The Conscience hath been awakened.
What news bringeth thou of the war?
Progress hath been made, but losses are most severe.
Hast thou seen the Gifted?
Two are present at the Destination.
Ah, yes. The Conscience sees them both. Where art the third?
En route. It is well protected, but well within Thy omniscient eye.
Thou hast done well. The third can be seen.
Will this alter the scenario?
Nothing can alter the scenario of thy Conscience.
What shalt be done?
Be off, and bring them to thy Conscience, whether they art deceased, or living.
It shalt be done.
-------------------
"Hey, Haley, this is really good! You sure you're not hungry?" Saburouta asked, while shoveling food down his throat.
Haley gave the Jovian a dirty look, muttering, "I'm not feeling that hungry. Honestly," he whispered to Ruri, "how can anyone have an appetite after seeing the way he eats?"
"Oi, I heard that, Haley," Saburouta growled dangerously.
Before Haley could respond, a sudden beeping noise chirped from his wrist communicator. Haley looked down at it before raising an eyebrow in curiosity.
"What is it?" Ruri asked softly, putting down her ramen bowl.
"It's from Omoikane," Haley replied, pushing some buttons on the communicator. "Before I left to check up on you, I asked it to run some more scans on the surface to see if it would pick up those strange readings I got earlier."
"Strange readings?"
"Yeah, large amount of some kind of alien energy source out there. It appeared briefly before disappearing a few days ago. Ever since, Omoikane's detected traces of it here and there."
"What has Omoikane picked up now?"
Haley furrowed his brow. "Another spike in those strange energy readings, and in the same exact spot."
"Those ruins that we looked at via satellite?" Saburouta asked around large amounts of rice.
Haley gave him a disgusted look, and received only a rice-dripping grin in reply. "Yes, the same ruins."
"What ruins are these?" Ryoko piped up, a little red in the face from the sake she had been imbibing.
"Why, ruins of romance, of course," Saburouta said slyly, giving Ryoko a once-over. "There's a legend that says if a couple go there and make vows of love…"
Ryoko gave him a bop on the back of his head. "Don't play games with me," she said testily. "What are these ruins?"
"Ruins of an ancient civilization we have no knowledge about," Ruri answered quietly, with a far-away look in her eyes. "The same civilization where the phase transition engine and gravity blast cannon were discovered. The same place where…"
"The boson black box was found, right?" Ryoko asked with narrowed eyes.
"Yes. The Martian ruin composed entirely of chulip crystals."
"Well, this sounds interesting!" Saburouta said heartily, somewhat unnerved by the solemnity of Ryoko's and Ruri's voices. "Why don't we go check it out?"
"Don't be so hasty," Haley snapped. "We don't know what's there, it could be booby-trapped or something! And wipe your mouth, that's disgusting," he scolded, gesturing at the trickle of soy sauce that was running down Saburouta's chin.
The Jovian quickly mopped it away with the sleeve of Haley's shirt, eliciting an icy glare. "Don't be such a chicken, Haley!" he admonished, "we should check it out! Don't you agree, Captain?"
Ruri looked at them both, thinking. "Yes," she said slowly after a while. "Yes, we should."
-------------------------------------------------------------
Two of the Gifted approach swiftly.
Yes, the Conscience can see them.
For the Conscience is all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful.
What of the third?
The third will soon be within our reach.
And the preparations?
They proceed smoothly. All will be well.
Move quickly.
Yes.
Rapidity is the essence of war; take advantage of the enemy's unreadiness, make thy way by unexpected routes, and attack unguarded spots.
Preparations will commence when the third is in our reach.
That will leave the Destination weak?
Yes.
Go and do as thou hast planned.
Victory hath been given to the Conscience.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Grand Admiral, I don't like this idea at all," Harada said forcefully, eyeing Kouichiro's screen. "In her condition, travel like that can kill her. And in an environment as stressful as a war zone, she wouldn't stand a chance in hell of living. Either she'd go into shock and stop breathing, or her ship'll get blown to shreds!"
"You think I don't know that?" the Grand Admiral sighed heavily, his voice sad as he pulled at his mustache. "You know how my dear Yurika is once she has her mind made up. Even in her condition, there's no stopping her."
