THE GENESIS EXPERIMENT
Part Four of a Five part series
By
Vanguard Ziggy
Author's Notes: Part Four, all ready! I have to admit I did not expect this series to be such a bear to write, but I am enjoying each chapter. By the way, my apologies to hard core fans, Shion's brother's name is Jin, not Jun as I have written in past episodes. As of this fourth part till the end of the series, I will make sure that is rectified. Again I am sorry for the mistake.
Captain Shajin grit his teeth together and watched as ship after ship collapsed into fiery bursts of clouds. The battle was just as horrid as he had believed it to be, and yet, there was a bit of excitement digging through his veins.
"Ensign, steer far right, try and have our squad close enough where we can land a few of our ground forces on the planet." He looked at the reports coming flashing in, and at the large pine green map of the battlefield. They were close enough to the planet, that if they pealed to the right, it would look as though they were retreating and would be left alone. Captain Shajin knew they had to do something; all of space was glowing with metallic debris scattering all over the place. The Federation was quickly losing the battle.
The Gnosis forces didn't make matters any easier, and yet, it was only if they tried to make contact with their alien forces, that they were in danger. For some real reason, the vast majority of the invading forces seemed more interested in the planet, itself, than the Federation and rebel forces. The rebels on the other hand, seemed to know the intentions of the alien enemy, and forced many of the Federation's flanks into attacking the Gnosis indirectly by slipping between the aliens and the Federation's ship's with speeds that Shajin had never seen before.
The young Realian ensign nodded her head and punched the buttons, necessary to make the maneuvers. A few minutes later the ship rocked as if it had been punched in the gut, and all lights went out in the bridge.
"Damage reports," the captain roared, for the umpteenth time of the day. They were words that he never wanted to hear again after this was over, if he survived the battle at all.
The Realian typed a few buttons and blinked as the computer screen before her remained black. After trying a few more times she sighed and turned to him. "Sir, all systems are down," she said.
"We have no idea how long it will take before we can get them up and running, either sir," another Realian said.
"We're adrift then," Captain Shajin groaned. He placed his hands to his forehead, expecting the enemy to descend on them at any moment. A thousand thoughts raced through his head, each one ending with his ship rocking and exploding into a thousand points of light. He rose from his chair and began pacing, now was not time for him to experience romantic notions of the captain going down with his ship.
"All right, this is what we are going to do," he said, finally breaking the silence. "I want six squads to go through the ship, take those who are not seriously injured, and repair the engines, and shielding. I'm going to take a smaller group and try to slice through the main computer core and see if we can't hot wire the ship up the ship." He turned to the ensign and sighed. "You'll have to stay here, if my group can get the ship working, or the others fix the engine or shields, someone is going to have to pilot it to the planet."
"Sir, won't that take too much time?"
"Nothing we can do about that, the enemy's ignoring us for now, but that probably won't last for long. Since none of the systems on the ship work, we couldn't even jettison ourselves out of the ship, so the best thing we can do now, is pray and try to get ourselves out of this mess." He gave her a quick salute, and then ushered the others off the bridge. "Good luck to you."
Momo fought against her restraints as best she could. For hours she had dreamt of nightmares, her friends tortured, abused, dying. She could sense Jr.'s frustration, and the horror from Ziggy was overwhelming. Though he feared for her, she could also feel a nightmare from his past, somehow, it had come back to haunt him, big time.
Violcia was no longer torturing her, hadn't in the last couple of hours, but Momo knew that her sister was enjoying her discomfort, her fear of falling asleep. "What's wrong, dear sister?"
"You know, I kinda don't feel like talking, right now," Momo said with a groan.
"You're friends are fighting for their lives, I find that most entertaining." She smiled, her fangs glowing in dark light.
"Did you expect that to surprise me?" Momo asked, turning her head away.
Violcia smirked and stood up, walking to her sister. "I've always wondered what kind of a fighter you are, why daddy favored you over us. And you know what, I'm afraid I still want to know why. You aren't very hard to crack."
"Don't confuse tiredness for me giving up, sister," Momo snarled. "If you truly want a fight, let me go, and I'll let you have one."
"I'm afraid that's not going to happen," Violcia giggled. "I'm enjoying your suffering much, to much."
"You are afraid," Momo said, the tone in her voice darker than she ever knew. "That's why you have me tied up like this. If you were as brave as you think you are, you would have come up to me, issued your complaints and challenged me to a fair fight."
"But this is a fight," Violcia laughed. "A battle of wills, and right now, I have the upper hand." She stroked her sister's cheeks and smirked, "But don't worry sister, the pain will soon be over. The cloned armada should be taking care of your pitiful friends anytime now."
"It might be over sooner than you think." Momo twisted her left arm as quickly as she could. The joint squealed and loosened its grip, and Momo squealed as fiery flames shot up her arm.
"That seemed pointless," Violcia sighed. She reached for her sister's arm, to re-restrain it, and screamed as a flash of light struck her face.
"Not as pointless as it looked," Momo growled. She popped her joint back into place, and freed her other limbs from the tight ropes. She smiled and silently thanked Jr. for that trick. She knew it would be painful; still it was the only way to take her enemy by surprise. She just needed to know a little more information. Now she knew what was behind the incidents on the planet of Ungoliant, and perhaps even Amadore.
"That was interesting, but not unexpected." Violcia snapped. "I'm well aware of what Rubedo taught you. I'm aware of what you can do, I'm even aware of what Ziggurat 8, and Shion Uzuki has taught you. I know all your tricks, sister dear."
Momo and her sister glared at each other for the longest of times. Pure energy rushed through their veins; it was almost an exact duplication of the confrontation between Jr. and Albedo back on the Proto Merkabah. "You know a lot about me, about getting inside, but do you know how to use that information?" Her sister raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.
"What do you think?"
"Let's see," Momo asked with a smile as wide as a massive canyon. The young Realian leapt into the air and kicked out with both her legs. Violcia smirked as she reached out and grasped her sister's legs. She frowned a moment later as she grasped thin air.
"What kind of trick?" Violcia battled the shadow for a few minutes longer, her rage growing as each strike simply passed through empty space.
"Behind you," Momo sang. Violcia turned just in time to see her sister's real foot crash right into her face. Momo quickly spun her free leg around the back of her sister's neck and squeezed tight as she tossed Violcia into a nearby wall. "You don't know everything sister dear," she said, her chest pounding.
Violcia pulled herself to her feet, casting a technical healing attack. "Perhaps you are not as weak as I thought, but this little insurrection has brought us to the end of your usefulness." She pulled out a scythe and grinned wickedly. "Good bye."
Momo frowned and pulled out her own staff. With her thumb at the end of it, she clicked a button, a large star appeared on the top, and Momo nodded, "Then let's end this."
The invasion had begun. Already numerous Gnosis had landed on the surface and had begun their search for the Zohar, the golden cross she had seen in her dreams. Why they needed it, she didn't know, but the energy she could sense from it, was intense. She felt herself drawn to it, wherever it was, like a moth to the flame.
Most of this world was Mecha, so reinforcements via assimilation wouldn't happen so easily. That would not matter, just as soon as the Zohar fell into their claws, the world would be destroyed and the Gnosis would continue over the range so space, until they had the Zohar in completion. And, then, and then what? What was to happen once all the Zohar were in their claws? She didn't care; all she knew was that the Zohar's energy was calling, and some dark presence, all powerful, all knowing. It was destruction, what remained of her humanity begged her to stay away from it, but the darkness wouldn't have it. She was Gnosis now, she belonged to darkness, and as much as she hated the violent path in front of her, the Gnosis in her longed for it all the more.
She lifted her head and sniffed the air, being a Cerberus class of Gnosis allowed her to do just that. The Zohar was close, she knew it. Less than a mile now, within a few minutes to go, and it would be theirs'.
