nearest battle group capable of assisting us is at least five hours away!" from what the Colonel could tell, exponentially speaking, she was panicked to the infinite power.
"Calm down," came the stoical reply, "Launch all Strike Fighters and Singularity Interceptors. Order them to engage in Battle Strategy Turkina-Nova-23, 'Fighter Craft Wall'. I'll be there shortly. Send a distress signal to Arcadia Romano. Flint out."
"Yes sir."
***
First Mate Laura Nelmitz starred in horror at the sight to behold, eight purple vessels headed straight for them, pods deployed, cubes dispatching. God knows how many more were hidden behind the vast cloud of ice lumps that surrounded the entire star system, shrouding the rest of the galaxy from their scanners. Something about it was just not right.
"Ma'am!" One of the technicians reported, "We've identified twelve more Mother Ship Battle Groups emerging from the frost cloud! Twenty in total! There aren't enough Strike Fighters to engage them all!"
"Receiving a response from Arcadia Romano, it's the Magistrate."
"Patch it through to main screen," came the Colonel's voice as he entered the bridge.
"Yes sir." The image of the aging Magistrate of about fifty appeared on the viewer.
"What do you mean eight Mother Ships, Colonel!? Is this some kind of sick, mocking joke!?" the old man shouted.
"No, sir, it's true that we have eight Mother Ships. Another twelve have just come through the Ice Cloud though, so we now have twenty."
"Not on what our scanners say." The magistrate replied, "Do you want to know how many we've picked up?"
"How many?"
"At least a thousand of the damn things have been detected by planet-surface scanners! Several Planet Destroyers have also been spotted by other patrol groups." this was shocking to somebody who has not seen more than five at a time such as Flint, "I've already contacted Arcadia Prime. The Minister is dispatching a Sarkaeder Battle Group to aid in this fight. Now turn your ass a one-eighty and get back here! The Sarkaeder won't be around for at least thirty minutes!"
"At once, Magistrate." The screen went blank again, and resumed showing the spectacle. They could see at least fifty headed straight for them now, "Attention, Strike Fighter Squadron, we've received orders from the Magistrate to fall back to Arcadia Romano. Return to the hangars ASAP."
Digits scrolled up on the Fighter account screen, stopping at 231 as the last remaining interceptor reentered the docking bay.
ACS Demeter, Ceres Battle Group Flagship, High Orbit over Arcadia Taledon, Sarkaeder Division's Planet of Operations
Friday, 1440, AST…
"So why are you giving me this assignment, Dad?" Fleet Admiral Elena Durleinon asked the man on her private view screen, her father.
"Because, your Battle Group is the only Sarkaeder group that's always on the ready." Came the reply. The aging Prime Minister of 64 had three children; two had been married and had their own kids. Elena was the youngest, and so far, most esteemed. She had no plans to marry anybody. Her only true love was her Battle Group's Flagship, the Demeter; with a general size at least 10 times that of an Earth Mother Ship, her uniform, and her achievements.
She peered out of the window of her private quarters at the vast fleet of Battle Cruisers that were under her control, the wings of Garrison-class fighters that protected them, and the spherical PSGs that used a fraction of Pexis' energy to generate shields powerful enough to protect a planet from ten thousand blasts of Plasma Cannon fire. Lazily tipping her glass of whisky to her lips, she let the liquid slide down her throat. She removed her black officer's hat and placed it on the end table beside the soft blue couch she was reclining on. (If you can't visualize her, try picturing Meia in black navy commander uniform, minus the headband) "Sparta Battle Group is the fastest to mobilize, you know. If they were on the ground when they got a message, the entire fleet would be in high orbit and entering the wormhole in less than thirty minutes."
"That does not matter. Yours is the only readily available Battle group. You have to take down the situation before it escalates any further."
"What is the situation?"
"A few minutes ago, the Magistrate of Arcadia Romano gave me a distress call concerning the detection of at least a thousand of Earth's Mother Ships nearing their territory."
"Christ! At least a thousand! What about the authentication of the message?" transmissions can easily be used by enemies to their advantage, especially to draw large forces away from the object of attack.
