Part Two: Luck
Hibiki found himself immersed in a sea of blue plasma. It surrounded his entire awareness, showing up wherever he looked. He frantically tried to peel it off his body, but they refused to go away.
...thump thump thump... the blue touched him and refused to let go... thump thump thump...
Mysterious shadows and silhouettes swirl around him, asking him questions... questions he did not know the answers to.
When he awoke gasping for air, he found himself back in yet another cell.
"You're awake. Good, I thought you're having a hallucination episode," a long-haired man said clinically.
"Ah, it's just a nightmare," another man said dismissively. He had yellowish hair, complete with the charm and ooze of a merchant.
"W-where am I? Who are you?" Hibiki asked as he glanced around.
"I'm Duero McFile. We have been captured by the Mejale women. But who are you? You are dressed like a third class citizen."
"Hey, I recognize you," the other man said. "You're the one trying to steal one of the Vanguards!"
"So what if I'm third class!?" Hibiki yelled, "I'm Hibiki Tokai. Who the hell made the choice for me anyway!?"
"Hey hey, no need to be angry. Here, I'm Bart Garsus," the man said and offered a handshake, which Hibiki took hesitantly. "Listen, as long as we're all prisoners, we shouldn't argue about classes. I say we have to work together to escape!"
"Escape? We don't even know where we are," Duero said.
"Don't give up hope so soon! You want to get eaten!?" Bart asked.
"Yeah, come on, don't you want to get away from the women?" Hibiki added.
Duero considered the question for a while. Then he smiled. "I don't mind them. It's interesting!"
---
"The hell is this," Arion complained as he rubbed the back of his head slowly.
"I dunno. Looks like a prison cell," Eadric replied flippantly.
Arion growled as he surveyed the glowing energy bars. "Damn it, getting captured is not in my plans!"
"Not mine either. Look, let's just chill out until everything gets sorted out, ok?" Eadric suggested.
"Don't be stupid! I'm not going to wait for one of those women come and kill us!" Arion said.
Eadric gave him a look.
"Oh alright," Arion muttered in defeat.
"Killing an Exodusian, yahright," Eadric muttered sarcastically.
Both sat down on the cold floor in frustration. They can't believe that had let down their guard so easily back on the shuttle, to be taken captives so simply by three women.
Then the door slid open. A crone complete with a walking stick and dressed in a robe walked into the room escorted by silver-hair and several heavily-armed Mejale pirates.
"Oh, it's what's-her-name," Arion said bluntly.
The elderly crone turned to look at silver-hair. "So BC, these are the men that have caused you so much trouble?"
The silver-haired woman smirked. "Yes, although the situation was remedied quickly enough."
"Look, can someone just explain what's going on here?" Arion demanded.
The old woman narrowed her eyes. "I am Magno Vivian, the commander of the Magno Pirates. You're now our prisoners."
Arion and Eadric were stunned, their jaws hanging open.
Then Eadric snickered.
"Not a word," Arion growled in warning.
"Bwah ha ha ha ha!" Eadric laughed uncontrollably. He doubled over and slapped his knee.
"Shut up!" Arion yelled.
"Ha ha ha!" Eadric continued, tears of laughter lining his eyes.
Magno and her pirates watched with surprise as the laughter continued. Eadric pointed a shaking finger at Arion, who was simmering with anger.
"Y-you! A pirate! Caught by pirates! Bwah hahahaha!" Eadric managed to gasp in between his laughing.
"Oh great, I'll never live this down," Arion muttered in exasperation.
Eadric laughed so hard that he collapsed onto the floor, still laughing.
"Do me a favor. Kill him," Arion begged his captors.
"I've never heard of a Taraak pirate," Buzam said instead.
"I never said I was from Taraak," Arion replied evasively.
Magno lifted her head to stare at him. "You're an outsider?"
"We're both from the Inner Sphere[i] originally," Arion clarified.
"The Inner Sphere? What are you doing on this Taraak ship?" Buzam demanded.
