Disclaimer: I don't own Nadesico or any of the characters appearing in the television anime series or manga. This fanfiction is meant purely to entertain. So please don't sue me, I'm not worth it. I openly admit that I don't own Nadesico, and I'm not trying to pass this off as a completely original story. Also, I don't own Golden Boy or Transformers, but I do use a few lines from both and a lot of mecha from Transformers, but I do own the characters Finn Saotome, Yumi Yoshino, Sanoske/Sakura Hashima, Mr. Noda, Mrs. Noda, and I think that's about it. If you want pictures of the mecha, don't hesitate to e-mail me at soundwave100@hotmail.com  Thanks!

-by CdnShockwave

Act 4

Where Are We?

          "Ooowww," Finn groaned. 'I'm getting sick of this waking up and feeling like I was just hit by a truck thing,' he thought. 'What's going on? Where am I?' Slowly he opened his eyes. He could see nothing, just blackness everywhere. He tried to move, but something held him against his seat.  'What's this?' He touched the weight on top of him.

          "Just five more minutes, Yu. I'll be right down," someone murmured.

          'Ryoko? What's she doing here? What's going on?' Finn's mind raced. "Ryoko?" he said, trying to pull himself together.

          "Just a few more minutes," Ryoko murmured in her sleep.

          "Ryoko. Wake up." He nudged her, and felt her stir. There was a loud thump.

          "Ooowww." Ryoko held her head.  "Where am I?" she asked, alarmed by the darkness.

          "Calm down," Finn said.

          "Finn?" Ryoko was fully awake now. "Where are you?" He felt her feel around the inside of the cockpit.

          "Take a wild guess." He could feel Ryoko touch his arm.

          "Why is it so dark in here?" She asked, taking a long, deep breath.

          "Beats me."

"Then why not bring the systems online?" she asked in a 'what kind of idiot are you?' kind of voice. Finn felt for the plugs and shoved his hands into them. Nothing happened.

"Nothing. It's dead."

          "You mean we're stuck here then?"

          "Not necessarily," Finn said. "We have two options. One, we could try getting the backup power grid up and running. Two, we could try ejecting."

          "Number one sounds better to me."

          "Somehow I thought you might," he replied.

          "So what do we do?" she asked after Finn failed to say anything.

          "Wha? Oh right." He was getting a little too used to Ryoko's body against his. "Feel right above us, you should feel a glass panel." He could hear Ryoko feeling around the roof of the cockpit.

          "This?" She tapped her fingers against something.

          "That sounds like it. Punch it as hard as you can. There's a button on the inside that should give us power," Finn explained, stressing the word 'should'.

          "What do you mean 'should'?" Ryoko demanded.

          "Well…you see…"

          "Damnit. Spill it."

          "Alright. When we tested it, it had a tendency to…well…not work," Finn said.

          "Great," She said sarcastically.

          "Just give it a try," Finn told her. There was a sharp crack as Ryoko's fist shattered the breakaway glass and hit the switch beneath. Nothing happened. "Ooooh crap."

          "Work you hunk of tin!" Ryoko gave the monitor a quick, but hard, smack. The screen fizzled to life and the control panel began to light up. However, the image it displayed didn't help their moral much. It was pure white. It was the same with most of the side monitors, with the exception of the bottom right; it showed a mix of white and swirling gray. "Oh, come on! Give me a break! We've been shot at, crushed, smashed, mulched, teleported, crashed, and you mean to tell me you're broken?!"

          "Wait a sec." Finn tried to control the ACF through his IFS. It didn't budge. "My IFS link is down. Do you see the control stick there?"

          "Yes," Ryoko replied.

          "There should be a green button along the panel just to the right of that. Hit it. It will clear whatever's covering the monitor. That is, if its not broken."

          "Gee, you're such an optimist. Alright, here goes." She pushed the button. The grainy white image began to clear a little. The outside became clearer. "Snow?"

          "Well, at least we know we're not floating off in space," Finn said. "Check the atmospheric composition. The command is A-7230." Ryoko typed in the command and a window popped up. "What's it say? I'm not getting anything in here with the IFS down."

          "It says outside's made of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and trace elements of this and that. So that means we must be on either Mars or Earth," she concluded.

          "And wherever we are, it looks like we're in a bit of a storm," Finn added.

          "Shouldn't we get some kind of beacon going? So that anyone nearby will come pick us up?" She asked.

          "Good idea. But if we're on Mars then that might bring some unwanted company," Finn informed her.

          "I don't care at this point. Tell me what to do or I'll start pushing buttons at random," she threatened.

          "There's an orange button alone the left side panel. Hit that. If it starts blinking red that means we're in business." Finn, knowing what Ryoko can be like after being rudely awakened, didn't try and argue.

          "Done. It's blinking. I don't suppose this thing can actually fly?" she asked.

          "Probably not," Finn answered. "Shall we take a look outside?"

          "It's a blinding snowstorm. I think I'd rather remain in here where it's warm and wait for help," Ryoko said. They waited. And waited. And waited. And, a drumroll began…waited some more. "Ahhh! I'm tired, hungry, and freezing!" Ryoko was beginning to snap.

          "Well, we have been sitting here in the cold for hours. Even this thing can't stay toasty forever in this kind of weather," Finn informed her. Ryoko had long since removed the restraints and they were, more of less, sitting face to face. Finn had managed to remove his suit, which, being made of metal, provided negative insulation. Ryoko was wearing the blue pants and white sweatshirt she had been wearing when they fled the Noda's shop. Finn was still in the short sleeved blue shirt and beige trousers. "Hmm. I don't think this is the right colour combination for me," he said, looking himself over.

          "I don't think whether or not your clothes match really matters right now. Can't we turn up the heat or something?" Ryoko asked, shivering.

          "As much as I'd like to, we can't spare the power. This thing's barely staying on as it is. If we waste any power then our beacon might die," Finn explained.

          "I would hardly call keeping us warm a waste of power," she said.

          "We could try body heat?" Finn suggested with a sly grin on his face.

          "Interesting proposition, Saotome." Surprisingly enough, Ryoko seemed to find this idea worthy of note. "How do you propose we do this?"

          "Eh?" Finn stared at her.

          "Look, I'm freezing. You're freezing. We might as well help each other out here," Ryoko said. Finn was still in the shock of Ryoko taking his 'idea' seriously. "Don't you want to?" She grinned and removed her sweatshirt. "Take off your shirt," she commanded.

In Finn's head floated an image of Ryoko holding a whip over him, but he quickly shook that idea out of his head. 'Some women are scary,' he reminded himself.

Finn made a kind of 'hey-go-with-what-works' kind of face and did as she told him. Ryoko then removed the t-shirt she had been wearing under her sweatshirt and crawled, for the second time, into Finn's lap.

          "None of that frilly lacy stuff? I'm disappointed," Finn joked. Turning a healthy shade of red upon seeing Ryoko's…assets. Contained, of course, within the confines of a Nergal standard issue bra.

          "I'm not the kind who buys lingerie," Ryoko informed him. "Well?"

          "Well what?" Finn asked.

          "Your arms. Put them around me. I can't just sit on you or else all that heat will be lost," Ryoko answered. She was not entirely blush-free either. Finn was by no means muscular. One might say he was more on the lanky side, given his height, but what muscle he had was well toned. Finn did as Ryoko told him to do, and slipped his arms under hers and held her against his body. Despite her shivers (of being cold), Ryoko's bare skin was warm to the touch. Ryoko then draped their discarded pieces of clothing over them like a blanket. "Just don't try anything." Ryoko tried to sound as warning as possible. Finn didn't answer. He just sat there doing what he knew best, existing. Ryoko could faintly feel his breath on the back of her neck, which made the tiny hairs back there stand on end. "How long do you think we'll be stuck in here?" she asked, trying to get her mind off certain subjects.

          "Beats me. Everything's dead. There could be people outside throwing snowballs at us right or we could be sitting on some drift of ice in the middle of nowhere," Finn answered.

          "You're such an optimist," Ryoko teased.

          "Am I?" Finn seemed to be off in some other world, and was only answering with the smallest fraction of consciousness.

          "Hey, what's up?" Ryoko rested her head on Finn's shoulder. "You ok?" Finn heaved a sigh.

          "I guess so," he replied.

          "Come on. What's going on with you?" Ryoko shifted herself so she could see his face.

          "I don't really want to talk about it," Finn said, avoiding her gaze. "Still cold?"

          "Oh no you don't. You're not getting out of this one," Ryoko said. "Come on, tell me what's bothering you." Finn looked into her eyes for a split second, then looked away. "Don't you trust me?"

          "It's not that. Of course I trust you. But…" he trailed off.

          "But what?" Finn closed his eyes for a moment, looking as though he were fighting an inward battle of some kind.

          "It's so…different," Finn began.

          "Different?" Ryoko asked.

          "It's been what? Nine months since I first saw you?" Finn seemed to ignore Ryoko's question. "When I first saw you there in the hangar, I honestly thought you were going to kill me. I mean, you were standing there with the rest of them with your guns at my head. Even after took off my mask, you were the last one to lower your gun."

          "But that was…"

"I don't know what it was about me that made you so angry." Finn kept on

talking. "I kept asking myself 'what did I do wrong? What did I do to deserve this?' And then there was the time I accidentally saw you come out of the shower. Understandably you were upset, you had every right to be. But you never even gave me a chance." Finn stopped for a moment. "But there was something about the way you cursed at me, the way you hit me. Something in your eyes told me that there was more to you than the I-don't-take-shit-from-anyone tomboy you seemed like. That's why I never thought twice about it when you threw me through doors. I was never bitter about it. And then we got tossed halfway across the solar system, and it was like…I don't know. It was like that look in your eyes before took over. At first I thought it wasn't you sitting there in the hospital. But when I saw that look in your eyes, it wouldn't matter what colour your hair was or what kind of clothes they made you wear. It felt like that look was for me and me alone. And when we left the hospital, we refused to let ourselves be separated. But all that time there was this one part of me. A part of me that kept asking 'what if? What if this is just a strategy to get home?' But then this morning when I saw you there next to me. That part of me shut up. You looked scared. I never thought I'd see a look as frightened as that. It wasn't any face contorted or twisted in fear. Just your eyes. It all comes back to your eyes. They were wet with repressed tears. I didn't know what you were scared of, but I did. It was a feeling. Something you can't put into words. No amount of words could describe what I saw in your eyes. But when I took your hand, I saw the smallest, most subtle change. It was like a sliver of light just barely breaking through the clouds. I wouldn't say that you've changed, that you're some different person than before. It's more like you've shown me a side you've kept locked away. Like something you were afraid to show anyone."

He fell silent and for the first time since he started talking, he looked at Ryoko. She looked at him, and brushed aside the tears that were in her eyes, but Finn could tell those weren't tears of sorrow or pain. Both of them had long since forgotten about being cold.

          "What…what are you saying?" she asked, their eyes locking.

          "What I'm trying to say is…that I…" Finn struggled. 'Damnit! Just say it! What's holding you back?' his mind screamed at him. He stopped and took a breath. "What I'm trying to say," he said. "Is that I…" He stopped short as the whole ship moved, as though it had just been picked up and shaken. They both tried to ignore it, but when the ACF hit something and they were thrown into each other, they came back to reality. The frame hit something and then it was quiet again.

          "What's going on?" Ryoko asked, sounding just a little irritated.

          "I don't know." Finn kicked the monitor. "Nothing's working." There came a loud rumbling noise, as though someone were holding a jackhammer against the outside of the AFC. Then there came a pounding on the cockpit roof. Instinctively, Finn and Ryoko reached for their sidearms. Finn had to pick his out of the blanket of clothes surrounding them and Ryoko fumbled along the floor for hers. When the hatch to the cockpit opened slightly they both aimed at whatever might be coming after them. Outside they heard voices, but they were too muffled to understand. Finally the hatch burst open. The sudden bright intensity of the lights blinded them both. Finn fired a shot out of the cockpit, aimed at one of the bright overhead lights as a warning, and also to get the light out of his eyes.

          "Whoa! Hold on a sec there," came a familiar voice. "Watch where you shoot that thing!"

          "Wha?" Finn and Ryoko said in unison. They shielded their eyes, and after a moment, were able to see somewhat clearly outside. "Seiya?" They both said.

          "Sorry, was I interrupting something?" Seiya said, noticing their current state of undress. Finn and Ryoko both looked at themselves, then at each other and threw their shirts back on, but not before several bright flashes of light came from above. They both blinked at the spots in front of their eyes. "These are going in the scrap book." Seiya was holding several instant photos.

"Sex fiends," someone said. Finn, upon seeing the camera, quickly fired a shot and blew the device clean out of Seiya's hand, sending it in pieces to the floor. Seiya quickly stuffed the photos into his pocket and stood back as Ryoko climbed out of the cockpit, with Finn following her. They were both blinded again as they came out of the shaded cockpit and into the blinding bright lights of the hangar. "They're ok!" Seiya said through his loudspeaker

          "Gah man. Put that away." Finn held his hands against his ears.

          "The Nadesico?" Ryoko asked. "How'd you find us so quickly?" No one paid attention to her. A med team appeared and threw both of them on stretchers and carried them out of the hangar and down to sickbay. "Look! I'm fine already!" Finn saw Ryoko's outline through the curtain that separated their beds.

          "I'm just making sure." Came Inez's familiar, encyclopedia like voice from the other side. "You've suffered minor frostbite on your left foot. But that will heal nicely. Other than that you're alright. Alright Lt. Saotome. You're turn." Inez flung the curtain back and began Finn's examination. "All you're suffering from is slight sleep deprivation and an irregular heartbeat," she said, writing some notes down on a chart.

          "You try going through what we just did." Finn said. "Look, I'm fine. I just want to…" He looked at Ryoko, who was looking at him. "Get some sleep." He smiled at her while Inez scribbled something else down.

          "Well, since you appear to have suffered only minor injuries I suppose it wouldn't harm either of you to go to your quarters." Inez got up and left the room. Finn rose from his sickbay bed and stood by the door. Ryoko joined him and they began to make their way down the halls, the florescent lights overhead buzzing away.

