Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread.
Vandread: The Unknown Soldier (Revised)
Chapter Thirty: Endgame, Part Two
Location: Bridge, E.D.A. Battlecruiser Indomitable
Gritting his teeth as his ship shuddered under yet another assault, Captain Gunter Argust cursed the enemy ship that had fired upon him. How dare another ship get in the way while he was moving to engage that dreaded silver Mejaelean ship. He ordered yet another volley of laser fire at the silver vessel, only to have it slam into the shield protecting it. As he was about to give another command, one of the bridge crewman interrupted him.
"Sir!" the crewman reported. "Engineering reports that the PN Device is now fully functional."
"Excellent," he replied with a hint of satisfaction. "Activate it as soon as its charged."
"Yes sir," the crewman replied.
The tables are about to turn…
As soon as the device was charged, the crewman activated it. He watched as the blue energy field expanded around his ship, engulfing everything within a several kilometer radius. It obviously had no effect on any Solaris-made vessel, but when it struck the Mejalean ship, it's shields began to flicker, then they died. It looked almost as if the ship was dead, for it stopped moving. It also had an adverse effect on those fighters and that one humanoid machine.
Grinning in satisfaction, he gave another order. "All forward batteries, lock on and prepare to fire on the Mejalean vessel. We are going to finish this."
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"The shields are down!" Belvedere shouted. "The ship's systems are also refusing to respond!"
"Damn, this isn't good," Magno Vivan said aloud. "If they fire while we're like this, we're finished."
"All Dread Teams, fall back to the Nirvana!" BC ordered. "You are to defend this ship at all cost!"
Magno gritted her teeth as she saw the massive Indomitable loom ever closer. Several weapon ports started to glow an eerie red. The Indomitable was charging it's weapons for the final coup de grace. It was only a matter of time, and time was not on their side at the moment.
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Being one of the two supporting Hawkins as they helped half-drag, half-carry him, Damon glanced back over his shoulder. Back where Aidan, Steiner, and that woman were. Aidan had had told him to take the rest of the team and get out of here, and he had handed Damon the disc, to make sure they completed at least that objective. Choosing to stay behind to recover that fighter for that woman was worth his life? Did something happen to him that he felt that was his obligation? He hoped Aidan made it out alive, so he could ask him those questions.
He glanced behind one more time, and Cameron noticed the pause. "Something wrong?"
"No," he replied after a second. "It's nothing."
They continued to trudge their way out of the facility, narrowly missing detection from the encroaching enemy. They continued their trek until they made it to the extraction zone. Marks went to work setting up the beacon, which would send out a signal of their location on a specific frequency their shuttle was monitoring. He knew there was a very slim chance that Aidan and Steiner would make it out alive, but there was a chance.
A few seconds later the shuttle received the signal, and took off to pick them up at the designated location. As the shuttle hovered to a landing, it created strong gusts of wind that Damon did not feel through his armor. After it touched down, he gestured for Cameron to help him get Hawkins aboard and to safety. Marks and Akida waited until they got on board before they moved up the ramp.
"What about the rest of them?" the pilot asked as soon as the rear ramp locked into position.
"They still have an objective complete," Damon replied. "They told to leave without them if they don't return in fifteen minutes. We will pull out of this area as soon as that time is up, or if the craft is threatened by an enemy attack."
"Understood," the pilot replied.
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Another burst of gunfire muted the sound of laser fire, and took a soldier high in the chest. The resulting fire blasted through him, eliciting a spray of blood from his back. The soldier fell heavily to the pavement as his weapon clattered against the ground. The response came back with a little more intensity, with several laser bolts searing the air above Aidan's head as he ducked back under cover. What made matters worse was that a second group of soldiers were going to cut them off from the rear. And these troops had heavy firepower.
"I've had enough of these damned sniping games," Steiner spat angrily. "We should just force our way into the hangar."
"I agree," Aidan replied as he cocked the grenade launcher slung underneath his rifle. "I'll go first, you two, follow right behind. Let's move!"