"I have no idea," Arion grumbled. He noticed that several of the female pirates began to back away and gripped their weapons tighter the moment Magno called him an outsider.
Eadric finally calmed down and wiped his tears. "My name is Eadric Lee, and he is Arion Wong," he said and paused.
There was no reaction from the women. Apparently, they weren't famous in Mejale.
Eadric coughed. "Actually, I was invited here by the Taraak government. We have absolutely nothing to do with the war between Mejale and Taraak."
Buzam placed her hands on her shapely hips, eyes narrowed as she sized up the two men. "We have no way of confirming your claims. For all we know, you could be Taraak spies."
Arion raised a hand like a student. "I have a suggestion."
Magno arched an eyebrow in askance.
"Like he said, I'm a pirate. He's been after me for years. If you give us back our weapons, we'll finish our vendetta right here and now," Arion said with a wolfish grin.
Immediately Eadric straightened up. "You're worth more if I get you alive, ya know."
"Really? How much is the bounty on my head?" Arion asked.
"At last check, about nineteen million," Eadric instantly replied.
"That little!?" Arion yelled indignantly.
Eadric shrugged. "Well, you –have- been out of the loop for a while, and they dropped you to a Category C bounty. In fact, the only reason I'm still hounding you is because you damaged my ship the last time we met."
"Oh come on, that was a long time ago!"
"Nuh-uh, I still owe money for the repairs!"
Their captors watched and listened incredulously as the bizarre conversation wore on. Magno shook her head in disbelief and signaled for her crew to leave the two men alone in their cell.
Arion and Eadric didn't even notice them leaving.
---
"Well, what do you think, BC?" Magno asked as they traveled to another part of the ship.
"It's hard to believe, but they could be telling the truth. Those two showed absolutely no reaction to us women, unlike other Taraak men," BC conceded.
"Hmph. Maybe the Pexis did something to them as well, like what it did to the ship," Magno grumbled.
She was referring to the fact that a crystallized blue entity had taken over the pirate ship, fusing it with the old Taraak module into one single form. Despite their best efforts to free themselves, the crystal substance refused to budge and invaded virtually all the important functions of the ship, modifying and transforming whatever it pleased.
BC took the captain's comment as a request for a report. She took out her communicator. "Gascogne, what's our status?"
"Huh. Parfet says the engines are still down. We only have two Dreads... well, five if you include the other three Dreads, and one of the men's Vanguards..."
"What's wrong with the other three Dreads?" Magno asked, detecting Gascogne's doubtful voice.
"Those Dreads belong to Meia, Jura and Dita... well, I'm not sure if there's anything wrong... Anyways, Parfet's doing her best to get us moving. And we tried to cut the blue crystals but nothing seems to work."
"Understood. Keep trying," BC encouraged and ended the call.
"Now let us take a look at the others," Magno grinned, "maybe they are just as insane as those two."
"I doubt it. From Meia's report, the other men we captured were... more typical in their behavior," BC said.
"Well, they are more than what they seem to be," Magno said slowly. BC nodded in agreement.
Magno was a little disappointed when she saw the prisoners.
"Why, they are just children," she remarked when she laid her eyes on Hibiki Tokai, Duero McFile and Bart Garsus.
"Sorry to make you come all the way here, captain," a blue-haired woman apologized. The light glinted off her odd headpiece.
"No need for that, Meia," Magno said dismissively. "So, these are the men you captured?"
Meia nodded curtly. "Yes. They were left behind when the ship separated and launched their life pods."
"What were they doing?" Magno asked.
"I saw the short one climbing up one of the men's fighters. The one with the long-hair said he was a doctor and stayed behind to help our injuries. And I found the last one hiding from the battle," Meia said.
"Interesting. They are totally different than the ones BC caught," Magno commented.
Meia looked at BC in surprise. "You caught some as well?"
"Yes, though they say they aren't Taraak soldiers."