"It's been confirmed by the CSS. They've traced the call several times over, decoded every single encryption code in the message, and did everything else, whatever the hell they are, to ensure that it is genuine." The Confederate Secret Service, CSS, was Arcadia's Pentagon. It was comprised of many organizations including the AIA, Arcadian Intelligence Agency, the CSA, Central Security Agency, and CBI, Confederate Bureau of Investigation. The Arcadian government was still somewhat similar to 30th century Earth's.
"Well," she stood up, returning the covered bottle of whisky to her Refrigerator, "I guess that means we'll have to deal with it, right?"
"That's why I called you."
"In case we won't be able to handle this, I'll contact Fleet Admiral Aiden of Sparta Battle Group for assistance. See you, dad." She cut the link and switched view to the bridge's main view screen, "Gisborn!"
The young Vice-Admiral's head shot up from the desk on the right arm of the command chair. Apparently, while she and her father were having their little chat, he was probably snoring the afternoon away… like what he always did whenever he was placed in command of the ship when the fleet was on standby. "Uh… it's not what you think, Elle. I just dozed off a minute ago!"
"Yeah, right," she rolled her eyes, "How many times have I heard that excuse, Charlie?" God knows why he entered the Navy as a Vice-Admiral. Unlike Elena, who achieved her rank through her performance, he got his because of his lineage. The Gisborns were the greatest strategists in the Arcadian Navy for the Alpha and Beta generations. Charles Patrick Gisborn, who was born into the Gamma generation, still had much of his worth to prove… if he had any.
"Alright, alright! I was snoozing!" he managed to reply, "What are your orders, then, Admiral of the Fleet?" the 17-year-old was somewhat lazy, although whenever he was given orders, he accomplished them with extreme efficiency… and cockiness. No matter the challenge, if ever Elena was temporarily out of commission, too busy to take command, not present at the moment, or… met a fatality… he was in command of the entire Ceres Battle Group: the ultimate Arcadian defense force, and used all 100 percent of its abilities.
"Humph. We've received word that at least a thousand Earth vessels have surrounded Arcadia Romano with plans to destroy it… and probably the entire Confederate system as well."
"That's why I felt uneasy… well, shall I give the command? Or will you take your place as the commanding officer of this Battle Group once more?"
She was just about to opt for the latter, when suddenly, an incoming transmission came through her private channel, a silver haired man replacing the image of Vice-Admiral Gisborn, "Who in the hell are you, and what are you doing on this channel!?"
"Allow me to introduce myself, Fleet Admiral." He bowed slightly, "Dr. Atriums Glaider, Pexis Lead Research."
"Do you expect me to thank you for the marvelous Pexis-based inventions I have at my Battle Group's disposal?" she half-joked, "If you want a Research Grant, ask my father. I only have authority over military matters."
"Oh, this is a military matter." He replied, "Please observe, I was given this disk by a contact of mine from the AIA who was planted into the Tarakian military. He found the information in Tarak's intelligence files." His image was replaced by a compiled footage of Nirvana's exploits and encounters with Earth, showing extreme emphasis to the Vandreads and their capabilities.
"Why bother showing me these?"
"These," he stressed, pointing at the four fighting machines, "May be the keys to help us in destroying the harvest fleet that has come here."
"And where are they right now?"
"In the custody of one Colonel Roy Flint, an officer commanding a Patrol Fleet protecting Arcadia Romano. I was just thinking, maybe—"
"You want me to go over there and collect them, right?"
"Right. His Distinction codes are Ensortesis-Kalmurph, 28170596-RF, Patrol Fleet division, Rank Colonel, Roy Angus Flint. His ship is the ACS McDread, ID code 77624-PG18, Patrol Battleship Class, Level 3 Derringer-Cleft. It has standard issue Copycat distorter missiles and standard level Hyper Regeneration systems. He was given command of 300 Patrol Class Strike Fighters, and 20 mid-class Singularity Interceptors." He brushed away a loose bang from his emerald eyes, "Apparently, all patrol forces have been ordered to pull back to Arcadia Romano, so you'll probably find him there."
"You really should cut down on details such as that." She let a chuckle escape her lips.
"What's so funny?"
"Nothing. Don't worry, I'll get them for you. And if you're still looking for that research grant, talk to my dad."
"I'll remember that."