"True…" Harada trailed off, biting his lip. "When did it get so bad?" he asked softly.
"Just a few weeks ago, it started to really escalate," Kouichiro replied forlornly. "Ever since the Martian Successor incident…"
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Are we almost there yet?" Haley asked tiredly. They'd all been crammed in Saburouta's Aestivalis for almost forty-five minutes, and his legs were starting to fall asleep. "This isn't exactly the most comfortable position on Mars, you know."
"Oh, quit you're whining, kid," Ryoko admonished. "It could be far worse."
"Like what?"
"Like…the Unknowns could be attacking us right now. That would really suck."
"I suppose," Haley admitted grudgingly. "But what are the odds of that, huh? They'd have to get through the fleets in orbit, then the orbital platforms, and then the planetary defense systems. There's no way they can punch through all that in one day!"
"Don't say things like that," Saburouta said behind his back.
"Why not?" Haley and Ryoko demanded.
"Because, it just might happen," Saburouta said, winking.
"We probably have another twenty minutes, Haley-kun," Ruri said from next to Saburouta. "Do you want to switch spots? You seem rather cramped back there."
"No, I can probably survive," Haley-kun replied gallantly.
"Wait, Captain, you read the timer wrong," Saburouta pointed out with sadistic mirth. "It says two hundred minutes!"
"What?!"
--------------------------------------------------------------
"She was illegally experimented on, wasn't she?" Harada asked.
"Yes, they used her to boson jump their forces from location to location. Ruri-kun said that they actually fused her body with the boson crystals," the Grand Admiral answered, rubbing his temples.
"Fused with her body…the after-effects of that…"
"Yes. The boson radiation every time the crystals were activated heavily damaged her body. There's actually still pieces of boson crystal in her, slowly decaying, slowly poisoning her, slowly killing her."
"That's why she's like that?"
"I suppose you could call it 'boson poisoning'," Kouichiro murmured heavily. "The stress of long-distance boson jumps of many men and machines took its toll on her. And with boson particles eating away at her every day…"
"How long does she have?"
The Grand Admiral gazed out the vidscreen, his eyes unfocused and far away as he contemplated the question.
"Not long."
------------------------------------------------------
The third has been detected.
Near the Destination?
Yes. But she is well-protected. A reinforcement fleet, they say.
That is good. The preparations will fulfill two objectives at once.
And the third?
It will be fulfilled when the third has been taken.
What of the Restrainer?
Incapacitated, for now.
The Restrainer will not awaken?
It is doubtful.
Shall we send the preparations?
Yes. Victory belongs to the Conscience.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Approximately half an hour from Mars was the reinforcement fleet for the UEC forces orbiting the Red Planet. It was a mighty 200-ship reinforcement group from UE Spacey that constituted almost forty percent of its total strength.
At the center of this formation was a lone hospital ship, the Harbinger. There lay the desiccated husk of Misumaru Yurika, dying slowly and painfully from boson radiation poisoning, on her last journey to visit her home planet of both herself and her loved one.
"Status report?" the captain of the Harbinger asked on the quiet deck of the ship. Nothing but the hum of computers and the glow of screens disturbed the silently alert atmosphere.
"Nothing sir; communications reports contact with UEC forces at Mars. We should be in visual contact within twenty minutes."
"Nothing unusual?" the captain asked, slightly perplexed that nothing had tried to intercept the fleet thus far.
As if in response to his unspoken thoughts, computers monitoring scanner readouts started to go berserk, registering an undeniably high amount of boson radiation.
A strike force of Unknown ships, gleaming organic silver in the sparse sunlight that managed to reach this far in space, materialized around the UE Spacey fleet, neatly surrounding it in a circle, converging upon the hapless vessels from all corners of the compass. Almost simultaneously, a volley of molten-yellow bolts of plasma issued forth, crashing into several ships and ripping apart distortion fields, armor plating, and crewmembers. Swarms of silver-plated mechas billowed into space, like spores from a fungal colony.
The quiet of space was quickly shattered by alarm klaxons and eradicated by flashing red and yellow lights, yet the once-beautiful Yurika lay near-comatose on the bed, oblivious to both the horrendous noise and the flashing colors.
