I am just pushing through these now, and I am working hard. Thanks to everyone who reads these, and the reviews, and tell me what you don't like, and I'll see if I can't accommodate you.
Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, and if you hear the voice's, your already half way there.
#14: A life to Die for
Jack's Vanguard touched down on the barren land, dust billowing away from the exhaust. He landed on the perimeter of Fort Imperial, the military base where he had spent most of his life. He hopped down, and locked his Van down, so that nothing short of a tank round would be able to get in. He couldn't have his way out moved, could he? He approached the gate, where a heavily armed escort of 10 men stood waiting.
"Welcome home, General Horn is expecting you. Please follow us." Jack gave a loud snort when the man had used the word home, but he ignored it and walked into the base, the other nine forming around Jack. He was a mostly secret weapon, so this treatment was to be expected. He was lead to the General's office, and was told to enter. He walked in, and found the General in his comfortable and high backed chair. This was his mentor and head trainer for the whole of his military career.
"Welcome back, Jack." Horn said with a small grin. "I trust you bring good news for me?"
"I am afraid not sir." Jack said, and astonishment struck the Generals face. "My mission was a failure." Horn ran a hand through his blonde hair; this was the first time Jack had ever said that.
"What happened? You will have no need to write a report, as this is a normal op for you. But I still need to know. Jack sighed, and began.
"I successfully boarded the craft, and mingled with the crewmates. I managed to get the Paexis off of the ship shortly after December 25." He had chosen not to say Christmas, because the men of Tarrak knew not what it was, and he did not want to draw suspicion from his Commanding Officer, not yet, anyway. "They were more powerful than was expected, and managed to inflict a fatal blow to my Vanguard in the process of completing my final objective. I was knocked unconscious during the blow, but my preservation instincts helped put a barrier around so I would not die in the vacuum. They had four controllers on board, and they overwhelmed me." The general looked surprised at this.
"They have four Paexises?" He asked sternly.
"No, they only had one, but it had chose four as its controllers."
"Then what happened?"
They nursed me back to health, and dropped me off here."
"Are they still in the area?"
"Yes, they should be, your sensor stations should have picked them up by now." After he finished that sentence the phone started ringing. Horn picked it up, and listened for a minute.
"Good, send to ships to the area, and wait till I give the order, I want that craft captured." He hung up the phone, and turned to Jack. "Very good, we may get them yet."
"What the hell is he doing?" Hibiki shouted, watching the video feed from the cockpit of Vandread Jura.
"He's betraying us again?" Jura yelled, watching next to Hibiki.
"Just hold position, and keep the shield up, we're going to show the military how grateful me are for placing their little pet in our care." B.C.'s voice came over the intercom, cold and slightly frightening. She switched it off, and then opened a link to Bart. "Ready the cannon's, and fire on my mark."
"Aye, Aye commander!" He said, and got ready, than turned his attention back to Jack's video feed.
"You know your ship's don't have a chance in beating them, right." Jack said, with a smirk.
"I know, but that's were you come in." Horn hit a button on a small remote he kept in his pocket. "Your mission is to go up and Retrieve the Blue Paexis while my ship's distract them." Jack's demeanor change, and his voice lost the crisp military tone, and was replaced not by the insane voice that should have risen, but his normal, casual voice.
"No can do, Rufus, I just got here, and I want to stay a little longer." This made Horn mad, he was addressed by this man in front of him, not as if a higher officer, but as an equal. He pulled the remote out, pointed at Jack, and pushed the button again.
"You will go and do what I say." He said, more force in his voice.
"What is that for?" Jack said, with a serene smile. "Could it be for this?" He flicked a small metal thing onto Horn's desk. It was the implant in the base of his skull. "I am just wondering why I should do what you want?"
"Because I am your Commanding Officer, and that is what I say to do."
Ok, since you put it that way, I quit."
"You can't quit, I own you. And you like what you do."
"Yes, but I can get everything you offered, and more, with the pirates." The phone rang again, and horn answered, and listened for a minute.