"Of course they are Taraak soldiers," the man known as Bart Garsus quipped, "and I totally understand why they would deny it."
"Because you're a coward-pyoro!"
Everybody looked at the source of the electronic voice. It belonged to the droid that Hibiki had rescued, only it had sprouted comical legs, arms and even a pair of rounded eyes.
"A Navigation droid! Now that brings up old memories," Magno said, scrutinizing the hyper-active droid that was jumping up and down excitedly.
"A what?" Bart asked.
"She implies that she had seen one of the droids before. How is that possible?" Duero wondered, his visible eye staring intently at Magno. His other eye was entirely covered by his unorthodox hairstyle.
"Yeah! This is a men's ship!" Hibiki said with bravado.
"You ignorant kid. But I suppose your forefathers would keep it a secret from you. This old ship was part of a colonization fleet from Earth a very long time ago. Your grandfathers cut off this section and stole it," Magno explained.
The Taraak men stared at her, aghast.
"That can't be true!" Hibiki yelled.
"Yes, it's true. They stole this ship. But at least they repaired everything and even upgraded some facilities-pyoro," the droid said.
"And so we're back where everything started. Naturally, we want this ship back. The question is, what should we do with you three?" Magno asked rhetorically.
"We should throw them out of the airlock," Meia said immediately.
"What about the others?" BC asked.
Magno contemplated the matter for a while.
"Let's not be hasty. I have been craving for some Taraak delicacies for quite some time now..." Magno grinned and licked her lips viciously.
Hibiki gulped and sweated heavily. "They really are gonna eat our livers!"
Then the intercom beeped. Magno tapped it with her walking stick.
"Captain Magno?"
"Ezra, what is it?" Magno said.
"Something is approaching us at high speeds," Ezra reported.
"Taraak reinforcements?" BC demanded.
"Somehow, I don't think so..."
Then the entire ship shook.
"They are attacking!" Ezra exclaimed.
"Meia! Launch the Dreads!" Magno commanded. The blue-haired leader of their fighter wing gave a simple nod and ran out.
"BC, head to the bridge and take over."
BC nodded and turned to leave when yet another attack rocked the ship violently and even knocking off the lights in the room. When the lights came back on, an unconscious Mejale woman was pinned underneath the rubble.
"Don't move her!" Duero said sharply. He leapt over the debris and knelt to examine the woman. When her colleagues pointed their weapons at him, he smiled.
"Don't worry, I'm a doctor!"
To Hibiki and Bart's amazement, the Mejale pirates and Duero worked together to free the unconscious woman.
Bart seized the opportunity to take advantage of the goodwill. He stood up and caught the attention of Magno.
"Alright, we might be enemies. But right now we have to work together like my friend there to survive," he said.
"Your friend is a doctor. What can –you- offer us?" Magno asked bluntly.
Bart coughed. "Ahem. The fact is, I'm a trained helmsman of this ship."
"He's lying! He's lying!" Pyoro yelled.
"Pyoyo, keep quiet," Magno said sternly. The droid slumped in a chastened manner.
"So, you're a helmsman. Well, what do you propose then?" Magno asked.
"I suggest a cease-fire. We will, er, find ways to work together until the situation improves," Bart said hesitantly.
"That's an interesting idea. Fine, let's do it."
Bart stared at her.
"BC! I'll take this one to the bridge. Take the other one to the hangar get him to pilot the remaining Vanguard," Magno said and left the room with Bart in tow.
"Uh... I'm not a fighter... I'm just an engineer," Hibiki muttered.
BC frowned. "So what are you doing here then?"
Hibiki laughed nervously. "I, uh, I made a stupid bet to steal one of the Vanguards... and I couldn't back off at the last moment..." "I thought men are proud creatures. Looks like our data was wrong," BC said. Even though she didn't say it in a sneering tone, it deeply affected Hibiki.
"I just thought you might want to know, I'm not exactly combat qualified..." he mumbled.
