DAY THREE:THE HARVESTER AND I
The hangar was abuzz with activity when the tests were over, mechanics running left and right preparing the deck for landings as the four Dreads and Vanguard came in. The black Vanguard stood alone, hollow and silent as its partner landed. Ed jumped out, landing perfectly on the ground as the ground crew ran their routine checks. The others also went out, some of the shock from the stunt he had pulled earlier still apparent on their faces. Meia came out first, followed by Hibiki, Dita and then Jura.
"Well!" the heavy-breasted Jura harrumphed, hands on her hips. "Barnett' s right, this guy is a maniac! Hey you! Don't try that crap ever again, hear?" she blared, pointing a finger at Ed.
Ed ignored her, looking at the Black Vanguard with his cybernetic eye. He nodded and rolled up his sleeves, turning to Jura.
"What's your favorite color, Jura?"
"You're asking me about color? Why I ought to." she reeled.
"Red, blue, pink? Purple or yellow?" he asked again. "Because I haven't tested the black Vanguard yet."
"What's the correct answer, Alien Man?" Dita asked, thinking it was a riddle.
"Red, if you want to know. What's it to you?" Jura growled.
"Then I'll tell Duerro to give you a red enema. Chill already. "
Hibiki and Dita shrugged their shoulders while Jura simply harrumphed and walked out of the hangar swearing. They left, leaving Meia and Ed on the flight deck. Meia walked towards Ed, no noticeable expression on her face.
"Please tell me what got damaged in your head?!" she snarled.
"Quite a lot."
She shoved him into the Black Vanguard, turning him so that he faced her.
"Well, I'm glad you know.because that was one of the most boneheaded things I have ever seen anyone do!!!!" she shoved him again.
"You sure didn't sound like it earlier, chief.damn, you women are weird." he managed, wiping spit from the corner of his mouth.
She swung a fist at him, but the fist simply landed in his open palm . Before she knew it, he had pulled her towards him with one hand. They were so close, his nose tingled as it met the tip of hers. She saw him in both eyes, one a dark green well and the other an opaque screen devoid of any features. His breath washed over her face like a soft warm wind on a summer night. She escaped the trance , her fist breaking free of his grip.
"I knew the machine could handle it. You think I'm stupid enough to risk your life? I know I haven't been here that long, but I don't think anyone here trusts me yet."
"How can anyone trust you with your attitude?" she shot back.
"It was just a test, damn it!" he threw his arms in the air.
"Test, my ass!" she yelled so loud, the mechanics stopped to look. "If the enemy attacked, we would've been the first to die, what with your death wish!"
"I think I do have a death wish! I've lost 30 years of my life to limbo, and you think I want to waste any more of it? Do you?!" he threw a spanner past her, clearly upset.
The look in his eyes was menacing; the mechanics thought he was going to eat Meia alive. But she stood firm with her feet apart and arms akimbo ,glaring at him. Her eyepiece glistened in accord with his as they stared coldly at each other. He broke the stalemate, turning round and touching the Black Vanguard's leg. He exhaled and shook his head.
"Then don't worry.the Black V can't combine with your Dread anyway. I won't pull that stunt again tomorrow." He shut his eyes, supporting himself with his left arm as he hung his head.
"See you tomorrow then, Commander."
"Meia?"
"Yes?" she turned.
"I'm not a commander anymore," he smiled, pointing at her.
"See you tomorrow, Ed," she said as she turned towards the exit, "By the way.neither am I."
Dinner was lively as usual, with Bart still adjusting to real food rather than the pills his family's business produced yet trying to sell them. Ed sat alone at one corner of the dining room , twiddling his fork and gazing into the plate. He poured some water into his glass and looked at the piano in the corner.
"Does anyone play that thing? " he asked.
"Nobody knows how," Pyoro told him, "It's one of those artifacts from the colonial days. It was too heavy to move, so we left it here. Besides, it adds to the décor. How do you play with a piece of furniture?" he curiously asked.
The dining room banter went silent as soft piano music went through the room. Everyone turned their heads to see Ed at the keys, his glass of water sitting on the edge of the piano. The keys were a little dusty but manageable, though the pedals creaked as he pressed them. His fingers danced across the ebonies and ivories , making sounds no one had heard before . The music filled the room with a soft ambience that seemed to match the lighting. A hologram of a brass band appeared, and Ed changed tempo accordingly. Stopping to drink his water, he caught everyone staring at him.