Harbinger's captain watched in shock as several battleships quickly succumbed to the furious opening volley. Regaining his composure, he waved frantically to the communications officer on deck and yelled, "Tighten the formation around the Harbinger! We have to protect our charge at all costs! Send a priority distress message to Mars! We need help!"
As the communications officer quickly typed and relayed the message with the speed of a trained professional, the battleships of the UEC rallied around the Harbinger, protecting her bodily with their own steel hulls. Aestivalis mechs dropped out of the hangars and laid down withering covering fire against the silver mechs; space lit up in a series of small fireballs around the battleships, resembling a swarm of short-lived fireflies that quickly faded into the darkness of space. The heavy guns opened fire, and several gravity blasts tore through the Unknown fleets, exploding squadrons of ships at a time, but as was the norm, the Unknowns had developed an enormous numerical superiority in their favor, and used it to the utmost advantage, relying on sheer mass to converge on a trapped and helpless foe.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Admiral! An emergency!"
"I'll get back to you later, Grand Admiral," Harada said quickly, shutting off the video feed before Kouichiro had a chance to respond. "What is it?" he barked harshly.
"The UE Spacey reinforcement fleet has fallen under attack!"
"What?! Where are they!"
"Half-an-hour away, sir! They request immediate aid! They're completely surrounded!"
"Shit!" Harada swore, thinking, If they get to Yurika, Kouichiro will never forgive me! Hell, I'll never forgive myself! "Get me Admiral Hong! I want his forces to smash through that fleet like it was a sheet of paper! Get him there! Now!"
"Hai!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Is this it?"
"I think so!" Saburouta proclaimed proudly, opening the Aestivalis hatch.
"Doesn't look like much," Ryoko observed dubiously. "Are you sure you read the map right?"
"Hey, I may be silly sometimes, but it doesn't mean I'm stupid!" Saburouta replied heatedly.
"Baka," Ruri murmured softly to Haley, who giggled.
Saburouta eyed the so-called "ruins."
"Doesn't look like much, does it?" he observed grudgingly after a while.
"It's just a cave!" Ryoko said exasperated, flinging her arms in the air. "What good is a cave?"
"Perhaps we should go into the cave," Ruri replied logically.
"That seems like a good idea!" Haley-kun piped up, as the four made their way in.
"Well, it's a cave all right…it's even got the stalactites and stalagmites," Saburouta said, gesturing at the rock formations. "Can you pick up any electronics?" he asked Haley a little dubiously. The cave was about four feet wide and seven feet tall at the entrance, opening out into a larger pitch-black cavern that could be estimated at around twenty feet wide and disappeared into the blackness of the subterranean.
"I'm having Omoikane run a scan right now…" Haley trailed off, before pointing to a nearby vague outcropping of rock. "Just beyond there, there should be something…"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Half-an-hour into the fighting, the UE Spacey fleet had already been broken down into a bare force of just one hundred and twenty ships. What little battle-worthy vessels remained continued to surround the Harbinger, in a last-ditch effort to protect the hospital ship. More gravity blasts spurted out, but as the seconds ticked by they became fewer and fewer as more ships fell to Unknown weaponry.
Just as all seemed lost, though, a veritable wall of explosive energy slammed into the fleet, annihilating an entire wave of Unknown ships. The armored fist that had saved Mars in the first battle had arrived: Admiral Hong's UEC 21st Fleet.
"Sensors report lock-on. Alpha strike, ready!"
"Open fire!" Admiral Hong commanded in a strong voice. Another lance of energy went on, and a series of explosions lit the horizon as gravity blasts seared through Unknown ships and tore them apart into fiery balls of flame.
"Launch the Aestivalis squadrons…we don't want any of them to escape," Hong commanded, as officers rushed to obey his commands. "Deploy the fast-attack cruisers to the perimeters. Shoot down those silver swarms!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------
"Admiral Hong has engaged the fleet, sir," a communications technician reported as Admiral Harada appeared onboard the bridge of the Guardian.
"Good. How goes the battle?"
"It appears the Admiral has the situation totally under control."