It didn't take much for Shion and the others to fight their way to the Durandal and the Elsa. For the most part the hostages on board the larger ship had done their share to help confuse and frustrate the Mecha. Once the last line of defense was broken, and the Mecha had retreated, Shion ran up the plank of the Elsa and waved on her compatriots.
"Ziggy," Jr. snapped, pointing back at the motionless cyborg staring over the fallen android.
"I tried to reason with him, but I have a feeling that this is something he's going to have to do," Shion said, her eyes filling with water. Normally she would be the one to have had to be pulled away from one of her friends' sides, but the situation was getting desperate. The humans were still for the most part losing the war, and now from what radio frequencies she could hear the U.TIC organization was entering the fray along side the rebellious Mecha. To make matters worse, the Gnosis had shown up, and was decimating everyone. And hopeless still was the blockade, armada of Ungoliant, which had only lost twenty ships, out of the hundreds that it had. And Momo, Shelley, and now Mary were all missing in action. Things looked very bleak.
Jr. sighed and nodded. This was Ziggy's fight; he had to deal with his own demons by himself. And from the look of the android's face, she must certainly qualify as a demon. The red haired U.R.T.V. hurried aboard the Elsa, followed by Captain Matthews, chaos, KOS-MOS, and Pyreges. Tony, Hammer, and Allen, had all been forced to stay on the ship, during its incarceration.
"Jr., chief," squealed Allen, nearly leaping from his seat. "We saw you outside, to be honest; I didn't think we would have gotten to this point."
"He means he thought we were all going to stay here until we were ancient and gray," Tony snapped, with a smirk on his face. He turned to the other man and hit him in the shoulder. "I told you we'd get out of this."
"We're not out yet, you morons," Captain Matthews snarled, slapping both men hard in the back of their heads. "We still have to get off of this god forsaken planet."
"We have to find Momo, Mary, and Shelley too," Jr. hissed as he looked at the captain of the ship.
"None of them are on this planet," Hammer replied, staring at his computer screens. The long blonde haired, man had never even bothered to look up from it as the others had walked in.
"What do you mean?" Shion demanded.
"Their bio signs are not active anywhere on this world," KOS-MOS said, scanning quickly over her systems.
"How long have you known that?" Shion snapped.
"I sensed them leaving, individually hours ago," she replied calmly. Before anyone else could say anything, she raised a finger, and shook her head. "No one asked me about it, so I did not say anything."
Shion groaned and shook her head. Just when it looked like KOS-MOS had finally started to make some human progress, she did something stupid, like this.
"Where the hell are they then," Jr. roared, taking out his guns and aiming them at the android.
"That will not be very productive, of you, Jr.," she said calmly, her long light blue hair twirling as she turned on her heels. Her red eyes blinked and she slowly pointed a finger toward space and turned a good ninety degrees. "Logic dictates that they are all probably on the eleventh planet of the Bohemian sector."
"Bohemia XI?" Pyreges asked, frowning for a moment. Why there, the last group or organization to use that planet was a small group of debtors, almost six hundred years ago. It wasn't as dirty, or muddy as the other worlds, in fact, it was almost a paradise. From space it looked like its cousins, until you got on the surface, and found it almost covered with white, crystal lakes, dark green forests, and dozens of animals.
"The New Enlightenment," Jr. said. "Didn't they use to have facilities on that planet at one point and time?"
Pyreges frowned and thought for a long time. "There was some rumor that was true, but there was nothing to back it up."
"Well, a rumor is better than nothing," Captain Matthews snapped. The middle aged man shifted the orange trucker cap on his head, and smirked. "Its time for action, we're off to Bohemia XI." He leapt into his captain's seat and crossed his arms.
"Aren't we forgetting a very important fact here?" Pyreges snapped. He nodded upwards toward the sky. "That armada, how are you planning to get passed it?"
"Chief, who is this guy?" Allan groaned, forking a thumb in the cyborg's direction.
"Just someone who has a little history with some of us," Shion said with a sigh. "Just sit down and be quite."
"Geez, if this guy had half a spine, he'd be a whole man," the android groaned.
"Wow, thanks, I," Allan stopped for a moment and blinked. "Hey wait a minute!"
"Okay, enough!" Shion shouted. "Look, our friends are on Bohemia XI, we have to get them back, so I suggest we try and figure out how to pass the blockade."
Just a few more minutes, just a few more, the Cerberus could smell blood and the hot stench of metal. All around her were numerous other Gnosis. Their minds meddled as one, their eyes as one. They were one body, in many forms. The Cerberus turned the corner and howled as she spied the large ship that read the Durandal. The Gnosis turned and looked at each other. Many bodies of cyborgs and androids, as well as a few human's lay on the ground; oil, blood, guts, and gears scattered everywhere. Hunger burned deep inside them, and a few of the Gnosis stopped to partake of the delicacies that had been laid out for them, as if a grand banquet table.
The Cerberus' belly rumbled, too. But there were more pressing matters at hand. Being human at one time, she knew what that hot stink meant. The ship was about to take off, and if it left, there might be a chance that even their space forces might not stop it with all those other ships fighting over the planet. Her red eyes glowed and she howled again, picking up speed, ignoring the cyborg and android fighting in the street. She snarled and bayed again, trying to get her comrades to listen to her warnings. A few of them followed, but not many. Nevertheless it was still enough to get the job done.
The Realian tapped her fingers on the dash board, her eyes staring straight into the killing field of space. So far, the enemy fleets had totally ignored her ship, some enemy ships had even flown past it. The captain still had not replied and that had been an hour ago he had left.
The bridge was cold, and haunted without any lights to brighten its walls. The bridge was normally a light gray blue in color, but without the lights it was more a cob web covered dusty gray. The windows, where she could see all the carnage taking place no longer shimmered, but seemed so stiff, it was as if they were afraid of drawing attention to themselves. The resounding thumps of thunder and lightning booming all around her signaled another Federation, Ungoliant, or U.Tic ship had been killed. A whine or screech that nearly pierced her ear drums signaled the death of a Gnosis ship – literally. And each thundering blast, each agonized scream of a living war ship, matched the rhythm of her rapidly beating heart. It all set the stage for a horror movie of some kind.
The blonde Realian stood up for a moment, and began to pace, not to far from the module, but not too close to it either. Her lips felt dry, and hands so moist she thought she might melt in the heat of battle, like a snow woman trying to duel the sun. She didn't know what the human emotion of fear was, no Realian had been programmed with that, as to make them better soldiers; however, as the saying goes, life finds a way. The Realian wasn't a machine after all. All Realians were bio created, not quiet a clone, yet not yet a regular human. Their minds were enhanced to think like computers, and their cells were injected with nanotech equipment so that if something went wrong in a battle, their human creators could use them as bombs, with the flick of a switch. All it would take was one push of a red button, and their free will would be gone, they'd be nothing more than walking bombs.
Of course the courts had outlawed injecting the Realians with the nanotech's decades ago. Because they were organic, and had free will it was recognized that they had ever bit of right and freedoms that the humans had, minus of course their careers. They were, and always would be tools of war. The human Shion Uzuki had rallied against even this decision, had been trying to help people change their prejudices against Realians, but there was not much even she could do, after all she worked for one of the largest suppliers of Realian technology, the Kukai Foundation. But even her voice among with the voices of a few others, hadn't been able to sway greedy corporate organizations from implanting nanotech into the Realians.
And there it was. Could this be the reason of her fear, the Realian wondered. Was she afraid that if worse came to worse, if the enemy should choice to board her ship, that Captain Shajin would push the button? He didn't seem like the kind of person who was afraid for himself, but what if it came between the Realians and the humans? Would he sacrifice her, and her comrades for the sake of the other humans on the ship?
For some reason, cold unrelenting hate began to replace fear, if only for a split second, but hatred of what? The captain was a good man, if anything he would push all of them on the escape pods, if he got them working, and fight the enemy by himself. Then why did she have a feeling of pushing a gun into his lobe and firing until she was out of ammo? The Realian had never even used a gun before. Before she knew it, she had plopped herself back in her chair, rubbing her fingers over her head.
