An
Unlimited Parallel Adventures
presentation
-A Story in the Endless Roads arc-
VANDREAD – A TWIST IN THE TALE
by
ARION WONG
(April 9 2003)
Part One: Chance
In orbit of Taraak
Star System MFD-1313x1
2385
Zarl sighed. He wondered for the millionth time: how the heck did he get himself in such a backwater planet? But then again, he knew the answer.
Zarl Moenick was a Freeman, a human born and raised in the distant world known as Freeworld. Freeworld was established by the 70,000 humans who had left Earth nearly 400 years ago to fight in the the Liberation War. Zarl was a descendent of those 70,000, who had returned to Earth only to find themselves outcasts and rejected.
Like other Freemen, Zarl had no ill-feelings towards Earth. They idolized the Exodusians, the humans who became ageless immortals and led the 70,000 volunteers.
Zarl reflected on that as he glanced at his superior officer. Zarl knew why he had joined the Exodusians' Robotech Defense Force and not Freeworld's own military force. He had worked hard and long to get his rank. To see and work with the man he had grew up hearing stories about. Zarl's superior was one of the greatest heroes the galaxy had ever seen.
Eadric Lee, Exodusian and 405 years old. He was the Commander-in-Chief of the elite Robotech Defense Force. Captain of the legendary Super Dimensional Fortress-1: Macross. The galaxy's greatest gunman, he had won eight consecutive titles in the Galactic Gunslinger Tournament before the pro-Earth sponsors decide to ban Exodusians from entering. His list of achievements went on and on. Freemen idolized him, alien powers respected him, and the corporation known as Soldat hated him.
After years in the academy and training, Zarl was elated to be assigned to the living legend. But weeks traveling with the mild-mannered Exodusian only told him that the rumors were true:
Eadric Lee was a simple man. Modest, unassuming, unorthodox and virtually set on doing things his way: laid-back and easy.
"Why are we even here?" Commander Zarl Moenick whined to his superior. Years of military training did not prepare him for Eadric Lee's... unusual command style, but it grew on him. Hell, it was like talking to a civilian!
"Hey hey, it will be an interesting experience!" his superior said lightly.
"It's boring," Zarl complained.
The Chinese man rolled his eyes. "Gee, I didn't ask you to come."
"And tell Admiral Hayes that I lost the commander-in-chief? Yeah right," Zarl snorted in reply.
"It won't be the first time," Eadric smirked. "You didn't need to tell her anything anyway, she knows my habits all too well," he added.
"Yeah whatever sir... so what are we doing here anyway?"
"I told you, we're invited," Eadric answered.
"I never even heard of this planet before today, sir.
"Well Zarl my inquisitive subordinate, you should really brush up on your homework. Taraak is at war with its neighbour Mejale."
"War? Are we involved?" Zarl asked in alarm.
"Of course not."
"Then why are we here?"
"It's interesting! One planet of guys, another planet of girls! Isn't it interesting?"
Zarl gave him a look. "You're joking. Just what is here that you're so excited to see that you broke all the regs and get here without telling RDF Command?" Zarl demanded.
"Eh, it seems that they want to demonstrate their new mecha and launch their new spaceship."
Zarl shook his head in disbelief. "That's it? Not again! Sir, this technology-obssession of yours has got to stop."
"You can't stop me," Eadric said happily.
"Sir, no disrespect to the natives, but the RDF and Freeworld have the galaxy's best mecha and ships. What can this little planet offer?"
Eadric wagged a finger in disapproval. "Now now, don't be like that! Just because we have the best equipment doesn't mean we should be complacent."
"I'm just being blunt sir. I can't believe you came here without the fleet or at least a fighter escort," Zarl said.
"Do I look like I even need an escort? Maybe you forgot what ship this is."
Zarl winced. They were onboard the Little Dragon Lady, Eadric's personal shuttle. Heavily armed and as maneuverable as a fighter, it gained fame when it ran through the heavily armed blockades of Soldat Corporation.
"Besides, I'm meeting an old friend here," Eadric added.
Zarl arched an eyebrow. "Who?"
Eadric merely smiled and turned away, a distant look on his face.