"You came onboard because of pride. But now when things really matter, when life or death is on the line, you're making excuses? Men or women, it doesn't matter now. If you can't change who you are, what's the point of your existence?" BC demanded.
She shook her head when Hibiki couldn't respond. "You're useless now. I'll put you in with the other men. Maybe their insanity will help you grow a backbone."
---
"Not another attack," Arion groaned when the ship shook. When Eadric didn't respond, he turned around. "Hey, are you even listening!?"
"Interesting crystal formation," Eadric mumbled as he stared off into the distance.
"Just what the heck are you babbling about?"
"Take a look, there," Eadric pointed to a distance. "Every few minutes, those crystals expand and cover more of that hallway. Like as if it's alive."
"I think we should get away now, not when there's another problem-" Arion stopped when he heard footsteps.
BC appeared with Hibiki behind her. She deactivated the energy bars, tossed Hibiki in roughly and quickly reactivated it again.
"Hey, what's going on? And who's this kid?" Arion demanded.
"We're under attack by hostile aliens. As for him, he's just a coward," BC said coldly and left.
"Coward? What does she mean? Hey kid, talk to me!" Arion asked.
Hibiki slumped onto the floor. "I'm just an engineer... they wanted me to go out and fight..."
"What's happening out there? What did she mean hostile aliens?" Eadric asked urgently.
"I don't know! Leave me alone!!" Hibiki yelled.
Arion growled. He grabbed Hibiki by the collars and dragged him off his feet.
"Listen kid, I don't know what happened to you and I don't care. But curling up into a ball while there's fighting going on won't help anybody. We're not even from your planet and we're in the shit –your- people made."
He threw Hibiki onto the floor. "Look at us! Do you see us whining about it!?"
Hibiki said nothing, and Arion threw his hands up in disgust. Eadric knelt near the boy and smiled.
"Don't worry about it kid. Everyone has the combat jitters. So, just leave it to us," he said.
Hibiki stared at them. "What? What do you mean? What are you planning to do?"
"Fight, of course! I'm guessing the ship is taking a pounding, otherwise they wouldn't ask a Taraak to fight for them," Eadric said as a matter of fact.
"B-but, he just said it's our problem! Why are you getting involved!?" Hibiki asked.
"Kid, if we don't fight, we'll all die here," Arion said simply. He nodded to Eadric, who tapped his wristwatch several times. Aiming it at the control panel, a single needle flew out and short-circuited it. The energy bars disappeared.
"Stay here and be safe," Eadric said.
They ran out, leaving Hibiki all alone in the cell, reflecting on their words.
---
"Uh, what is this place?" Bart asked as he surveyed the area.
"This is the bridge. The Pexis seems to have modified everything," Magno told him.
"Oh, yes, yes of course! It's men's secret technology after all!" Bart said hastily.
"Now get going and get us out of here!" Magno said sharply.
"G-get going, of course..." Bart muttered. He stared at the pool of blue plasma warily. Just as he leaned over to look, a swirl of energy launched up and pulled him under.
"Well, he really seems to know something about it," Magno marveled.
Inside the pool, Bart found himself cold, surrounded by a sea of blue energy. Not to mention he was naked.
"What what!? What is this!?"
Extremely realistic screens of the battle outside popped up all around him. It was meant to give the navigator a clear view of the exterior.
Unfortunately, it was too realistic for the tastes of Bart Garsus. Every enemy pass, every explosion felt all too real. He frantically tried to move away from the incoming hits.
"G-get away from me!!" he screamed.
Outside, the ship actually moved, albeit with haphazard speed and direction.
"At least it's moving, it's a start," Magno said.
"He doesn't know how it works-pyoro" Pyoro moaned.
"Captain! We... we have something here..." one of the bridge bunnies reported hesitantly.
"What is it?" Magno asked as she sat down comfortably on her raised seat in the middle of the bridge.
A video screen popped up and a masculine face with green hair and a stalk of grass in her teeth appeared.
"Gascogne, what's the problem?"
