Still out of witty things to say. Chapter 18!
Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread, So I stop my struggling!
#18: Unexpected Encounter
"Incoming fire from all directions! They where hiding in the asteroid field!" Belvedere Called as the weapons fire impacted on the shields. "Estimating at least four class 2 Warships, and no fewer than 12 squadrons of smaller craft."
"Who are they?" The captain said, more calmly than the situation merited.
"Unknown, they are neither Tarrak, Majale, or any other planet's fleet that we have encountered.
"We're being hailed!" Ezra said from her station.
"Patch it through!" The captain said, and a Man's face appeared on the screen.
"Greetings, Miss Vivan." He said.
"Who might you be?" She snapped back.
"I am not surprised that you do not know us, we are not nearly as decorated pirates as yourself. We are outcast from the planate Casire, and we have come to relive you of your Paexis." He gave a bow. A lance of emerald energy shot from the bow of the largest ship, pierced their shields, and impacted near the rear of the 'Nirvana'. A few seconds later, one of the girls made a report.
"Access to the main dread platform has been lost! We can't launch our dreads!"
"A nice play, I see you to have a Paexis, but I'm afraid your information is a bit outdated, Mr…"
"Wallace, Timothy Wallace."
"We are now in possession of three Paexises." She gave a smile to the man, but no fear touched his face.
"I am not surprised, for the most well known pirates in this sector, I'd be disappointed if you didn't have at least two by now. I will say it will be nice to add three more to our stock. It is getting a little lonely with only the Green one." A smirk played across his face and the link snapped off.
"All available ships launch, defend this ship!" Jacks face appeared now.
"Permission to sit this one out, I want to help get the Dread platform back online."
"Ok, but hurry up, we need as many people out there as possible!" he snapped off his link.
"Come on Dita, let's take these fools!" Hibiki yelled, as the two combined. The twin cannons flipped onto the shoulders, and they fired into the center formation of the enemy. The scattered, but quite a few went up in puffs of fire and smoke, as the lethal energy swept through. Meia and Jura where able to launch, as were the Vanguards, and they were exchanging fire as well.
"Let's just see what this thing can do." Bart said, from inside the navigation sphere. He was bleeding a little above the hip, from when the energy blast hit the Dread platform. He wasn't going to tell anyone, but he was always a bit happy when he received a few injuries, because it seemed that Celtic paid even more attention to him. He wasn't going to get hurt on purpose, that was just stupid, but if it was unavoidable, he wouldn't complain. He fingered the red firing control, and several options appeared. He scanned the list, all different forms of attacks. He found the one he was looking for, selected it, and fired. It was the same as the one that the Blue one fired, but there were easily four times the number. The ruby light swept through the battlefield, and when the light faded, there wasn't much left of the enemy fleet. Two of the four massive ships remained, as well as about four squadrons of single fighters. One of the warships was surrounded in a green shield. Bart fired the other two weapon systems, obliterating all but the ship with the green shield. He steered the ship to the remaining one. Another lance of emerald shot from the ship, and speared the 'Nirvana' through the central sections, and explosions chained through it. Bart grasped his stomach with both hands, blood welling from the hole in it.
"Ow damn it!" He said, he brought up one hand, and taped on the red Energy control again. His hand was shaking, and he accidentally tapped the other two as well. All three popped up, all showing different attacks, the blue list shortest, red longest and purple somewhere in the middle. a new box appeared, reading combo attack. He pushed it, just to see what would happen. A thick single ray of red energy shot from the central section, and a purple and blue from either arm. The purple and blue swirled around the red column as it speeds through space. It impacted on the green shields, and exploded, shattering several nearby asteroids from the force. The ship when spinning and collided with an asteroid, getting stuck to the surface. The 'Nirvana" hovered over the battered ship, and attached the translucent loading tube. Several figures dropped through the tube, and proceeded to secure the immediate area inside. The usual boarding party walked through the corridors of the ship, noting that they where deserted. They where the Vanguard pilots that had always handled boarding, plus Meia, Dita Jura, and Hibiki, who had landed on another part of the ship with their craft, and proceeded to help take out any resistance. They found the Paexis room and found Jack already inside, detaching the green tendrils from the ship. The moved on, so that they could go take the bridge, witch, as always, was where anyone who could was hiding. It took a good fifteen minutes to capture the bridge, and after "interrogating" the occupants half to death. They gained much knowledge from the captain, Wallace. They where a group of pirates from Casire, hired to capture the Blue Paexis from the 'Nirvana'. They couldn't find out who had hired them, so they launched them out of their escape pods, and pillage everything that wasn't nailed down. The other pirates had been given a partial amount of pay before hand, so that to was added to the 'Nirvana's' wealth. They left detonated the ship, and left, heading for area where they had last seen the harvest. Bart set the auto pilot, and jumped out of the navigation sphere, but couldn't land it. He fell forward onto his face.