The whine of static, and then of horrified voices over the intercom leapt her back into reality. It was the captain's voice, and he was screaming like a demon encountering the flames of hell for the first time. There was another sound, one of gun blasts, of metal slashing into flesh. And it wasn't just the captain who was screaming. There were other human's also screaming. But she could not make out a Realian. Had the Gnosis invaded the ship, or the rebels, or U.Tic?
Then she felt the strange pulse of hatred burn in her once more, and she understood. The humans had taken advantage of them, had betrayed the Realians who had been their allies. With eyes filled with vengeance, the Realian tromped over the captain's chair, and activated his command console. The power was obviously back on, someone had managed that much. She punched a few buttons and then activated a much larger one. The room, which had briefly been returned to its blue gray glow, was now a deep red color. An alarm screeched in rage, rocking the room back and forth.
The Realian smiled and cackled as the computer began to count down to the eventual death of the ship. It was only when the clock read three minutes left that she felt herself come back to sanity. She blinked and shrank back from the command center. "What have I done?"
The wails of shock and horror slipped through the intercom, and she knew she wasn't alone in her crime. All of the Realians had gone homicidal for some reason. And they were all now wondering what had gone on in their minds to make them act this way. No doubt all or at least most of the humans on board where dead. And they were the only ones who could deactivate the self destruct. Not that there was a reason to, the ensign and the other Realians deserved this fate for their crimes.
Thinking quickly the ensign leapt into the command chair, and rammed her fingers on a number of buttons. "This is Ensign Signature Number 326. For some reason, Realians on board have temporarily have gone insane, at least they were. If there are any humans on board who are uninjured, please evacuate to the nearest escape pod. The ship has been programmed to self destruct, by my own hands, in a moment of madness. Now that I realize what I have done, I plan on piloting and crashing the ship into enemy headquarters on the planet below." She took a breath, and continued. "Any Realian, who is uninjured, or is sure of his or herself, please immediately come to the bridge. I'm going to need all the help I can get in this endeavor. That is all." She repeated her instructions, and then leaned back against her commander's chair.
"This is for you, sir," she said, tears running down her eyes.
Ziggy stared down at the glaring eyes of the evil android. "Hello, Detective Sauer," she said with a coo. "I'm surprised you remember me at all."
"What kind of demon created you?" he hissed. With a slash of wind he brought down his blade towards the android, and hissed as he missed. Zefonith grabbed his arm and tossed him across the field. The Frankenstein like creature launched herself at the former detective, and hissed with vicious glee as her blade found its mark. Her face was skull like, all except for a third of her right side. Still it was enough for Ziggy to recognize her.
Pieces of ancient skin still clung to her skull, her long dark hair still simmering in the night's glow, the stars and explosions lighting the ground under their feet. The light made the dark white bone of her skull face look almost silver. A single black eye stared out of her left eye socket, while a dark red motion sensor had been tightly packed in the right. She looked like a science fiction zombie, something that you might see out of one of those fiends from the Resident Dead something or other games; that Shion liked to play.
The Cyborg blinked as he looked at her, it was Elisabeth Raystorm, the daughter of the fanatic leader of the original Black Heaven Unit, Liu Raystorm. It was during the final fight with the maniac, that his son David was killed, by his own bullet. This wasn't his first encounter with Elisabeth. He'd been the one to arrest the girl, which started the feud. After his son had been kidnapped, Ziggy visited the girl in her cell. That ended tragically, as the girl had a gun snuck into her prison. She had fired it into her temple, and died.
Or so he thought.
"How are you alive?" He demanded. He pulled out his gun and fired a few shots at her, hissing as she dodged each blast with ease. She grasped his shoulder and kneed him in his gut. The cyborg doubled over and caught his self before he was practically kneeling before her.
"The same way you are, detective," she snarled. Zefonith kicked him twice, taking pleasure as his screams of pain filled her ears. She would have kicked him a third time, but the howling and screeching of the Gnosis tearing towards the larger of the two Kukai Foundation ships caught her distraction. Zefonith punched a button on her wristband, and her large A.G.W.S., Lilith broke through the ground. The android smiled, this was the last time she would need that weapon. It had served her well for one hundred years, but not that her revenge was nearly complete. With a nod, she pushed another button.
The giant battle suit seemed to roar in rage, and unloosed numerous missiles, and bullets, and energy bolts at any Gnosis that would move. The only one that survived seemed to be a small Cerberus. It seemed confused and didn't move an inch. Good, Zefonith thought. With a touch of a third button, Lilith exploded and collapsed on top of the alien.
She turned to finish her other battle, and learned that she had made a minor miscalculation in turning her back on her enemy. As she turned, Ziggy sent her spinning with a right house kick. Acting on pure instinct, she leapt to her feet as she landed five feet from the ground, escaping just right before Ziggy's foot landed on the ground where she was. The two fought, blades slashing, clanging against each other, medal against medal.
"The Black Heaven Unit didn't believe in donation," Ziggy said. The cyborg had nearly said, 'doesn't believe'. It had finally occurred to him that there never was a New Black Heaven Unit. Zefonith had created the illusion of it, to bring all of this about.
"There are many things that my father didn't believe in, that I've done," Elisabeth cackled. She pulled out a blaster rifle, and aimed it at Ziggy. Though he braced himself, the sonic waves that blasted him as she fired knocked him to his feet. She took advantage of that, and kicked him squarely in his jaw, smiling madly as blood trickled down his chin. "Besides, I never volunteered myself for donation. The Federation thought I would make a good assassin. After all, look at you."
"I'm no assassin," he snarled.
"You've done enough of that kind of work in the past, don't bother denying it," she snapped. "I've done my best in keeping up with you over these last one hundred years. I've waited for my revenge for a long, long time. Revenge is indeed a dish best served cold."
Zefonith twirled on her heels and landed a kick right in the center of Ziggy's chest, watching with satisfaction as he rolled half way across battlefield. She turned her attention to the Elsa and Durandal and raised one of her guns towards them. With the push of a switch, the gun grew until it almost looked like a rocket launcher.
Ziggy's movements were automatic, a few years earlier they would have been strained and cursed with indecision. These people, he considered friends. The first group of friends he had made in years. There was a part of him that was determined to have his memories erased, completely, as was the deal he had made with the Foundation, and Fifth Jerusalem. All he had to do was get, Momo, and get her to safety. But somewhere David's presence had begun to haunt him once again, and his paternal instincts began to kick in. From there, his walls had begun to crumble and he again knew what it was to have friends.
He literally threw himself at the evil android, his voice aching as he screamed in inhuman rage. Thankfully the Elsa had begun to take off, and was quick enough to avoid the beam, but that left the larger, Durandal, headquarters and main building of the Kukai Foundation when it connected to the massive interstellar city state, home of over ten thousand people.
He closed his eyes and willed himself forward, praying that he would reach her before she could fire the gun. And if there was a God, his prayer would have been heard. His fingers clutched around her wrist as quick as grease on an engine, and slam down tight. She screamed and cursed, but it did her no good. Ziggy raised her from the ground and swung her around by her arm like an Olympic athlete getting ready to toss his weight to a record breaking distance. He let go, and sent her flying, but no record breaking distance. She pulled in her legs into her chest and twirled around, until she was standing next to him, face to face. She smiled at him and raised her gun into his face.
"Good bye, detective," she cooed. Zefonith pulled the trigger, and then pulled it again. And again. The fourth time she frowned and looked at her gun. It wasn't there. "What the hell?"
"Let me illuminate the situation," Ziggy roared. With a swing that would make a professional ball player proud, Ziggy slammed the gun into her face and sent her spinning like a top. The cyborg grabbed her shoulders and began rapidly kicking her in her stomach, finally landing a heel into her face.