The muscular woman in the screen shrugged. "Well, see for yourself," she said.
The video panned around to show Dita, Jura and Meia arguing with the two Exodusians.
"...oh come on! I can fly real good!" one of the males half-pleaded, half-bragged.
"Well, not as good as –me- but..." the other man said.
"Oh shut up."
"We don't need your help!" Meia shot back.
"But leader, they seem to be good aliens!" Dita said.
"But that's Barnette's ship! Where is she in times like this?" Jura demanded to the ceiling.
"She's still in the bacterial shower," Gascogne laughed from off camera.
Magno stared at the argument. "How did they get out of the cell? What do they want?" she asked open-mouthed.
Gascogne walked towards the arguing group, her tall presence immediately silencing everyone. "I don't know, but they don't seem too bad. I say let them fight. So what if they get killed?"
"Hey, you got two other spare... what, Dreads? Let us fly them! 'Sides, your crew is busy getting this ship moving," one of the males said.
"Madam," the one who called himself Eadric said formally, "we won't run away. I don't think there's any place we can run to right now. So let's just-"
"Let's just work together for now, is that what you're saying? I've heard that before," Magno interrupted with a smile.
"Yup."
"Captain, our usual Dreads have been changed by the Pexis. I think we should take the unchanged ones to avoid unexpected situations in battle," Meia said.
"You will have to learn to use them again then. Gascogne, give them two Dreads. Let see if those men can really fight," Magno replied.
"Captain!" Meia started to protest, when yet another blast rocked the ship.
"You heard her. You two, get to your Dreads down here. I'll give you guys our usual loadout," Gascogne said. Behind her, young women dressed like waitresses tapped their consoles quickly.
Eadric and Arion then punched fists.
"Kick Ass-" Arion began.
"-and Take Names!" Eadric finished as they ran towards the Dreads.
"I suggest you get going," Gascogne said benignly to Meia. Simmering with anger, the Dread wing leader nodded curtly.
---
"This is just like old times," Arion said.
"It has been a while since we even flew together, dude. Sure brings back a lot of memories," Eadric replied.
"You sure you can fly one of these?" Arion asked as he surveyed his Dread's controls. It all seemed vaguely similar. He tentatively gripped the stick and felt the thrum of the engines.
"Hah! You need to ask me that?" Eadric said cockily from his own fighter.
"Looks like a Kilrathi's Dralthi[ii] fighter to me," Arion replied with a grin, "except everything's more brightly colored."
"Hey you two, everything ok?" Gascogne asked.
"EZ as 1-2-3," Eadric said.
"If you say so. Launch, those aliens are coming in for another pass," she said calmly.
"Alright, let's do this!" Eadric yelled. He pushed the throttle forward and his Dread burst into space like a slingshot.
---
"How is it over there?" Meia asked from the cockpit of her transformed Dread. Everything was familiar, and yet, there were more than subtle changes.
"The response rate is incredible!" Jura exclaimed from her own transformed Dread.
"Take care, we don't know what's been done to the Dreads," Meia cautioned as she evaded of the enemies.
Several brilliant lights flashed off her window and she glanced to look. Dita's Dread easily outpaced the enemies and left dozens of them in pieces.
"Everything's has been powered up! I'm sure of it!" Dita said excitedly in her blue Dread. But even more of the enemy appeared from the main enemy vessel.
The smaller enemies had geometric and yet organic shapes, bizarre mismatches of triangles and four limb-like appendages like arms and legs. The main enemy ship was an odd, pale colored ship shaped like a fat teardrop. Whenever a group of the smaller ships get destroyed, the mothership would yawn open and spew cubes, cubes that would separate into more enemies.
"There's just too many of them!" Jura complained as she spun her Dread wildly to evade.
"We need to take out the main enemy, but we will leave our own ship defenseless if we do," Meia stated. Despite her calm observation, a sense of frustration bubbled underneath.
"Howdy, might we be of service?" Eadric said. The two Dreads came at angle towards them, leaving destroyed enemies in their wake.
