"Well, we're finally ready to launch in our own battleship. It's about time, since I was really sick of pretending to fight instead of actually going out there and helping the human race survive. I didn't have fun in the Martian simulator. First, a wave of nostalgia hit me, and then a Chulip hit Neji. A bunch of Jovians hit the ship, and the ship hit the surface. In the end, we actually did rather well for a bunch of people playing a video game."

Lieutenant Hitoshi Tsumiyagi, Science Officer of the Samayahita

A Destiny Star

Episode 4: The Journey to Their New Destiny

The short week was over at last. The crew of the Samayahita was assembled in a Nergal docking bay where they were waiting to board the brand new UEAF battleship. All 186 members of the crew were sitting in folding chairs in front of a stage with a single podium on it.

"What are we waiting for?" Hitoshi asked Sosuke quietly. "This is really boring, and I want to get on board the battleship and take off as fast as possible."

Sosuke turned his head towards him and whispered back, "I think the chairman of Nergal wants to make some half-assed speech about how we're such a great crew. I don't really give a damn one way or the other."

Victor, who was sitting in front of them, turned around. "That's no way to talk about one of the most powerful men in the solar system," he hissed.

"Oh don't get your knickers in a twist," Shin said. "It's not like he can hear us, and we're not under his jurisdiction. You may be his loyal lap dog, but we're members of the glorious United Earth Assault Force."

Victor shrugged and smirked. "What would you know about loyalty. You're an Anime fan."

Shin stood up, knocking his chair over. "What the hell does that mean? Just because I like cartoons doesn't mean I don't know how real life works!"

Victor laughed condescendingly. "Anime fans don't know the real world from the imaginary one. That's what the chairman told me."

Hana leaned forward. "You know, you can only hang on a man's word so much before it becomes unhealthy." Victor just frowned and turned around.

"Damn fool," Shin hissed as he sat back down in his chair.

"Here comes the chairman. Let's just listen to what he has to say," Dan whispered.

The chairman of Nergal walked to center stage and stood behind the podium. "Good morning everyone," he began. "My name is Nagare Akatsuki and I am the chairman of Nergal Heavy Industries. I just wanted to let everyone here know that I am pleased with your training and expect at least that much from you on the battlefield. Many of you may think that I'm bitter that I've been forced to cooperate with the UEAF from now on, but it's important for you to realize that I began working with them again in order to benefit the entire human race. In retrospect, it was a bad idea to work against them in the first place, but now bygones are bygones, and the Samayahita is physical proof of that."

Hitoshi was fidgeting around, trying not to fall asleep. In his opinion, 8:30 a.m. was far too early to be awake. "How much longer is he going to drone on?" Hitoshi whispered.

"Twelve years!" Kadin shouted. Everyone in the room looked at him, and Chairman Akatsuki's eye twitched, but he said nothing. He just continued his speech.

"Even fully awake, this speech is pretty boring," Sosuke sighed. He placed his hand in Hana's, and the two of them leaned on each other.

At last, Akatsuki's speech ended and the chairman of Nergal walked off the stage. Most of the audience applauded him, but no one could tell if they were applauding Akatsuki or the fact that his speech was over. Victor walked up the steps to the stage and took the chairman's place behind the podium.

"We will now be boarding the battleship and taking off," he announced. Another round of applause filled the hangar. Victor absorbed the attention like a sponge. "You may all enter the ship at this time. Liftoff will be in twenty minutes."

With that, everyone rose from their seats and began walking towards the crew access elevators. The bridge crew was the first to enter the battleship's corridors and they all made their way towards the bridge rapidly. It wasn't long before everyone had entered the brand new bridge of the brand new battleship.

"It's so much nicer in there than it was in that simulation room," Admiral Minamako said.

"It certainly is pleasant seeing real surroundings outside instead of a bunch of monitors feeding in a computer simulation," Kato agreed. He ran his hand along the side of the window, which occupied the front half of the room's walls. "It's thicker than the windows of any battleship I've seen so far."