Zefonith crashed on the ground and looked up at her opponent, her eyes growing narrower. "You bastard," she hissed. "You won't win this round detective, you killed my father, caused my death, destroyed all the beauty we wanted to bring to the universe," she spat out blood and pulled herself from the ground. "You will pay for your crimes."
This was too much for Ziggy. He rushed toward her, and kicked her in her chest, and then brought down his extendable blade across the new wound, an attack he liked to call Ignition. She attempted to encounter with a grenade, but he blocked it, pulling his arms into his chest and looked down. The pain cutting through his body was red hot, but he ignored it long enough to perform one of his ether attacks, this one called Cyclone.
Zefonith's body flew across the field, just as Ziggy had before, and she came down, crashing hard. Though her arm was metal and mostly metal cells and gears within it, she still heard the sound of a crack, and the evil android let out a wail of such pain that the forces fighting in space could hear it.
"You brought this on your own," Ziggy roared. "You and your father sought to enslave the galaxy under your fanatic ideals; your father murdered thousands of innocent people in his quest for power, using you to do a lot of his dirty work. He kidnapped my son, and you killed yourself, I had nothing to do with that. If anyone is the criminal, you are." Ziggy pulled out his gun and fired a few blasts into her chest. Each one of them hit, denting her chest plates until he penetrated her armor.
It was still not enough to bring her down. Somehow, perhaps using ether healing powers, she pulled herself to her feet, and grabbed the body one of the dead Gnosis. Her eye was so narrowed now, that one would think that she was closing it. Her breath was labored, and she stumbled as she walked.
"A bit self righteous, aren't we? You've done some pretty nasty things these last one hundred years," hoisting it in her arms, like a rag doll, she tossed it at the cyborg, rushing at him as he tried to block it from doing too much damage.
Zefonith pulled out another blade – being an assassin android had its advantages. She couldn't remember what happened after the bullet entered her brain, one hundred years ago, at least not right away. The last thing she had seen was a horrified glare coming from the detective as she pulled it out, and fired. He looked so cute, the way he looked as though he was going to throw up. She smirked at his horror, as she pulled out the gun from her wedding dress. No one had any idea how she had gotten the gun, nor would they know that she had seduced one of the guards, and gotten him to borrow his gun, which she first used to smash her mirror, and carve up her skin so she could properly make the room hers. After all, if it was her room, shouldn't it have her name on it?
It was that same guard, who after getting promoted for "solving" Jan Sauer's "murder", encouraged the creation of a new breed of assassin android that would work underground for the Federation. The first Zefonith was killed within a year of her creation, but Elisabeth had proven a very adaptable killer. And for a good twenty years, she was the Federation's best assassin, until she had enough of her agent, the same guard who had conspired with her a quarter of a century earlier in her prison cell. A torn out spine stopped his ego and his unwanted advances from growing anymore.
After that, she went underground, and for almost the rest of the century had stalked her number one prey, Ziggurat 8, also known as Jan Sauer, her father's murderer. At one point she did try to reform the Black Heaven Unit, but that ended in disaster, mainly for the new members of the group. She soon became the most wanted person in the Federation, until she faked her own death. For fifteen years she waited, and when she was sure it was safe, she made her way to the U.TIC and offered her services, under the name of the new and final version of the Zefonith assassin android series. They were quick to hire her, and from there, so banefully followed boring orders for forty some years until she could finally come up with the ultimate planned scenario for revenge.
And now here she was, right in the middle of her revenge, and it wasn't going as easy as planned. She wasn't denying that it wasn't fun, but still, she would have liked to see him suffer more than what he was. She'd attained many other rivals over these last one hundred years, some of them as much a challenge to her, as the cyborg, others who died at her hands, others still who retired, never being able to best her. The few who she could never beat, managed to die of old age, to her anger. Once this was over, she knew depression would set in, who was going to be her rival then? She sure as hell wasn't going to work for the U.TIC anymore. At any rate the thought of existing with no purpose, no rivals anymore darkened her heart to levels she did not know were there.
Zefonith rushed at him, and slashed with her silver blade, scowling as the electric hum of the weapon missed him by inches. He was faster than she had read about, faster than their previous encounters. A round house kick, a thrust of her blade, and then a quick shot with another of her blasters. They all found their mark, but the cyborg rose with each attack and countered. They were evenly matched, and as the fight continued, they both realized it.
That gave her a slight advantage, after all, he had something she did not, a conscience. Just as she realized this, she could hear the sounds of the Durandal taking off. Zefonith smirked and leapt into the air, digging her nails into the outer haul of the ship. If she could make him lose his temper, act brainlessly to try to protect his friends, and "innocent" people, then she would have the edge, and could crush him.
Sure enough, the fool followed her, his eyes dark with determination. She smirked and punched a hole into the ship, small enough that she could hold on as it lifted into orbit, but just large enough that she could be flexible in battle. The ground below them grew smaller, and smaller still. Ziggurat 8 had mirrored what she had done, adding an air mask over his face; another advantage she held, as an android she had no lungs, and thus could survive in space. Ziggy on the other hand, being a cyborg still had human organs, and like a human could not live in space without instruments to use to breath. The two combatants glared at each other, leaving one battlefield for another.
What neither of them saw was the fiery red eyes of the Cerberus, which had managed to avoid the explosions and the A.G.W.S.' debris, to follow these two. She didn't care about the man; it was the woman, who had cost the Gnosis their goal, who she wanted. But she could be patient. Strike at the right time, and take her down. Then perhaps go for her prize aboard this ship.
The fight continued, and as it did, Zefonith learned an important lesson. She could taunt and mock him all she wanted, but that didn't stop him from being a good, focused fighter. She attempted to attack the engines, the fuel depot of the ship, she attempted to rip the skin off the ship and suck the "innocent" people into space and their doom. Zefonith even tried to redirect the ship into line of fire, but nothing fazed him. Somehow, his determination would not be shaken. She blinked, her chest rising and falling so hard that if she had a heart, it would be broken now. She had made a mistake in choosing this ship as her new battlefield, she would have had a better chance down on the planet.
"Who are you?" she snapped. It was so easy to fight him down on the planet, but this was like fighting a different person all together. Somehow he had even been prepared for fighting in space, as an oxygen mask covered his mouth. She'd tried to rip it off, but never could get anywhere near it.
Ziggy ignored her questioning, and kept on the offensive. There was no way he was going to let her attack and kill any more innocent people. One hundred years ago, she had murdered thousands of innocents; and had she not given into her love affair with alcohol she would have probably succeeded in blowing up the parliamentary building of the Federation Congress. Had that happened, the Federation would have been cast into discord, and probably years of civil war. Unless of course more and more people gave into her father's demented demands.
The Durandal was halfway past the planet now. The two combatants continued their fight, avoiding the blasts of the enemy ships. Most of the Gnosis had withdrawn once their land forces had failed to take possession of the Zohar. But Federation forces, and the Rebels, as well as a handful of U.Tic forces continued to fight, with no sign of stopping, though the enemy seemed to have a massive advantage. Many of the Federation ships were exploding even though they were not being hit. There was only one explanation, sabotage.
It's time for this fight to end anyway. Ziggy frowned and rushed forward extending his blade to full length. He had not done this since the first time he became a cyborg, and was on his first mission, he hadn't even used this ability during his adventures with the others. With a determined thrust he slashed at her chest, and then kicked her backward. She blocked both, but for the last time underestimated him.
"Endgame," he said with a smile. In his hand, he held her foot. With the agility of a cheetah, he lifted her off of her other foot and tossed her into space. He watched her spin helplessly, towards the planet. Ziggy turned his back and tried to figure out how to enter the Durandal safely, without causing any danger.
He screamed as spike embedded into his shoulder. He felt a tug, and began falling backwards, only his steel will keeping from slipping off of the ship. Glaring back toward the planet, he could see Zefonith smirking cruelly, a harpoon type weapon in her hand. Her boots had changed into slick silver rockets, and she sort of hovered between the planet and the ship.