"I've done it again, haven't I?"
"I had no idea this place was a ballroom of sorts. Maybe the colonists built this place to listen to those sounds, " Pyoro suggested.
"I like that sound, Ed! Maybe you could teach me sometime!" Hibiki beamed.
"It's all in here , if you know what I mean," Ed replied, knocking on his head lightly ."Besides, who are you trying to impress?" he winked.
Hibiki went red with embarrassment. "Well, I.um." he looked around at Dita, who looked blankly at him. Before someone could force him to answer, Hibiki ran out of the room, followed by Dita.
"That does sound comforting, in a way." Meia conceded, swallowing her food, as Jura joined the chase, yelling something about music being good for the womb.
"Did you play before? You sound pretty good, if I'm a judge of anything like this," Pyoro added.
"For a robot with two eyes and no ears, I'll take that as a compliment. But I think I'm getting some of my memory back. Things are triggering my old memories slowly, like Parfait told me. I only remember how to play 'cause of the cyber-memories stored in here. I have no idea why I learned or who taught me those years ago. I have no idea why I can do stuff like this," Ed moved his fingers from one end of the piano to the other, ending the crescendo with a deft two finger movement on the high keys.
"Maybe if you can spend more time in space, more things will come back to you."
"Not a bad idea, Not-a-commander-either."
"I've changed my mind about that." she smiled.
"Women," he and Bart said together.
The next day, the Dread pilots assembled once again for the next test- the Black Vanguard. Hibiki was relegated to the observation box with Gascgone and Meia, who sat at a console relaying data to Jura and Dita using a headset . The black Vanguard looked very similar to Hibiki' s , with its cylindrical arms and armored joints, as well as a sword for close combat. One difference he spotted was that it carried a shoulder cannon which Ed told him could detach to become a rifle. He had heard of the confrontation between Meia and Ed the day before and wondered what was going through Meia' s mind. Surely an ego like Ed's was no match. Then again, who was he to say? Before Ed, he was the only male pilot on board and took a lot of flak for it.
The pilots gave the all clear and the two Dreads burst out of the hangar. The Black Dread was now looking at its partner, positioned on a catapult for launch. The catapult threw the BV into open space, where its thrusters flamed to life. Each pilot reported their initial status and moved in formation. Hibiki perked up his ears to hear anything from Ed's unit, but all he heard from the cyborg' s channel was dead silence. Some might call it concentration, but Hibiki sensed that Meia gave him one stern talking to earlier, judging by her facial expression.
"Hibiki!" his voice filtered through.
"Yeah?" he answered.
"How do you combine with Jura and Dita? I'm having trouble adjusting wavelengths here- my legs are jerking back and forth!"
"I don't know," he stammered, "it just happens!" Meia frowned at Hibiki.
"Never mind, I've found the schematics. Begin countdown, Leader! Get ready, Jura!"
Meia pressed a button on her console and the number 5 appeared, counting down to one.
"Go!" she announced.
Jura' s red claw-like Dread dived towards the BV, which was thrusting upward to meet it. At the contact point, a panel opened and the upper torso of the BV attached itself firmly to the red Dread, spreading its arms and legs out wide. The 'claw' of the Dread enveloped itself around the Vanguard, red panels sliding over the black armor. Jura found that her wings were folding inward, linking with the BV's waist via joints. The cockpit area rotated ninety degrees upwards to form a chest while the nose slid over the BV's chest area , the BV's head popping above the cockpit area wearing a red helmet, derived from the cargo dock. The lower part of the wings moved in sync with the BV's legs which were stretched and widened to meet them, while on the upper area the wings became extensions of the arms, the fingers elongated by red phalanges. The end result was a red biped with two glowing eyes , each of its features enhanced with a component from each unit.
"Jura, Ed , report." Meia got on her headset.
"All clear, Leader." They both nodded.
"This isn't too bad, is it Jura?" Ed looked at a screen displaying their combined form.