Hitoshi walked down to his station in the second tier. He looked at the new controls and new nano-board. "I just love the smell of brand new electronics," he said, sitting in his chair. He ran his hand across the nano-board, wondering what it would be like to finally control a real SVC model computer.

Dan walked up to his console. "Are we ready to go, or are we all content to sit here and gape at our new toy?" he laughed. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the master key for the battleship. He slowly and dramatically slid it into the lock and turned it. The lock dropped into the console and the chamber closed. "And now it begins."

Everyone finished looking around and slowly filed into their positions. Hitoshi began the startup sequence for the ship. A few windows opened in front of him, one of which had what looked like a hand-drawn five-sided star with the word "Unmei" written in Japanese Hiragana in the center. "Unmeihoshi?" he asked in surprise.

"What's Unmeihoshi?" Sosuke asked.

Hitoshi turned to face him. "The SVC computer calls itself as Unmeihoshi apparently. I didn't know computers were in the business of naming themselves." He shrugged and turned back to the nano-board.

Hana turned to look at him. "Isn't that Japanese for "Destiny Star?"" she asked.

Hitoshi glanced to his right. "Something like that. That's an unusual name, but it does have a nice ring to it. This SVC series computer is a lot more powerful than even the computer that had been stuck in the simulation room. That one didn't even have a name for itself." He continued to play around with the windows as he started up the battleship. He seemed to be having a great time with the computer. He looked up at Dan, who was already looking at him. "The phase transition engines and nuclear pulse engines are now coming online. We should be able to lift off at any time now."

Dan turned and faced the window at the front of the bridge. "As soon as the hangar is clear, we're getting out of here. He leaned over the top tier and whispered to Hitoshi, "I think I've had about as much of Nergal Heavy Industries as I can take in one lifetime." He glanced at Victor, who wasn't paying any attention to him. He then stood back up and a few status windows opened around him.

"All 186 members of the crew have confirmed they are aboard, sir," Hitoshi reported. "I think we're all ready."

Dan smiled. "Then I suppose we should be off. Miss Hana, gently lift us out of the hangar. From there, set a course for the UEAF regional headquarters in Beijing. We will receive our orders once we arrive."

Everyone watched as the battleship slowly lifted from the hangar. Everyone on the bridge smiled as the wall they had been facing slowly dropped as the ship rose. "Here we go on our little adventure," Hana murmured.

The battleship rose above the roof of the hangar and for the first time was completely exposed to the daylight. The light bounced off of the bow of the ship directly into the window of the bridge, bathing everyone in warm sunlight. After the ship completed it ascent, it turned towards the west and began to accelerate.

"Can you get me the latest reports of recent Jovian activity from our satellites?" Dan asked.

Hitoshi opened a window. "As of 5:00 a.m., there are no Jovians between our current position and Beijing. It should be clear sailing for at least an hour."

"Everyone may take a break now," Dan announced. "The ship is running on auto pilot and it is not necessary for everyone to be here now. Just keep your communicators on in case of an emergency."

The bridge crew rose one by one and began to walk off the bridge. The only ones remaining were Hitoshi and Dan. "Captain, you can go too," Hitoshi said. "I've got everything here under control."

Dan looked at him. "I'd rather stay and observe, unless of course you want me to leave."

"No, that's not what I meant," Hitoshi replied. "I had just assumed that you would like to go and have a nice break. If you want to stay and observe, that's just fine. I guess that since this is the first time you've been in full command of a battleship, you want to enjoy it." He smiled. "You're the most compassionate captain I know."

Dan looked forward out of the window at the front of the bridge and sighed. "I can't believe that I'm the captain of this entire battleship." He smiled. "When I was an XO, I really didn't have any other function other than giving out free advice. Now I'm the one that's in command, I'm not sure I'll do such a good job."

"It's that very reason that I know you'll do fine," Hitoshi replied. "Besides, you did fine in the simulations."

