Parallelism.
It was an idea all of them dismissed. It was simply too absurd. Even the Doctor would not hold the thoughts reasonable.
But how right were they?
Chapter I
The Nirvana Designation
* * *
The still void of the Prexis was the constant companion of Parfet. Although certain malfunctions would arise, the blue ball kept silent and maybe a sarcastic look on its features. It had probably saved them when a Prexis energy missile was launched. And still, the blue energy source had remained faithful to them, despite the attacks.
It did though throw tantrums twice, once during the combination of Ikazuchi and the pirate ship, and the other time was when they forced the Prexis Plagma to work in such a green planet.
If it had just not happened...
If there were repairs done to it
If
If just...
The ship was pushed hard into a long chase, the Harvesters outnumbering them far much to be counted. The Harvesters did not give up easily. Knowing such power eminated from Nirvana's crew, they quickly assimilated large numbers of Harvesters out only for one reason: Nirvana's crew.
It looked bleak in such a situation, where you knew you couldn't win, but somehow you had to. It never was the same...the incident the first time would not happen again.
Still, they hoped...
That a miracle would happen
To save them all
"Dita! Meia! Jura! All Dread teams dispatch! Hibiki, go for it!"
The Dreads quickly made their way to the void space, managing to face the courage just to face such an unspeakable foe.
Hibiki courageouly dispatched his Vanguard into space, and tried to unite with Dita, after all, it was the firepower they needed.
But the Harvesters learned quickly. Scout Harvesters were immediately dispatched to prevent such a uniting of Dread and Vanguard.
It worked. The humans were forced to fight by themselves, unable to come even close to each other.
Dita's Dread waltzed through space, constantly evading fire from Harvesters. It almost careened straight to a Scout Harvester, if not for quick thinking that she manipulated the controls hastily.
"Uchujin-san! Tasukete!!!" she screamed as she barely parried laser fire erupting from enemies behind her.
But even Uchujin-san could not do anything.
"...kuso!" Jura cursed under her breath as attacks came pummeling her red Dread.
Even Meia was visibly annoyed. She began her reckless flight manuevers, dodging Harvesters, evading fire...
The Dreads were being ignored by the main fleet. After all, the Harvesters figured, what were the Dreads and the Vanguard without the main ship?
The Harvesters pursued the Nirvana, constant fire erupting from them, aiming right through the Nirvana.
The defense system of Nirvana quickly gave away.
"Shield systems down by 40%!" one crew memeber reported.
"Arrgh!" Magno clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. Why the heck was this happening? It didn't have to happen...Why were they chased by Harvesters? And so many?! "Bart! Manuever us out of this!"
"Hai! Hai!" the naked pilot named Garsus immediately replied. It wasn't that easy though, many Harvesters were annoying him, and with realism that surrounded the navigation, it could have been hard enough.
Suddenly, the screen flashed Parfet's image.
"What Parfet?" Buzam asked, slightly annoyed at such disturbances during crisis.
"We're in trouble." Parfet's eyes showed anxiety and her round eyepieces seemed to magnify the extent.
"How come?"
"The Prexis Plagma is in a dangerous state. If much more energy is used, the Prexis Plagma would be strained to an extent where it would be too volatile to operate. A chain reaction would cause the Prexis to overheat, causing it to simply explode."
Irritation covered Buzam's face. "How long until this happens?"
"At the most, 25 minutes is what I can estimate. Any longer than that, the ship the Prexis would overheat."
Maybe the Harvesters knew it would happen, maybe not. Who knew how much the Harvesters knew of human life?
"Any solutions?"
"We could try Prexis Reverse Polarization. Meaning-" She stopped, the whole Nirvana shook once more. She managed to keep her balance, keeping her from falling. "Since the Prexis is in a dangerous state, we could try to release the energy through polarization."
"Then try it!"
"It might not work!" she worriedly said. "Even worse, the reverse polarization might fracture the alignment of the two ships, causing them to break into half!"
Magno quietly seethed in her seat, her temples bulging with veins. How were they getting out of this?!!