"Good. When he's done, have him escort the fleet to the Guardian." The safest place on Mars right now is this space-fortress, Harada thought.
Suddenly, klaxons began going off and the warning lights blinked a rapid yellow.
"What's going on?!" Harada demanded, hands gripping his control console in a death grip.
"Boson readings have gone off the chart! Massive fluctuations around the space station!"
"Prepare for imminent attack!" Harada ordered above the clanging klaxons. "An attack here? Was the first attack a ploy to weaken their main objective?" Harada whispered to himself.
---------------------------------------------------------------
"What is this?" Saburouta asked in abject wonder, looking around him with amazement.
Ryoko whistled. "This is something all right."
"An underground city…?" Haley-kun murmured softly.
Beyond the initial rock outcroppings and past a narrow passage almost hidden behind a set of stalagmites, the four Nadesico crewmembers found themselves in a cavernous underground chamber, devoid of any normal outcroppings of rock. The surface was a smooth, shiny, and black, like obsidian, except the entire chamber was composed entirely of this substance. What feeble light was given off from Saburouta's flashlight was quickly absorbed by the rock, lending the cavern a grayish overtone and giving it a mysterious feel. Ahead, vague outlines of buildings or structures of some sort could be seen towering high above them; ovoid and smooth projections of a material that seemed to reflect what little rays of light the flashlight gave off.
"It appears to be an outpost of some sort," Ruri remarked. "This cavern is far too small to contain anything large enough to be termed a city."
"If it's not a city, then what is it, and what is it doing here?" Haley asked, perplexed. "This is kind of a strange place to live…"
"Well, while don't we go check the ruins out then, wonder boy," Saburouta replied, ruffling the boy's hair. "They probably has some answers to your questions."
"Wonder boy?" Haley asked, annoyed, before noticing that Ruri had trailed behind the group, and seemed to be studying something closely far off in the distance.
"Eh? Captain, what's up?" Haley-kun asked.
"Over there," Ruri said softly, lifting a ghostly pale finger.
"What? I don't see anything…." Haley-kun trailed off before gasping in shock.
"What the heck is that?!"
-----------------------------------------------------------
In its usual fashion, the Unknown fleet boson jumped almost on top of the Guardian and its defenses, but this time the UEC was more prepared than it was in the near-disastrous First Battle for Mars.
Almost as soon as the Unknown fleet had materialized, the Guardian alpha-locked and fired nearly all its weapons. Space became a veritable fireworks show as five gravity blast cannons, sixty-two laser turrets, and one hundred seventy-nine missile silos all opened fire at the same time. The large gravity blasts rammed through Unknown formations, exploding several ships at once. Smaller laser blasts peppered the fleet, weakening distortion fields and chipping off armor plating. Missiles drew deadly and fiery patterns through space as they homed in on individual Unknown ships, bypassing the distortion field and exploding with devastating effect. Entire portions of the Unknown line vaporized instantaneously.
The bridge aboard the Guardian erupted in cheers as battle reports came streaming in.
"Estimated enemy losses hover around ten percent, sir!"
"Good, keep up continuous firing! Reinforce this sector with everything we've got!" Harada ordered. "This must be their next major attack, and they're going to aim for a knock-out blow," he muttered to himself.
"More boson manifestations are on the scanners! Second wave incoming!"
"Bring our ships up to the line!"
"Relaying orders sir!"
As the battle raged around the Guardian, on the other side of Deimos, which the fortress was built on, the ships of the UEC 1st, 3rd, and 7th fleets fired up their engines; together with the Guardian, the bulk of the UEC's remaining firepower was amassed at this particular sector, awaiting the inevitable Unknown attack.
While the Guardian's missile banks and laser turrets continued to blast Unknown ships out of space, several dozen heavy battleships lined themselves up around the moon and near the fortress, taking positions carefully chosen by Harada that afforded them the maximum amount of firepower.
"Boson reactions increasing! Arrival of second wave imminent!"
Harada stood up on his feet, watching the visual display eagerly, warrior's blood pulsing through his veins. "Charge the gravity blast cannons!"
"Volley will be ready in ten seconds…"
"Second wave has arrived!"