"Simulations aren't the same as a true to life experience," he replied. "In this scenario, we could actually meet our end, and that's what worries me."

Hitoshi reached beneath his seat and pulled out a video game controller. "I'm glad to hear that you're worried about our well being. I've met a few people who couldn't give a damn about whether we live or die." He fake-coughed and inserted Victor's name in the middle. Dan nodded in agreement. He unwound the cord on the controller and unraveled a knot in it. "You don't mind if I occupy myself with a video game, do you?"

"That's not a problem," Dan replied. "I'm going to read a book, so enjoy yourself." Dan pulled out a book and flipped a few pages until he was sure that he had found the place he had left off. Hitoshi plugged the controller into a plug beneath the nano-board and a window opened with the game displayed within.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew headed towards the cafeteria. The admiral led the way, with Kato and Kadin right behind him. Sosuke and Hana were taking their time and walking hand in hand. Victor was bringing up the rear and walking slowly. It wasn't long before they arrived at the cafeteria, which was four decks below the bridge.

"What will everyone have?" The admiral asked. He was the first in line, and offered to order for everyone. The crew quickly rattled off their orders and the assistant chef ran back into the kitchen. Victor didn't order anything to eat and just followed the rest of the bridge crew around needlessly, interjecting annoying comments along the way.

The group walked to a large table in the center of the cafeteria. Shin, Neji, and Jonathan were already sitting there eating their meal, and the bridge crew joined them.

"Good morning everyone," the admiral said as he sat down. The Aesti pilots returned his greeting and also said hello to the rest of the crew.

"How long until we reach Beijing?" Neji asked.

"It shouldn't be any longer than three hours, as long as Jovian activity is minimal," Kato replied. He dug into his chicken and didn't elaborate.

"If we were in space, we'd be able to cross a distance that small very quickly," Hana sighed, "But since the phase transition engines aren't as effective on Earth, it takes much longer."

"There's nothing we can do about it," Sosuke replied. "Earth is Earth and space is space. Maybe once we receive our orders, we'll be sent up there, but for now we'll just have to deal with it."

"All I know is that I want to go to the Moon," Shin said. "That's where the action is, and that's where I want to be!"

"But the more action we see, the greater the chance that we'll get shot down," Jonathan mumbled.

"You're just scared because in the simulations you were the pilot that was shot down the most," Shin replied. "I'm ready to fight off those alien scum."

"It's not as easy in real life," Neji interjected. "In actual combat, Chulips release thousands of grasshoppers at once. Since they can teleport from wherever the hell they live, they have a huge advantage over us."

Kadin jumped up and shouted, "Yay! Boson jump!" The entire cafeteria looked at him, but he didn't care.

"Anyway," Victor added, "because the Jovians can boson jump, we can't stop them from reaching the Earth since they bypass all of our defenses by using grounded Chulips. And since they use unmanned weapons, they aren't losing any soldiers. This means that an invasion of Jupiter at some point will be costly and dangerous."

"Will we even ever make it to Jupiter?" Sosuke asked. "It's so far away from Earth, and it would probably take about half a year to get there, not to mention the size of the force that must be guarding it."

"We'll get there eventually," Victor said confidently. "The Jovians can't possibly win this war."

Shin muttered under his breath, "They're doing a damn good job so far."

Victor turned to him. "You don't need to worry about it because you're just a pilot. You just do what we tell you to do and nothing more."

Shin became angry. "And if it wasn't for the lowly pilots, you wouldn't last ten minutes out there. I think the only way this war is going to end is if the Jovians get tired of trying to invade our planet and decide to head home."

Victor stood up and walked over to him. He bent down and picked him up by the collar. "Listen here you jackass! The Jovians are never going to give up, and it will be our job to exterminate every last one of them! Their women and children will not be safe, and we will make sure their seed is erased from the universe!"