"Send more ships, and cripple the ship, do not destroy it." He hung up the phone, and sighed, returning his attention to Jack. "Looks like your friends aren't the type to just give in, but we will overwhelm them, and capture it ourselves. What is it that you plan to do now?"
"That is a very good question, and I've been thinking about it for a long time. Originally, I figured that if I failed and they took me back, I would try to sell them to you for my freedom. But I realized that you would let me go. So then I after I left the first time, that I would just come back, and report my failure, and you'd just send me back out, so I crossed that out as a possibility. Then, after I blew myself up, I figured I come and destroy this whole base. But then I learned to appreciate people, so I figured I kill you and call it a day." Jack explained, and at this point Horn interupted.
"So you plan to kill me then?" He said with a sly smile.
"No, I'm not finished." Jack shot back, annoyed as his story was interrupted. "You see, now I am just going to take the red Paexis from you, and be on my way."
"You know I can't let you do that." Horn said calmly. Jack opened his mouth to reply, but hit the back of his chair, toppling backwards, as several small knives sailed at his head, missing and impacting the door behind him. He landed in a low squat, grabbed the back of his chair, and with a spin, hurled it at where the General sat. The chair hit the wall and shattered, Horn had moved away.
"Your so predictable, Jack." Horn said, as Jack stood with a shrug. Horn ran his finger along where the chair had hit. "You left a little bit of a dent in my wall."
"Sorry, I'll pay for that on the way out." Jack said, in a stern voice.
"How do you expect to beat the man who taught you all that you know about combat?" Horn asked, and rammed his fist together, thumb to thumb. Two finely crafted sword hilts had appeared when the fist connected, and blades emerged as he pulled his fist apart. "But, if you insist on leaving, you will have to take me out of the way first."
"Ok, I you really want to die." Jack swung his arms together across his front, one under the other, and hilts appeared in his hands as they crossed. He quickly swung them the opposite way, and blades sprung forward. His arms were spread apart, and he twirled the swords once, and scythe-like attachments, though smaller and taller appeared at the top of each one.
"That is new." Horn said, though he was unphased by the intimidating devices.
"Yeah, allot has changed since I joined the pirate's." Jack said, as he brought his blades into a better position.
"Is it worth giving up everything for?" Horn said as he moved to the front of his desk.
"Yes, I found something I treasure above anything I have had so far, even my freedom."
"You don't mean that." Horn said with a grin. "I know you will never love anything more than your freedom. Those horrible creatures just corrupted you judgement, and I will have to purge their taint."
"Your wrong!" Jack yelled angrily. "I have found a life I'm willing to die for!" and he lunged. A flash of green light strobbed, the room, as an explosion hit Jack in the chest, and sent him flying into the door behind him, shattering it with his body. He rose, picking up his blade's and lunged again, talking to himself.
"Should have know what he really was," as their swords met.
"Multiple contacts inbound. At least 7 destroyer class vessels, and a slew of single ships." Belvedere Said, eyeing he data screen, and relaying the info to the rest of the bridge.
"Looks like they weren't to happy about us destroying those other two, Bart fire!" The commander yelled. Lances of green-blue energy lashed out and speared the two lead ships, inflicting heavy damage, and destroying a handful of the smaller ships. Bart eyed Jack's video feed, which had been knocked off and lay on the floor, showing the two locked in combat. He kept switching between the fight, and charge bar his ship's weapons. It hit full, and he fired another volley, and finished off the first two he had hit, and another group of single ships. The bar began to refill, and he switched his gaze to the video feed. They were off camera, but an occasional green beam would lash past the screen, and destroyed a large portion of wall. The dreads launched, and began trading fire with the Male ships, with the exception of Jura and Hibiki, who were still holding a shield around the 'Nirvana'. This allowed Bart to take out focus on the larger ships.