"Not bad at all, Ed! Why, it's gorgeous!!!" she fawned. "Everything's in a shade of red! The shape, the body, everything's perfect! "
"Your favorite color, isn't it?" he grinned "
Jura nodded. Unlike Meia' s cockpit, she had a strange yellow orb in the middle of her control space, with Ed sitting on the other side facing her with the orb in between. His twin joysticks were still next to him, and he seemed to control the combination's movements with them. Jura wondered what her part was and pressed her orb. A display came up showing the hive-like Pegasus field around the Dreads, only with abnormal readings.
"What's this? I don't get this, Ed."
"Don't get what?"
"The meters say my shield is up- but I lowered it during combination. Leader, you copy that?"
"We see it, Jura. Dita, can you read anything?"
Dita nodded. "Yeah, I can see your shield is up too. But I don't see any Pegasus field around your Dread."
"Suggest you move around, Ed. Maybe the combination's warped the instruments."
"Roger, home base."
The combination went through the standard training procedures, going through barrel rolls and spins, with Dita following behind. The mechanics were responding really well, with the arms and legs showing a large range of movement. Neither Jura or Ed could find any weapons sans the BV's energy sword or the Red Dread's left wing, which had become a shield.
"The reading's still here. I wonder- what the hell???"
"Jura?" Gascgone' s voice rang out.
"Enemy approaching! It's a capital ship!"
Klaxons went on all over the Nirvana while Hibiki and Meia rushed to their mecha. Dita flew interference while Jura and Ed tried to fend off some early arrivals.
"Damn it ! Are there no guns on this rig?!" Ed howled, "Get our shields up, Jura!"
"I toldja, they're already up! And its taking hits fast! Whack those bogeys till Meia and Hibiki get here!"
The red hybrid darted through the enemy formation, nimbly making its way through Harvester fighters and bombers, moving with the grace of an angel and the anticipation of a seasoned boxer. Jura was loving every moment of it, her aesthetics at work again. She cooed in amazement as the phalanges sliced open a Harvester droid ship, extending like claws from the BV's elongated hands. Shots fired at them bounced off the Pegasus shield, though by reflex Ed kept the solid shield up. Hibiki linked up with Dita while Meia provided backup. Lasers crisscrossed the battlefield as the Harvesters' initial charge was repelled. Their formation reversed, with most of them doubling back towards the carrier.
"They're retreating! We won!" Dita exclaimed.
"NO!!! Get out of the way, Dita!" Hibiki screamed, dragging his control sticks all the way into a 180 turn.
"I've seen this before!! The capital ship is going to fire its main weapon!! Everyone, get out of its range!!!"
On the bridge, Boss Lady was yelling at Bart to get out of the cannon's way. Bart yelled back, saying that the capital ship was too close and that there was no way he could avoid it in time. BC put up the Nirvana's own Pegasus shields, but the first beam weakened it by eighty percent, a giant pillar of light that splashed all over the Nirvana. The impact hurled Bart to one side of the room, knocking him out cold.. BC called out his name and rushed to the helm room.
"Bart's unconscious! The ship can't move without him!" she gasped.
"Jura!! Ed!! Get out of the way!! You're in the way of the next salvo!!" Hibiki pierced the net.
Jura and Ed saw a blinding flash of light approach them, and before long it engulfed them in white flame. Dita and Meia were yelling their names while scrambling to avoid the blast themselves. The light from the impact flashed throughout nearby space as the bridge could only look on as their deathblow approached. It didn't. Somehow, it was all stopped at one point in front of the ship.
"We're blocking it!" Jura made herself heard over the tactical net, "I don't know how the hell we're doing it, but we blocked it!"
Meia began to notice a dome shape in front of the next energy beam, the trademark hive-network of Pegasus replaced with a smooth , red field. The red hybrid seemed to be generating it, its solid shield pointed at the capital ship. The beam was in fact being pushed back.
"Our shields are absorbing the power! But how can we attack that ship? I don't think we can hold out this long!" Jura barked over the net.
"Leave it to us!" Ed hollered. With a giant effort, he pushed the throttles forward, moving them further up the blast. The shield withstood the full brunt of the subsequent blasts, even spreading out to minimize impact. Dita and Hibiki cleaned out any approaching fighters while Meia attacked the capital ship from the rear, her cannons grazing the superstructure and blowing away gun emplacements.