For a second, there was silence as the entire bridge crew looked up at the visual display. The screen was filled with row after row of silver-plated ovoid vessels; a fleet on a scale that Harada nor anyone else on Mars could have imagined. As far as the eye could see, there stretched an armada of battle-worthy vessels that no mind could have ever conceived.
"Gravity blasts charged!"
Harada continued to stare at the screen, shocked, before he managed to shake himself out of it. "Fire at will!"
Explosions ripped through the Unknown formations as dozens of gravity blasts fired simultaneously. Yet, for all the destruction the UEC battleships had unleashed, the fleet seemed hardly dented. Hordes of silver mecha emerged from the underbelly of their motherships, zeroing in straight for the Guardian.
"Deploy Aestivalis squadrons to tangle with the swarms! Retool the targeting systems on the smaller laser turrets to anti-mech firing patterns!" Harada ordered.
"Increase in boson reactions detected!"
"Another wave?" someone speculated out loud.
"No, it's their primary weapon," Harada corrected. "Do we have CC missiles online?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Get them online! How long will that take?"
"One minute, sir!"
"We may not have one minute! Get them loaded as fast as you can!"
"Hai!"
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Klaxons went off in the soldiers' lounge, and the artillery crewmen leapt to their feet as a voice boomed over the intercom directing them to their stations. Within fifteen seconds, the entire company of artillery had their stations manned.
At one particular battery, First Lieutenant Job Danzig's command phone rang off the hook. Grabbing the archaic device, Job pressed the telephone against his ear. "1st Battery, 22nd Artillery, reporting."
"Are the batteries manned?" Danzig's commanding officer asked.
"Yes, sir, they are."
"Good. The Admiral wants a deployment of CC missiles, box pattern. Lock and load. You have sixty seconds."
"Yes sir," Danzig replied before slamming the phone down. "Boss wants CC missiles, box pattern!" he yelled down the line to the waiting artillerymen. "Lock and load! We've got sixty seconds! Go, go, go!"
Immediately, hands pressed red buttons and more klaxons went off as conveyer belts near the rocket systems activated and began spinning. Immediately, sets of CC missiles began to roll out of the armory, each packet containing four missiles; the rocket systems themselves held four packets. Strong arms grabbed the packages, and with the help of several other men, the loaders began pushing the heavy missile packets into the rocket launch system.
-----------------------------------------------
"Bogeys inbound, 42nd Squadron," a remote voice chirped into Colonel Robert Kell's ear. "Intercept and destroy. Don't let the get past the Green Line," the voice ordered, referring to the innermost defensive line of the Guardian.
"Roger that," Colonel Kell, commanding officer of the 42nd UEC Aestivalis Squadron, replied. Toggling his comm switch, he addressed the rest of his squadron. "You heard him, boys. Search and destroy; don't let any get past us."
Several hundred silver mechs came barreling in as the eighteen-mech squadron opened fire with guided rockets and assault rifle fire. Space lit in a series of bright explosion as Aestivalis and Unknown mechs engaged in a desperate duel to the death.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Sure is getting hairy out there," Danzig observed as his crew pushed the third packet into position. "You guys have fifteen seconds left," he told the crew, as he observed the battle. "Stick that fourth packet in there so we can fire the battery!"
"I wish he'd help out," one of the loaders grumbled.
"He can't; he's the commanding officer. Not supposed to do grunt work like this," another replied irritably as he struggled with the last packet. "Damn, this thing's heavy."
"Commanding officer my ass," the first loader muttered. "All he does is sit there and look pretty!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kell lay a whithering stretch of assault rifle fire down in a concentric arc, catching several mechs and exploding them at once. Despite that, a pair of mechs zipped past, penetrating the Green Line and rapidly approaching the Guardian. Kell swore and gestured at his wingman.
"Nimon, get after them! Protect the Guardian at all costs!"