Shin had had enough. He punched Victor in the stomach, which abruptly caused him to drop him. He then punched him in the face, sending him stumbling backwards into another table. Victor climbed to his feet and charged at him. Shin was ready for him, but never ended up getting the chance to fight the Nergal employee. Kato had run up and punched Victor forcefully in the face, sending him down again.

"Listen here, Victor," Kato shouted, "and you too Shin. You two are acting ridiculous! Victor, you need to have a hell of a lot more respect for the pilots, especially Shin. If we didn't have our Aestivalis pilots or the Aestivalis, we wouldn't be able to do a damn thing in this war. If anyone is the jackass, it's you. You're overconfident, and you're obsessed with that Akatsuki jerk. I know that you're just his pawn, but you could at least try to make it a little less obvious. And you're a damn fool if you think we're all powerful. There is no such thing as an invincible battleship. Nergal believed the Nadesico was invincible, but now it's been gone for four months, and it's probably not coming back. I'm just glad that Nergal doesn't have us under their thumb or else we'd probably end up the same way." Victor slowly rose. His eyes were full of rage, and he rubbed his right cheek where he had been punched twice. Despite everything, he smirked at Kato and Shin.

"You just made a huge mistake," Victor said. "There aren't many people who mess with me, and those who do don't usually enjoy the ramifications. For starters, I'm going to report you to the captain. After that...well who knows?" He walked towards the door that led to the elevators. He disappeared through them with everyone's eyes on him.

"Good riddance," Shin sighed as he slumped into his chair.

Kato turned to him. "You're going to have to be a little more careful with him," he reprimanded. "He's obviously got something against you, and you're pretty overconfident about your abilities as well. You're going to need to watch out or you're going to get burned."

Shin waved his hand in the air. "Yeah, yeah, I know all that. You can only tempt fate so many times and all that nonsense. Victor is more likely going to get burned first, and I just pray to God that I'm there to see it." He resumed eating and pretended like nothing ever happened.

"In all fairness, Victor did start the fight," Hana said as she played with her food.

"But Shin did goad him on. If he had just kept his mouth shut, that probably wouldn't have happened," Kato replied. There was a long silence.

"Hey guys," Neji wondered out loud, "how does Victor know that the Jovians have women and children?" Everyone sighed loudly and stared at him. "What? For all we know they could reproduce asexually, or even have more than two genders."

"Ever hear of something called a figure of speech?" Sosuke asked rhetorically. Neji shrugged and continued eating.

Five minutes later, the captain's face appeared on a window in front of the entire table. "I would appreciate it if you could all come to the bridge for a few minutes," he said calmly.

"We'll be right there, sir," Kato replied. He gave a sharp glance to Shin, who had his mouth open and was about to say something. After seeing Kato, though, he wisely closed it.

"I don't want to hurry along your meal, but it is somewhat urgent," Dan replied.

"It's no problem at all," Hana called out. "We were just finishing up anyway." Dan nodded his head and the communications window closed.

"This should be fun," Sosuke sighed sarcastically. "I'm not particularly interested in hearing what Victor told the captain because I know it was probably riddled with lies."

Kato smiled. "I wouldn't worry. The captain doesn't like Victor either. I think everyone on this ship is aware that Nergal is bad news for the UEAF. If he really wanted to chew us out, he would have demanded our presence right this instant."

Meanwhile, on the bridge, Hitoshi was eyeing Victor warily. Victor was walking back and forth across the front of the bridge with an ice pack to his cheek. Hitoshi was slightly angry with Victor because he had admonished him for playing his video game. Victor was about to rip the controller out of the socket when the captain intervened and stopped him. He then went on to tell some bizarre story about how he was giving the bridge crew a pep talk, and Shin became annoyed with him and punched him. He went on to say that when he had tried to fight back against Shin's onslaught, Kato punched Victor for starting a fight. Hitoshi had never heard such a load of bull in his life. Nevertheless, the two bruises on Victor's right cheek didn't make themselves, so Dan had to call the rest of the crew to find out exactly what happened in the cafeteria.