"Leader, evacuate!" Ed yelled.
The Vandread was literally at the mouth of the capital ship, which was still firing away at Meia, who easily dodged the flak. The Harvester ship teed up one final blast, ignorant of the cork Ed and Jura were to put in their bottle. The resulting explosion created a ring of energy a mile wide around the ship as the remaining fighters were mopped up or ran away. The broken pieces of the ship littered nearby space, a mixture of organic and mechanic floating in a sea of defeat. Were space able to carry sound, Jura and Ed would have been deafened instantly by the explosion. The new Vandread and Meia' s Dread slowly limped towards base, the explosion shorting or knocking out several systems on both ships.
"Our first capital ship!" Boss Lady exclaimed.
"Your shield saved us , Jura!" Barnett was ecstatic.
"I've got a name for it, Ed. The Red .the Red, um.the Red Pineapple!"
"Pineapple? What the hell does a pineapple have to do with this Vandread?"
"I like red, and I like pineapples, mister!"
"You have two already!" he pointed at her chest.
"Let the hair pulling begin.." Hibiki groaned.
"How about Red Guardian?" Boss Lady suggested, " you sure guarded us all back there! A true Guardian ! Aka Majin- sama!"
"That's catchy too! The Red Guardian! The R-E-D, G-U-A-R-D-I-A-N !!!!Oh Ed, thank you for creating this beautiful creature with me!" she jumped towards him, hugging him tightly in his chair.
"Stop! Stop! It's not like we're having a baby! Get off me, pineapple woman!"
"Baby? So you make babies like this? Yahoo! Can I have your baby then too?"
"HELP!! Disengage, Vanguard! Hurry!" the Vanguard instantly broke off and sped towards the Nirvana.
"Somebody forgot to tell him about her chasing me all the time about that baby she wants. She doesn't even know how to get a baby." Hibiki nervously smiled.
"She doesn't know a lot of things.but one thing I do know," Meia sighed, " If she's gonna have a baby, there's no way in hell it's gonna be Ed's. Look at him run!"
The hangar was abuzz with activity when the tests were over, mechanics running left and right preparing the deck for landings as the four Dreads and Vanguard came in. The black Vanguard stood alone, hollow and silent as its partner landed. Ed jumped out, landing perfectly on the ground as the ground crew ran their routine checks. The others also went out, some of the shock from the stunt he had pulled earlier still apparent on their faces. Meia came out first, followed by Hibiki, Dita and then Jura.
"Well!" the heavy-breasted Jura harrumphed, hands on her hips. "Barnett' s right, this guy is a maniac! Hey you! Don't try that crap ever again, hear?" she blared, pointing a finger at Ed.
Ed ignored her, looking at the Black Vanguard with his cybernetic eye. He nodded and rolled up his sleeves, turning to Jura.
"What's your favorite color, Jura?"
"You're asking me about color? Why I ought to." she reeled.
"Red, blue, pink? Purple or yellow?" he asked again. "Because I haven't tested the black Vanguard yet."
"What's the correct answer, Alien Man?" Dita asked, thinking it was a riddle.
"Red, if you want to know. What's it to you?" Jura growled.
"Then I'll tell Duerro to give you a red enema. Chill already. "
Hibiki and Dita shrugged their shoulders while Jura simply harrumphed and walked out of the hangar swearing. They left, leaving Meia and Ed on the flight deck. Meia walked towards Ed, no noticeable expression on her face.
"Please tell me what got damaged in your head?!" she snarled.
"Quite a lot."
She shoved him into the Black Vanguard, turning him so that he faced her.
"Well, I'm glad you know.because that was one of the most boneheaded things I have ever seen anyone do!!!!" she shoved him again.
"You sure didn't sound like it earlier, chief.damn, you women are weird." he managed, wiping spit from the corner of his mouth.
She swung a fist at him, but the fist simply landed in his open palm . Before she knew it, he had pulled her towards him with one hand. They were so close, his nose tingled as it met the tip of hers. She saw him in both eyes, one a dark green well and the other an opaque screen devoid of any features. His breath washed over her face like a soft warm wind on a summer night. She escaped the trance , her fist breaking free of his grip.