There was a double-click in response, and a single Aestivalis peeled off to engage. Suddenly, a lone Unknown mech rammed straight into Nimon's Aestivalis, and the two exploded spectacularly in an orange fireball, giving the two breakaway mechs a chance to wreak havoc on the station.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What's that?" Danzig asked curiously, as he peered at two rapidly approaching shapes in his binoculars.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Command, this is Kell from the 42nd," the Colonel said tiredly into his comm. "We're having some trouble holding back the swarms. Be advised there are at least two, repeat, at least two, Unknown mechs that managed to break past the Green Line."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Did you hear that?" Harada asked. "Unmask the laser batteries! Open fire within the Line! I want those mechs taken out before they damage anything!"
The "safe zone" behind the Green Line erupted into fire as the retooled laser turrets poured fire into the zone, in an attempt to tear apart the two mechs that were skillfully dodging and maneuvering their way around the barrage. Two laser blasts caught one mech and fireballed it in space, but the other kept on charging hard towards the Guardian.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What the hell…" Danzig asked in amazement as laser blasts roared around his battery. "What is going on?"
"I think the Lieutenant's clueless," the loader observed quietly. "He knows we're in a war, right?"
"Just a bit slow, that's all," another solider replied as they slid the last packet into place. "Battery is ready to fire!" He reported to Danzig.
"Good," Danzig replied, turning around and picking up the phone. "Command, this is the 1st Battery of the 22nd. Ready to fire at your orders."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Launch the CC missiles now!" Harada ordered.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Five laser blasts tore into the last silver mech, shredding away its thruster engines and corkscrewing it into an uncontrollable spin down towards the Guardian.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Fire the missiles!" Danzig ordered right before the world exploded.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The crippled silver mech slammed right into the 1st Battery, killing Danzig and his rocket crew instantly and detonating the rockets, spewing CC crystals uselessly out into the Green Line. The mech ripped through the armor plating of the space station, hurtling through several hundred feet of rooms, men, and weapons, before exploding in a spectacular explosion that crippled the CC missile batteries.
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"The missiles won't fire sir! The launchers have either been knocked out or the electronics are disabled!"
Before Harada could curse, another bridge crewmember shouted out, "Boson reactions have peaked!"
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Harada turned to stare at the visual display of the main bridge. A series of flashes erupted across the breadth of the Unknown fleet; a series of scintillating sparkles that for a second dazzled Harada's eyes. On the screen, space seemed to undulate in a series of waves for a split second, and then the screen shattered into a million pieces as a tremendous roar split Harada's eardrums and a thunderous explosion knocked him to the ground.
A sheet of flame washed over him, and Harada could feel his eyebrows singe as they were flash-burned away. Alarms and klaxons went off wildly, and sirens began blaring, but despite all the noise, Harada could hear the wild agonizing screams of men with missing limbs or horribly burned bodies as they writhed in an effort to escape their pain.
A series of boson particle streams had slammed into the UEC position, tearing out chunks from Deimos itself and hurling pieces of lunar rock into space. The fortress Guardian itself was damaged almost to the point of destruction; nearly all of its weapons went off-line with the first volley, and those that still worked had virtually no crewmembers to operate; many of the dead from the fortresses were floating in space, victims from explosive depressurization as the boson particles ripped away the armor plating protecting them from the vacuum of space.
Similarly, boson particle blasts powered through the remaining UEC fleets, bursting apart distortion fields like soap bubbles and twisting once straight hulls into crumpled masses of reinforced steel, detonating ammunition racks and annihilating entire decks of capital ships. Much of the UEC fleet disappeared in wreaths of flame.
Harada pulled himself off the ground and slowly got up to his feet, in a daze. His uniform was dirty and torn, and he felt blood trickling from a head wound down his face and neck. Absent-mindedly wiping the blood away with a similarly bloodied hand, he surveyed the wreckage of what was once the bridge of the Guardian. Fires lit the interior brightly in lieu of the lights that had been knocked out by the succession of boson particle blasts. The few crewmembers that survived had either fled in panic or struggled painfully to their posts.
"Get me a comm line to the orbital stations," Harada ordered weakly. "Tell them to expect incoming enemies. Call a general withdrawal. Salvage what we can." Harada grimaced as a sharp pain lanced through his side. "Evacuate the Guardian immediately," he managed to croak out before he collapsed unto the deck.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The preparations have broken through the defenses.
The Destination has been uncovered?
One obstacle remains before it falls into our grasp.