          "Ryoko!" Came a voice from behind the two. Akito grabbed Ryoko in his arms. "I can't believe it!" he said, releasing her, and getting a dirty looked from Finn. "We all thought you guys were finished. At first we kept searching for you, thinking you might have ended up somewhere around one of the nearby chulips. But after a few months we began to give up hope." Akito became quiet. "We had a funeral service for you guys two weeks ago."

          "A what?!" Finn and Ryoko said in unison.

          "You were gone for eight months," Akito explained.

          "Eight…" Finn began.

          "Months?" Ryoko finished.

          "Yeah. But in the meantime…" Akito started.

          "We're getting some sleep." Finn interrupted.

          "Right." Akito said. He shook Finn's hand. "Good to have you back."

          "See ya." Finn and Ryoko continued on their way.

          Finn tossed and turned in his bed.

          "Gah. It's no good." He said, sitting up and putting his feet on the floor. "Something's not right." He glanced at his watch. "2:00 AM? It's only been an hour since I left sickbay." He flopped back onto his bunk. "What's wrong?" He stared in the dim light for a while at the ceiling panels above him. "I'm thirsty. That must be it. I need a can of juice," he concluded. He threw on some sweatpants, exited his room, and made his way towards the vending machines. He swiped his card and a can of orange juice fell into the bin. On his way back he stopped. Something clicked in his head. Passing his room, he made his way down the halls, eventually stopping outside one door. He pressed the button, and it slid open. "I figured I might find you here."

          "About time you figured it out," came a familiar voice from inside. "I've been trying forever to get to sleep. And believe me, Hikaru's snoring and Izumi's babblings don't help." Finn stepped inside and shut the door behind him. Inside the observation deck was dark, lit only by the thousands of stars whose' light came pouring in through the windows. Finn joined Ryoko under the blanket. The ground was hard and the air was cold, but that, somehow, didn't matter.

Honey, I'm Home!

          "SAOTOME!!" aomeone screamed at Finn.

          "Wha? Whazzat?" Finn poked his head up out of the blanket.

          "Damnit Saotome! Wake up already!" the voice screamed at him again. Finn was very tempted to take the communicator off his wrist and crush it into the ground.

          "Ugh. Fine. What is it?" Finn sat up and Seiya's face was projected from his communicator into a small vidwindow.

          "Where the hell have you been? You were supposed to meet me in the hangar three hours ago so we can get to work on your frames.

          "What's going on?" murmured a voice from beside Finn.

          "Who was that?" Seiya asked.

          "Never mind that," Finn yawned.

          "I need you down here right now. We've been working on repairing the structural damage since late last night. But we started on the interior repairs and well…none of us can figure it out," Seiya explained.

          "Come back to bed," the voice beside Finn murmured in her sleep. "It's too early for this. Yu said I don't start will later."

          "I'm positive I just heard someone there," Seiya said, manoeuvring to get a better view."

          "I'll be right down." Finn swung a hand through the window, causing the holographic vidwindow to fizzle and close. He flopped down on the blanket and stared at the bright, morning sky projected above him. In her sleep, Ryoko rolled over and put her arms around him. After a few minutes she began to stir. "Good morning."

          "Mernin," Ryoko mumbled.

          "I'm just on break. I'll be back in five," came a muffled voice from outside. "Finally a little peace and quiet." Akatsuki walked into the room, but froze when he saw Finn and Ryoko. " 'scuse me. I didn't know you two were busy." He quickly wheeled around. Ryoko shot up.

          "Akatsuki!" she yelled. "Come back here!"

          "Oh shit!" came a reply from down the hall as Akatsuki ran for his life. Ryoko flung the door open and ran after him, leaving Finn alone, blinking.

          "Oh well," he sighed. "Back to the grind," he yawned and left the room, tucking the blanket into a storage compartment in the wall. After stretching the kinks out of his spine, he made his way to the hangar. "Alright. I'm here. What can't you guys figure out?"

          "About time you got here." Seiya was sitting on a crate looking over one of the manuals Finn had provided him with. "So far most of the major structural damage has been repaired. We've been working on this," a yawn interrupted him. "All night. So I hope you appreciate this. When we took apart the cockpit and IFS controls we found something. I've never seen anything like it. I thought I'd check with you before any of us touched it. It looks somewhat important."

          "What is it?" asked Finn.

          "It's right here." Seiya climbed up onto the ACF's chest plate and motioned for Finn to follow. "Its that thing. All the IFS wiring and circuitry seems to all come together here." He shone inside the dismantled cockpit. "It looks like the bioreceptor in the aestivalis, but I'm not entirely sure. Just what is that thing?"

          "That's the minicomputer that feeds the information from the IFS plugs to the central computer," Finn answered.

          "That's what I thought. But the mechanics are so complex…" Seiya trailed off and watched as Akatsuki ran into the hangar and dove behind a stack of crates. "What the…?"

          "Don't ask," Finn saw Ryoko appear at the door.

          "You're lucky this time!" Ryoko shouted and left.

          "Is she gone?" Akatsuki poked his head out from behind the crates. Finn and Seiya nodded.

          "Just what was that all about?" Seiya inquired.

          "Just don't ask," Finn glared at Akatsuki, giving him one of those 'tell-anyone-and-I'll-cut-your-throat' looks. "Is that all you need me for?"

          "Yeah," Seiya handed Finn a roll of electrical tape and some pliers. "Hurry up. We'd like to start putting this thing back together today."

          "Wha? Me?" Finn looked at the tools in his hands. "Damn maintenance crew," he mumbled.

          "What was that?" Seiya.

          "Hand me some latency glue," Finn answered. "By the way," he said as he began crawling into the dismantled cockpit. "Did you guys find the other one?"

          "What other one?" Seiya asked, not really paying attention to Finn.

          "My other frame. Did it show up anywhere?"

          "Oh yeah. It's over there," Seiya motioned to the far side of the hangar. "Yeah, we picked that one up when it crashed into UF Headquarters. Not difficult to find. But Prospector had to pull a rabbit out of his ass to explain why a ship registered to the Nadesico left a crater where UF HQ used to be."

          "Whoops," Finn bit his lip and got to work.

          It was some time before Finn had finished repairing the damage to the IFS, monitors, and computer that Sanoske had inflicted on the frame, most of which lay in pieces all over the hangar. The only sections still somewhat intact were the cockpit and legs. The MAF didn't fare much better. It truly looked like it had been hauled out of a smoking crater. They had tried an engine test, but when the computer predicted meltdown they decided it still needed work.

Around 2:00 PM he Finn took a break and made his way, covered in grease stains from the joint components and clothes singed due to wiring mishaps, to the cafeteria. It was pretty much deserted. There were a few security officers and a maintenance crewmember here and here, but other than that it was quiet.

          "I've always said that an army moves on its stomach. Nice to have you and Ryoko back.  What can I get for you, Lt. Saotome?" Miss Howmei asked from behind the counter. Finn rested his head against the wall.

          "Is to too late for breakfast?" He managed to say.

          "We stopped serving at eleven. Right now we're doing lunch. Can I interest you in a roast beef sandwich?" she asked.

          "Sure," Finn reached for his card, but Miss Howme crossed her arms when he offered it to be swiped.

          "On the house," she said smiling. "Besides, according to the UF and most of Nergal, you're dead. Not that you existed in their eyes before."

          "Right. I'll have to have a word with Prospector." Finn took the food and grabbed an iced tea (sweetened for those who want to know) and sat down at table. It wasn't until he had taken a bite that he realized just how hungry he really was. When he popped the iced tea {(sweetened) the author laughs maniacally} open, he saw the other pilots file into the room. Akatsuki was strangely absent, for reasons only the reader can hazard. Ryoko was being hassled by Hikaru and Izumi, and Akito went straight to the back, throwing on his apron.

          "Welcome back to the land of the living, Saotome!" Hikaru chirped as she and the other pilots sat down at his table. Hikaru and Izumi sat opposite Finn and Ryoko.

          "We're dead serious," the undead Izumi added.

          "So what was it like? Where did you go?" Hikaru asked. Finn began to speak but shut up when Ryoko raised her hand.

          "Neither of us remember. Right, Saotome?" Ryoko said. Finn blinked and swallowed a mouthful of his sandwich. "It was just like the time we jumped from Mars. We got sucked into the chulip and got spit out somewhere else." She gave Finn a gentle nudge in the ribs. "Right?"

          "Right," Finn said, taking a sip of his iced tea. The author contemplated adding the word sweetened there but figured that by now the audience gets the idea.

          "How come you weren't at the briefing this morning?" Hikaru asked.

          "Rumour has it his briefs were at another meeting this morning," Izumi snorted and began laughing her insane little laugh. They both turned a slight shade of red, that is, before Ryoko grabbed Finn's half empty iced tea can and crushed it into Izumi's forehead. Hikaru blinked.

          "What does that mean…" Hikaru was cut off there as a slight rumbling sound, followed by a shudder. Finn's communicator blinked.

          "Saotome!" Seiya coughed. "We need you."

          "Sorry Hikaru. Can't talk now." Finn popped the last bit of food into his mouth and bolted from the room.

          "Um…I'll go too." Ryoko said and ran off after him, leaving a slightly confused Hikaru by herself at the table and Izumi unconscious on the floor, iced tea gargling in her throat.

          "That couldn't have worked out better," Ryoko said, running next to Finn.

          "I suppose that's one way of looking at it," Finn replied. They stopped at one of the entrances to the hangar. When the door slid open, smoke poured into the hallway.

          "That you Saotome?" Seiya coughed from somewhere inside. Finn and Ryoko walked into the smoke filled hangar. They found Seiya, his face blackened by some unplanned, minor explosion, sitting on the floor with his back against the wall.

          "What did you do this time?" Ryoko demanded. Seiya got up.

          "Get the vents going!" he shouted. "There's no fire, so make sure those sprinklers don't go off. That's the last thing I need is a cold shower." A few seconds later, the smoke cleared as it was drawn up by the ventilation system.

          "Just what happened here?" asked Finn.

          "Don't know," Seiya replied. "Something must have gone wrong when we booted up the main computer in the big one. We started it up when smoke began to stream out of the engine mounted on the back of the cannon. Then the whole thing just blew. Fortunately it had nothing to do with any of the nuclear components. Looks like it was an electrical problem. What's the damage like, men?!"

          "Come see for yourself, sir," one of the underlings said. They came around the side of the frame. Seiya looked as though he had some kind of heart condition, or at least, would have when he finished fixing this. Finn looked about the same way. There was a massive hole blown into the side of the frame, as though someone had just gouged it right out with a giant ice cream scoop.

          "Uh…sir?" the underling asked.

          "Don't…talk…to…me…" Seiya managed to say. Finn inspected the damage.

          "Whatever happened, it was hot. Really hot." Finn said, kicking a steaming chunk of the hull with his foot. "It melted its way right through. Did anything have the plasma cutter on this thing when this happened?"

          "No, sir," the underling replied.

          "It would appear," Inez said, appearing out of nowhere. "The when the engine mounted on the cannon was activated, some of the damaged  systems were not fully replaced. With this occurred the engine overloaded. Under normal conditions this would have triggered an automatic emergency shut down. However, due to the wiring, this command did not reach the engine's microcomputer. As a result, it overloaded. Because the engine was still connected to the ACF structurally and through connection cables, the overload caused central power supplies within the main frame to spark. One of these sparks occurred inside one of the internal oxygen canisters, igniting it, and thereby causing an explosion. The other oxygen canisters ignited as well in reaction, but because the energy had nowhere to go it forced its way out via the explosion. Due to the intense heat of the combusting oxygen, it melted the superstructure and components within this zone," she pointed to a small vidwindow diagram of the ACF. "And caused significant damage in this zone. Does that concur with your analysis, Lieutenant?"

          "…" Finn sweatdropped.

          "But if those parts melted, how are we supposed to repair them?" Seiya tore at his hair. "We can't exactly forge new parts on the Nadesico. All we can do is bang them back into shape!" Finn sat down on the floor and crossed his arms and thought.

          "Is the MAF still ok?" he asked.

          "Yeah, it was far enough back that nothing hit it." Seiya replied.

          "Some of this seems to be salvageable." he kicked the ACF lightly. "And we can't let all these perfectly good parts go to waste."

          "What are you suggesting?" Seiya asked.

          "Is there anyway we could combine parts from both frames?"

          "I suppose it's possible," Seiya said, taking a look at the blueprints Finn had given him when he first boarded the Nadesico. "But why? The MAF can be fully repaired. Can't you just use it?"

          "It may be fast and pack a lot of firepower. But it doesn't have the strength to go up against a goliath or a dimojin," Finn explained. "And if the Jovians are going to start relying on pilots instead of drone grasshoppers, I'll need something that I can go hand-to-hand with."

          "What exactly do you have in mind?" Seiya asked. Finn opened a vidwindow and began to tinker with the tech specs of the ACF and MAF frames. After a few minutes, he had formulated some kind of idea.

          "This," he enlarged the window so everyone could see. In its jet mode, it didn't look all that different. The two large main engines of the ACF, which were still intact, would replace the MAF's smaller, less powerful ones. The guns would be placed at the side, with an extended wing.  Two small machine guns, from existing aestevalis technology, could be mounted on the nose. In robot mode it looked much different. The engines served as the massive leg components. The arms were a mix of the ACF's powerful shoulder and arm components, with the MAF's smaller, more dexterous hand and finger parts. In this mode the two cannons would be mounted on the shoulders, instead of being removable. The wrist blades were not salvageable, however, Seiya added twin sabres onto the frame using technology from his distortion field penetrating blade devices. However, due to such drastic changes to the structure of the frames, it would partially lose its invisibility to radar. But because of the composition of the hull, it would only appear as a small flicker on a radar screen, something you might guess to be a piece of space junk. And it was still partially invisible to heat sensitive instruments. Finn looked at Seiya. "Think it can be done?"

          "This is a very rough sketch," Seiya said, sounding somewhat doubtful.

          "But is it possible?" Finn pressed.