"Wow wow wow! Good aliens have come to help us!" Dita cheered excitedly.
"Somebody shut her up," Arion muttered.
"It's the men," Meia seethed.
"Yeah, nice to see you too," Arion snorted. "Listen, either you attack the mothership or we do. Either way, one group has to stay back and protect your ship."
"Why do you even bother?" Meia said through gritted teeth. "We attacked you and now you're helping us?"
"Hoi Arion, check your 6 o'clock!" Eadric yelled in warning.
"Sorry, I'm not free at that time, please try later," Arion said flippantly as he banked the Dread in a tight circle, shooting down enemies in the process before winding up behind another enemy, which he also destroyed with ease.
Meia released a breath that she didn't she was holding. She cleared her mind and made a decision.
"Jura, Dita, form up on me. We'll take the fight to the mothership."
"Roger!"
Meia glared at the men's images who awaited her orders. "If you men let anything happen to our ship..."
"Don't worry, we'll need it for a ride back anyway," Eadric said. "Hey Arion, let's pull back and defend the ship."
As the two Dreads peeled off and headed back to defend their ship, Meia could still hear traces of their conversation.
"You know, those enemies look pretty damned familiar."
"Ring any bells?"
"Not right now. Kinda like a déjà vu feeling."
"I got a bad feeling about this."
"I –hate- it when you say that."
---
"Well BC, looks like those two are quite useful after all," Magno commented as she watched the battle.
"They are not typical Taraak men," BC admitted.
"But where's the short boy I told you to get the Vanguard?"
BC shook her head. "He's not a fighter. He couldn't take the pressure and-"
A monitor screen lit up. To their surprise, it was Hibiki on the screen.
"Hey! Where's my Vanguard!?" he demanded.
Magno turned to look up at her assistant. "What is this about?"
"Let me handle this one, Boss," BC replied. "What do you want to do with it?" BC asked.
"To fight!"
"Are you sure you can do it?"
"I don't want to be what I am now! I want to change! To be stronger, to be better!" Hibiki stated determinedly.
"Is that all?"
"I want to prove... to prove that my existence really matters!"
Magno and BC smiled at his answer. She tapped a key on the console.
"Follow the lights. It will lead you to your Vanguard."
"Thanks! You won't regret it!" Hibiki called as he ran.
---
"Uh, not to sound whiny or anything, but can you girls hurry up with 'destroying-the-mothership' plan over there? We're getting creamed out here," Arion said as he struggled with the controls.
"We're working on it," Meia gritted.
Then the main mothership increased its speed and followed the pirates.
"It's headed this way! Arion, defensive positions!" Eadric yelled.
"What defensive positions!?" Arion demanded as his Dread punched through an enemy formation.
"There's reinforcement on the way, though we don't know what he can do yet," Magno said over the communications.
"Reinforcement?" Meia asked.
"'He'"? Eadric echoed.
They had their answer a second later as a gold-colored, modified Vanguard burst into the battle scene.
"I want to change!" Hibiki's voice yelled.
"It's him! He's a good alien! I knew it!" Dita exclaimed.
"Hey, it's the kid. Looks like your words did something," Eadric said to Arion.
"Bah. I did nothing," Arion scoffed. But he can't help grinning.
---
Inside the Vanguard, Hibiki gripped his controls with nervous excitement.
"I can't fail now... not now!" he said. The lights in his cockpit glowed softly, calming him down. He reached down to touch the console.
"Partner, if you can change, so can I!" he said confidently. He charged towards the battle.
"Thunder Fist!" he yelled and punched space.
Nothing happened.
Four of the enemies cornered him and fired.
---
"What the hell was that all about?" Arion commented.
"Hm. Must have watched too many cartoons," Eadric replied.
---
"Alright, I screwed up on that. What about this!?" Hibiki said, dismissing his mistake. The Vanguard pulled out a sword with an oversized blade. Hibiki spun it with quickly and destroyed the four enemies with ease.