What of the shield? It has not been activated?
It remains inactive.
The two Gifted, are they present at the Destination?
Yes. Near a well-known site.
See to it they are taken. Do not let them activate the site.
Yes. And what of the Restrainer?
Still incapacitated, is he not?
Yes.
Is his location known?
Yes.
Dispose of him.
It will be done.
Victory belongs to the Conscience.
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"Captain, what is that?" Haley-kun asked in a mixture of amazement and terror. Both he and Ruri were looking at what appeared to be a rusted metal exoskeleton of a gigantic praying mantis. It's twin photoreceptor eyes were dark in deactivation, and its body was propped shakily against a wall of one of the buildings; metal scales littered the floor, almost completely rusted through; a sign of the age of the remains of the robotic monster.
"They've been to Mars before…?" Ruri murmured quietly.
"Who's been to Mars? Have you seen one of these before?" Haley-kun asked.
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With the Guardian and the UEC fleets out of the way, the Unknown armadas crashed headlong into the orbital defense platforms. Holding out for only a few minutes, the gravity blast cannons and laser batteries on the platforms managed only a few volleys before they were completely overwhelmed by superior numbers and annihilated. With a huge gaping hole in the Martian defenses, Unknown dropships, escorted by silver mechs, dropped down into the atmosphere.
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One dropship landed near a hospital. As the silver vessel slammed into the ground, throwing up clouds of suffocating dust and annihilating entire blocks, a lone comatose patient in the hospital suddenly opened up his eyes and sat straight in bed.
She's in trouble!
The vicinity around the dropship and the hospital disappeared in a white-hot flash.
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"We've lost communications with the Guardian," one of the communications techs reported. Admiral Hong raised an eyebrow in slight confusion.
"Are we being jammed?"
"No…the signal just suddenly disappeared."
"Under attack? Even if they were, we'd still be able to establish radio contact," the Admiral mused quietly. "Could they be…?"
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The entire cavern lit with a light so bright that for a second Haley, Ruri, Saburouta, and Ryoko couldn't see a thing. As their eyes adjusted to the sudden illumination, the four observed with awe and terrified fascination that the entire cavern was glowing a golden yellow; the very walls and obsidian buildings seemed to be pulsing with energy.
With terrific force and an ear-splitting roar, a single ray of golden light ripped through the cavern ceiling, vaporizing the rocks until it reached open air. Shooting out into the sky, the light split apart into several smaller beams, and as the four Nadesico crewmembers watched in abject fascination, explosions began to light up the sky.
"…What the hell was that?" Saburouta asked incredulously.
The invading dropships of the Unknown armada were instantly vaporized by the golden rays, and as the beams raced onwards, more dropships and silver mechs vanished until the entire invasion force seemed to be wiped out. More golden rays pumped out of the glowing cavern, and beams of gold arced outward into space, exploding entire squadrons of ships before the Unknowns boson jumped away safely, retreating from the destructive power of the beams.
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It has been activated.
How?
Two of the Gifted were at the site and activated before we reached them.
And of the third?
We approach her as we speak.
What of the Restrainer?
Unfortunately, he has awakened.
Has he been dealt with?
His resistance has been more resilient than expected.
But he is still predictable, is he not?
Yes.
And that shall be his downfall, despite his strength. His love for the Third will spell his doom.
Yes.
Victory hath been given to the Conscience on this day. Go now, and ready the next set of preparations.
Yes.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The quiet after the spectacular display of firepower was eerie. As Haley-kun, and the others looked skyward with mouths hanging open, Ruri took a look around the cavern. The golden glow had disappeared by now, but with the light of day pouring through the vaporized roof, Ruri could see small scintillating crystals embedded into the smooth black obsidian. Pressing her hand against a wall, Ruri could feel heat emanating from the rock.
"A system?" she asked quietly.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The captain of the Harbinger sighed with relief as more Unknown ships began dropping off the scanner readings. His charge was safe, his ship was safe, and so far, things seemed to be going well. The captain was just about to issue the call to step down from general quarters when more alarm klaxons went off.
"What's going on?" he asked sharply, alarmed.
"We've been breached! There's a boarding party aboard the ship!"