Jack brought up an energy barrier and another green energy beam lashed out and impacted, causing a sizable explosion. He got off the ground, and ran from the room. He was bleeding and he was losing the fight. He was mad at himself for not realizing that Horn had been a controller. He had taught Jack how to use his powers, but he had just though he had the knowledge because of his elite status. He dashed down a hall, and into a room. He found the red Paexis, and pointed his palms out, and surrounded it in a blue barrier, and it began to shrink, still to weak to fight back. Jack grabbed it, and stuffed it into his cloak, and ran out, the crackle of weapons fire chasing him.
A destroyer came within weapons range of the 'Nirvana', and the cannon's charge was at zero. The weapons on the destroyer swiveled into the correct trajectory. Each of the several cannons tracking the ship fired. The rounds impacted the ships shield, and they began to fail. They flickered out as the last round hit, and missiles impacted the ship's hull, scaring the surface.
"Ow, damn it!" Bart said, feeling the missile impacts on his skin. He gazed at the charge meter, as it slowly refilled. The turrets on the destroyer swiveled in for another salvo. Bart stared at the charge bar, willing it to go faster, but it was not even half full. He noticed a purple bar, that he could have sworn hadn't been their before. He tapped it with his finger, and a series of explosions dotted along the trenches that the primary cannons occupied. A volley of purple beams lashed out, and tore through space. It was the same thing as the normal cannon, except the color was different. The beams impacted the destroyer, tearing through it, and ripping it in half.
"That was close." Bart said to himself with a sigh, and he realized that each Paexis must add to the power and arsenal of the 'Nirvana'. After the bars refilled, he fired off both, happy with the destruction he had just caused.
Jack rounded a corner of the military base, and came face to face with two soldiers in towering exo-skeletons.
"Hi guys, how are you?" He said, with a hint of desperation in his voice. The voices that replied, were cold, robotic, and both said the same thing.
"Surrender now, and you will be harmed no further."
"Hey, I just picked up a nifty souvenir from the gift shop, and I'll be damned if I'm giong to let you have it." He said back, his nose in the air. The small wrist mounted mini-guns began to twirl, and jack slid under the massive legs of one of them. It stomped it's foot, missing by inches, leaving a small crater. The turned, and bullets chased Jack out the exit. He fired an orb of purple and blue energy that hit together at the same place doubling the usual, singular explosion, and collapsing the entrance in a shower of rubble. That should slow those exo-skeleton losers down for a couple of seconds. He dashed through the gates, as machine guns in sentry towers tracked his progress. His Vanguard's cockpit opened, and he jumped in, sealing the hatch behind, and thrusting off the ground, as bullet's pinged of his hull. His Comm screen flickered to life, and General Horn's face appeared.
"Why have you insisted on this suicidal notion." He said, his personal Vanguard, blue and green, dropped in behind him.
"Well, you see," Jack said, like he was talking to a child. Horn frowned at this disrespect. "I met someone aboard the ship, in who I found some joy left in life. She was intelligent, beautiful, and can put up with my shit." He said with a smile. Lances of purple and blue energy slashed into the another destroyer, shattering the ship into glittering fragments of metal. Jack sped through this, and docked with the "Nirvana'. Horn had been blown of course when the destroyer had exploded. The Airlock door closed, and the ship dove back into the magnetic storm. Jack walked out of the bay, and it closed behind him. He dropped by the Paexis room, and left the Red Paexis in Parfait's care. He than headed for the bridge to report to the captain. He was sore all over, while Horn never landed a single blow with his swords, but still managed to blast the crap out of him with the green energy. Blood oozed from several places across his body, but he had to see the captain, so he would get treated later. He met Barnette half way to the bridge.
"You know," He said, "For an elite soldier, I sure do managed to get my ass kicked allot." Barnette giggled, and he walked on, saying he had to see the captain. Th doors to the bridge slid open with a hiss.
"Hull breach in section 12!" Celtic yelled. "Single unit infiltrated and is now in the main hanger!"
"You," The captain said, pointing at Jack. "Go and take care of that!" A large explosion rocked the 'Nirvana'.
"Engine system damage! We can't move!" Belvedere shouted, fear gripping her voice.
The end, I change my email address, and so I will now be able to reply to anything you write to me. Hope you enjoy.