Meanwhile, the scout harvesters kept the four, Jura, Meia, Hibiki, and Dita busy. The rest of the Dread fleet were damaged early in the battle, making them useless for the rest of the time.
Repairs were impossible. The whole crew was in amok, their emotions overtaken by panic and confusion. They had needed a savior, above all, they needed a good ending.
That was not happening.
Time quickly passed, 10 minutes, where slowly Hibiki Tokai and the 3 Dread fighters were too exhausted. Their fighting response had slowed down, and the Harvesters knew that they were of no threat. The Harvesters quickly moved on to more important matters, like the extermination of Nirvana.
The Dreads and Hibiki's Vanguard immediately proceeded to Nirvana, being the only defense of Nirvana. But Hibiki and the others learned fast that Harvesters were relentless in their pursuit, they just kept on coming. And for another reason, the Harvesters knew the fighting styles of Hibiki and the Dread fighters, giving Harvesters an upper edge in evasion.
Time betrayed them, giving them only 5 minutes before Nirvana would inevitably explode.
"Large energy heat source detected from mother ship!"
"On screen!"
The mother ship's open hole began to spit out energy, charging up the nozzle, ready to fire...
"Bart! Evade!"
"HAI!" He quickly moved out of harm's way, and everything was going to be all right...
The suddeness of which it happened was the worst part of it. It seemed as if a nightmare, where you were going to eventually wake up and forget it...
The lights of Nirvana abruptly shut off.
"NANI?!" Buzam screamed. She grabbed her radio transistor and it crackled to life. "Parfet! Report!"
"The Prexis has just shut down!" Parfet said, anxiety and worry piercing her voice.
"Energy beam coming! Distance 2400 and closing!"
"IIE!!!" Hibiki screamed. Using what left energy inside him, he rushed to Nirvana, only to find he was too-
"Sayonara Hibiki, Dita, Jura, Meia..." the trailed voice of Magno said. Her mocked enthusiasm seemed to betray the sad words she uttered. "I just hope that you will all make-"
"OBA-CHAN! Don't die on me!" Hibiki's voice pierced through the radio.
"Boss!" Meia's voice uttered, tears staining her face.
"DAME!!!" Dita tried to scream. She cursed the helplessness, the unability to do anything, just to watch your loved ones die like that.
"Distance: 500!"
"It out all right," Magno continued, the very first tears erupting from her face. "Make sure you take care of that boy because-"
The energy beam pierced through Nirvana, the very fabric of metal which consisted it, melted at the heat....
The Prexis roared to life, giving them video communication, for the moment.
The four stared into the eyes of the crew they saw. Magno, Buzam, Parfet, Bart, Barnette, Gascogne. Gascogne made a hard effort to smile and said her favorite words. "Smile! Smile!"
Then static roared into the video screen as Meia, Jura, Dita and Hibiki thought it was the end.
And when all had failed, it was not yet the end.
"YOU! MONSTERS!" Hibiki muttered through clenched teeth. "I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" He took the sword from his back and readied himself to destroy at sight. His anger seethed through his veins, adrenalin pumping.
Revenge.
Revenge.
Die you bastards!
As he came nearer and nearer to the mother ship, hundreds of scout harvesters crashed unto Hibiki, rendering his Vanguard useless.
"IIE!!!" He tried moving it, and gave a slight glance to his bleeding fingers, all the pain.
Pain.
Darkness.
"LOW FUEL WARNING!" the computer-generated voice said through Dita's Dread.
Harvesters quickly surrounded Dita's Dread, clutching on to the Dread's exterior.
"ALARM! ALARM! EJECT IMMEDIATELY!"
"Jura! Report!" Meia called. "JURA!"
Jura's Dread lay motionless, no movement obvious.
Dead?
Possibly dead?
Meia's thoughts gave in to the panic, confusion...
Mama...
Mama...
She wanted to be with Mama...To just wake up from a bad dream...
All the pain...
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
I took Chapter I from The Path That Still Lies and made it part of this fic.