"There's a what?!"
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Misumaru Yurika was lying in bed, all but comatose, when suddenly her eyes flew wide open. Gasping in surprise, Yurika gave out a small squeak of pain before curling up into a ball. Breathing in short, sharp bursts, Yurika could feel a strange sensation on her face, and knew that boson particles were running through her, lighting up mysterious arcane marks on her face and body. She was about to boson jump something…or someone…against her will.
"No…I don't…want to!" she wheezed out painfully before everything went white.
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"What's going on?" Admiral Hong asked sharply as the screen suddenly filled with bright white light.
"I'm detecting a boson reaction within the Harbinger…"
"Within?"
"Yes…it's strange."
As the white light receded away, the Admiral and the bridge crew studied the screen closely. To their surprise and amazement, the Harbinger had completely disappeared.
"What happened to the ship?" Hong asked in disbelief.
"It just…vanished, sir."
"Vanished? How could it? UE Spacey ships can't boson jump!"
No one had an answer to that.
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It had been three hours since the attack, and the sun was setting below the horizon, casting a reddish glow over the remains of the defenses on Mars. Ruri and the other Nadesico crewmates were at the hospital, looking at the damage caused by an Unknown vessel that had mysteriously disappeared as soon as it had touched ground.
The hospital was in ruins; two of its three wings had been completely leveled, and many of the patients and hospital staff were dead, or, ironically, severely injured. One of the wings that had been completely destroyed was Akito's.
"You haven't been able to locate his body at all?" Saburouta asked.
The engineer shook his head. "We've completely cleared the rubble from that one wing. If there was a body in there that fit his description, we would've found it. He could have been vaporized by the explosion, I suppose, but…"
"The explosion wasn't that powerful to begin with," Saburouta finished quietly.
"Yes. The most confusing part of this whole thing is the disappearance of that dropship. If I didn't know better…" the engineer trailed off.
"What?"
"Well, if I didn't know better, I'd say it was a boson jump. But what's the likelihood of that?" the engineer said over his shoulder as he walked away.
Saburouta shook his head and walked back to the group. Haley and Ryoko were watching Ruri with worried expressions on their faces. Glancing over at her, Saburouta saw that Ruri was standing in the midst of the hospital rubble, looking around, as if searching for Akito.
"Maybe we should…" Haley began, falling silent as Saburouta put a hand on his shoulder.
"Just leave her be," he said quietly. "She needs to be alone for a while."
Haley-kun looked as if he was about to protest, but then dropped his head and nodded slowly, his fists clenched.
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The sun was setting behind Ruri as she slowly walked through the ruins of the hospital, the dying rays casting a reddish tinge on her pale skin. Her eyes swept slowly back and forth, scanning the wreckage with scientific precision. Her face betrayed no emotions, and she walked calmly with her hands held serenely behind her, as if she was taking a stroll in the park.
Yet, even as she walked with such composure, she could feel tears welling in her eyes.
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A/N: Whew! Another chapter done!
This is the turning point of the novel. We're about…two-thirds of the way to the end, I think. Almost there! This has been quite the project.
This time, I used the layout as a stylistic device. As the chapter progresses, the scenes and paragraphs get shorter and shorter, and the general picture becomes more and more confused, until at the end, all you know is that people are dead, Aktio's gone, and Ruri's on the verge of tears.
That's exactly what I want. I think it helps make the confusion of the battle more realistic to the reader. As the story progresses, details of what exactly happened will be made clear, and by the end, everyone should know what happened in this chapter.
I also introduced something new, with those….voices, I suppose? The "Conscience." If you noticed that their language shifted from very Shakespearean to more modern English, there's a purpose to that. You'll find out who they are, too. And no, they're not the praying-mantis aliens that are so stereotypical for this genre. Those guys are just…stereotypes, lol. You'll see who they are, too.
I'm pretty satisfied with this chapter, but if you don't like the stylistic change, or anything else that I've done, feel free to review and criticize me. All it does is ruin my day (hahaha, just kidding). I want to hear from the readers, so please, review!
Thanks for sticking with this story so far! Updates have been few and far between, but I hope they're worth it.
Ja ne! Next chapter will be fun!