With a primal screech, she grabbed onto the rope and yanked, her eyes narrowing as Ziggy was pulled closer to her. She began cackling and screeching with the laughter of a demon, her facial features changing into the same demonic stare that it had been one hundred years ago. If she was going to die, then this time, she was going to take him with her, and he knew it. "This is for you father," she screamed, her face turning bright red in fury.
Ziggy grit his teeth and looked around. There was nothing but cold, darkness, accompanied by flashes from the battle. His circuits were beginning to shut down, and he realized, with a small speck of horror that it had been over four, maybe five days since he had powered down and recharged himself. Then, as things looked lost, David's angelic face took the place of Elisabeth's hell bound gape. He smiled at his father and laughed as his cybertronic dog, Nexus 6, or Nex as he liked to call him, barked and licked his cheek. Jan Sauer had bought Nex for his son with what little money he had, hoping to please his child. He'd wanted to get a real dog, but they were too expensive. Ziggy was sure there would be anger, a hurt since of betray when next he saw his son, after all, he was the boy's unwitting murderer. But there was nothing but bright light, warm and loving.
Laina, his wife of two years, before she died giving birth to David, and his grandmother, who took such good care of all of them, were there too. Again, Ziggy expected hate, sorrow, disgust, but like his son, it was warmth that was all too inviting. Ziggy longed to be part of that warmth, reached out to it, and his family, but his wife shook her long brown haired head. She said nothing, but stroked his cheek. He had more to do, even tough he did not want to.
David's dog, barked twice, and jumped from his arms, rushing towards Ziggy. But as his eyes focused, he saw not the mechanical mutt rushing passed him, but a single, snarling Gnosis, a Cerberus, with interest in only one thing, Zefonith.
It latched on to her, and began tearing out the shocked android's circuits. She screamed and howled, doing her best to dislodge it, but in the end, it was too late. Ziggy took complete control of the situation.
He yanked the harpoon from his shoulder and attached it to his gun. His chest rose and fell and he narrowed is eyes. Her back was to him, and he ground his teeth. He knew this was his last best chance to end this chapter of his past. "You know, Miss Raystorm, I don't think I'll take you up on that bottle of whiskey after all."
Zefonith had managed to finally get the Gnosis off of her, and spun around; much too late to do anything defensively to protect her self from what was coming. Her mad eye widened as Ziggy took aim and fired. The harpoon found its mark, and sliced her head neatly off her shoulders. Zefonith III's body, the former Elisabeth Raystorm's, jerked and waved in a death struggle, until the Cerberus once more clamped down on it, and the two of them began their fiery descent back to the planet.
Ziggy caught his breath, for the first time in hours, and then collapsed to one knee. At least if anything, he thought, this was finally over.
The President looked at the reports coming in and nodded with approval. All things, by all accounts were going well. True, Ungoliant had been pushed from the asteroid field, true enough still, the Federation was holding his forces at bay, but still, everything was going well. Many of the Federation forces were disintegrating before his forces or the U.TIC could touch them. Why, he didn't know, and quiet frankly, he really didn't give a damn.
Trev 5000 smiled and sat calmly in his chair. Better yet, the Gnosis had retreated, why, that was still a mystery that he wanted to look into, but even if he never got the chance, there was no big threat. He looked over the papers and signed his signature. His office had changed at least once every few hours. He wasn't sure how he wanted it, when the time of victory had finally come. Right now it was covered from wall to wall in a light blue haze, with hints of green and orange around the edges. His chair was the only one thing in his office that did not hold a tinge of color. It was black as midnight, perhaps blacker still, if that were somehow possible. There was a hint of lilac in the air, and the soft sounds of Bach and Beethoven played almost below the hearing level of human ears. Still, they calmed him as not much could.
Trev 5000 picked up another piece of paper and gently laid it down next to him. He wasn't sure about signing it, it did seem a little drastic, but if his might was to be made known to the Federation, he had to do something a little theatrical. He punched a few buttons, and waited until a video screen popped up in front of him. Canon's face appeared and the screen, and smiled at the president.
"I want you to begin an order to pull your forces out," Trev 5000 said, emotion nowhere to be found in his voice.
Canon's smile quickly vanished and he cocked his head. "You're plan on using the weapon then? That seems a little foolish."
The android president shot to his feet, pounding his desk. "Do not question me." His eyes began to grow and he almost hissed. "Do as you are told." His voice was icy cold, and a normal person, or Mecha would have chills down their back. Canon was no ordinary person.
"You do realize that you aren't even going to get the chance to use that," Canon sighed. "My forces just picked up a large Federation ship. . .,"
"You're forces will do as they are told by their commander and chief," Trev 5000 screamed his body shaking.
"We haven't even been given commands by him yet," The altered U.R.T.V. said with a sly smile. He looked at the president's face and shrugged. "Do as you will." With a flip of a switch, Canon turned off the president's face, and began to communicate with his fleet.
"All forces, pull back, we will return to the Pleroma at first, and then to our next destination." Unlike the Ungoliant forces, his men responded without question. They'd head for the old satellite system, which had been once of the early shrines of the old Roman Church, and then head for Bohemia XI. Canon looked down at the planet and shook his head. "Fool," he snapped.
"They're pulling back!" one of the Federation pilots cheered. The republican government watched as one by one the Ungoliant's ships pulled away and disappeared behind the planet. It didn't take long to know what they were doing.
"Blue leader, gray leader, take your squads and circle around the planet," one of the commanders hissed. "We can not let the enemy gate in." If they made it to hyperspace, to one of the Federation's gate columns, they might never find them until it was too late.
Four dirty dozen ships raced around the survivors of the rebellion, and soared around the planet. The danger of a gate in wasn't too dangerous yet, it would take at least twenty minutes for the enemy ships to go into hyperspace, and that was only if they could get the Federation's gate controller's to accept their request.
The minutes passed and more and more of the enemy ships were being destroyed. What was more; thirty other Federation warships had just finished their own gate out, and were on their way to the battlefield. Randall Fairweather, in the Durandal was commanding the Kukai Foundation's forces. Gaignun was on board, but was too weak to do anything more than give small suggestions, his new little army of fellow ex prisoners, surrounding him in a circle.
"They won't make it, ask their commander to withdraw his order," he squeaked.
"I'm firmly aware they won't make it, sir," Randall said, "but try telling a Federation commander he's wrong." He looked out into the cold dark night and sighed, "Besides, we're going to have our hands full with the U.TIC. They're still here, despite everything."
"You have to admire the tenacity," Gaignun chuckled and groaned.
"I never thought I'd see the day that the Federation and the U.TIC would ever be at war with each other," the old cell mate said, tears almost appearing to roll down his cheeks.
"Coddho pumdurtm, parnzer ucc Ysuro!" another human Ungoliant snarled.
"If the 'bastards' all burn, you'll never get the chance for payback," Gaignun snapped back.
"Master Gaignun," Randall said quickly," I've just received word from the Elsa. They're going to go to Bohemia XI."
"They're not going to stay?" he said weakly. Then he closed his eyes and nodded. "Of course not, someone has to find the girls and save them." He smiled. "Tell them good hunting." Randall dispatched the message, and they watched the medium light blue arrow shaped ship take off in an opposite direction."
A moment later, the crew on the bridge screeched in panic, as in front of their main window, they saw Ziggy tapping on it. He motioned with his free hand to ask them to let him in and then flipped himself back on the top of the ship.
"What do you think, Master Gaignun? Randall chuckled, should we let him in, or do you think he'd make a good hood ornament?"
"Let him come aboard, we might need his help if things get drastic." Gaignun said, and then grinned. "Besides he would clash with the colors of the Durandal."
Trev 5000 watched as his forces began to dwindle, and sighed. Even if he didn't want to use the cannon, he had no choice now. Federation forces were getting close to the planet, and if they landed, they'd only encourage the humans to increase their rebellion on the surface. He quickly punched a button and his intercom sizzled to life. "How much longer damn it," he roared.