"I knew the machine could handle it. You think I'm stupid enough to risk your life? I know I haven't been here that long, but I don't think anyone here trusts me yet."
"How can anyone trust you with your attitude?" she shot back.
"It was just a test, damn it!" he threw his arms in the air.
"Test, my ass!" she yelled so loud, the mechanics stopped to look. "If the enemy attacked, we would've been the first to die, what with your death wish!"
"I think I do have a death wish! I've lost 30 years of my life to limbo, and you think I want to waste any more of it? Do you?!" he threw a spanner past her, clearly upset.
The look in his eyes was menacing; the mechanics thought he was going to eat Meia alive. But she stood firm with her feet apart and arms akimbo ,glaring at him. Her eyepiece glistened in accord with his as they stared coldly at each other. He broke the stalemate, turning round and touching the Black Vanguard's leg. He exhaled and shook his head.
"Then don't worry.the Black V can't combine with your Dread anyway. I won't pull that stunt again tomorrow." He shut his eyes, supporting himself with his left arm as he hung his head.
"See you tomorrow then, Commander."
"Meia?"
"Yes?" she turned.
"I'm not a commander anymore," he smiled, pointing at her.
"See you tomorrow, Ed," she said as she turned towards the exit, "By the way.neither am I."
Dinner was lively as usual, with Bart still adjusting to real food rather than the pills his family's business produced yet trying to sell them. Ed sat alone at one corner of the dining room , twiddling his fork and gazing into the plate. He poured some water into his glass and looked at the piano in the corner.
"Does anyone play that thing? " he asked.
"Nobody knows how," Pyoro told him, "It's one of those artifacts from the colonial days. It was too heavy to move, so we left it here. Besides, it adds to the décor. How do you play with a piece of furniture?" he curiously asked.
The dining room banter went silent as soft piano music went through the room. Everyone turned their heads to see Ed at the keys, his glass of water sitting on the edge of the piano. The keys were a little dusty but manageable, though the pedals creaked as he pressed them. His fingers danced across the ebonies and ivories , making sounds no one had heard before . The music filled the room with a soft ambience that seemed to match the lighting. A hologram of a brass band appeared, and Ed changed tempo accordingly. Stopping to drink his water, he caught everyone staring at him.
"I've done it again, haven't I?"
"I had no idea this place was a ballroom of sorts. Maybe the colonists built this place to listen to those sounds, " Pyoro suggested.
"I like that sound, Ed! Maybe you could teach me sometime!" Hibiki beamed.
"It's all in here , if you know what I mean," Ed replied, knocking on his head lightly ."Besides, who are you trying to impress?" he winked.
Hibiki went red with embarrassment. "Well, I.um." he looked around at Dita, who looked blankly at him. Before someone could force him to answer, Hibiki ran out of the room, followed by Dita.
"That does sound comforting, in a way." Meia conceded, swallowing her food, as Jura joined the chase, yelling something about music being good for the womb.
"Did you play before? You sound pretty good, if I'm a judge of anything like this," Pyoro added.
"For a robot with two eyes and no ears, I'll take that as a compliment. But I think I'm getting some of my memory back. Things are triggering my old memories slowly, like Parfait told me. I only remember how to play 'cause of the cyber-memories stored in here. I have no idea why I learned or who taught me those years ago. I have no idea why I can do stuff like this," Ed moved his fingers from one end of the piano to the other, ending the crescendo with a deft two finger movement on the high keys.
"Maybe if you can spend more time in space, more things will come back to you."
"Not a bad idea, Not-a-commander-either."
"I've changed my mind about that." she smiled.
"Women," he and Bart said together.
The next day, the Dread pilots assembled once again for the next test- the Black Vanguard. Hibiki was relegated to the observation box with Gascgone and Meia, who sat at a console relaying data to Jura and Dita using a headset . The black Vanguard looked very similar to Hibiki' s , with its cylindrical arms and armored joints, as well as a sword for close combat. One difference he spotted was that it carried a shoulder cannon which Ed told him could detach to become a rifle. He had heard of the confrontation between Meia and Ed the day before and wondered what was going through Meia' s mind. Surely an ego like Ed's was no match. Then again, who was he to say? Before Ed, he was the only male pilot on board and took a lot of flak for it.