"They must be taking their dear sweet time," Victor growled. "They were brave when they were in control of the situation, but now they're scared of what the captain will do to them."

"They're taking their time because they weren't finished eating," Hitoshi called to him. "As a matter of fact, they had barely begun when you had your lights punched out and came crying to the captain."

"Shut the hell up you jo..." He stopped short of what he was going to say.

"What were you going to say?" Hitoshi asked angrily.

"Nothing," Victor replied quickly. "Don't you have some buttons to push or something like that? Why don't you play your stupid game some more?" He shrugged and turned back to his game.

"I wish you'd settle down," Dan sighed. "I told them they could come whenever they were ready. If you're that anxious to cause them trouble, then maybe I could expedite the process by pulling up the security camera data from the cafeteria."

"There's no need for that," Victor replied. He knew that if the recording were pulled up, his case would go out the window since he had grabbed Shin first.

"Then please sit down and shut up!" Dan shouted. Hitoshi smiled satisfactorily. He enjoyed seeing the Nergal employee in uncomfortable situations.

At that instant, the bridge crew and the three Aestivalis pilots who were there at the time entered the room. They all had neutral expressions on their face and did not make eye contact with Victor.

"What's the meaning of this disturbance?" Dan asked calmly.

The admiral spoke up. "Victor was fervently proclaiming the destruction of the Jovians and Shin had been mocking him. Victor approached threateningly and grabbed him. Shin punched him out of self-defense. Victor made a run for him to retaliate, and Kato intervened and punched Victor in order to stop him."

Dan turned to Victor. "Does that sound about right?"

He folded his arms and looked at Shin. "All except the part about Shin responding in self-defense. When I mentioned destroying the Jovians, he became angry. Maybe he's a Jovian spy."

Neji sighed. "I doubt an alien species with superior technology and the ability to boson jump would enlist the help of the species they were trying to conquer."

Hitoshi looked at Victor. "Besides, why would Admiral Minamako lie?" he said snidely. Victor wanted to leap over the console between himself and Hitoshi and tear out his trachea.

Dan looked at him. "Thank you, I was just about to make that point as well. If you were in my position, whom would you believe first: a high ranking admiral or an employee of a company that has double-crossed the UEAF at least once?" Victor slammed his fist against the window of the bridge.

"Of course you'd believe them. They all hate me," Victor growled.

"Do we need further proof?" Hitoshi said calmly. He opened a window and slid it up to Dan. The window began to play back a video clip. When the sound came on, Victor knew he couldn't win. Hitoshi had retrieved the data from the security cameras and given it to Dan to watch in a convenient window. Victor sighed in defeat and walked past everyone and out the door.

"Can't you fire him or something?" Kato asked the captain.

Dan turned to him and said, "I wish I could, but part of the deal we made with Nergal was that there would always be a Nergal liaison on the ship at all times."

"Can't we get a new guy, one that isn't such a jerk?" Sosuke asked.

"I'm half tempted to drop a message to Akatsuki himself and see if he can't get the idiot off the ship," Hitoshi replied without turning around his video game.

"Now really isn't the time to do anything," Dan informed them. "We're nearing Beijing now, and we'll be receiving our first set of orders." After hearing that, everyone filed into position on the bridge. "Could someone tell me exactly how long it will be until we're at the UEAF regional facility?" the captain asked.

"It shouldn't be any longer than ten minutes," Hitoshi replied. "Are you getting impatient?"

"No," Dan replied, "just angry. I can see that Nergal is going to be a thorn in our side throughout the entire war."

In about ten minutes, the ship arrived at the United Earth Forces regional headquarters. The large battleship slowly descended into the subterranean hangar and the gates closed above it. A small group of men on a small vehicle approached the ship and stopped near the entrance elevator.

"That must be the men with our mission briefing," Kato said as he watched the men disembark from their vehicle. The men walked towards the entrance of the ship and disappeared from the view of the bridge crew. In a few moments time, the three men that had entered the ship were on the bridge and were ready to give their mission briefing.