---
On the other side of the planet, another ship was also descending towards Taraak. Unlike Eadric Lee's powerful shuttle, this ship was decrepit and a single-seater fighter. But most would recognize its distinctive four wings configuration. It had been the pride of the Confed fleets, but this particular X-Wing was old and in need of a major overhaul.
Indeed, even as it approached the planet's atmosphere, its pilot muttered a prayer for the ship to hold together as it fought the gravity and tremendous heat.
"Burning up in atmosphere is NOT nice..."
---
"Well, are you ready?" Eadric asked as he made minor adjustments to his nondescript clothes.
"Ready as I'll ever be, sir... but shouldn't you be wearing something more... official?" Zarl replied.
In stark contrast, Zarl was in full dress uniform of the RDF, smartly cut white with black trims, almost a throwback to the US Navy of 20th century.
"Nah. Too fancy. Too heavy," Eadric said.
"Heavy, sir?"
Eadric had a shit eating grin. "Yeah, too many medals."
Zarl grimaced.
Eadric Lee was a simple man with doe-like eyes and long earlobes. With his Laughing Buddha countenance and a college freshman-like attitude, one can't take him seriously.
Which is why when the duo stepped down the ramp to be greeted by a full military parade by the Taraak military, nobody paid attention to him.
Instead, 500 fully uniformed soldiers and officers of Taraak turned smartly on their heels and snapped a salute aimed at Zarl. Zarl immediately returned the salute while Eadric smiled at his discomfort.
Before Zarl could stage-whisper on ask what to do next, a Taraak man strode forward full of nervous energy and swiped his hand, pumping it in a vigorous shake. He was bald; his head shaped like a bullet and had a uniform and moustache that reminded Eadric of Japan's Imperial Navy during World War II.
"Welcome! Welcome to Taraak!" the man said enthusiastically, "It is an honor for a distinguished military man such as yourself to grace our world!"
Eadric coughed discreetly to hide his smile. Seeing no help from the Exodusian, Zarl stopped the handshake and gestured.
"I'm sorry sir, but –this- is Eadric Lee, Commander-in-Chief of the Robotech Defense Force. I am his aide, Commander Zarl Moenick."
The Taraak man visibly tried to control his anger and humiliation, a tint of red climbing all the way to his bald pate. The reception entourage gasped at the snafu.
"I see... Well then, I greet you welcome to Taraak," he said forcefully. Instead of offering a handshake to Lee, he saluted briefly.
"Sorry for the misunderstanding," Eadric Lee apologized modestly, "I thank you for the reception, and it is good to be here."
Mollified, the Taraak entourage applauded.
---
Far way from the posh district was the factories and residential areas of Taraak's third class citizens. The working class provided the labor necessary to run the manufacturing and production arms of the entire world.
Hibiki Tokai, 16 years old, found the daily grind of working in one such factory absolutely not to his tastes. He mentally tuned out the live telecast of the launching ceremony of Taraak's newest and most advanced battleship, the Ikazuchi.
He sighed as he trudged wearily to get his share of the sludge known as 'lunch' in the workers' mess hall.
"Hey kid! When are you gonna get that Vanguard ya promised us!?" a taunting voice yelled.
Hibiki visibly cringed when reminded of the fact.
"Ahhh, yer dreamin'! He ain't got the guts!" another voice shouted.
"Hey shut up!" Hibiki yelled back, his anger getting the best of him. "I'm just waiting for the right moment that's all!"
"Sure ya are kid! Like, after the ship is gone?"
The mess hall erupted into laughter.
"Ahhh alright! I'm going to get the Vanguard right now, this instant!" Hibiki said in exasperation. He jumped to his feet and slammed his dish loudly on the table.
Silence.
Then somebody dropped a fork. It was a signal for catcalls and laughter as Hibiki Tokai stomped out of the mess hall, ears burning red.
---
The Mejale-Taraak asteroid belt served as a natural wall or barrier of sorts, preventing massive invasions from either side. Both the men of Taraak and the women of Mejale had viewed the asteroid belt with some comfort, knowing that while it existed, their homeworlds would be safe.
However, it was a two-edged sword.
Such a dense asteroid field meant that it was the perfect hiding spot for pirates, smugglers and other riff-raff. With the Taraak men living in a highly regimented (and frankly quite primitive society), that meant those criminals were from Mejale.