          "Well," Seiya downloaded the vidwindow data onto his palm screen. "By itself the MAF's nuclear reactor doesn't generate enough power. But by adding additional plutonium from the ACF's core…" He rapidly scribbled notes, changing this and that. "I don't see why not. What do you think?" He handed the palm screen to Inez, who began to go over the data. (The author would like to point out here that he has almost zero knowledge when it comes to nuclear power, I'm just making it up as I go along. So for all of you who like real scientific explanations, sorry.)

          "I would say that this is physically possible. Given enough time, I'm sure we could pull this off," Inez answered. A small crowd had gathered around them.

          "Great! Inez, I need you to make this your top priority," Finn began.

          "I don't know if I'll have time. I'm already swamped with work as it is," Inez said doubtfully.

          "You have my orders to do what Lt. Saotome tells you to do in this project," Yurika said. Apparently she had slipped in when no one was looking.

          "Good. You and I'll have to go over all the engineering problems. Seiya, I need you to oversee construction," Finn said.

          "Sure. Oh this baby'll be sweet," Seiya drooled, looking over the data again. "This'll be fun," he said, looking up. Finn looked at Ryoko, who had a grin on her face.

          "Let's get to work."

          Work began immediately. Inez and Finn spent days working out all the technical and physical challenges of building the thing. They worked pretty much around the clock. Fortunately the Nadesico had been assigned to guard duty around the moon while UF fleets converged there, building up forces while they prepared to push the Jovians back even further. Seiya, along with most of the maintenance crew, spent most of his time stripping the frames of parts they would need. In doing so, they even found two barrels of the gattling cannon were still operational. Inez took these two parts into consideration while redesigning the side wings. They manage to fit as another set of guns set on at the rear of the frame on either side.

"The more firepower we can stick on this thing without making it too heavy the better," was how Finn described it. However, figuring out how to transfer radioactive plutonium from the ACF's core into the MAF was proving to be a bit of a challenge. "I guess there's no way we could do that inside the Nadesico," Finn said.

          "That's correct," Inez answered. "The Nadesico is shielded from radiation from the outside. Inside, there's nothing to stop it from spreading throughout the ship. Even opening the reactors on your frames would cause lethal amounts of radiation to flood the ship." They sat in silence for a few minutes.

          "You said that the Nadesico is protected from radiation from the outside, right?" Finn asked.

          "That's correct."

          "And our spacesuits are protected from radiation?"

          "Yes."

          "Then I've got an idea." Finn said, scribbling something down. "This is so educational."

A Nuclear Family

          "You'd like to do what?" Prospector asked. It had been two weeks since the initial disaster with the ACF's main engine, and the bits and pieces of the yet-to-be-named frame were beginning to take shape. "You can't be serious. If anything were to go wrong it could destroy the Nadesico along with part of the fleet that has been gathering around our position."

          "Why is exactly why I'd like to do this on the Moon's surface, away from people. That way if it blows, no one will be in the way," Finn explained.

          "What do you need in order to carry out this operation?" Yurika asked.

          "The basic idea is to transfer more plutonium from the MAF's smaller reactor into the ACF's. We'll need to do that in order of the new frame to have enough power to operate at 100% capability," Finn said. "I'll need and aestivalis to tow both of the reactors to the surface. After that all I need is your standard aestivalis tool kit."

          "What are the chances of accidents?" asked Prospector.

          "Depends. From what we can see from the outside, everything looks to be ok. But the ACF has been really bashed around. But all in all I'd say chances are pretty slim. Say… 5%." Finn tossed the figures to Prospector, who began to enter them into his ever-ready calculator.

          "And you're sure this location is at a safe distance?"

          "Yes."

          "Well then. I don't see why it can't be done."

          "Great. Now all I need is someone willing to come with me." Finn eyed the pilots, gathered at the other side of the bridge. "I take it Tenkawa is out of the question," he said to himself

          "What was that?" Yurika asked.

          "Um…nothing."

          "Megumi. What does the flight schedule look like right now?" Asked Yurika.

          "Akito and Hikaru are scheduled to go on scout patrol in half an hour. After that it's Ryoko and Izumi," Megumi replied.

          "Akatsuki isn't scheduled to head out for a while then. He'll be the one to toy you out. Akatsuki. Come here for a minute," Yurika ordered him over and explained what the operation was to entail. He didn't seem too thrilled about it.

          "I really don't have time to be playing around with you," Akatsuki said. They were both cramped into his aestivalis' cockpit.

          "Hey, I'm not to thrilled about it either." Finn replied, floating above Akatsuki's head. Just take us down." They landed seven hundred and eighty six kilometers from any lunar colonies or research stations. Finn exited the aestivalis, floated down to the ground and began his work. Unfortunately there was little they could do onboard the Nadesico without risking leaks. However, they had managed to separate the reactor chambers from most of both frames. So Finn had to pretty much start by bashing broken bits away from the reactor chamber's door before he could actually do anything. It took about an hour or so to clear everything away. "Ok." Finn flipped down his visor. He wasn't wearing his normal suit, which wasn't heavy enough to be fully protected from the intense radiation that he would soon experience. There was a small keypad with numbers zero to nine and the letters A through G. He typed in the first of the three codes he would have to enter. "So far so good."  When he punched in the last code, a small compartment opened, and a keyhole appeared. Finn removed a key from his pocket and slipped it in. The chamber door slid open slowly. Inside there were long metal rods that extended from the floor of the chamber to the ceiling. Encircling each rod were three hockey puck sized cylinders.

          "Hurry it up already," Akatsuki said. "I've got better things to do than sit here and baby-sit you." Finn stopped what he was doing and floated up to the aestevalis' head.

          "Shut up already. If I screw up here we're both fried like eggs in a microwave," Finn said, banging on the aesti's face.

          "Whatever," Akatuski crossed his arms. Finn turned off his communicator.

          'I don't need that shit now,' he thought, returning to open reactor core. Now it was time to open up the MAF's core and plunder some of its fuel. Fortunately, Seiya had been able to completely extract the smaller frame's reactor, which was about the size of a refrigerator, so Finn didn't have to kick and bash broken parts away. And three more codes and another key later, its core was soon exposed as well. "Now for the tricky part." Slowly he began to undo the tight bolts that held the cylinders in place. Unlike the ACF, which had three such stacks of cylinders, the MAF only had one, but Finn was sweating bullets all the same. He knew that one wrong move or error could cause a major problem. Something, oh I don't know, that could turn the Nadesico's pilot roster to Ryoko, Izumi, Hikaru, Akito, and a large collection of Finn and Akatsuki bits. When he finally loosened the last bolt on the MAF, he carefully removed the cylinders and placed them into a case. There were nine cylinders in all. Finn gulped as he slid the last one off. When this task was complete, he punched in the commands to seal the MAF's chamber. Now Finn set to work loosening the bolts that held the rods and their cylinders in place in the ACF's core. This, again, took some time. Three times as long as it had with the MAF, since there was thrice the number of rods. When he finally completed this task, he slid three of the MAF's cylinders onto each rod. All the while he kept a close eye on the temperature gage that was placed inside the core. Suddenly, the ground shook below him. Finn looked up and scanned the area. Off towards his left, flashes from explosions could be seen. "What's going on?" He asked, turning his communicator back on.

          "Where the hell have you been?" Akatsuki shouted. "The Captain ordered us to pull back an hour ago when the battle began!"

          "I'm almost done. I just need ten more minutes," Finn went back to his work, despite Akatsuki yelling at him to get back inside. There was only one more cylinder to go. Just as Finn was placing it on its rod, the ground shook beneath him, causing him to drop it onto the ground.

          "Time's up," Akatsuki told him.

          "I'm almost there. I just dropped one." Finn fell on his hands and knees, looking and feeling for the cylinder. Above him, Akatsuki fired at incoming grasshoppers. A stray missile exploded not far from where Finn was working, causing lunar dust to explode in his face.

          "We're leaving!" Akatsuki fired up the engines.

          "Just hold on a sec!" Finn searched frantically through the dust until he felt the cylinder and pulled it out.

          "Look, we won't have enough time. My speed's cut in half with those things tied onto the back." Akatsuki said, firing another round. "Are you even listening to me?"

          "No." Finn slid the cylinder into place and quickly tightened the bolts with a device Seiya had provided him with. "Done."

          "Then get up here!" Akatsuki ordered.

          "Not yet."

          "You're going to do what?!"

          From the view screens of the Nadesico, all that followed was a bright flash of light, followed seconds later by an intense shockwave.

          "Ruri, report!" Yurika held onto her control panel as the Nadesico shook from the shockwave.

          "Reading high amounts of radiation from Lt. Saotome and Pilot Akatsuki's last confirmed position," Ruri answered. "Signature matches Lt. Saotome's MAF frame."

          "You mean he failed?" Yurika asked.

          "That is unconfirmed," Ruri said. The Nadesico shook violently again.

          "Did his other reactor just blow?"

          "Negative. The shock was due to an intense collision between the Nadesico's distortion field and a foreign object," reported Ruri. "High bose particle concentration detected at point 05827. They appear to be Jovian goliath type units."

          "Arm the gravity blast cannon," Yurika ordered.

          "Negative, Captain. Pilots Subaru and Tenkawa are currently within our line of fire. Also, the goliaths' field strength is capable of withstanding a fully gravity blast wave." Ruri displayed a window showing their enemy's distortion field strength.

          "Recall all pilots and arm PT cannon then!" Yurika ordered.

          "That would not be advisable, Captain," a vidwindow from Inez popped up. "The PT cannon's range is much larger than that of the gravity blast. The initial blast wave would vaporize all units within a 100 kilometer radius. However, the resulting shock wave would probably cause severe damage on any colonies within 300 kilometers. Now this…"

          "We get the idea already!" Yurika screamed. "Fire a missile barrage at the goliaths, target their distortion field's weakest point." The Nadesico launched its missiles, scoring at least one direct hit on each goliath. This gave Ryoko and Akito, both piloting lunar surface frames, enough time to rip their way through their enemy's distortion fields and engage them in close range combat. Akito stuck mainly to hand to hand, trying to literally rip his opponent apart with his bare hands. Ryoko relied mainly on her rifle. Her goliath took a few steps back and fired off a gravity blast, seeming not to care that a miscalculated blast could result in civilian casualties. Ryoko threw herself to the right of the blast but, however, was not fast enough. Her aesti's left arm was blown off and vaporized. But the most powerful part of the blast hit elsewhere. Ryoko hauled her frame off the ground and watched as the goliath lumbered in her direction. She pulled the trigger on her rifle.

          "What? Out of ammo? You have to be kidding me here," she said, managing to stand up. The goliath swung at her with one of its massive, clawed arms at her. She hit her thrusters and leapt high into the air. When the force of gravity finally managed to start pulling her back down, she grabbed her rifle by the barrel. Hitting her thrusters again, she flew straight down at her opponent. She channeled as much forward motion as she could into her one functional arm and brought the butt of her gun down heavily on the goliath's head. It stumbled back and fell back. Ryoko seized this opportunity to slam her fist into the mammoth machine's head. At first her punches caused little more than dents. However, after five or six steady blows, she began to rip clean through the armoured plating. She stopped when it ceased moving and picked up Akito's discarded rifle. "Stand back!" she called as she opened fire. However, without a second hand to steady the gun was difficult to aim and her shots were wide. The goliath capitalized on Akito's distraction and, with one of its clawed hands, slashed at him, tearing his aesti's head off. Ryoko balanced the gun on one knee and fired at the goliath as it was about to crush Akito's cockpit. The bullets ripped open the goliath's chest like a can opener. Ryoko held the trigger down until the rifle finally ran out of bullets. The goliath fell back and stopped moving.

          "Both goliaths have been neutralized. Remaining units now with in our effective range of gravity blast fire," Ruri reported.

          "Fire gravity blast," Yurika ordered. The launcher hatch opened and a stream of gravitron energy burst out. Grasshoppers melted under the intensity of energy and the goliaths boson jumped away.

          "Pilot Tenkawa's aestivalis has been severely damaged and is currently inoperable,"

          "Akito!" Yurika cried.

          "Don't worry, I'm alright." Akito's face popped up in a vidwindow. "No need to get all dramatic on us you nutbar."

          "I'm not faring to well myself, you know." Ryoko said, grabbing one of Akito's arms. Hikaru grabbed the other and together they hauled Akito's damaged frame back to the Nadesico, which had landed not far from them.

          "Oh Akito!" Yurika flung her arms around Akito's neck. "Are you alright?"

          "Gah! I'm fine!" Akito tried to pry Yurika off him, but she had him in a kung fu-like grip. "Why me?" He slumped his shoulders and walked out of the hangar, dragging Yurika with him.

          "Hey, where's Saotome?" Ryoko asked, noticing large sections from his frames were absent.

          "Yeah, now that you mention it, it is kinda quiet around here," Hikaru added.

          "Yo Megumi!" a vidwindow with Ryoko's face appeared in front of the purple haired communications officer. "Where'd Finn…I mean Saotome get to?" The bridge fell silent. "Come on. Spill it."

          "Pilot Subaru. We have reason to believe that Lt. Saotome and Pilot Akatsuki have been destroyed," Ruri said.

          "I'm sorry, Ryoko," Megumi said sadly.

          "Oh come on. You don't think he'd really let himself get killed that easily. He's done this before, you know," Ryoko said, crossing her arms.

          "But Ryoko. One of the reactors blew. We all saw it. And there's no way they could have gotten away that fast enough with the load they were towing," Megumi said doubtfully.

          "Look, try contacting him. He'll answer," Ryoko replied confidently.

          "Alright." Megumi put her headset back on and attempted to pick up Finn or Akatsuki's signal. "I'm sorry, Ryoko. I'm not getting anything."

          "Then I'll do it," she opened a communications window. "Saotome!" she shouted. "Answer me!" All she got was static. "Damnit Saotome! Answer me!" There was still nothing. At first Ryoko just stood there with her arms crossed. However, after few minutes the window closed itself, having received no signal. Ryoko continued to stand there with her head lowered, her hair covering her eyes.