The pilots gave the all clear and the two Dreads burst out of the hangar. The Black Dread was now looking at its partner, positioned on a catapult for launch. The catapult threw the BV into open space, where its thrusters flamed to life. Each pilot reported their initial status and moved in formation. Hibiki perked up his ears to hear anything from Ed's unit, but all he heard from the cyborg' s channel was dead silence. Some might call it concentration, but Hibiki sensed that Meia gave him one stern talking to earlier, judging by her facial expression.
"Hibiki!" his voice filtered through.
"Yeah?" he answered.
"How do you combine with Jura and Dita? I'm having trouble adjusting wavelengths here- my legs are jerking back and forth!"
"I don't know," he stammered, "it just happens!" Meia frowned at Hibiki.
"Never mind, I've found the schematics. Begin countdown, Leader! Get ready, Jura!"
Meia pressed a button on her console and the number 5 appeared, counting down to one.
"Go!" she announced.
Jura' s red claw-like Dread dived towards the BV, which was thrusting upward to meet it. At the contact point, a panel opened and the upper torso of the BV attached itself firmly to the red Dread, spreading its arms and legs out wide. The 'claw' of the Dread enveloped itself around the Vanguard, red panels sliding over the black armor. Jura found that her wings were folding inward, linking with the BV's waist via joints. The cockpit area rotated ninety degrees upwards to form a chest while the nose slid over the BV's chest area , the BV's head popping above the cockpit area wearing a red helmet, derived from the cargo dock. The lower part of the wings moved in sync with the BV's legs which were stretched and widened to meet them, while on the upper area the wings became extensions of the arms, the fingers elongated by red phalanges. The end result was a red biped with two glowing eyes , each of its features enhanced with a component from each unit.
"Jura, Ed , report." Meia got on her headset.
"All clear, Leader." They both nodded.
"This isn't too bad, is it Jura?" Ed looked at a screen displaying their combined form.
"Not bad at all, Ed! Why, it's gorgeous!!!" she fawned. "Everything's in a shade of red! The shape, the body, everything's perfect! "
"Your favorite color, isn't it?" he grinned "
Jura nodded. Unlike Meia' s cockpit, she had a strange yellow orb in the middle of her control space, with Ed sitting on the other side facing her with the orb in between. His twin joysticks were still next to him, and he seemed to control the combination's movements with them. Jura wondered what her part was and pressed her orb. A display came up showing the hive-like Pegasus field around the Dreads, only with abnormal readings.
"What's this? I don't get this, Ed."
"Don't get what?"
"The meters say my shield is up- but I lowered it during combination. Leader, you copy that?"
"We see it, Jura. Dita, can you read anything?"
Dita nodded. "Yeah, I can see your shield is up too. But I don't see any Pegasus field around your Dread."
"Suggest you move around, Ed. Maybe the combination's warped the instruments."
"Roger, home base."
The combination went through the standard training procedures, going through barrel rolls and spins, with Dita following behind. The mechanics were responding really well, with the arms and legs showing a large range of movement. Neither Jura or Ed could find any weapons sans the BV's energy sword or the Red Dread's left wing, which had become a shield.
"The reading's still here. I wonder- what the hell???"
"Jura?" Gascgone' s voice rang out.
"Enemy approaching! It's a capital ship!"
Klaxons went on all over the Nirvana while Hibiki and Meia rushed to their mecha. Dita flew interference while Jura and Ed tried to fend off some early arrivals.
"Damn it ! Are there no guns on this rig?!" Ed howled, "Get our shields up, Jura!"
"I toldja, they're already up! And its taking hits fast! Whack those bogeys till Meia and Hibiki get here!"
The red hybrid darted through the enemy formation, nimbly making its way through Harvester fighters and bombers, moving with the grace of an angel and the anticipation of a seasoned boxer. Jura was loving every moment of it, her aesthetics at work again. She cooed in amazement as the phalanges sliced open a Harvester droid ship, extending like claws from the BV's elongated hands. Shots fired at them bounced off the Pegasus shield, though by reflex Ed kept the solid shield up. Hibiki linked up with Dita while Meia provided backup. Lasers crisscrossed the battlefield as the Harvesters' initial charge was repelled. Their formation reversed, with most of them doubling back towards the carrier.