Females, after all, are said to be more cunning and vicious of any species.
Feared by the Taraak, despised by the Mejale authorities, the Magno Pirates terrorized both sides of the asteroid field.
Their infamous ship now hangs in the shadow of the asteroid field, the pirates bidding their time as they watched an elaborate ceremony unfold on Taraak...
---
"Man, do the speeches never end? Are they even going to launch the ship today?" Eadric Lee muttered to his aide. They were seated behind the podium on a large stage, before a crowd of hundreds of thousands of Taraak men.
The bald-headed man that had greeted them at the port were giving a rousing speech, complete with shaking fists and podium pounding, much to the delight of the Taraak listeners.
Zarl smiled wryly. "Standard procedure, sir. The higher-ranking the speaker, the longer the speech."
"I never gave a speech longer than 3 minutes," Eadric replied.
"That's because you suck at it, sir," Zarl shot back.
"Ouch. You're gonna pay for that, commander."
"Bite me, chief."
"Uh-uh, I don't swing that way," Eadric said triumphantly.
Zarl grimaced, unable to get a comeback. He always lost to his superior in having the last word.
To his further annoyance, Eadric actually pulled out an old-fashioned pen and paper notepad to scribble something. Zarl leaned over to take a glance.
"Oh come on! You don't have to keep score!"
---
Paying no heed to the speech which sounded vaguely like sexist propaganda, he drew the cowls of his robe closer to him, hoping to avoid detection. His efforts seemed to be unnecessary, as the Taraak men all around him had their attention glued to the speaker.
'Like mindless sheep...' the man thought to himself as he surveyed his surroundings. He had somehow managed to jostle his way through the crowd, to get nearer to the stage.
The crowd around him cheered loudly as the speaker winds up his speech. The people decorated with medals and other high-ranking officials then withdrew to launch the new spaceship.
All the while, the man kept his attentions on a single person.
'Well now, I'd better get going myself...'
---
Hibiki gasped with the effort as he sneaked into the hangar. It was no mean effort just to get there.
A combination of dexterity, his small size and a good deal of luck allowed him to gain entry into the super-secret Vanguard hangar onboard the spaceship. All the while he thought someone was following him, but he didn't look back, fearing discovery by a guard.
He nearly wet his pants when his contraband transparent glove failed to give him access the first time. He was blind with panic until the palm-sensor finally beeped in confirmation and allowed him in.
Hibiki's mouth made a large 'O' when he saw the Vanguard Model 99s in the hangar. They stood side by side, lining up the walls, ready to be launched at any time.
The boy took his time to gape around at the towering humanoid machines, painted in gleaming silver and yellow. Then his excitement spiked when he saw a Vanguard that had a marking sketched onto the front armor plate.
"I found you!" Hibiki said excitedly. He had carved that mark into that plate. When he told his colleagues in the factory about it he was ridiculed, and then he made the bet to get the armor plate back.
That was what made him risk his entire life to get here.
But seeing that the security was so lax made him dream about the impossible. Being a third class citizen, he could never hope to be a soldier, let alone to pilot a highly advanced weapon such as the Vanguard.
"Damn, you are big," he said in awe of the marked Vanguard. "My very own partner..."
With little difficulty, he climbed up the mecha, -his- mecha.
His fingers were tantalizingly close to open the cockpit hatch when the entire ship rumbled.
Then his problem merely increased when the lights came on.
'Oh no!' he thought in panic.
He found himself stared at by a group of freshly graduated Taraak cadets.
It only took them several minutes to regain their wits, monkey-piled him and threw him into the brig.
Hibiki realized with a sinking feeling that he was caught on a military ship that was about to take off.
---
"Sir? Sir, are you alright?" Zarl called.
"Wha-?" Eadric replied, startled from his reverie.
The spaceship had rumbled as it launched on its maiden trial run, reminding Eadric of the days when he and his fellow Exodusians first left Earth nearly four hundred years ago.
Eadric shook his head to clear the memories away.
They were now in a hall, where yet another speech is going on, this time a graduation speech as fresh-faced cadets stood at attention. Rows of the new mecha stood proudly behind the podium, but Eadric uncharacteristically did not look interested in them at all.