          "Ryoko…?" Hikaru put her hand on her comrade's shoulder. Ryoko flung her aside.

          "Don't touch me," she hugged herself. "He's gone," she whispered to herself. "He's really gone."

          "Not exactly." Finn's staticy voice could be heard over the comlink. The hangar's inner door opened and Akatsuki's aesti crawled through it looking battered bruised, but not beaten. Behind it dragged the ACF's reactor core.

          "Saotome?" Ryoko looked up as Akatsuki's blue aesti disconnected the cable attached to the reactor from itself and took its usual position along the wall to be repaired. Akatsuki climbed out of the cockpit first, followed by Finn.

          "What? Do you have nine lives or something?" Seiya asked. "Try talking your way out of this one. We all thought you were dead…again."

          "It was easy. There was no way we could have pulled out in time carrying both reactors. I disconnected the MAF's reactor before I got back in the aestivalis." Finn explained coolly.

          "And let me guess. You figured that with less weight you could get out in time?" Seiya said.

          "Exactly," Finn peeled off the heavy spacesuit.

          "This guy is nuts," Akatsuki said, giving Finn a shove before pushing his way past.

          "Alright men! Back to work!" Seiya said through his loudspeaker. There was a collective groan, probably because most of the maintenance crew had not slept more than two hours a night in the last two weeks.

          "I'll be right back," Finn said, taking a whiff of the suit. "I think a shower is in order." He looked around for Ryoko, but she had disappeared.

"Looks like he's about to get some discipline," Akatsuki said when he noticed Finn's gaze. It was only a little later that he found her, standing outside his door.

"Hey, what's up?" Finn asked. She took her weight off the wall, stepped towards him, and slapped him, hard. Finn recoiled, holding the side of his face. "But…" he began, but stopped when Ryoko quickly grabbed him and held onto him, burying her face in his shoulder.

          "Don't ever do that again," she said harshly. "You may think it's funny. But it's not. We…I thought you were gone." Finn tried to hold Ryoko, but she pulled away and delivered a quick, but sharp, blow to his stomach. Finn fell to the floor winded.

          "Now we're even," she smiled and left.

Jetstorm, Afterbrurn!

          "Make sure the IFS unit's minicomputer is set to 0.28+," Finn said, working from under a pile of what appeared to be loose scrap. "Can't don't use any borrowed parts from the aestivalis units. I don't need to be fried again like I was on Mars!" he shouted to the techie as he walked away. The new frame was finally nearing completion. Finn, along with the entire maintenance crew and Inez, had been working pretty much 18-hour days. And with 5 explosions, 5093 short circuits, 3 near meltdowns, 50 000 km of wiring, 82 plasma cutter fuel cells, and 32 cases of sleep deprivation and or exhaustion later they actually had a ship. All that was left was software programming and the setting the IFS controls.

          "Saotome. We need you in the cave." A techie ran up to Finn. The cave was the storage hangar where they had been working the past month. It was decided that with all the battles the Nadesico fought, the main hangar was no place for some kind of mechanical Frankenstein to be built. Also, Seiya kicked them back there when the first explosion ruined one of his model dioramas. Finn crawled out from under whatever he was working on and followed the techie.

          "What's going on?" Finn asked. "Don't tell me the exhaust manifold fell off again."

          "No, sir." The techi led Finn around the rear of the ship. "We've finished programming the computer. And Inez just installed the IFS software," he said in a very serious voice.

          "Uh huh?" Finn kicked a discarded wrench with his foot, sending it sliding into a toolbox a few feet away.

          "We've decided that this thing needs a name." Finn facefaulted.

          "A name?" He peeled himself off the floor.

          "Yes, sir. Seeing as this thing isn't a one-of-a-kind ship, not a standard fighter or aestivalis, it needs a name," the techie said.

          "You guys aren't serious," Finn said, sitting down with his arms and legs crossed. "A name?" 'Damn. I was hoping for a huge party or something,' he thought.

          "That's right. We've gathered names from most crew on board. They're right here." The techie handed Finn a palm screen.

          "Earth Pear?" Finn read over a few names. "Who submitted that one?"

          "I think one of the kitchen girls did," the techie replied. "I personally prefer Misfire."

          "Nice thought, but that's not exactly what we want to represent this thing," Finn continued to go down the list. "Star Shooter, courtesy of the Captain, Thrust, Scourge… Hmm. Not bad. Here's a good one. 'Skywarp'. (copyright of Hasbro). Who submitted this one?"

          "Pilot Subaru," one of the techies answered.

          "Alright then," Finn picked up a can of yellow spray paint and spelled out the name Skywarp on the nose.

          "Uh…sir?" We still have to paint it," the techie said.

          "I knew that." Finn stopped. "This is just a reminder."

          A few days later, most of the available crew stood in the hangar, their eyes on what lay beneath a rather large tarpaulin that had been crudely made from smaller tarps. Finn stood at the front, dressed in his piloting suit and holding his helmet under his arm. Most of the crew had already seen more or less what lay beneath the tarp, but Yurika had insisted on a proper christening. Miss Howmei had even given them a bottle of champagne from the Nadesico's very limited liquor stock.

          "You don't think we're overdoing things a little?" Finn asked Yurika, who stood along with Jun, Prospector, and the other pilots up at the front.

          "We need to do this properly." Yurika answered. "Attention please!" She opened a large vidwindow showing them high above them so people at the back of the crowd could hear. "We now present to you the newest fighter in the Nadesico's arsenal. The culmination of hundreds of individuals putting in even more hundreds of hours! I give you, Skywarp!" Finn hit a button in his communicator and the tarp was pulled up and off the new ship. Unfortunately the Nadesico didn't have any black paint, so Finn had to settle for a dark blue, slightly darker than Akatsuki's aestivalis. There was a kind of 'oooo aaaaahhhh' from the crowd. Yurika handed the bottle of champagne to Finn.

          "Ryoko." Finn whispered, motioning with his head for her to come over. "Will you do the honours?" Ryoko looked at him suspiciously for a moment before taking the bottle from him. She climbed the small ladder that stood at the nose of the frame.

          "I christen thee," Ryoko couldn't believe she actually said this. "Skywarp." The crowd erupted with cheers and applause. Due to the lack of alcohol on the Nadesico, they had to settle for cans of pop from vending machines instead of champagne.

          As if on queue, the red alert status lights began flashing and the enemy alert sirens went off.

          "If I could draw your attention away from your latest toy, I think you should look at this," Ruri said over the intercom and a vidwindow popped up, showing the positions of twelve dimojin robots and a small squadron of grasshoppers. "We are receiving a transmission from what we perceive to be the groups commander. Patching it through now."

          "Greetings. As you probably know I am Commander Sanoske Hashima of the Superior Male Forces." Sanoske's usual face appeared in the window. Finn dove behind Skywarp. "I demand that you surrender the pilot of this robot," He/she/it displayed an image of the ACF. "And the robot to me immediately."

          "Why should we hand him over to you?" Yurika asked, taking centre stage while everyone around her rushed for their combat stations.

          "Because he broke a promise made between two warriors. I have come to finish what we started," Sano replied. "Is he on your ship or isn't he?"

          "He's right, "Yurika turned to face where Finn had been standing. "here?" Ryoko glanced in Finn's direction before taking off for her aesti.

          "Failure to comply will result in us opening fire, you do realize," Sano reminded them.

          "Damnit! I'm right here already!" Finn shouted from the open cockpit of the new frame. "If you're still hung up on that 'agreement' you're nuts! I beat you. You were just a floating head."

          "This will not be resolved until one, or both of us, die," Sano explained coolly.

          "You're really grinding my gears," Finn muttered as he closed the cockpit. He tried to bring the main system online, but it fizzled out. Figuring this might happen, Finn gave the main monitor a good whack and it came to life. He clipped his helmet on and plugged his hands into the IFS. "I may not kill you, but I have no reservations about kicking your ass and keeping it that way, permanently."  The aesties had already taken off. "Alright. Lets see what you can do." He punched the thrusters and shot out of the hangar. So far no shots had been fired. The aesties were flying in a V formation towards the hovering dimojins. Finn joined them.

          "We can't fight that many of them. It takes two aesties just to bring one of them down. We're out numbered two to one." Hikaru said worriedly. They came to a stop not far from their enemy.

          "So who's going to fire the first shot?" Akito asked, looking around.

          "You know how the Captain is sometimes," Hikaru added. Finn cranked up his thrusters and knocked his comrades with both wings.

          "What're you doing?!" Akatsuki demanded. When he looked back to where they had been a moment ago, all he saw was a wall of missiles. Ryoko had been the only one to get out of the way and not get knocked by Finn.

          "Idiots," they both said in unison.

"We don't take turns here, you guys. And if we did, it would be our turn. Move!" Ryoko said as the dimojin's slowly lumbered forward. Finn, who was busy engaging the grasshoppers, was being forced into his seat due to the speed he was travelling at.

"You're fast. I'll give you that," Finn said pulling up. He felt the blood rush from his upper body into his legs and tried desperately not to black out. "Wow," He said light-headedly when he pulled out of the turn. "I dizzy." He shook his head and regained his senses. "Let's see what kind of firepower you've got." Finn brought the two side cannons and the rear mounted cannons online. He fired a low power bolt from each cannon at a slow dimojin and could visibly see its distortion field shatter in front of his eyes. While it was distracted, Finn transformed Skywarp. The controls responded flawlessly. The five robot fingers had been replaced with three semi-claw like digits. The frame stopped and stood face to face with the dimojin, which took a terrified swing at him. Finn caught the robot's fist and proceeded to crush it. The dimojin then tried to fire its gravity blast cannon but Finn, having already anticipated this move, brought one of his sabres online and with one clean cut, sliced his opponent in two.  

          "Alright Sanoske. Listen up. I don't to kill people, not even if they deserve it. But you're really starting to piss me off," Finn said, turning to face the red dimojin that he took to be Sano's. "If you tuck your tail between your legs and get out of my sight, I won't hurt you."

          "Not until we finish our duel," Sano replied plainly.

          "Alright. But you're not going to like what I have in store for you," Finn grinned behind his mask. The dimojin disappeared, having leapt into subspace in a boson jump. Finn looked around slowly, trying to find the small sparkle of light that would tell him where his enemy would appear next. However, he saw multiple ripples of light. The dimojin would appear for a split second, then disappear again. "Stop playing around already." Sano appeared right behind Finn and grabbed Finn in a giant robot bear hug and proceeded to try and crush him. 'Why does it feel like I've seen this before?' he asked himself.

          "Unfortunately for you, my friend, this is the new model. Not a slow clunky thing like my men," Sano gloated. Finn tried his tried and true method of dealing with this problem and brought his main thrusters online. However, he forgot he wasn't in his old frames anymore.

          "What in the…?" Finn asked himself when the frame flew forward with the dimojin still attached.

          "Remember. You're engines are one your legs!" Seiya said in a vidwindow.

          "That's…just…prime!" Finn grunted, straining to move. Since the frame moved as though it were an extension of his body, Finn could feel the stress of the metal through his IFS. He searched his mind for something that might work. "I've got it!" With much effort, he managed to wrench his left arm free. In Skywarp's the wings were placed along the shoulder and elbow joints. Finn then proceeded to jab the part of the wing as hard and as deep as he could into Sano's chest plate. He felt, for a split second, the dimojin's grip loosen and managed to burst out of its hold. Finn quickly grabbed one of his sabres and made an attempt to sever the dimojin's head. However, his blade was intercepted by the dimojin's clawed arm. "What?"

          "After having done a thorough exoscan of the upgraded dimojin unit, it would appear that the Jovians have equipped it with a system of mini distortion fields along both arms. This feature was no doubt added due to the increased battles in which UF robots have engaged the Jovians in hand-to-hand combat, thus giving them the upper hand when facing…"

          "Shut up already!" Finn shouted at Inez. "So you're saying this thing's got thousands of distortion fields running up and down its arms?

          "That's correct."

          "Thank you," Finn quickly closed the window.

          "That's an impressive machine you've got there. I'm not surprised though. You have had close to a year to build it." Sano said.

          "This is the product for a month's worth of work," Finn informed him. Sano replied by bringing one of its massive arms down on Finn's head. He managed to dive out of the way and only took a hit on the shoulder. Finn fired a few bursts at the dimojin, only have them be absorbed by its distortion field. However, during the split second Sano was distracted by the explosions of the bursts, Finn dove under him and, still holding his sabre, tore a long gash into the robot's back. Sano met this with a quick slash with one of its massive clawed hands to Finn's already damaged shoulder. "That thing wasn't built, it was poured!" Finn grit his teeth under the strain.

          "Diecast construction. It's a lost art," Sano gloated. (You Transformers fans know what I'm talking about.) Finn caught the hand on its second go around and tried to rip it free of its hinges. He managed to pop a bolt loose, and not much else.

          "Damnit. Have to find whatever's powering that thing," Finn said to himself and he quickly glanced through the data Inez had gathered. "There's the bastard." Finn stopped at what appeared to be some kind of phase transition power core. During Finn's brief distraction, Sano landed another blow on Skywarp's head. Finn quickly grabbed his opponent by the wrist, pulled him forward only to send him flying back again with a blow just under the neck. Finn then flew around and caught the dimojin as it began to recover and thrust his robot's hands into the already gaping hole in the machine's back. He ripped away whatever he could until he finally found what he was looking for. There, deep inside the dimojin, was the PT power core. The dimojin fell strangely fast, but Finn took no notice of it, figuring that Sano would regain control of the robot any second, and quickly fired a shot that punctured the outer casing of the power core. However, Sano still made no effort to stop him. "What's going on?" Finn demanded. "Why aren't you fighting back?" He spun the dimojin around and floated face to face with it. Sano didn't answer. Instead he grabbed Finn's frame in another bear hug. Only this time, it was chest plate to chest plate instead of chest plate to back.

          "Finally!" Sano cheered as he locked the commands into his robot. "You finally figured it out."

          "Figured what out?" Finn demanded. "Inez, what's he talking about?"

          "It would appear that from damaged inflicted…" Inez began.