His image vanished, replaced by that of Vice-Admiral Gisborn giving out orders and taking in reports, Just like the two sides of a coin: useful when given orders, useless when not given any due to his lack of initiative, "What's the latest we've got on the situation?"
The brown-headed Vice-Admiral, noticing that his superior was back on the main screen, looked up and said, "Well, let's see… about 97.3 percent of all Battleships are ready for wormhole entrance. The Velnich says it's having trouble with its warp engines and requests permission to sit this one out. Captain Aller says he has full trust that we'll win this one without his help."
"Well tell him that flattery won't get him anywhere; and if he wants to take a break, he can say that in front of the Demeter's Parabola Array. We need every man and woman in this Battle Group to help us win!" The Parabola Singularity Array, or Parabola Array for short was a set of seven to ten cannons mounted on a Sarkaeder Flagship's hull. Each one fired explosive rounds that carried microscopic Proton-Electron collapse generators, which destroyed all protons and electrons in all surrounding matter within a one-meter radius. The remaining particles, neutrons, attracted each other and came together into a super-dense mass that had enough gravitational power to start up a temporary black hole with a lifespan of five minutes. The thing was that it occurred independently, unlike the Singularity Lasers that Singularity Interceptors bore, which needed to remain on to keep the Black Hole alive. A commander can create hundreds to thousands of black holes in less than a minute to act as mines and suck in an enemy fleet. This was a rarely used tactic, though, and was applied only as a last resort for any known Arcadian Campaign.
"Will do, ma'am."
"Anything else?"
"Well, we've received word from Arcadia Prime. Apparently, they've confirmed the source of the sudden Mother Ship rush hiding somewhere in the ice cloud. It's not like anything we've ever seen before."
"What is it?" she wondered what the Earth could possibly send at them that could be described as 'like nothing we've ever seen before'. "Get me a size estimate and general shape."
"General shape is similar to most Harvest Mother Ship chasses we've encountered before, although several protrusions on the hull, identified as cannons and a bridge are present. Size is… you're not going to believe this, but its length is just about a bit longer than the diameter of Earth's moon! General size has the same ratio to regular Mother Ships, in terms of L/W/H, 20:5:5!"
That's why so many came without being detected at once! They were deployed! "Get me a visual." She tried to stay calm, as she always was. Her philosophy in life was that all obstacles could be overcome. Surely, this thing had a weak spot of some sort. The scenery outside was replaced with the image of a red vessel resembling a Mother Ship, although in the back portion protruded some sort of tower, in front of which two rows of two guns each were positioned. The side launching bays were loaded with the purple, yellow, and red colors of thousands of lesser Mother Ships' front parts.
"Surface-based detectors estimate that it will enter firing range of Arcadia Romano in about an hour." He looked somewhat nervous, his sweat showing his anxiety.
"Fleet Status?"
"All Battle Cruisers have been accounted for. The Velnich got an engineer to repair their warp engines, and is ready for jump. Shall I give the order?"
"Very well, then, Gisborn. You can have this dance."
"Thank you, ma'am."
The fleet of gargantuan vessels began to move away from the purplish globe of Arcadia Taledon, headed for a bluish tunnel that appeared several kilometers in front of them, Vice-Admiral Gisborn's departing speech trailing off as they jumped across space and time. "As you all know, the Earth is a formidable opponent in this war for liberation against their plans of harvest. They have many more surprises in store for us, and this great ship that they have sent is just one of them. We will tackle the enemy, and show them how great we are. How futile their attempts to decide our future for us are. We are no longer of the Earth. We are that of Arcadia! To arms, my brothers, and sisters, and prevail against this mighty foe!"
End of Chap2
QUOTE OF THE DAY—TOPIC: TEMPORAL MECHANICS (CONTROL OF TIME)
"Time travel, in the classic sense, has no place at all in rational theory, although temporal distortions certainly do exist on nonlinear scientific levels. But far more importantly than the proof of their existence, is that they can, and will be controlled."
—Academician Prokhor Zakharov
"For I Have Tasted the Fruit" ALPHA CENTAURI
Author's Notes: I'm really having a hard time doing this all alone. Can anybody suggest how this story line will go? Please review me!!! I'm starting to get anxious!