"Anything wrong?" Zarl asked.
"What did I miss?"
"Nothing much. They just caught a stowaway trying to steal one of the mecha," Zarl said breezily.
"Hm, pretty lax security," Eadric grunted. Then his wrist watch beeped twice.
"...sir?" Zarl questioned as Eadric abruptly stood up.
"Going to check on something, and don't follow me," the Exodusian said firmly as he left the hall discreetly.
"But sir! They are going to demonstrate the mecha any moment now!" Zarl whispered urgently to no avail.
---
Once away from prying eyes, Eadric touched the face of his wrist watch. The digital clock disappeared and a compass pointing towards a red spot came in its place.
Following the compass, Eadric took a long, long roundabout detour, slipping discreetly pass the relaxed Taraak guard patrols. To his surprise, his route led him to an abandoned section of the Ikazuchi.
He entered a darkened hallway, still following his compass.
'Hm, this part of the ship seems much older...' he thought as he scanned his surroundings.
"This is sure decrepit for a new ship," a voice interrupted his train of thought.
Whirling around, Eadric whipped out a silver-colored handgun.
"Hey, don't point dangerous things at me," the voice said.
Eadric grinned. "Not as if you can do anything about it," he said as he holstered his enormous looking handgun.
Arion Wong, former RDF co-founder and now a wanted pirate; stepped into the light with a grin on his face. A roughly sewn robe and cowl covered his features.
"What's with the Obi-Wan getup?" Eadric asked.
"Har har," Arion said sarcastically and got rid of the cloth.
"Last I heard, you were on Libria[i]," Eadric said.
"A bit of soul-searching."
"There was a revolution there, was that your doing?"
Arion shrugged. "A little, but it is not-"
"Not your fault, yeah right," Eadric finished. "And don't brag how you slipped onboard. So, how are things?"
"Oh, not bad. Couple of years of run and gun, the usual works."
"Sheesh."
Then Arion turned serious. "Why did you ask me to come here?"
"When are you coming back to Freeworld?" Eadric asked in return.
Arion glared at him in disbelief. "You asked me to come all the way across the galaxy just for that?" he demanded.
Eadric merely nodded; a silly grin on his face.
"The answer is still the same years ago: Never," Arion answered darkly.
"Don't be stupid," Eadric scoffed, "you're still welcome in Freeworld. Heck, what do you want? A full public pardon?"
"Heh. Maybe."
"How am I going to get you a pardon if you don't appear in Freeworld for it?" Eadric demanded.
Arion sighed. "I just can't trust anyone that much, old friend."
"Not even me?"
"Not even you."
"I don't believe this! After all that we have been through! 400 years of friendship! Come on, we started everything together!"
"Times change," Arion replied. "I still remember the times –you- came after me with guns blazing."
Eadric grimaced. "That was a misunderstanding, ok? Anyways it was your fault in the first place. You hijacked the Arcadia[ii] and went on to be a pirate! What else can I do? I'm the sheriff, you're the outlaw."
"And I'm still an outlaw now," Arion reminded him.
"Yeah well, not in the Alliance anyway."
"Huh?" Arion replied, genuinely surprised.
"You idiot. Don't you ever keep up with the news?"
"Not really, didn't have time," Arion replied.
"An Exodusian, not having time. Oh that's a good one," Eadric said sarcastically.
"I was busy!" Arion said defensively.
"Pfft. Anyways, many Freemen believed that you had a reason for your piracy, don't ask me how they get that idea. And officially, you never resigned your commission from the RDF. So technically, you're still part of the RDF, a Star Control hero and a Freemen idol just like the rest of us," Eadric explained with a flourish.
Arion stared at him in disbelief.
"Wait wait, what do you mean? I'm cleared?"
"Only in the Alliance of Free Stars," Eadric admitted. "But we're working on the full pardon from the United Federation of Planets as well."
"You won't get it," Arion said negatively, "not while Soldat Corp still has Earth's votes in its pockets."
"Hey, it's a start," Eadric shrugged. "These things take time you know. After all, you –did- cause mayhem in the shipping lines."