"Oraaaa!" Hibiki yelled as a battle cry. The Vanguard blasted towards the enemy mothership.
To everyone's shock, the huge ship actually slowed down to face the Vanguard.
---
"He's going to get killed," Magno remarked.
"But if there's a miracle, a lot will have to change..." BC said.
---
"You idiot! Get back here!" Arion shouted in horror. He pushed his Dread to catch up.
Meia did the same thing, because Dita had carelessly increased her speed to keep up behind the Vanguard.
"Dita! Pull back!"
"I want to see it! He will save us, I believe in him!" Dita said with boundless optimism.
"Dita!"
To Hibiki, all that he could see, all that he could hear was the core of the mothership as it opened.
"Just... a... little... more..." he said through gritted teeth, pushing his Vanguard to the limits. He paid no heed to the smaller enemies that had latched on to the mecha.
"I want the power to change!"
The mothership's gaping maw glowed red.
"I won't give up!!"
Rails of red burst from the mothership and struck the Vanguard dead in the center. A tremendous explosion engulfed it, expanding and enveloped Dita's Dread within it as well.
Meia and the others stared in shock, unable to digest that the Vanguard and Dita's Dread had disappeared.
"That idiot..." Jura hissed, looking away from the explosion.
---
On the bridge, everyone stared at the explosion silently.
"Looks like the miracle didn't happen," Magno said, disappointment clouding her face.
"Boss... we have to withdraw..." BC said with eyes closed.
"Huh!?" Pyoro exclaimed, becoming bug-eyed. BC and Magno looked up at the screen in surprise.
---
From the explosion, a gigantic fist burst through and gripped the enemy's rails, crushing them with its huge fingers. As the explosion dissipated, a huge metallic, humanoid figure emerged.
"What is that?" Jura gasped.
Meia had no answer.
It was huge, several times larger than Hibiki's Vanguard. It was encased in the red energy from the rails. As it cooled off, the figure could clearly be seen.
"Whoa," Eadric whispered.
"I want one..." Arion muttered.
It was a huge mecha of blue and green. Two crystal cones of green lined down its shoulder blades, more green crystals lined the arms and legs. Its head had a jutting forehead like a horn, a long sharp lower jaw and green metallic eyes giving it a bestial look.
"Is that... one of men's secret weapons?" Magno asked in shock.
BC was stunned as well. "A real miracle?"
It moved forward towards the mothership, ignoring the smaller enemies that seemingly desperate to stop it. With ease the mecha brushed them aside like insects.
Reaching the mothership, it gripped the opening and forcefully pulled it open. The two green cones on its back slid up and over the shoulders like cannons. Within seconds, they glowed tremendously in green.
Then they fired.
The mothership convulsed as twin beams of emerald light burst through its aft. A series of internal explosions ruptured the hulls before finally collapsing into a huge detonation.
And the smaller enemies fell silent.
---
"I... I did it... heh..." Hibiki gasped, a tired smile on his lips as he stared blearily into the distance.
"I finally made it!" he said with conviction. He wanted to jump with joy, but then he realized there was something heavy on his lap. Plus, there was another pair of hands underneath his on the controls.
"W-w-what is going on here!?" Hibiki yelled in panic.
Dita slumped back against him, mumbling dreamily in her sleep.
"I knew you could do it... Mr. Alien..."
Hibiki sweated nervously.
"Is this... is this what I'm looking for!?"
[i] Inner Sphere – reference to 'Battletech'. In the UPA universe, the Inner Sphere refers to the early hundreds of worlds colonized directly by humans from Earth. Freeworld is not, since it was officially colonized by the Exodusians and the Freemen. Beyond the Inner Sphere is the Periphery (independent kingdoms, sovereign planets, bandit kings etc), and beyond that are the alien star empires.
[ii] Kilrathi – reference to Wing Commander. The Human's enemies from the game were the feral, cat-like species that walked on two legs.