"Two more minutes, sir, for optimal effect," came the response.
"Who the hell cares about optimal effects?" Trev 5000 shrieked. His eyes dilated, and his chest began to hurt from his heavy breathing. "All I want them to know is that I have a weapon of massive destructive ability!"
"Mr. President," the mechanical voice said, "to lose your temper is not rational. If we attack with optimal force, it stands to reason that the enemy's force will be seriously depleted by a percentile of 79.568902. Logic says they would have to retreat after such an attack. Furthermore, to attack now would result in a calculated depletion of enemy forces by only 30.2046."
"You have one minute to get it ready to attack," Trev 5000 snarled, his eyes twitching as he watched the reports pour in about more and more Ungoliant Mecha losses.
"Sir, such a time limit would only allow the percentile to rise," the voice began.
"The only percentile you should worry about is the one that deals with your survival if you do not do as I demand."
There was a hesitancy on the other end, and then, "Affirmative, Mr. President," it said with a resigned, undignified tone. "The weapon will be ready within a minute from now." The intercom clicked off and Trev 5000 leaned back in his chair with a smirk. Mecha were more logical than humans, but like the humans they still feared for their lives when threatened by their superiors.
His excitement and bloodlust began growing. The Federation was mopping up the last bit of resistance in space, and small invasion crafts were beginning to descend on the planet. Let the human's hope for a glimmer of success, and then snatch it right away.
Thirty seconds remaining. A large, silver cylinder rose high into the air, aiming right at the Federation forces. Trev 5000 was so impressed with his brainchild that he ignored the sirens and beeps coming from his intercom. At twenty second remaining, as his cannon was glowing white hot with his fury, Trev 5000 faintly made out an item coming down from space. He narrowed his eyes and felt his jaw drop. A Federation was heading right for his complex, right for his cannon.
"This was what the intercom tried to warn me about," he said silently. "This is what Canon was trying to tell me about." He went to his intercom, to order them to fire the cannon, to blast the ship to ribbons, but there was nothing but static. His gunner crew had abandoned their posts. Trev 5000 was the only one who did not know about the ship until the last minute, and now it was too late.
The Mecha tyrant watched with horror as the ship came crashing down on top of him. Somehow he could see the faces of the priestess who he had murdered a long time ago coming for their revenge. Trev 5000 let out a piercing scream, and then went silent.
A bright red light flicked on the edge of the planet, and the crew of the Durandal watched it grow until it engulfed the entire Mecha capital city. Without the control base, most of the remaining Ungoliant ships began to break down, their guns melting, their engines shutting down. Some of them exploded all together.
There was a long wait, and then the Admiral in command of the Federal Fleet hailed the Durandal. Helping Gaignun too his feet, his cell mates led him to the screen. Ziggy walked up and folded his arms. To their unsuspected surprise, Helmar appeared, wearing a Federation Military uniform. The tall, bald, black man smiled and nodded.
"Good to see that you made it," he said in his deep, warm voice. "As I'm sure you are aware now, the Ungoliant rebellion is over."
"What happened?" Gaignun asked.
"Trev 5000 is dead, according to what we've heard. His command center was destroyed by a falling Federation ship as it crashing into him secret weapon, a large gun able to take make stars go nova. Luckily, it had been hit, before it could fire, or the whole planet and all of us would be up in flames. However; the Mecha capital is completely destroyed, along with ninety percent of its population."
"They brought it on themselves," Ziggy said blandly.
"True, but now there's a matter of rebuilding," Helmar said. "Where is Jr.?"
They told him what had happened and the politician and military leader simply sighed with a nod of his head. "I understand, however; I can not just let you leave the system," he said reluctantly, "not yet anyway."
"Why not?" Ziggy demanded.
"We're going to need your reports as to what happened on the surface, as well as your help in returning the peace. As much as I hate to say it, the others should be able to handle the hunt for the girls."
The cyborg sighed and turned his back on the monitor. As a cyborg, he knew he had no rights in the large republic. He couldn't reject what he had been told, even if he wanted to, and he desperately wanted to. He had a built in chip that overrode his emotional and logics systems, keeping him a well behaved pet. Once this whole situation was over, and the Federation had what they wanted with Momo, he'd make sure that the rest of his humanity was wiped clean. He couldn't stand any more pain than what he had now.
Mentally he said a quick prayer for their safety, and then walked off to find Jin, he knew Shion's brother was on the Durandal as well, and would not like to hear what he had to say. But it was something that needed saying.
The light blue ship dashed through the orange and yellow tube of space, known as hyper space. It was kind of like traveling through a wormhole, with the exception that the colors were much brighter than the dull, dark blacks and grays.
Shion remembered the terrifying battle that took place in one of these "tubes" just a few months ago, when she had first met Ziggy and Momo. The U.TIC ships had been in hot pursuit of the two of them, after they had escaped the Pleroma. If it hadn't been for Shion, their ship would have crashed into the "tube" of light, and exploded. The Elsa's pilot, Tony, had proven an exceptional pilot, and Hammer's skill at navigating was proven exceptional too that day. If either man's skill been any less than what it had, then Shion, Allan, and the others would have all died too.
No one on Second Militia had believed what had happened, and had to study the black box and other bits of maim frame before anyone could believe it. That incident wasn't the first hyper space battle, but it was the most fierce, and the first one to involve, much smaller ships than what anyone believed could enter hyper space.
"We're going to be coming out of the Column within the next five minutes," chaos said, looking down with a blush as he realized he had caught the young Vector science officer off guard. "Sorry. I didn't realize you were so deep in thought," the polite young, orange-tan boy said with a smile. His eyes were crystal blue, and both of them, as well as his bright white hair seemed to glimmer in the light of the ships lamps.
"No, that's all right, chaos," Shion said, blinked back the light as filtered into her own blue eyes. "I suppose I should be getting to the bridge now."
chaos nodded and then began to walk back, when he suddenly stopped. "Oh, I almost forgot, Tony said that something had been transmitted to your quarters by Vector Industries a little while ago, right before we retook the ships."
Shion frowned and nodded to the young man. As she walked out of the maintenance room, that KOS-MOS was using as a bed chamber, her mind raced and she realized what had been transmitted. Leave it to Vector Industries to send their products to their customers, employees or not, despite rain, sleet, hail, snow, or war.
The young bronze red head entered her quarters and walked to her top bunk. Sure enough in a small case, there were two perfectly small little lenses. Shion smiled for a split second and took them in her hand. She headed for the bathroom, and thought of Miyuki. She'd been the only one Shion had told about this, and even Shion didn't think she would have acted so hastily.
She removed her spare eye frames from her nose and took a big breathe, as if she were expecting to dive deep underwater. And then one, by one she placed the lens into place. I wonder what the crew will think.
Shion walked into the bridge and folded her arms behind her. She blinked for a moment, and tears rolled down her cheeks. It was going to take time to get used to feeling the lenses. The reaction was almost comical; it was just what Shion had expected it would probably be.
"Chief," Allen squealed. Somehow she knew he'd be the first to address her new look, "What happened to you're glasses?" He rushed over to her, in hopes of trying to protect her, but was stunned as she groaned and pushed him back, before he was anywhere near her for her to see him that well, without her glasses, or contacts.
"Allen, stop it," she snapped. "I'm not a little girl." chaos smiled as he realized what had been in that case, as did Tony. "Honestly, if you would have stopped to think, before you acted, you would have realized I'm wearing contacts."
"You look very cute," Tony said with a smirk on his face.
"Hey, now, cut that out," Allen began to snap. An elbow into his ribs silenced him completely.
"If you all are done," Captain Matthews sighed, "we're almost in the Bohemian System. I suggest that you wake KOS-MOS and prepare to disembark. They nodded, and began to walk to their assignments, when Captain Matthews called Shion back.
"What do you know about this system?" he asked.