"Only with Soldat ships. I never attacked anything else," Arion clarified.
Eadric sighed. He placed a hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Listen, I hate Soldat just as much as you do. But your one-man war isn't gonna work. We have to do it by the proper way," he said.
"You mean with politics," Arion sneered. "It was politics that got us in this mess in the first place!"
"No, it was –your- stubbornness that got –you- in this mess! Damn it!" Eadric yelled angrily.
Stunned by his anger, Arion said nothing.
"That's right," Eadric said. "And until you come back to Alliance space to make your stand and publicize your case, no one is going to trust you!"
"Is that all that's going to take?" Arion asked wryly.
"Is that really too hard to believe?" Eadric countered.
"I don't know what to believe anymore."
Eadric took out his handgun and aimed it at him.
"You can believe in my friendship, Arion," he said. "or I can knock you out and bring you back forcibly if I have to."
"Heh. You can try," Arion scoffed as he took out his own gun.
Just then the entire ship shook, nearly knocking them off their feet. Eadric's communication badge beeped urgently. With annoyance, he activated it with a touch.
"Yeah, Lee here. Wassup?"
"Sir, where are you!?" Zarl's voice came in a panic.
"Calm down. What happened just now?"
"I'm not sure sir! There's some sort of emergency going on!"
Eadric grimaced. "Typical timing," he complained. "Nevermind. Get out with the Dragon Lady."
"I'm already at your ship sir, but I can't just leave you!" Zarl protested.
"Zarl, if you let my ship get destroyed in this 'emergency', I'll make sure you'll pay very dearly for it," Eadric promised, causing Arion to crack a grin.
"But sir! What are you going to do!?"
"Don't worry, should anything major happens, go back and contact Admiral Hayes. She will know what to do."
"Sir, I don't think that's a good idea," Zarl insisted.
"You either do it or I'll order you to do it! Now move!"
"Sir, yes sir!"
Eadric sighed as he cut the communications.
"Huh. Looks like you got an eager side-kick there," Arion teased.
"Yeah. And still wet behind the ears..." Eadric said.
"So, what now?"
"Let's see what's happening. Knowing our luck, there could be a war going on," Eadric shrugged.
"Huh. Good thing that you told him to get lost," Arion scoffed.
"Yeap. Eager side-kicks always get killed."
---
Another thunderous explosion shook the ship. One minute Hibiki was trying to persuade a floating droid to free him, the next he was coughing at the resulting smoke in his cell.
Hibiki wondered what misfortunate had befallen him now. But when the smoke cleared, he was overjoyed to see the energy bars on his cell had disappeared. Plus, the droid that was punishing him with jolts of electricity lay short-circuited on the ground.
He briefly wondered on what to do with the droid. But his engineer instincts took over and he grabbed the oval-shaped machine under his arm and ran.
---
Red lights flashed wildly and the sirens wailed as Eadric and Arion ran down the corridors. Then they found out that there really was a war going on, because panicked voices filtered through the speakers.
"...launch all the Vanguards!"
"Enemies have infiltrated the ship!!"
Then a sterner voice cut through the turmoil.
"Prepare for separation of the old module!"
Arion and Eadric shared a puzzled look as they ran.
"Separation? What does that mean?" Eadric asked.
"Is this your first time on this ship?" Arion asked back.
"Yeah!"
"It's my first time too, so don't ask me!" Arion snapped.
---
Hibiki was panicking. There was nobody around as he ran aimlessly. All that was on his mind was to get to his Vanguard and get the hell away from the mess.
"No way I'm dying here!" he gritted his teeth. He was so focused on getting away that he paid no attention to the huge round object that dominated the background. It was ringed with lines and emitting a soft glow of white light.
Hibiki Tokai would find it interesting, but his attention was drawn elsewhere when an explosion suddenly engulfed him.
---
"I guess this is the secondary bridge," Eadric said.
"Looks like it hasn't been used for a while," Arion commented. Indeed, the area seemed to have been abandoned long ago.
They were in a command center filled with consoles and monitors. Eadric tapped several keys and the screens came to life.
"You sure you know what you're doing?" Arion asked warily.
"Hmm, this OS is old... but I recognize it. Seems to be a Legion variant or something..." Eadric mused aloud as his fingers danced on the keyboard.