          "Give me the Coles Notes," Finn interrupted.

          "You've punched a hole in that thing's PT engine block. Being exposed it will overload and destroy itself, and you with it."

          "Maybe I shouldn't have asked," Finn struggled, but made no headway. "Is there anything I can do?"

          "To stop the overload? No. However, you might be interested in this." Inez displayed a section of the dimojin's mechanical workings. "It's the main cable leading from the commands to the dimojin's computer. If you destroy that, it might…"

          "Good enough." Fortunately for Finn, he still had an arm free. Quickly, he switched his view to a camera built into the frame's hand, and began to sift through the gash in the dimojin's back. "I'm not seeing anything. Hey, can one of you guys help me out over here?" He looked over and saw his comrades still engaged in combat with what was left grasshoppers, and the occasional gravity blast from the dimojins, who seemed to look on in amusement. Ryoko glanced in his direction, disengaged, and began to make her way towards him. However, Akatsuki moved in front of her and held his machine gun to her head.

          "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Ryoko demanded.

          "The commander said this was a fight between 'two warriors'," Akatsuki said, with a big grin on his face. "We can't possibly interrupt."

          "You…you traitor!" Ryoko tried to fly past him, but stopped when Akatsuki fired right at her thrusters.

          "If I were a traitor, do you think I'd do this?" He fired a missile barrage at one of the weakened dimojins, blowing both legs and a good section of its middle off into space. The rest of the aestivalis pilots were too busy fighting off the other ten dimojins by themselves to notice what was going on. They weren't faring too well either. All Hikaru, Izumi, and Akito could really do under such an amazing numerical disadvantage was dodge and maybe land a few shots on their enemy's distortion fields. "I'm merely upholding the warrior's code of honour."

          Meanwhile Finn continued to sift through the interior workings of the red dimojin.

          "Come on, come on. Where are you?" he said to himself. "Can't you give me any better direction than that?"

          "You've already inflicted severe damage on this unit. With all the damage it is difficult to pinpoint where your objective is with any degree of precision," Inez explained.

          "You don't seem to be all that concerned about it."

          "No, I guess not. Who lives and who dies doesn't really mean that much to me…"

          "I've already heard that part." Finn closed the window and went back to what he was doing. . "Finally. There you are." He said, catching a glimpse of the cable he sought. However, it was too far into the dimojin's body for him to be able to grab it.

          "It won't be long now!" Sano said in a very insane kind of laughter.

          "You shut up!" Finn yelled at the loony bin. "Come on!" He made another reach for the large cable, only to just miss it. He brought the arm mounted cannon online. "Oooh boy." He sweat bullets behind his mask. "I hope this works." He used the hand camera's view to aim. When all the crosshairs lined up and turned to solid red, he closed his eyes and fired a small shot. Nothing happened. "Come on!" He struggled. Finally, he gave the dimojin a hard blow on the back and he felt the arms give a little. Quickly, and with every bit of strength he could muster, he began to force his way out of the dimojin's grasp. Light began to pour from the robot's back. "That doesn't mean anything good." When he finally burst free, he quickly took his sabre and began to work on cutting the head of the dimojin off.

          "Such heroic nonsense," Akatsuki looked on, amused. "I'm surprised you still won't kill the guy,"

          "No one asked you," Finn shot back. Ryoko seized Akatsuki's momentary distraction, knocked the gun out of his hand, and quickly flew over to where Finn was working. "What are you doing?" Finn asked when he saw Ryoko working the other side of the dimojin's neck with her small distortion blade. "Get out of here."

          "Nu uh." Ryoko replied. "It'll take too long for you to do this by yourself."

          "But…gah, fine." Finn continued to hack away. The head was very securely held down to the body. Even though his weapon had sliced cleanly into the thing's back, the neck was proving to be quite stubborn. "Stand back for a sec." He gave Ryoko a slight push and she backed off. Finn raised his blade high over his head and began to slash the neck apart with quick, hard blows. Finally, after repeatedly slashing, the head wobbled on one last hinge. Ryoko pulled it off and they began to fly away from the ticking time bomb. "Shit. I don't know how, but somehow he managed to bash up my left thrusters," Finn said, trying to connect the frame's legs so that they could work in sync.

          "Here." Ryoko handed him the head, containing the cockpit and Sano, and wedged herself under his left arm. She then cranked up her thrusters to full. Finn redirected as much energy as he could through his right engine and they began to pull out of the blast zone. "This should be far enough," She said when they had come halfway between the dimojin and the battle between the other dimojins and aestivalises.

          "Here." Finn handed her back the head. "Get behind me and get ready to put your engines to full." He brought his two shoulder cannons and his two arm cannons online and began to charge them up. "Tenkawa, try and lure them away from the Nadesico and get out of the way!" he ordered.

          "What? Whoa shit!" Akito exclaimed, noticing the energy that was building around the barrels of Finn's cannons. "You're clear!" Akito and the other pilots all scattered away from the dimojins, which were floating in a cluster.

          "Do you know what you're doing?" Ryoko asked.

          "Not a clue. But I've got better things to do tonight than die," Finn replied. "Now!" The energy that had built up within the cannons was channelled into four massive waves of energy and erupted from them in a giant yellow flash of light. "Come on baby, keep it together." The dimojins turned to vapour within the blast and seemed to fade from view. Meanwhile, Ryoko tried to prevent the force of the blast from pushing them both back towards the overloading PT engine inside Sano's robot. Finally, the blast subsided and they made their way back towards the Nadesico.

          "Hey, why hasn't that thing blown yet?" Hikaru asked as she flew inside the ship and into the hangar.

          "It's possible that the engine merely shorted out and was not overloading after all." Inez said.

          "That's just great." Finn said, floating just outside the hangar doors. He fired a small bolt flying in the dimojin's direction. "You mean I…I mean we did that all for nothing?" He turned and began to enter the hangar when, suddenly, the dimojin disappeared in a bright flash of an explosion, followed by a shockwave that blew Finn into the hangar. "Or maybe I was wrong," he said, dazed. He managed to park Skywarp into the restraints they had managed to piece together alongside the aesties. From his left monitor he could see Sano being led off, his hands bound behind his back. Hopping out, he saw Akatsuki talking to Seiya on the main deck of the hangar. He flew down the stairs and walked up to him, delivering a hard punch to his face with his metal hand. "What the hell were you thinking back there?"

          "I was just…" Akatsuki hit the wall as another fist connected with his face.

          "What were you thinking?!" Ryoko demanded.

          "So you'll kill ordinary soldiers, but you won't kill him?" Akatsuki asked, glancing in Sano's direction.

          "I make a rule not to kill people if I've seen their faces," Finn said.

          "All pilots, please report to the bridge for debriefing," Megumi's voice said over the comlink.

          "We'll talk about this later," Finn said, and he and Ryoko left.

Betrayal!

          Finn, Ryoko, Yurika, and Akatsuki had gathered on the bridge. It was several hours after the incident in the hangar and the Nadesico had moved into a position just outside the Delphinium station in Earth's upper atmosphere. "Just what happened out there, Lt. Saotome?" Yurika asked. They were standing on the main floor of the bridge while Akatsuki waited up on the top deck.

          "He's a traitor. He deliberately prevented me from aiding Finn during the battle," Ryoko said. Finn nodded in agreement. "Not to mention he threatened to blow my aesti's head off if I tried to help him."

          "Akatsuki. What do you have to say about all this?" Yurika asked.

          "Well, I wouldn't have had to resort to it if Saotome was playing his part." Akatsuki said, leaning casually against the captain's control panel.

          "What do you mean 'play his part'? What are you doing?!" she cried when she noticed Akatsuki fiddling with the controls.

          "Oh nothing," he said, pulling out the master key.

          "I thought only the captain of the Nadesico could remove that key…" she said, puzzled.

          "That's what you'd like to think. But there's one other. The chairman of Nergal supersedes you, right?" Akatsuki tossed the key into the air and caught it. "Which means, that I must be the chairman of Nergal."

          "You piece of…" Finn began making his way towards the control panel and Akatsuki.

          "I wouldn't try that if I were you," he said and gave a quick whistle. A techie, who had appeared to have been working on something on the bridge, drew a gun and aimed it at Finn. More armed officers came onto the bridge. They ranged from techies to janitors, all armed. Finn pushed the soldier out of his way and continued up the steps. Just as was about to draw his own sidearm, Akatsuki put his hand up. "You might want to consider the safety of others before acting." He motioned to where the captain and Ryoko were standing. Finn backed down. "Come with me." He led Finn off the bridge, followed by three soldiers, and into the captain's readyroom. He sat down behind the desk and crossed his arms. "You know, there is a way out of this."

          "Oh? Gee, tell me tell me," Finn said sarcastically.

          "Do you know why the Nadesico was sent to Mars?" Akatsuki asked.

          "The reason Nergal gave was that it was trying to rescue the Martian settlers. But that seems too noble a cause for someone like you could come up with," Finn said. "There was probably something else you were after."

          "We were looking to obtain information from one of the computers at a Mars research station," Akatsuki explained. "Prospector had orders to copy that data and return it to me. Of course, he thought had something to do with the Martians."

          "So just what were you after?" Finn inquired.

          "Information on boson jumping, more precisely, on where the jump computer is. But Prospector came back empty handed. He said the files had been wiped clean. Possibly a power surge or magnetic disturbance when the chulips started hitting Mars," Akatsuki went on. "But I know that the information was stored on hard disks, and they, to everyone's amazement, had been destroyed."

          "Too bad for you, Finn said.

          "But you made a backup copy," Akatsuki said, pointing a finger in Finn's direction. Finn shrugged. "Where is it?"

          "I don't know what you're talking about," Finn replied. Akatsuki made a gesture at one of the guards, who hauled Finn out of his seat and threw him against the wall.

          "Where is it?" Akatsuki asked again.

          "Gone," Finn laughed/choked. "Ain't that a kick in the lug nuts?"

          "Guard?" Akatsuki said and the guard hit Finn across the face with the butt of his gun. "Now, give it to me."

          "Gimmie gimmie never get, haven't learned you manners yet?" Finn laughed lightly. This time it was Akatsuki that delivered the blow.

          "I'm tired of playing around here," he said angrily. "You made a backup copy on Mars. You wouldn't erase something that important. You'd have kept it as an ace up your sleeve."

          "The only thing worse than the pain in my mouth," Finn spit out some blood. "Is the bullshit spewing from yours."

          "Tell me what I want to know. Now," Akatsuki said angrily.

          You know," Finn said, totally ignoring Akatsuki. "You're like a child. You whine and complain and manipulate people so you can get what you want. And when all else fails you just start being a shit disturber."

          "Bring her in," Akatsuki said. One of the guards left, and returned a moment later pushing Ryoko through the door. "I'm not naïve, you know. I don't think there's a person aboard this ship that hasn't seen how close you two have become." The guard pushed Ryoko into a seat. 

          "You sound like one of those cartoon characters. Like you've crossed the line from the every day villainy of pissing me off to cartoonish super villainy." Finn earned himself another hit in the face for that one.

          "Personally I don't know what you see in her." Akatsuki said, raising Ryoko's chin and looking at her straight in the face. "Sure she's got a great body, but what could you see in this coldblooded killer of a human being? All she does is fight."

          "Bite me," Ryoko pulled away.

          "I suppose if you're into the rough stuff…" Akatsuki began.

          "Shut up already. No one wants to here your babbling anymore," Finn said. Akatsuki gave him a swift punch to the gut. "Why do I sense a recurring pattern here?" Finn wheezed. The guard let go of him and he slowly slid down the wall and onto the floor.

          "I'm going to make you a simple offer," Akatsuki said, taking his gun out of its holster and sliding a clip into it.

          "Let me guess," Finn said, still recovering his breath. "First you're going to tell me to give you what you want. When I refuse and spit in your face, you're going to hold your gun to her head and threaten to kill her. And when I again tell you to bite me you'll hit her to prove you're serious. Then the general idea is to kill her. Am I close?"

          "That sounds about right," Akatsuki said.

          "But remember, you kill her, and you loose your only bargaining chip."

          "But you won't let that happen," Akatsuki said.

          "Probably not." Finn looked at Ryoko and motioned something with his eyes. She nodded while Akatsuki went on.

          "So why don't we just get straight to the point? You give me the disks, and I'll spare her life." Finn didn't reply. "What are you waiting for?" Akatsuki turned his head at looked at Finn. Ryoko took this opportunity to launch herself at him, knocking the gun out of his hands. Finn quickly delivered a swift kick to the guard closest to him, grabbed the gun out of his hands, and shot the two guards standing by the door. Ryoko had grabbed Akatsuki's gun and was hauling him to his feet. "I thought you didn't like killing."

          "Right now I'm willing to make an exception," Finn replied. "But they're not dead anyway." One of the guards groaned slightly. Finn quickly grabbed a set of handcuffs from one of the guards and locked Akatsuki's hands behind his back.

          "So what are you going to do now?" Akatsuki asked. "Half the crew is under my command. It's not like you could get very far." Finn looked at Ryoko, who grinned back. Finn was still in his pilot's suit.

          From the outside, Yurika looked over when the ready room door slid open. Finn emerged first, helmet snapped on and ready to go.

          "Alright," he said. "You two drop your weapons and lay down on the floor." The guard smirked. "And believe me I'm not going to take any crap from you."

          "What if I don't?" the guard asked.

          "Bring him out." Finn stepped aside and Akatsuki appeared with Ryoko holding a gun to his back. "If you don't do as I say then we'll have to implement operation human shield here." The guard looked confused. Finn fired a shot that missed the guard's head by a hair, but he didn't flinch that much. "Damn. Captain, can't you take a hint?"

          "What?" Yurika asked confused.

          "Aww forget it." Finn shot the guard in the arm, causing him to drop his gun and fall to the floor in pain, and gave the other one a shot to the leg. Finn quickly ran over, scooped the guns up, and handed one to Yurika. "The rest of you." Finn turned and aimed at the three other guards who were trying to line up a decent shot. "Look, I know you guys know I don't like shooting people. But I'm beginning to get very VERY pissed off here. So just drop them and come down." They didn't exactly do what he said. Instead they aimed at him. Finn heaved a sigh. "Fine." They opened fire and Finn fell to his knees before sinking to the floor.