"Just about as much as any," she answered carefully. "It's one of the larger systems in the Federation, with twenty eight planets, fifty seven moons that either are, or were at one time inhabited by people. There are also seventeen artificial satellites that are generally used by scientific agencies."
"It's also one of the roughest places to be," Matthews answered carefully. "If it's all right, I'd like to launch your party in a smaller vessel from behind Bohemia VI."
"Is there a problem, captain?" she asked. He looked tense and very pale.
"Not really, just a little careful. This New Enlightenment group is a bit overzealous in their work, and I don't think we'd be able to survive a full scale landing on their home planet."
"But we don't even know if it is the New Enlightenment we're dealing with," Shion said, cocking her head.
"Even if it isn't, most of these scientific types really don't like to be disturbed. They're not secessionist nuts like what we dealt with in the Amadore System, but let's just say most of their research isn't very legal."
"Can we even reach Bohemia XI from VI in a smaller vessel?" She crossed her arms and blinked.
Now Matthews smiled, and brought the brim of his red and white "I'm a boozer" cap over his eyes. "You can with the one I'm thinking of," he said, a mysterious hint of mischief and pride in his voice."
"Well, you are captain, if you think it's for the best, then we'll go with you're plan," Shion finally said. Captain Matthews almost squealed and practically leapt three feet in the air before regaining his composure.
"Well then, what are you standing around here for, little missy, you have your orders, get going."
Shion turned and began walking quickly away. I've got a bad feeling about this, she thought.
"We're going to die, we're going to die," Allen screamed at the top of his lungs, as the tiny missile like ship surged toward their destination. As they flew through space there were only two colors outside, black and blacker still, as light from the stars merged with the darkness of space as the ship zipped by them.
"We're going to crash into the planet, blow up, and die," Allen continued to wail into Shion's eardrum. She would have shouted at him to shut up, but she had lost her voice after the last twelve times she had done that.
"Why the holy fucking hell did we bring along this bloody record player?" Pyreges groaned, plugging his ears at the sounds of the younger man's fearful cries. Presently the geek was crying about his fears of roller coasters, needing a brown paper bag, and then wailing at the "extinction" of said paper bags – when told by Jr. that there were none left – as a sign of the apocalypse.
The ship on the inside looked like a large bobsled, with room for one person to pilot, and five people to sit behind her. It was not a very pleasant fit, but Pyreges did have to admit, the "Arrow" was rather fast.
Jr. looked back and blinked at the cyborg, "Ask Shion," he shouted.
"I've tried, but I think she's gone deaf," Pyreges answered back.
"Allen," KOS-MOS began, "at the speed we are presently traveling it is more logical that we will burn up in the atmosphere, than die crashing on the planet."
At first, Allen sighed with relief, "Well, that's good I," then of course as always, "burn up in the atmosphere!" He would have stared to freak out again, had Shion, out of agitation more than anything, clenched her fingers into a tight fist and socked him hard in his nose.
"Don't ask what that was for, Allen, just shut up," she said, her voice returned to her.
A few minutes later the ship landed on the surface, surrounded by legions of dark, tall pine trees. The group disembarked and looked around at their surroundings. It smelled moist, as if it had just rained a few hours ago. The sweet scent of pine, and a cool autumn breeze added to the charm of the forest. There were even small squirrels, and tiny birds rushing from too and fro, their curiosity at this strange new silver animal, and its odd children being overridden by their determination to survive.
Somewhere off to the left of the group, Shion could hear the faint sounds of water trickling, and recognized it as a river. "Okay, if our information is correct, there should be some large scientific intuitional buildings just a few miles passed the river on this continent. From the Elsa's readings, there is just enough power coming from these buildings to allow us to believe that that's where they would be holding Mary, Shelley, and maybe if we're lucky Momo.
"Shion, readings from my sensors indicate a strong, energy wave coming just south of those buildings," KOS-MOS said blandly. She turned and looked in the direction which she spoke of, and her sensors began a deeper analysis of the energy. The environment turned a deep blue, except for this energy, was a mixture of white, red, and silver. She knew immediately what it was. "My sensors confirm that the energy is the Hilbert Effect."
The group looked stunned. The Hilbert Effect was created by and named for a Federation scientist, in an attempt to pull the Gnosis from their dimensional fields into the Federation's galaxy completely, and thus enable the Federation's forces to battle the alien race on an even footing. KOS-MOS could use it, as could smaller forces of Realians, Momo being among them.
"I confirm that it is indeed the Hilbert Effect," Pyreges said. "But that could mean that the scientists are trying an experiment or perhaps that there are Gnosis here, and the scientists have Realians who can use the Effect."
"Momo can use the Effect," Shion said quickly, heading in that direction.
"But chief, why would she use it?" Allen said, quickly grabbing her arm. "What if there are Gnosis there, like Pyreges said?" He stroked his sore nose and backed off as she glared at him with evil intention.
"That's why we have KOS-MOS and me," chaos said cheerfully. "Besides, if Momo is in trouble, she might need our help."
"I'm also sensing life forms, from the same area, just a few yards away, lots of them," Pyreges said. "None are alien in anyway. I think those buildings we sensed on the ship are decoys."
"They could be power stations as well," KOS-MOS said, studying the energy from the original direction. "It might be logical to for us to shut them down."
"Our first mission is to rescue the girls," Jr. snapped, storming in the direction of the energy bursts. He recognized them all right, because they felt like Albedo. But not quiet like him, more feminine. It was Momo.
"I have to agree with Jr.," Pyreges said, looking at the others. "We've got to get the girls, and then regroup if we need to and take out those buildings."
There was no point in arguing, they all knew that it was the most logical choice, even if it wasn't the best choice.
Their fight was going on for an hour in a half now. Momo felt energy rush from her body as the two girls clashed with their canes, until they snapped. Red and golden energy clashed, each sister's eyes shining with determination.
Just as her sister reached her, Momo spun around and landed with a well placed kick to the jaw, sending Violcia flying into the next wall. She might have been dressed like a girl ready to go to a Japanese grade school, but she was still a tough little cookie, and that had been before she had met before had met the others.
Momo hated violence, she hated fighting. Why people couldn't just live in peace, and discuss their problems, she would never know. Nevertheless she could never dispute the fact that one of the reasons she had been created was to be a weapon against the human' alien enemies. That thought surged hatred through her every vein.
"I am not going to let you live," Violcia snarled. She knelt down and placed her hand on the surface of the room. "This is where you die, sister dear," she hissed. Electricity raced through her hands and arched out in every direction through the room, like ravished snakes searching out their prey." Momo quickly changed into a bright blue light as she leapt into the air. A moment later she cast Star Wind ether attack, and landed lightly onto the ground, ignoring or gritting her teeth as most electric charges struck her body.
"Oh that is just so cliché," Violcia snapped, rolling her eyes. "What do you thing you are an ancient children's television cartoon hero?"
Momo glared at the other girl, and narrowed her eyes. "This is going to end, but I would much rather it end peacefully, Violcia. Please just walk away." She stretched her arm out, holding a new staff straight at the evil Realian.
"And what then," Violcia snapped. "Even if I let you go, do you think you have the energy to make it off this planet? Our hosts know we've been fighting. If I had let them, they would have burst in and stopped us, except for my will locking that door shut."
"The might of will," Momo muttered, remembering what Albedo had said, when Jr. had asked how he had managed to summon so much energy during their fight on the Proto Merkabah.
"You should have stayed with Albedo, sister. He never meant to kill you, you know. And he can be quiet playful when he wants to be," she smiled with a blank expression and sighed. "I'll never understand why people fear him."
Momo remembered another thing about Albedo, thinking back on when she had just woke up after being kidnapped and finding her way to his hideous throne room, where had been torturing her "sisters" the Kirshwassers, taking from them their feelings, memories, thoughts, fears, loves, hate, and everything in the middle. Once he was done, they were nothing but hallow shells, lifeless and cold. They fled toward him, for the same reason Violcia had, each had been jealous of Momo, each one had wanted to be like her. The last one remaining before she had died, had taken Momo's form, tricked the others, and brought them to Albedo, and then tried to choke the life out of Jr.