"Look, skip on the history lesson! What's happening out there?" Arion demanded.
"Damn! Looks like the Taraak people separated this section of the ship and had moved away!" Eadric exclaimed.
"What!? Is there a way out of here?!"
"That's what I'm trying to find out!"
"Well hurry up then! I've got a bad feeling about this," Arion said.
"I hate it when you say that," Eadric muttered.
"Don't move!" an electronically modified voice exclaimed behind them.
"Aw crap," Arion cursed.
They raised their hands up in the air and turned around warily.
Three figures dressed in comically colored suits armed with claw-like fingers that their laser rifles aimed at the two Exodusians. To the duo's further bewilderment, the figures wore masks with almost tribal-like designs... or old, black-eyed grey Martians.
"Geez, what's with that look," Arion complained.
"Haha, guess they didn't have fashion sense," Eadric laughed.
"Freeze! Who are you and what are you doing here?" one of the figures demanded.
Arion shrugged. "Ask him," he said flippantly and nodded towards Eadric.
"Eh, I was trying to catch him when all hell broke loose," Eadric said, just as flippantly.
"Vice-commander, what do we do with them?"
"Get rid of them," the vice-commander replied.
"Is that alright?" the third asked.
"They are just worthless men."
Arion and Eadric glanced at each other and chuckled.
"What's so funny?" the vice-commander demanded.
"You have a way out from here?" Eadric asked.
"Of course. And don't expect us to give you a ride," BC replied.
"Yeah, you are Taraak men after all!" a suited figure added.
"Your problem is with Taraak has nothing to do with us," Arion said calmly.
"We're just about to shoot each other when your attack interrupted us," Eadric clarified.
Then the entire area shook wildly, nearly knocking all of them off their feet. The two Exodusians immediately took advantage of the disorientation and charged.
Seconds later, the trio of suited figures found themselves disarmed and being pointed at with their own weapons.
"I thank you for your weapons," Arion said sarcastically.
"Please, can you get rid of those ugly suits?" Eadric asked conversationally.
The suited figures glanced at each other. They slowly and calmly stripped off the oversized suits to reveal three women: a long, silver-haired and tanned woman, a bespectacled girl and a lady with very small eyes.
"Women?"
Eadric shrugged. "They must be from Mejale."
"This is one screwed-up scenario," Arion grumbled.
"You seem pretty confident. You didn't run away from us like the other men," the silver-haired woman said.
"Why would I?" Arion asked.
"You're not afraid?" the one with glasses asked.
"Nope."
"Oh my, that is interesting," the last of the three women remarked.
"What do you hope to accomplish by aiming those weapons at us? You will be killed by our crew later anyway," silver-hair said.
"Ah. You might have some difficulty with that at the moment. Please remember I'm the one with the weapon, not you," Arion said.
Silver-hair grinned. With a hand signal, all three women raised a hand and pointed their fists at the Exodusian.
For the first time, Arion and Eadric noticed that they were wearing rings which glowed warningly in red.
"These rings are weapons too," silver-hair said smugly.
"Oh, you can shoot us, but we got nothing to lose," Eadric said.
"We can shoot you back, and at least one of you will be injured or even killed," Arion continued.
"Are you actually threatening us?" silver-hair asked in disbelief.
"Think of it as a negotiation process," Eadric replied. "Get us out of here, then give us a ship and we'll leave."
"Vice-commander, what do we do?" silver-hair's companions asked worriedly.
"We have no choice... we have to avoid unnecessary injuries now. We'll let the Boss decide later," she conceded.
The Exodusians grinned.
Then a high-pitched warning sounded from the console.
"Uh-oh, that can't be good," Arion muttered.
Heedless of the consequences, Eadric turned his back on the suited figures and examined the console.
"Oh shit! There's a missile lock on this ship!"
"Hell! Can we move this hunk and evade!?" Arion yelled.
"There's no power! Damn it!"
The three women were alarmed as well. Silver-hair immediately took out a communicator of sorts.
"Boss!"
An old woman's voice quickly came through the communicator. "BC! Yes, I see it too. It's regrettable but we have to abandon the catch. Get everyone out now!"