"What happened?" Celtic cried when she saw that the back of his uniform was soaked in blood.
"I Just took a small blast in the stomach, nothing I can't handle." He said, trying to be impressive and macho.
"But your back is bleeding! And your hip!" Bart felt the back of his uniform, to find that it was blood soaked as well.
"I think I'm going to go see the doctor now." Bart said, and hobbled off, Celtic joining him after she finished what she was doing, grabbing his arm, and helping him to walk, so they could get to Duero faster. The doctor examined his wound.
"Both wounds go all the way his body, and are not that serious." Duero was explaining to Celtic, because Bart had passed out. Jack sat near by, also listening, because while extracting the green Paexis, one of its tentacles broke free, and smacked him around pretty good. "He is lucky that the one through the torso missed his vital organs, or he'd already be dead. I might have something to do with the Paexises being where the shot hit, and protecting themselves saved him too. The problem is he's lost to much blood, as it has been flowing freely from his hip and stomach for quite some time. I don't have a transfusion ready, so there is nothing I can do." This is the worst part of the job, He though, as he waited for Celtic to under stand what he ment. Informing someone that someone they loved was going to die. You could see the comprehension click in Celtic's mind. Tears welled up.
"Take some of mine!" She said, on the verge of hysterics. Here was another part he hated, convincing them that there was nothing they could do either.
"I can, your blood types don't match." He said, trying to keep her calm, and then cut off her next thought. "And even if I could find someone with the right blood type, and they agreed to donate it, by the time I would be able to give it to him, it would be to late." Celtic ran out of the room crying, as a wave of hopeless washed over her.
"Damn, Doc, you're almost as good at making 'em cry as I am!" Jack said with mock astonishment. Duero cast a very evil look at him. "Wow, if looks could kill. You done with me yet?" He said, as if nothing interesting was happening, than catching Duero's look again, added, "medically speaking?" He nodded, and Jack walked toward him. 'Oh yeah, Before I forget, I got something for you." Jack reached into his cloak, and puled out a small syringe filled with glowing green liquid, and a nearly empty tube. "Give this to him, it's my last one. I gave you enough to fix him, and a sample to analyze, to see if you can't make some more."
"What is it?" Duero said, examining the syringe skeptically.
"It's a blood growth supplement. Speed's up blood growth, so that if you're low and about to die from loss of blood, you'll be back up and about in about 20 minutes. Just don't tell anyone I gave it to you, cause I don't got no more, just say you found it, and are working on making more." He walked out of the room, and Duero injected the syringe into Bart's left arm artery, because it was the easiest way to get things to the heart. He sat and waited, and after 15 minute's Bart woke up, yawning. He got up, stretched, thanked Duero for his care, and left. He saw Celtic walking down one of the halls. He called out to her, she turned, saw him, turned white, and then passed out, hitting the deck with a thud. He rushed over, picked her up, and carried her to the hospital. "Women are so weird!"
After they reached the hospital, and Celtic awoke, Duero explained what had happened. Celtic grabbed Bart's arm, and dragged him off to god knows where for some quality time. They ran past Jack and Barnette, who were taking a stroll to work off dinner.
"See, her boyfriend almost die's, and she doesn't hold it against him…SMACK" Barnette smacked him upside the head.
"What's a Boyfriend?"
"I'll tell you later."
The end, Ha ha ha!. As Jay Sherman, movie critic would say "It stinks!"