Violcia had said that Albedo had tried to kill her too, but for some reason, she had been too strong, her hatred, her raw emotions. It was too much for even the mad U.R.T.V. to handle. And for that reason, it had drawn him nearer to her. The energy surrounding her was pure insanity. For that reason, people had feared Albedo and for that reason, people would only hate and fear her sister.
"You've finally realized my power," she said, her eyes narrowing. "My drive, it kept me alive during the attacks by the Gnosis, by the Federation, by my Albedo's attempts on my memories and lives." She giggled wickedly, "You know, it actually tickled, when he absorbed the few memories he could. He had to restrain me so he could get any, I was wiggling too much." Her eyes narrowed even more, until they were nothing more than two hellish slits. "I enjoyed every moment of it."
"Good bye sister," Momo said her heart full of sorrow. Putting his sister out of her misery would be for the best for everyone. She lunged forward, rising in an arch. "Maybe daddy will forgive you for everything you've done."
Violcia caught her sister's arm and held it up, squeezing her wrist to make her drop the staff. She tickled her sister's defenseless armpit, forcing Momo to slip and drop to her knees. Violcia smirked as she watched her sister's power fade and change back into her original uniform. She stopped tickling only after she got Momo to laugh for a few minutes, and then began to crush her sister's wrists. She closed her eyes and seemed entranced with the pain and agony that came from Momo, as her fist closed tighter and tighter around it.
When she was sure that Violcia was totally out of it, Momo bit her lips, her mind racing with an idea. With a swift kick to the stomach, she freed herself from her sister's grasp, and drop kicked the wicked Realian into a table. She'd been right, her sister had been so caught up in the moment of seeing her suffer, that she'd been caught unaware of anything else. It was like she had gone into her own world. With a whisper, she used the remainder of her ether, and retransformed into her super mode.
"Now, sister, this is going to end. Unfortunately for you, you are not going to like the conclusion." Gathering her whole might, she caused her staff to grow larger and larger, until it was at least twice as big as her. It was the strongest Star Strike attack she had ever conjured. "Good bye."
Momo brought the staff crashing down on her sister, listening as the energy and the weight of it; crush Violcia under its body. Her sister countered with a last minute energy shield, to absorb the impact, but that turned out to be her final mistake. The weight of the staff, and the shield combined was too much for the ground under her. It collapsed sending Violcia screaming into oblivion.
Momo wasn't sure it that was the end of it, though she truly wanted too. The thought of being in a confrontation with her again made her sick. Violcia was already mad with jealousy. That insanity made her incredibly strong. Another round would only find a frustrated Violcia ready to do absolutely anything to end her obsession.
"Momo," a voiced called from down below. For a moment, she feared her sister had survived, and the fight was destined to continue. Then she realized it had a very familiar drawl.
"Mary?" she called down.
"Thought that looked like you," the older woman giggled weakly. "What's the big idea of dropping an entire floor on us," she snapped, with pretend agitation.
"Us?"
"Shelley is here too," Mary said, very softly. "The pharmaceutical company that gave us these bodies, had us kidnapped, to finish the job, obviously." This time there was no question to the reality of the hate dripping in her voice."
Momo stepped back a couple of paces, and then rushed forward, leaping into the new hole. She couldn't go through the door, if what Violcia had said was true, they'd catch her right away. And she couldn't get through the door if her sister was still alive, anyway. The hole was the only way to escape.
She landed down with a thud, and nearly fell through a second hole, that her sister's shield had made. After she caught her balance, she peered down, looking at least twenty levels. That thought caused depression to wash over her, it was going to be tough to escape being up so far.
"We're actually buried deep in the ground," Shelley said, her violet eyes locking onto the young Realian's. "We're going to have to climb back up, once you can cut us free."
Both women were tied to tables, their arms and legs latched into place with iron straps and chains, as though they were undead monsters feared by the villages down below the castle. Wires and tubes stuck into every part of their naked bodies, filling them with all sorts of colored liquids and juices. The smell of acid, and molding mushrooms filled the room, and Momo fought to stop herself from puking.
Their clothes were laid neatly on two tables to the far end of the room, and monitors were found on every square inch of it. Whatever color the room itself was, Momo couldn't tell. The artificial colors and shadows of the room would not permit it.
"Well the first thing we're going to have to do is get the two of you off of those tables," Momo said with a sigh.
"Just take out those monitors," Mary said, with a smirk. "We'll do the rest."
With her one remaining staff, Momo made quick work of the computer screens, all save for one, which the two young women insisted stay on line. Mary had the young Realian take a wire from it, and place it in her input center on the side of her head. Normally the blonde woman would hide it from view with her light blue cap, but since the scientists had stripped them of all their clothes, the small piece of metal stuck out in plain sight.
Once connected to Mary, the two women closed their eyes and seemed to almost hum along with the computer. A moment later, Shelley opened her eyes and looked at the computer screen, almost as if to thank it for its help. The women's bonds quickly released the two, and both bonded to the ground with wet splats, as their bare feet struck the ice cold floor.
Mary let out a glorious shriek and danced around the room. "Damn that feels good," she giggled.
"Let's not too carried away," Shelley said, walking over to the clothes. "We still have to get out of here, and then find a ship, and get back to our friends."
"Oh, stop being such a poo," Mary giggled, poking Shelley in her ribs as she took her clothes. "One victory at a time, right?"
"Why must you be such a clown?" her older sister sighed.
"Just practice," Mary smiled, nearly fully clothed. "I'm going to be the greatest comedian of all time, or at least in the star cluster. I just wish you'd join me," she said, slyly giving her sister a wink.
"Get a grip," Shelley said with another sigh. She looked up the hole and a third, despondent sigh rose from her throat. She grasped some long wires from the floor, tied them together and tossed them through the air. After about three minutes, she found a catch and quickly tugged on it. "Time to go, girls."
"But there's no hole in the level above," Momo protested. "Once we get back up there, how do we escape then?"
"We'll improvise," Shelley said with a sly smile, and the three of them began their long ascent to Momo's cell.
The planet of Bohemia XI loomed large as the large clone armada pulled out of hyperspace. Canon sat back in his chair and smiled widely as he looked at the reports. A large ship left hyperspace twenty minutes ago, near Bohemia VI, a smaller ship had left that larger one, and landed on the growing planet in front of him a few minutes after that. And just three minutes ago, the three main prisoners on the planet's surface had escaped from their pens.
This was going to be fun, he had thought, the main event. Those stupid Federation ships that had tried to stop his ships from entering hyperspace were a good warm up, they actually succeeded in taking out one of his own ships, still they were nothing compared to his raw power. He only wished he could have seen the face of the commanding officer's face when his ships launched into hyperspace without using a gate. It would have been no doubt very humorous.
"It's time to close the cage, and let the rats know the whole maze was just an illusion," he cackled. Many who were close to the project thought he was Agent Genesis, others thought it was the "clones", both groups were correct to a point, but neither had hit the nail on the head completely. But now the true authorities had just given the green light. The Genesis Project was about to be released, in less than two hours. And then the whole Federation would soon find itself in a position it was not used to, straight on its knees.
Author's notes: Okay, this was shorter than I thought it would be, but the Bohemia XI part of this chapter didn't need the lengthy information I had thought it needed. Besides, if I told you what I wanted to in this part, there would be nothing for part 5 to talk about. To be brutally honest, this whole series should have been a four part series, but oh well. You'll just have to wait to see more of Mary and Shelley's history in the final chapter. As to the mention of different times, in different areas of this part, I kind of was time traveling in a sense, going forward and back to different times to look at perspective battle fronts from different people's points of view. I truly hope that that was not too confusing for you.
Anyway, only one more to go now, it all comes down to this, the Federation and our heroes against the fanatic scientific organization, the New Enlightenment and Canon's fleet. See you there! 8).