"Understood! Meia, did you hear the Boss? Withdraw!"
"Affirmative. We'll pull out once we get Dita," a new voice came back.
BC snapped her communicator shut.
"Hm. Looks like survival is our mutual priority right now," BC said calmly.
"Shall we leave then?" Arion asked with exaggerated politeness.
"Yes, take us to your leader," Eadric said with a grin.
The women were confused when Arion laughed at that comment.
---
When Hibiki awakened, he found himself being smothered by a soft, leathery feature. He groped the palm-sized... thing... that hung over his head.
"What the heck is this?" he asked blearily.
Then his eyes widened when he saw what it was attached to. Apparently, he was grabbing the chest of one of the evil women invaders.
"Ahh! Get away from me!" Hibiki yelled, scooting away.
"Ooh, it's an alien!" the suited figure gushed.
"Alien?" Hibiki repeated dubiously.
Then the figure opened its suit to reveal a bubbly, bright-eyed, long-haired woman.
"My first encounter with an alien! Hi, my name is Dita!" she exclaimed excitedly.
"Uh, hi," Hibiki laughed nervously. "Ahhh! Evil women are coming for my liver!" he screamed and ran away.
"Mr. Alien!" Dita cried out.
"Dita! Get back to your Dread, we're leaving!" a voice yelled from high above.
She looked up to see a blue-haired woman together with a daringly dressed blonde.
"But, leader Meia!" Dita protested.
"I said get to your Dread! Now!" the blue-haired woman repeated firmly.
"Aye," Dita said, depressed.
---
"What are those women doing!?" the bald-headed man demanded.
"It looks like they are doing an emergency dock, sir. The red pirate ship is linked to the old module. We think they are evacuating their personnel when they detected our missile lock."
"Then we'll blow them all to hell before they do!"
"Commander! Please reconsider!"
"There is no choice! I'd rather see that module destroyed than let it fall into the hands of those evil women!" the commander replied.
With a vengeance, he stabbed the red button. The ship shuddered as two massive missiles detached and headed straight towards the old module and the red pirate ship...
---
"Boss, this is BC."
"How's the evacuation?"
BC glanced back to see the two Exodusians waving back at her cheerfully without a care in the world.
"I'm now in the shuttle and headed back towards you. We also have... some visitors with us," BC reported.
"Visitors?"
"I'll explain later. Boss, the evacuation is done except for three Dreads," BC said.
"Get those Dreads out immediately! Those stupid men have fired their missiles!"
---
"Dita, what are you doing?!" Meia yelled.
"My Dread is stuck! I can't get out!" Dita cried in panic.
"Jura, can you help her?"
The blonde-haired woman's face came on her screen. "And how am I supposed to do that?!" she demanded.
Then there was a brilliant blue flash...
---
Hibiki gasped and thank the stars when he found his Vanguard still in the hangar untouched.
"Let's get outta here, partner!" he said as he climbed into the cockpit. He dumped the short-circuited droid at his feet and started to struggle with the buttons, levers and joysticks.
"Wait, I don't know how to use this!" Hibiki realized frantically.
Then there was a brilliant blue flash...
---
"Uh-oh. Pretty blue light," Arion said as he stared out from the shuttle's window.
"Blue? Tell me that's not a Reflex engine!" Eadric shouted and rushed towards a window to see for himself.
It gave the three women the perfect opportunity to knock the two distracted men unconscious.
"Not again...' Arion muttered even as he dropped face-first onto the cold floor.
---
"What the hell happened!?" Zarl demanded hotly.
"We destroyed our property along with those evil pirates," the Taraak commander replied.
"Commander Eadric Lee was onboard that module!"
The Taraak officer shook his head. "I wish to inform you that there is absolutely no trace left of the pirates, -or- the module."
Zarl slumped into his chair, shell-shocked.
"Your commander has been killed. I'm sorry for what happened, but now you see what we're up against," the Taraak officer said, not sorry in the least.
Zarl heard him but paid no attention.
"I really lost the Commander-in-Chief..." he whispered to himself.
[i] Libria – reference to the movie "Equilibrium". Excellent action movie IMHO...
[ii] Arcadia – Captain Harlock's ship ^^