          "Let the Chairman go," they said. Just then, two of them fell to the floor. One held his shoulder while the other clutched his stomach. "What the hell?"

          "Just drop it," Finn said, irritated. "Oh come on! You don't think I was that stupid, did you?" The guard threw down his gun angrily. Finn walked up to a security compartment behind the captain's station and pulled out a few sets of handcuffs. He then proceeded to lock all of their captives to the railing at the very front of the bridge. Next, he took their communicators and crushed them under his foot. Ryoko pulled the security locks down on all the doors leading to the bridge, thus effectively locking any wouldbe Akatsuki flunkies from coming onto the bridge.

          "So what's next?" Yurika asked. "We can't stay here forever. What's the plan?"

          "Well, first I plan to soil myself. Then I plan to regroup and come up with a new plan," Finn replied.

          "That's not helping," Ryoko sounded irritated. "What are we going to do with them?"

          "Just leave them there. They're not going anywhere," Finn said and led them into the ready room, closing the door behind them. Ryoko climbed up on Finn's shoulders and, with the help of a screw driver they had picked up off one of the maintenance guards, opened the vent. She then pulled herself up and reached down.

          "Captain?" she said. Yurika nodded and, with a boost from Finn, climbed up into the ventilator shaft.

          "Just what exactly are you two thinking?" she asked. "Why didn't we just take the key from Akatsuki and bring the engines back online?"

          "It's a nice thought." Finn said, pulling the grate back on and wedging it into place. "But then what? We're out gunned and out numbered. I have a better idea. Follow me." He began to make his way down the vent. They continued this way for a while. The tricky part was trying to make turns in the narrow passage. Finally, Finn came to a halt. "It's clear." He shuffled around and kicked the grate off, and then jumping down. "It's alright. No one's around here."

          "Where are we?" Yurika asked, after having climbed out.

          "The engine room," Ryoko said, jumping down.

          "What can we do from here?" Yurika asked. "The engines are dead."

          "You'd be surprised." Finn said, pulling a panel off the wall. He then began to search through the wiring. "Let's just hope the rest of them figure it out." Ryoko began working on a panel. "Ready?" She nodded. "Ok. Cut that one on three. Three, two, one, now." The lights cut out. Finn then crossed two wires on his end and the alarm system sprung to life. The red alarms lit up the room, and the rest of the ship.

          "Now what?" Yurika asked.

          "We run," Finn said, grabbing her by the wrist and dragging her out the door. The sound alarms buzzing and the lights flashing seemed to produce the desired results. When he reached the main corridor there were people running everywhere. Some had guns, some didn't. It seemed to be some sort of melee. Finn saw Akito run by and quickly pulled him out of the crowd.

          "What the?" he said, surprised.

          "It's ok," Finn said. "Is it working?"

          "The alarms just triggered a frenzy. They had us locked up in the cafeteria, but when the alarms started going off, everything just went crazy. I take it you're behind this," Akito said.

          "Look, I need you to take the Captain and whoever else you can find and get them off the ship. Take them somewhere," Finn said, pushing Yurika into him.

          "Right," Akito grabbed Yurika by the wrist and they disappeared into the chaos that filled the corridor. Finn and Ryoko then made their way to the hangar, which was in chaos as well. Hikaru and Izumi's aestis were already gone, Akito was on his way out. And Jun was busy climbing into one of the air combat frames.

          "Remember where we meet," he said, standing on the catwalk as Ryoko got her aesti ready for launch.

          "Roger." Ryoko made her way towards the door. Finn scrambled to Skywarp. However, just as he was climbing into the cockpit, he was grabbed by two guards. Ryoko stopped. Quickly, while he still had a hand free he shouted into his communicator. "Just go!" Ryoko didn't move. "Move it!" He said with a voice she had never heard him use. The hangar doors began to close. She stayed there a few seconds longer, then reluctantly burst out of the hangar, leaving Finn in the hands of the enemy.


Mater of the House

          "He's dangerous. We should finish him now," a UF officer said, looking at Finn through the energy screen of his cell on the Nadesico's brig. The Nadesico had been towed to Earth by a UF ship and was docked at the Kyoko Regional United Forces base.

          "I don't think we need to be so harsh. He still has one piece of information I'm interested in," Akatsuki said. "In any case, we can just leave him here for the time being. He won't be going anywhere." They left the room. "Ah, Miss Howmei. Nice to see you didn't mutiny with the rest of them," He said as the door closed. "What are you doing?"

          "I still have an obligation to feed the members of this crew. Even if he happens to be in prison," she said and entered the brig.

          "Shouldn't we stop her?" one of the UF officers asked.

          "She can't do anything without the right command card," Akatsuki said, and they continued on their way.

          "You've really done it this time," Miss Howmei said, eyeing the guard left to make sure Finn didn't try anything.

          "I've been in worse. Besides, this is very educational," Finn replied. His suit hung on the wall beside him. "So what brings you here?"

          "Here." She pushed the tray through a small metal door at the base of the cell.

"Any pets these days?"

          "Just one. I have a kitten back at the mess hall," Miss Howme said.  Finn nodded with a slight grin and she left him. "I have to go now. It can get a bit hectic since the girls got demoted."

          "Where did they end up?"

          "Some kind of Nergal office. Stacking books," she replied. "I'll bring you something else a little later. Just don't go anywhere."

          "Sarcasm, not appreciated," Finn said as she left. "Let's see what we've got here." He peeled back the foil and dug into the spaghetti and meatballs Miss Howmei had brought for him.

          Later on, Finn woke to the sound of the heavy metal door sliding open, followed by footsteps. He opened one eye and saw what he could in the dim light.

          "Get in there," someone said. The shuffling of footsteps followed. He heard the energy screen go up.

          "So, what are you in for?" Finn asked, adding a small laugh at end of it. His fellow prisoner didn't seem to hear him. Whoever it was just lay slumped on the bunk gasping for air.

          "You should have killed me," the person in the cell next to him said. It was pretty obvious who it was.

          "As much as I'd like to and as much as you deserve it, sorry," Finn replied. The room was very dark. The only light came from a small security light by the door. "I'm kind of disappointed though."

          "Why's that?" Sano asked.

          "I'd have thought they'd at least leave a guard or something. They don't seem to think that much of me," Finn laughed again.

          "You must be insane," Sano said accusingly.

          "So they say, my friend. So they say."

          "How can you take all this so light heartedly? Do you realize what kind of a fix you're in?" Sano asked.

          "Yep. It's a dilly of a pickle."

          "So then how can you just sit there and make stupid jokes?" Sano seemed very angry at this point and had punched the metal walls of his cell in frustration. The sound reverberated throughout the room.

          "What good would worrying about it accomplish?" Finn asked.

          "So you're going to just sit there and merrily go along with whatever they have planned for you?

          "Pretty much."

          "Damnit, how can you just sit there and laugh?!" Sano hit the wall of his cell again.

          "Because, my karmatically challenged friend. I'm worth more to them alive than I am dead," Finn explained simply. "With the kind of punishment we've been taking from your side lately, they're going to want to keep me around. Especially now that Skywarp's up and running."

          "And what about me?"

          "Capturing such a high ranking officer is like getting the golden goose. As long as you cooperate they'll probably let you live. Maybe even go back to Jupiter or wherever you came from if we win," Finn said. "So what exactly did they do to you to put you in this kind of state?" he said after a while. "Hello?" He said after receiving no response. "Oh well." He closed his eyes and drifted back into sleep.

          "Alright Saotome. Sleepy time's over," Akatsuki said, standing just outside the cell.

          "Five more minutes." Finn rolled over.

          "Wake him." A guard turned off the energy screen and threw Finn off the bunk and crashing into a wall.

          "Ah, good morning," he said, bringing himself to his feet. "Thanks for the wake up call, soldier. As you were." He gave a mock salute. The guard, not amused by Finn's antics, quickly slapped a pair of handcuffs on him and led him out of the cell.

          It was not until some time later that they brought him back. He was tossed back into his cell, blood slowly slipped from his chin as he took in breath, only to choke on his own blood. He coughed it onto the floor and slowly pulled himself onto the bunk.

          "We're handing him over to you tomorrow. We don't need him anymore, and our new battleship is almost ready, since we can't use the Nadesico without her master key. Unfortunately it was lost during the chaos of the mutiny," Akatsuki said outside the door. "I hope you have better luck with him than we did."

          "Well, well, well," Sano said from the other side of the wall when the door closed. They had neglected to leave a light on, yet again. The only light came from the tiny glow of the energy screens that kept them in their tiny cells. "Not laughing now? So what do you think of our situation now, I wonder?"

          "Very," Finn managed to say. "Very educational." He collapsed, laying face down on his bunk as to not choke on his own blood, which his slowly dripped from his mouth, staining the rough fabric of the blanket, and seeping through on to the floor. Miss Howmei came in a few minutes later, wheeling a small cart into the room. She turned on the light, seeing that the guard had left for the night, and crossed her arms, looking at Finn.

          "You've really done it this time, Saotome," she said, seeing him laying there. He had stopped bleeding, but while he had been laying there the greater half of the bunk was stained a deep red. A small pool had collected on the floor around him. His face was pretty much black and his cloths were torn here and there. "If it were anyone else in there they'd have snapped a long time ago."

          "Hey, what are a few punches here and there?" Finn said, opening his eyes. "How's the kitten?"

          "She's doing fine," she said, sliding a tray into his cell. "She should meow any day now."

          "Any day? It's only been…"

          "A week and a half," Miss Howmei interrupted.

"How time flies."

"How much longer can you keep this up?"

          "As long as it takes. Besides, I've been in worse," he said, sounding slightly out of it.

          "What exactly is it they want?" Miss Howme asked. "They've kept everything pretty hush-hush."

          "Just looking for a little bobble."

          "I guess you don't have it."

          "Nu uh. And I have the bruises to prove it." Finn peeled back the foil on his tray and took a hot roll from it. He rolled onto his back and nibbled on it. "Any word from the good doctor?"

          "Inez is still around. A few others who mutinied came back. But most of them are still at large. I hear that they found Megumi. She's back voice acting." Miss Howme slid a tray into Sano's cell.

          "What trickery is this?" he/she asked.

          "Don't mind him…her…whatever. The gender confused person next to me," Finn said. "Relax. If Howmei here hands it to you, don't worry about it. Anything those thugs give you, watch out."

          "I'm sorry I couldn't get you a knife and fork. But after that stunt you pulled yesterday, when you…"

          "Gave Akatsuki's knee an introduction to aluminium?" Finn laughed. "He had it coming. Besides, it was worth seeing his face. You'd have thought I shot him or something."

          "I have to get back now," Miss Howmei said, getting up and wheeling the cart to the door. "Keep your ears open. Maybe you'll hear my kitten meow." Finn nodded. She turned out the light and left.

          "This stuff is…" Sano began.

          "Pretty good eh?" Finn interrupted and took a sip of miso.

          "I was going to say different," Sano said.

          "You don't get food like this?"

          "No." Sano tasted the fried rice and then dug into it with his hands.

          "So when what do you eat? Some pill that you swallow or something?"

          "Actually, you're not far off," Sano said in between mouthfuls. "In the Superior Male Forces they give us these dry bars that give you enough nutrition and energy for a day's worth of work."

          "Poor bastard," Finn said, taking another sip of miso. "Why's it like that? How come no cooks?"

          "We're a little short on man power. We need all the men we can get just to fight, and our robots can only do so much. They can fight, but cooking is a task that has yet to be perfected. They can't tell if something's gone bad or if it taste's funny," Sano explained.

          "Too bad Akito didn't get sucked into that chulip instead of me. He might have been able to make you roasted duck or something."

          "There's another problem with having cooks."

          "What's that?"

          "Our farming colonies can only produce so much. There's enough to provide civilians with the basics like grains and stuff. But when it comes to stocking ships full of this stuff," Sano tapped his tray. "There's not exactly a lot to go around."

          "Bummer," Finn chewed on his bread. "If the food's so bad, why did you enlist?"

          "That's a simple enough question," Sano gave a slight laugh. "It's because I wanted to beat you men at your own game. Women can't get good jobs. We can't fight. All we're supposed to do is serve the men."

          "Oooh boy. A gender confused, honour bound, feminazi. Just what I needed." Finn made the 'blah blah blah' motion in the dark, but, of course, it was not seen.

          "When I was young, I walked into a recruitment centre. Just to see what kind of reaction I'd get. Not only was I turned down, I was humiliated. Oh sure, they explained about how 'it's not a lady's war' and so on. But I could tell they were just…"

          "Oppressing women, right? I've heard it all before. You've studied Earth history, right? Way back when, women were told the same thing. They couldn't get good jobs, or join the military, or hold political office. Jovians go on and on about how 'civilized' and 'proper' they are. How everything's so much nicer. Looks to me like you guys've skipped a few chapters and missed the whole equality thing," Finn said.

"But I also wanted to fight the Earth. To avenge our proud and noble ancestors," Sano said.

"Oh please," Finn laughed again. "This really killed me, how everywhere I saw signs about how you guys were 'crushing the barbaric savages of the Earth'. But we're not the ones going around slaughtering innocent people just because they happen to have been born into Earth society. In my opinion, it's really you guys who are the 'savages' here. Do you know how many people you've killed. Innocent people. Millions on Mars. Millions on the Moon. Sure, the Earth nuked your ancestors. Am I proud of that? No. But it was over a hundred years ago. Everyone even alive during that time has been dead for years. You don't have to take out your frustrations on people who don't even know who don't even know who or what's attacking them. Do you know what the general public thinks the Jovians are? Alien lizards from Jupiter," Finn ranted on. "If they actually KNEW what was going on, they'd probably help you destroy the UF. Hey, I'd be in there with them."

"So then why do you fight? Why do you protect the UF when you yourself know if their injustices?"