"They're retreating! We won!" Dita exclaimed.
"NO!!! Get out of the way, Dita!" Hibiki screamed, dragging his control sticks all the way into a 180 turn.
"I've seen this before!! The capital ship is going to fire its main weapon!! Everyone, get out of its range!!!"
On the bridge, Boss Lady was yelling at Bart to get out of the cannon's way. Bart yelled back, saying that the capital ship was too close and that there was no way he could avoid it in time. BC put up the Nirvana's own Pegasus shields, but the first beam weakened it by eighty percent, a giant pillar of light that splashed all over the Nirvana. The impact hurled Bart to one side of the room, knocking him out cold.. BC called out his name and rushed to the helm room.
"Bart's unconscious! The ship can't move without him!" she gasped.
"Jura!! Ed!! Get out of the way!! You're in the way of the next salvo!!" Hibiki pierced the net.
Jura and Ed saw a blinding flash of light approach them, and before long it engulfed them in white flame. Dita and Meia were yelling their names while scrambling to avoid the blast themselves. The light from the impact flashed throughout nearby space as the bridge could only look on as their deathblow approached. It didn't. Somehow, it was all stopped at one point in front of the ship.
"We're blocking it!" Jura made herself heard over the tactical net, "I don't know how the hell we're doing it, but we blocked it!"
Meia began to notice a dome shape in front of the next energy beam, the trademark hive-network of Pegasus replaced with a smooth , red field. The red hybrid seemed to be generating it, its solid shield pointed at the capital ship. The beam was in fact being pushed back.
"Our shields are absorbing the power! But how can we attack that ship? I don't think we can hold out this long!" Jura barked over the net.
"Leave it to us!" Ed hollered. With a giant effort, he pushed the throttles forward, moving them further up the blast. The shield withstood the full brunt of the subsequent blasts, even spreading out to minimize impact. Dita and Hibiki cleaned out any approaching fighters while Meia attacked the capital ship from the rear, her cannons grazing the superstructure and blowing away gun emplacements.
"Leader, evacuate!" Ed yelled.
The Vandread was literally at the mouth of the capital ship, which was still firing away at Meia, who easily dodged the flak. The Harvester ship teed up one final blast, ignorant of the cork Ed and Jura were to put in their bottle. The resulting explosion created a ring of energy a mile wide around the ship as the remaining fighters were mopped up or ran away. The broken pieces of the ship littered nearby space, a mixture of organic and mechanic floating in a sea of defeat. Were space able to carry sound, Jura and Ed would have been deafened instantly by the explosion. The new Vandread and Meia' s Dread slowly limped towards base, the explosion shorting or knocking out several systems on both ships.
"Our first capital ship!" Boss Lady exclaimed.
"Your shield saved us , Jura!" Barnett was ecstatic.
"I've got a name for it, Ed. The Red .the Red, um.the Red Pineapple!"
"Pineapple? What the hell does a pineapple have to do with this Vandread?"
"I like red, and I like pineapples, mister!"
"You have two already!" he pointed at her chest.
"Let the hair pulling begin.." Hibiki groaned.
"How about Red Guardian?" Boss Lady suggested, " you sure guarded us all back there! A true Guardian ! Aka Majin- sama!"
"That's catchy too! The Red Guardian! The R-E-D, G-U-A-R-D-I-A-N !!!!Oh Ed, thank you for creating this beautiful creature with me!" she jumped towards him, hugging him tightly in his chair.
"Stop! Stop! It's not like we're having a baby! Get off me, pineapple woman!"
"Baby? So you make babies like this? Yahoo! Can I have your baby then too?"
"HELP!! Disengage, Vanguard! Hurry!" the Vanguard instantly broke off and sped towards the Nirvana.
"Somebody forgot to tell him about her chasing me all the time about that baby she wants. She doesn't even know how to get a baby." Hibiki nervously smiled.
"She doesn't know a lot of things.but one thing I do know," Meia sighed, " If she's gonna have a baby, there's no way in hell it's gonna be Ed's. Look at him run!"