"Hello," one of them said, "My name is Matsutsu Deanu, and my colleagues and I will be giving you your mission briefing." He opened a briefcase and pulled out a small laptop computer. He placed his hand on the nano-board and the single IFS implant in his hand began to glow. "As you may well know, the United Earth Forces are preparing to mount an assault against the Jovian Lizards who have taken over our moon," Matsutsu stated. "This battleship, the Samayahita, will be part of that operation. It is very vital that we take the moon back from the Jovians, as many factories and settlements existed on the moon before the invasion. It is our sincere hope that this mission will liberate those people and resources that are so important to us."

The man stopped and looked down at the laptop. The IFS on his hand lit up temporarily. He removed his hand shortly afterwards, and a large comm window opened up in the front of the bridge. It displayed a model of the moon and the relative size of the Jovian fleet stationed around it. Matsutsu pulled out a laser pointer and shone it on the Sea of Tranquility.

"The Sea of Tranquility will be the focus of our initial attack," he continued. "The Jovian fleet is the strongest here, but if we can pierce through their line and hit them from behind, we will stand a great chance of completely destroying their lunar occupation fleet. The entire operation depends on the Samayahita and the ND-002 Cosmo, since both ships are more powerful than anything we have right now."

"And what if only the Samayahita and the Cosmos come out of this alive?" Kato asked.

"At least you're on the Samayahita, Mr. Fatomiyo," Matsutsu replied scornfully. Kato was surprised by the anger in the man's voice. Were the UEAF officers jealous of the beautiful phase transition core battleship?

"That's not really what I meant by that," Kato began. Matsutsu interrupted him.

"I know you didn't mean it like that, but that's how many of the soldiers that will be participating in this operation feel. That's why we're relying on you to keep the rest of the fleet safe."

"We will be placed in the orbiting fleet for now, right?" Dan asked.

Matsutsu replied, "No, until the operation is to commence, the Samayahita will remain on Earth. For the next month, you are to take part in the UEAF's Chulip mop-up operations. There are over two thousand Chulips on the Earth, but as long as the big barrier is up, no more can land. If we destroy all of the Chulips on Earth, then we can shift the focus of this battle into space, maybe even Mars and Jupiter."

"Why are we waiting a month to attack the moon?" Hitoshi asked.

"Now would not be the best time," he replied. "With the Cosmos and the Samayahita still so new, it would not be wise to rush them off into battle without first gauging what they are capable of. That way, we can make a more informed battle strategy."

Victor, who had slipped in an undetermined amount of time ago, walked forward. "The two ships are strong enough to do the job themselves, I'm sure," he said. "Nergal does not build pushover battleships, and all of the data that was released regarding them is correct in every sense of the word."

Matsutsu began placing his documents into his briefcase. "Regardless of what you may think, the Cosmos and Samayahita are not invincible. There is no point in sending them off to their destruction in such a manner as you have described." Victor scowled and turned away.

"Not your day, is it?" Hitoshi said in a satisfied manner. Victor had to fight the urge to dive over the partition and strangle the science officer. Instead, he shouted at him as loudly as he could.

"I can't wait until you're taken down a notch, and believe me, it's going to be damn soon!" With that, Victor stormed off the bridge.

"So for now, where are we going?" Dan asked.

"You will be part of the North American Chulip cleanup operations for the next month," Matsutsu replied. "You will leave immediately following our departure from the ship. Please make your preparations as me and my associates make our exit." The man bowed, picked up his briefcase, and walked out the door.

"Well, I suppose we should begin powering up the phase transition and nuclear pulse engines. After the hangar is clear, we're taking off," Kato announced. Hitoshi began the process of powering up the engines.

"You sure we can't shove Victor out an airlock?" Hitoshi asked jokingly. Dan smirked and said nothing.

After the hangar was clear, the SM-001 Samayahita lifted out of the hangar and headed off to the east in the direction of North America.

TO BE CONTINUED...