"You still don't get it, do you? I don't fight because I want to. I fight because that's just happens to be what I do. But if I just decided to quit, who would be left to keep all those people still alive on Earth from having chulips dropped on them? I'm committed to seeing this thing through," Finn said with a touch of anger in his voice. "Let me ask you one question. What would you prefer? A victory achieved by blowing the UF away, or a negotiated peace? I take it it's too late for a 'forgive and forget' kind of thing."

"As you put it, I'm committed to seeing this thing through. It's too late for forgiveness, on either side," Sano said. Finn shook his head in the dark and ended their conversation right there.

Home Sweet Home

          It was difficult to tell how long they sat there in silence in the dark. Finn drifted in and out of sleep. The isolation in that tiny cell was beginning to take its psychological toll, at least on Sano anyway. Finn still laughed and joked. Although whether it was for the usual reasons or just insanity, it was hard to tell. Finn awoke to a strange noise, or rather, lack there of. He sat up and listened. There was nothing. But that's just it.

          'Looks like the cat's about to start meowing,' he thought. And, as if on queue, a small vidwindow popped up from his communicator. There was Ruri on the other side of the screen in her warm cat outfit.

          "You look like, for lack of a better term, shit," Ruri said plainly.

          "Yeah, I ain't the spitting image of my beauty I used to be," Finn sweatdropped. "I was wondering what took you so long," he added quietly.

          "The messages I'm sending has been specially encrypted so that only you can receive them. As a result, however, there maybe some degradation. For that I apologize. I hope you are all well," Ruri went on. "I'm sorry for not having contacted you sooner, but I've been having trouble teaching Omoikane how to imitate the personality of Nergal's replacement programme."

          "You mean the computer was acting?" Finn heard Megumi ask from one of Ruri's windows.

          "That's correct. But Omoikane doesn't like pretending," Ruri replied. "In any case, I'm very glad to tell you that the Nadesico as we know it is still alive."

          "Isn't it cold living in that refrigerator, Ruri-Ruri?" Minato asked.

          "Yes, it has. But since I borrowed this outfit from Miss Howmei I've been fine. I'm much tougher than you might think." Ruri gave a small smile. Somewhere out there, Finn heard a wrench hit the floor. "Along time ago the Admiral, our Admiral, told us that the Nadesico is our ship. And in spite of everything, that's how I still feel. The Nadesico is ours. And it's time to take her back!" The energy screen imprisoning Finn sparked, then fizzled out.

          "Time to get to work," he said getting up. "Let's just hope this all goes according to plan." He suited up.

          "What's going on?" Sano asked, still half asleep. Finn walked over to Sano's cell and hauled him out of his bunk. Quickly, he gave a swift, but hard, punch to his face.

          "You just sleep tight, nighty night," Finn dropped him back into his bunk and left. He walked down the corridor until he reached the security office, which was protected by bullet proof glass. "Hello!" Finn banged on the glass. "Thanks for a great time. I'll be on my way now."

          "What? Stop him!" The guard fell backwards in his chair.

          "Looks like it's time for us to get a little rough, Omoikane." Ruri pressed her hands against the IFS pad. A little window popped up with "Ok!" on it.  Meanwhile, Finn watched as the security shutters encased the security room and listened while the doors locked themselves. Quickly he made his way to the hangar. The Nadesico had been pretty much abandoned since it docked. The only people still on board were the security personnel that were supposed to be 'guarding' Finn. 

          "Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy," he said to himself, walking across the deserted hangar deck and climbing the stairs up to his frame.

          Meanwhile…

          "Damnit, they don't seem to care that we're not shooting back," Ryoko said, dodging another missile launched from attack helicopters.

          "Don't worry about them, Ryoko," Yurika chirped from beside her. "It's only a little further until we get to the Nadesico."

          "Please don't interfere with my mood swings, Captain," Ryoko replied.

          "Hello ladies!" came a familiar voice. Finn's face popped up in Ryoko's cockpit. "Care for an escort?" Finn transformed and took position beside her.

          "About time you got here," Ryoko said, dodging another missile. "I can't believe they're shooting over a city."

          "I'll take care of them," Finn dropped back and flew straight for the fighters pursuing them. The then gave a little juice to his engines, flipped over the front of the fighter, and stood on its wings, holding onto the tail fin. He then shifted all his weight to the left and threw the fighter to the ground, sending it crashing into a pond.

          "Show off," Ryoko muttered, watching Finn then hang from the underside of another fighter, causing it to do barrel roles. A missile struck his distortion field, blowing the fighter up and sending Finn plummeting and the pilot bailing out.

          "I get the feeling my jet judo needs a little more work," he laughed..

          "Oh? What makes you say that?" Ryoko asked. "Tree!"

          "Nah, my knee's alright."

          "No, tree!" She pointed in front of him.

          "What? Wah!" Finn smashed right through a stand of trees, leaving a huge rip right through the city's downtown park. "Heh heh. Woops."

          "We're almost there." Ryoko checked her battery.

          "You're late, Ryoko!" Hikaru piped up. Izumi was signing some gibberish. "Here, Captain." Ryoko pulled something out from under her seat.

          "What is it?" Yurika asked.

          "You might need this." Ryoko handed her the master key to a certain ship as they landed in the hangar.

          "Have no fear!" Yurika burst onto the bridge. "Your captain's here! V!" Everyone sweatdropped.

          "I'm sorry I'm late," Megumi came in after her. "Opening communication channels."

          "WEEEEEE WHOOOOO!!!" Finn flipped himself off another UF fighter. He then transformed Skywarp into jet mode and weaved along the downtown streets of Kyoto. Skimming the deserted streets, apparently having the time of his life.

          "If you're not busy, Lt. Saotome…" Megumi interrupted Finn's little joy ride. "We need you for a second."

          "They know we're not shooting back," Akito said, his aesti's treads on full and blasting down a highway.

          "We will guarantee your safety!" came a voice over a loud speaker, from one of the helicopters pursuing him.

          "Yeah right," Jun said.

          "And we only have thirty minutes of power left in the batteries," Akito said, diving under a bridge.

          "Wait a sec, our batteries are recharging," Minato said as the Nadesico came into view overhead. "Wah!"

          "Need a lift?" Finn stood directly in their path. Akito skidded to a stop a mere fingers width away from Skywarp. Finn extended his hand and Akito took it. He then punched the engines and hauled them up to the waiting Nadesico. The helicopters bugged out upon seeing the massive Nadesico burst from the water. Finn pulled Akito, who had Minato and Jun with him, up to the outside deck. And followed them into the hangar.

          "I wasn't sure you guys would come," Finn said, climbing out of Skywarp.

          "And we didn't know if anyone else would," Akito replied and they made their way to the bridge.

          "So what's next?" Finn asked, still suited up.

          "Next we have to retrieve crew members from all over the planet," Prospector said. "For a percentage, of course," he added quickly.

          "I have a lock on the positions of all missing crew members from their communicators," Ruri said.

"I trust you have a plan, Captain?" Prospector inquired.

"That's correct. But first we have to concentrate on finding the rest of our crew," Yurika said in her usually excessively cheery voice. Finn looked around for Ryoko, but didn't see her. He left the bridge in search of her. His feet made slight clunking noises on the floor as he walked. Finally, he stopped at one door. He hesitated for a moment before opening it.

"Took you long enough," came a familiar voice, when he finally did open the door.

"Sorry, I kinda…was having a little too much fun," Finn replied, thinking back to his antics earlier. He stepped in and closed the door. Through the glass, the sun was beginning to rise. Ryoko sat down on the grass and Finn joined her.

"How was your vacation?" he asked after a few minutes had passed.

"I don't want to talk about it," she replied, remembering  having to camp out in the woods with hyper-chick Hikaru and undead insane Izumi. "How was yours?" she said, feeling somewhat uncomfortable with the silence between them. "And take that thing off. How do I know you're not making faces at me behind that thing?" Finn took a long, deep breath and slowly unfastened his helmet. When he lifted the metal construct from his head, he turned and looked Ryoko in the eyes, which grew large with shock. "What…how…?" She stammered, seeing his black and purple face with dried blood around his mouth and hair. She reached out and gently touched the black spot over Finn's left eye. He winced at her touch and pulled away slightly.

"It's not pretty, I know," Finn said, looking at the brightening horizon.

"Why did they do this to you?" Ryoko asked. "They couldn't have beaten you up this badly just for starting our revolt?"

"Nah. Only the first set of bruises were for that. I have something that 'chairman' Akatsuki wants," Finn said.

"What is it?"

"You'll see soon enough."

"Why can't you tell me?" she demanded, not taking no for an answer. "Tell me. Or will I have to add another shade of black and purple to your face?" Finn looked at her, she was on the attack.

"I can't. It's…it's just too big," he said. Ryoko began to persist but, seeing his expression, rested her head on his shoulder and felt somewhat content staring at the pink and orange sky. The clouds sitting on the horizon were bright pink, with an orange and red background painted behind it. It looked as though the sky were on fire, slowly growing in the night. After a long time had passed she lifted her head up and looked at him. Feeling her pull away from him, Finn roused from the light slumber he had fallen into. They locked eyes and stared at each other. Slowly, their faces began to draw closer and closer. Ryoko closed her eyes and Finn did the same. She could feel his breath on her face, and hers on his.

"Hey Saotome, I…" Seiya's face appeared between them in a vidwindow. "Sorry Saotome, I'm just not that way." Finn fell backwards. "Look, the Captain wants to see you. And after that we need you down at the hangar."

"Can't this wait?" Finn asked. But when he looked at Ryoko, he knew the mood was already killed.

"The Captain said it was urgent," Seiya replied. "And why am I telling you this? Why couldn't the captain?" he added to himself. "Anyway, just get up here."

 "Alright, I'm coming," Finn stood up and ran to the door. However, before he left, he gave her one last look. They looked at each other for a moment, then Finn took off down the hall, making a mental note to turn off his communicator next time.

Follow the Bloodstained Path

          "Say what?" Finn said. "You mean we're not going with the plan?"

          "Before we resort to such drastic measures, I want to see if negotiations are possible. Maybe we can bring this war to an end by talking instead of shooting," Yurika explained.

          "But…you don't understand, Captain," Finn protested. "Look, maybe I'm the only one who feels this way, but it's like this. I know what makes these guys tick. From being cooped up in the brig with commander crazy for a week and a half and from having fought these people, they're not interested in peace. They want total domination over Earth, Mars, Jupiter, the whole lot. They're out for revenge. Don't you understand?"

          "I understand perfectly. But that still won't prevent us from trying to establish peace, even if it is unlikely," Yurika replied. "Ruri? Have all the missing crewmembers been retrieved?"

          "Aye, Captain," Ruri replied. "Orders?"

          "Set course for Mars. This started on Mars and it will end on Mars," Yurika ordered. "Minato, bring the PT engines online."

          "Roger, Captain," Minato hit some controls and the four phase transition engines came to life and they left the Earth's outer atmosphere.

The next few days were very boring. They passed the UF fleet that was slowly but steadily on its way to Mars for a final confrontation with the Jovians. They had amassed all of their remaining forces and had just left the Moon's orbit. After five days of travel, they stumbled across a small Jovian strike force which, as soon as the Nadesico came into sensor range, began attacking. The pilots scrambled.

          "Tenkawa, you and Izumi take the left flank. Hikaru, you're with me." Ryoko ordered. "Saotome…"

          "Seek and destroy?" Finn guessed, dropping into his seat and fastening himself in.

          "Right," Ryoko said as she closed her cockpit.

          "Stop!" a giant vidwindow opened in the middle of the hangar, displaying Yurika's face. "I want all of you to stop right there."

          "Have you lost your mind?" Akito asked.

          "Have you lost yours?" Yurika answered. "We're supposed to be trying to establish peace negotiations, not start the second battle of Mars here. Or have you all forgotten that?" The Nadesico shuddered under a gravity blast.

          "It doesn't seem like they're too interested in sitting down for milk and cookies," Finn said, detaching Skywarp from its restraints. "Not that I couldn't use a snack."

          "Hold on!" Yurika shouted again. "Just give me a few minutes to whoa!" She fell over as the Nadesico shook again.

          "For crying out loud." Finn sat Skywarp down and waited.

          "Megumi, try to establish a communications link between us and the Jovian flag ship," Yurika ordered.

          "Right." Megumi said.

          "This is the battleship Nadesico to Jovian forces. Please respond. We wish to work out a ceasefire," Yurika said. No response. "Repeat, this is the battleship Nadesico. We don't want to fight you. We just want to talk." The ship shuddered slightly from grasshopper missile barrages. "We have a prisoner here!" The attack stopped.

          "What do you mean by that?" someone from the Jovian battlegroup asked.

          "Who am I speaking to?"

"This is Lieutenant Commander Tsukomo Shiratori. Who do you have prisoner? What have you done to him?" he demanded.

"Our crew has not inflicted any injuries on him. We rescued him from certain death at the hands of the UF. We also rescued him from his robot before it exploded. So I hope you take me seriously when I tell you we're not here to fight," Yurika explained. "We wish to return him to you in exchange for peace talks."

          "Who, exactly do you have?" Shiratori pressed.

          "He is Commander Sanoske Hashima." Yurika replied, displaying a picture of him.

          "Hashima?! Are you sure?"

          "That's who he claims to be. Lt. Saotome, is that correct?" Yurika asked.

          "Yep, that's him," Finn answered, his face appearing in a smaller window.

          "If you'll excuse me, I have to give my superiors this information." Shiratori disappeared. A few tense minutes passed before I returned. "You have permission to launch one shuttle and one escort. You must bring Commander Hashima along with you and come unarmed."

          "Understood." Yurika closed the communication channel. "Prospector, Mr. Hori, Akito, and Lt. Saotome. I want you to come with me to meet with the Jovians."

          "Are you sure about this, Captain?" Finn asked as they were boarding the shuttle. "Me and her don't exactly get along too well." He eyed Sano, being led onto the shuttle. "Besides, this is probably a trap. How do you know we can trust this Shiratori guy?"

          "I am well aware of your concerns. But this is the best hope we have to talk about peace. Thanks to you, we have a bargaining chip," Yurika said. "Shouldn't you be in your uniform?"

          "Hey no way. I'm not taking any chances. You guys are free to get yourselves killed," He tapped his suit and quickly loaded a clip into his gun and slipped it into a small compartment on his left thigh while she wasn't looking. "Unarmed my skidplate," he said to himself, boarding the shuttle. Akito took the controls and detached the shuttle from the Nadesico's underside. Ryoko flew her aesti beside them. Izumi and Hikaru floated just in front of the Nadesico, ready to jump in if things got ugly.

          They were guided by a grasshopper into a hangar bay. The walls of which were lined with dimojin and goliath units. They were instructed to land by a small group of people, which had gathered to welcome the unusual delegation.

          "Welcome to the Thundercracker," Shiratori said. There were two men holding weapons, making them feel a little uneasy. "Oh, don't mind them," he said, following their gaze. "My commander ordered this, for our own protection. Please, come this way." His uniform was all white, which portions of gold trim. As they were escorted out of the hangar, they all noticed how different the interior of the ship looked in comparison to the Nadesico. It was furnished with what appeared to be wood floors and wall panels. It didn't seem at all like a battleship.

They were led down a hallway and into what appeared to be a traditional Japanese tatami room. They all filed in and sat down. A small booklet was laid out before everyone. The Nadesico delegation sat side by side in a row. Across from them, the Jovian Admiral, Shiratori, and several other officers were seated.

          "Greetings, Captain," an elderly man said. He was not dressed in the white uniform. His was a dark purple. "I am Admiral Sakata. Welcome to the Thundercracker."

          "Thank you. What are these?" Yurika asked, picking up the booklet sitting in front of her.

          "While you were en route I talked with my superiors at Central Command. We discussed what concessions would have to be made before we could accept a peace treaty," the Admiral answered. "Please, have a look." The Nadesico delegation began to read through the Jovian proposals.

          "What is this?" Yurika asked.

          "Full disarmament of all Earth military functions? Removal of governments?" Akito asked.

          "This isn't a peace treaty," Finn said.

          "It's a form of surrender," Hori added.

          "It is our proposal for a negotiated peace," The Admiral 'corrected'.

          "But sir. This isn't what we discussed. You told me that…" Shiratori began, but was interrupted by the Admiral.

          "You asked me to consider negotiations. These are what central command and I both see as reasonable proposals for ending the conflict," He said.

          "But sir. We have the opportunity to end the war right now. Isn't establishing peace our primary objective?" Shiratori protested. Soldiers entered the room through its sliding walls and aimed their machine guns at the Nadesico delegation.

          "Our primary objective is to establish peace. And that peace will be established by our ways on our terms! I'm warning you now, Commander, to not question my orders any further." The Admiral got up and pointed in the direction of Yurika and the others. "You five will make excellent examples of the filth we are going to cleanse from the universe."

          "But doesn't Gekigengar tells us that there is only one true righteous path? We have to…" Shiratori was interrupted again by the Admiral.

          "You are correct. There is only one true righteous path. And that is our path!"

          "But sir!" Shiratori was shoved aside, and fell between Akito and Finn. Finn tapped the compartment and took hold of his own gun.

          "If you want to help these filthy earthlings, you can die along side them. As an example to all those who question our righteousness," the Admiral said. "Men. Commander Shiratori has proven to be a traitor and an Earth sympathizer. Your orders are to execute him immediately." A soldier aimed his gun at Shiratori and pulled the trigger. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. But Shiratori did not fall from the bullet.

          "Nu uh," Finn said, holding a closed fist over where the bullet would have hit Shiratori. He opened his palm, showing the bullet and flicked it back in the Admiral's face, then aimed his gun at him.

          "Tenkawa!" Hori shouted, kicking a gun out of a soldier's hands, which came sliding to a stop in front of Akito, who grabbed it.

          "Open fire!" the Admiral ordered.

          "Ooooh no you don't." Finn grabbed Sano sitting beside him. He quickly ripped her shirt over her head and threw it, along with her, into the cluster of soldiers. Knocking them down. "Move!" he shouted to Yurika. Hori grabbed her wrist and pulled her out of the room. Finn grabbed Shiratori by the collar and dragged him out along with them. Akito led the way, while Finn brought up the rear. By now, the cluster of soldiers had managed to untangle themselves from each other and came after them. Finn shot the soldier in front in the shoulder. He fell to the floor, causing his fellow soldiers to trip over him. "Keep moving! Don't stop!"

          "I don't intend to!" Akito shouted back. They continued this way for a few more minutes until they reached the hangar.

          "Tenkawa. Take the rear," Finn said, firing a few shots in that direction as he shuffled to the front. "Stay here, I'm going out."

          "You're going to do what?!" Yurika demanded. Finn slid the door open and ducked in. The sound of gunfire followed.

          "What is he doing?!" Akito asked, firing down the hall at the latest group of soldiers, still stumbling over their own feet after them. Unlike Finn, he unconsciously shot to kill. The plan was to shoot the guy in front so everyone behind him would fall over him. All of a sudden, the door was flung open.

          "Let's go!" Finn said and began dragging them across the hangar. All around them there were soldiers, technicians, and pilots laying on the ground, holding a shoulder, leg, or other not-totally-vital area.

          "What are you, Vash the stampede or something?" Akito remarked.

          "Aww, I hate it when people call me by my full name," Finn said as they finally got to the shuttle. Yurika got in first, followed by Hori and Prospector. Shiratori was shoved into the shuttle by Finn. "Come on Tenkawa," Finn said and he followed him up the ramp. When the shuttle doors closed, Akito took the controls and flew them out of there. Outside was a melee of grasshoppers and three aesties.

          "What the hell did you guys do in there?!" Ryoko screamed at them, dodging a sea of missiles.

          "Just cover us on our way back!" Akito said. "Damn, they've got bugs everywhere." Finn sat down next to Shiratori.

          "Man, we trade one of you guys for another." He said.

          "You mean you left Sanoske back there?" Yurika asked.

          "He's the best pilot in the second fleet!" Shiratori exclaimed. "You'd have been better off to kill him than to exchange him for me."

          "You mean we'd have been better off to kill her," Finn corrected.

          "What do you mean?" Shiratori asked.

          "I'll tell you later," Finn laughed. The shuttle shuddered. "Tenkawa, what's going on out there?"

          "Don't look at me. There are missiles flying everywhere. We just took a hit on the starboard wing," Akito said.

          "I suppose it wouldn't help if I got out and pushed?" Finn retorted.

          "Break it up!" Yurika said. "Just concentrate on getting back to the Nadesico."

          "Ryoko, can't you guys cover us a little better than that?" Akito complained as the shuttle took another hit.

          "Don't even start with me, Tenkawa," Ryoko shot back, firing a missile barrage into the cloud of grasshoppers following them. "The Nadesico already has the gravity blast on continuous fire. And it's still not enough." Just then, a huge blast wave of graviton energy ripped through the centre of the grasshopper cloud.

          "That the…?" They all asked in unison. But neither of them said any more. The distraction gave them enough time to return to the Nadesico, and the safety of its distortion field.

          "Well, we thought you could use some help," Akatsuki laughed on the other side of the vidwindow.

          "What the hell are you doing here?" Finn demanded, ripping his helmet off as they returned to the bridge.

          "Hey, we're all still on the same side, remember? It's in both our best interests to bail you out of this," Akatsuki said. "Besides, the Katkitsubata was only completed a few days ago. And we've been dying to try her out." Inez's face appeared on screen.

          "Inez? What are you doing on the Katkitsublabla or whatever it's called?" Yurika asked.

          "No time to explain that. You have to act quickly before the grasshoppers regroup. Fire the PT cannon," she said.

          "The PT cannon?" Yurika asked.

          "That's correct. By using power from all four of the Nadesico's phase transition engines…" Inez began.

          "We get the idea," Finn said.

          "Ruri, standby on the PT cannon. Fire at will," Yurika ordered.

          "And these are the guys you wanted to be friendly with," Finn muttered.

          "Roger that. Firing PT cannon." Ruri sent the command. A dark sphere formed at the front of the Nadesico where the PT cannon energy was growing. The sphere was fired into the heart of the grasshopper and Jovian ship cluster and exploded in a dark ball of energy. "All enemy units have been vaporized,"

          "Look at that," Minato said.

          "The PT cannon appears to have so much energy concentrated within the blast that it destroys the very fabric of space," Inez explained from the Katkitsubata.

          "I am currently tracking three escape shuttles outside the PT cannon's blast." Ruri reported. "Should I send the order to pursue?"

          "No," Yurika answered. "There's no need. We've destroyed their attacking capabilities."

          ""Captain. May I suggest a temporary docking to conserve power on our way to Mars?" Akatsuki asked.

          "Permission granted," Yurika said. The Y unit expanded and the Katkitsubata slowly connected itself with the Nadesico.

          "So why'd you come bail us out?" Finn asked ask Akatsuki came down the ramp from the other ship. Anger was mixed with his confusion.

          "Like I said. We're all on the same side," Akatsuki replied with his usual grin. Finn began to walk away. "Hold it Saotome. That doesn't mean we're finished with you."

          "That's right." Inez said. "Please accompany Mr. Akatsuki and I to the observation deck. You two have to come as well," she said to Akito and Yurika.

          "What is this?" Finn asked, looking at all the equipment that had been moved onto the once peaceful observation deck.

          "A temporary measure, I assure you," Akatsuki said.

          "This is very important," Inez said seriously. "I need the three of you concentrate."

          "On what?" Finn asked.

          "Mars," she replied. "More specifically the Utopia Colony.

          "Why there?" Akito asked.

          "I've never even been to the Utopia Colony," Finn added. "I was out for a good chunk of that little shindig."

          "Do you remember what the colony looked like before we were attacked?" Inez asked.

          "Yeah, I guess so, but…"

          "Then that will suffice. Now, come here. It's a good thing you came dressed for the occasion." Inez led him to what looked like an IFS port. "Put your hands into the ports." Finn did as he was told. All the while keeping an eye on Akatsuki.

          "Now what?" he asked.

          "Captain, Akito, you two need to be in direct physical contact with Lt. Saotome in order for this to be successful." Akito grab Finn's right arm and Yurika held onto his left.

          "Now what. Hey, what are you doing?" Finn asked. Inez took Akito and Yurika's free hands, thus making a kind of circle around Finn.

          "Alright. You may launch the CCs now," Inez said to Akatsuki, who then nodded to a technician.

          "Just what are you trying to do here?" Finn asked suspiciously.

          "We're going to boson jump," Inez said simply.

          "To the Utopia Colony on Mars," Akatsuki added. Finn ripped his hands out of the IFS ports.

          "Nu uh. No way am I helping you get there," he said.

          "Do I really have to force you? Besides, it's not like I could really do much with you around anyway." Akatsuki said. "And if you decide not to cooperate." He opened a vidwindow.

          "Let me go, damnit!" came the familiar voice of a certain green haired pilot. "Why am I always the hostage?"

          "Not again." Finn sweatdropped. "Can't you think of anything more original?"

          "Unlike the last time, you've got nowhere to run," Akatsuki grinned his evil little grin.

          "Don't you have anything to say about this, Captain?" Finn asked. "I mean, he DID hold you and the Nadesico hostage two weeks ago. I don't know, there's something about being held at gunpoint that makes me distrust other people. Maybe it's just me," he said sarcastically.

          "I am well aware of that." Yurika said. "But under the current circumstances, I don't see the harm in this."

          "You…wha…huh?!" Finn gaped.

          "Just do it already!" Ryoko told him. "The sooner they untie me the better. So do it!"

          "Fine, fine." Finn clicked his hands into the IFS ports again and the others formed their circle around him.

          "CCs have been deployed," a technician said.

          "Good. Doctor, you may begin," Akatsuki said. Finn mumbled something.

          "You're going to have to forget about your grudge against him, Lieutenant," Inez said harshly. "Now concentrate. Think of the Utoptia colony. Close your eyes and picture it." They all closed their eyes.

          "What the hell?!" Finn saw sparkling lines resembling computer circuitry running up and down Inez, Akito, and Yurika's bodies.

          "Don't break your concentration!" Inez said. "You have to concentrate. Any failure now and both the Nadesco, the Katkitsubata, and everyone on board could be destroyed. Finn closed his eyes and tried to picture what he remembered of the Utopia Colony. He remembered his battle in the ACF, and pulling Ryoko's damaged frame back to the Nadesico. The lines running up and down their bodies glowed with more intensity. "Now, picture in your minds yourselves there. Standing in the deserted streets. Notice the chulip. Pick a building and picture yourself there. There was a bright flash of light, then everything went black.

          "What the…? What happened?" Finn asked. But he heard his voice echo.

          "Concentrate," he heard someone whisper. "The Utopia Colony." Finn closed his eyes and concentrated. Then, everything went back to normal. Only the view out of the glass was different.

          "Congratulations, Doctor. Your theories seem to have been proven correct," Akatsuki applauded.

          "Thank you. Now if you'll excuse me. I'll see you there," Inez glowed then blinked out of sight.

          " 'see you there'?" Finn asked. "That doesn't mean…"

          "Attention please," Ruri's voice sounded through the comlink. "I am detecting a chulip sized object approaching Mars at a distance of 1 258 000 kilometers. Coarse projections indicate it will land at the Martian South Pole."

          "Figures," Akatsuki said. "Well, Captain. We're going to have to make our way to intercept. Ruri, prepare to detach the ships. I'm heading back to the Katkitsubata." Akatsuki was soon aboard the other ship and on his way.

          "Set coarse for the pole," Yurika ordered coming back to the bridge.

          "Due to the atmosphere, we cannot operate the Nadesico's phase transition engines at full capacity," she explained. "However, with our nuclear engines on full, we should reach the pole a little while before the chulip lands there."

          "Doesn't it bother you just a little that we're doing exactly what that reptile Akatsuki wants us to do?" Finn asked.

          "I don't see much of an alternative. Do you have any better ideas?" Yurika asked. Finn shook his head, kicked a wall in frustration, and left.

…To be continued in act 5

                             End of Act 4