Before they could get moving, the first powered armor soldier rounded the corner and raised his weapon. Reacting on pure instinct, he thumbed the firing trigger for the grenade launcher, sending the high explosive warhead straight for the armored soldier. It caught him in the chest and exploded, shattering the armor, but not completely penetrating. Before the force of the explosion knocked him off his feet, Steiner finished the job with a single shot from his gauss rifle. It penetrated the shattered armor easily, tearing through the soldier inside.
Aidan then turned his attention to the soldiers in front of him, firing several bursts from his automatic rifle. His resulting fire killed two more lightly armored soldiers, and wounded another. The rest of them took cover from the mere ferocity of the attack. One way or another, he was determined to make it inside the hangar…
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That last attack left the bridge of the Dauntless in shambles, and a cut on his head, but Admiral Graff didn't even flinch from his duty. His duty was to make sure they came out on top, and these Earther-loving extremists were ground into nothing. He suddenly noticed that the Divine Will was preparing to let loose another attack. He only had a few seconds to act.
"Helmsman! Hard to starboard!" he commanded in an effort to get out of the line of fire.
The helmsman repeated the order as maneuvered the ship into a hard turn, narrowly avoiding a barrage of laser fire that might have killed the ship.
"Return fire!" he ordered. The Dauntless let loose another barrage from it's surviving laser cannons, tearing into the side of the of the Divine Will. The resulting attack tore into the aft section of the ship, melting away armor and letting air bleed out of the exposed sections of the ship. It's laser batteries started to charge for another attack, but powered down and never fired.
"Sir!" one of the crewmen said. "Confirming engine and weapons shutdown. The Divine Will is dead!"
That set off a cheer throughout the bridge, and Graff let it continue for a few seconds before interrupting it. "We are still under battle alert. I want all onboard assault teams prepared to go, we are taking back that ship."
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As a young woman named Seychelle pulled her Dread into a tight turn to avoid an attack from a pursuing fighter, she heard the Commander's voice over the commline, as well as saw her on the digital screen on her fighter's instrument panel.
"All Dread Teams! Fall back and protect the Nirvana at all costs!"
Seychelle was a veteran of the several battles against the Harvesters whenever she fought them over a year ago. She had seen her fair share of battle and had even seen friends and comrades wounded and killed by the enemy. She could not completely understand why these people would fight for people who were willing to take away their body parts for their own selfish needs. Still, if these people sided with the Harvesters, they were the enemy, and you must defeat the enemy.
As she turned to fall back on the Nirvana, a laser blast grazed the side of her ship, shaking it violently. She was thrown violently around the cockpit, and she felt the slick wetness of blood run down her face as she hit her head. A wave of unconsciousness threatened to take her over, but she fought against it. She franticly checked the damage to her Dread. Her control thrusters had taken some damage, and she couldn't get the fighter to turn left. She figured she was going to die if didn't receive medical attention, and she couldn't stay still, so she turned her Dread to the right, breaking formation with the rest of them. She was going to stop that ship, or die trying.
"Seychelle!" Barnette, her Team Leader, yelled. "What are you doing? Get back into formation!"
"Sorry," she replied softly as she shut off her comm system. She gripped the controls, and kicked the fighter into over-thrust, sending on a straight bee-line for the massive enemy battle cruiser. She struggled to keep her fighter straight, despite the damage to the control system. She rapidly approached the warship, until it filled up her entire view. I'm going to finish this…
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Captain Argust watched with feral satisfaction as he was about to deliver the death blow to that cursed Mejalean ship. He knew he'd be praised for the destruction of that ship, praised as the one who had destroyed Earth's greatest enemy. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a damaged enemy fighter was on a direct course for this ship. He gave it no mind. What was a damaged fighter to an Invincible Class battle cruiser? But the fighter started to grow bigger in view, and it was headed straight for the bridge of this ship. His eyes widened in horror as he realized what that insane pilot was going to do.
"All guns, shoot down that damn fighter! Do it now!" he yelled in panic. His order came to late, for the fighter was too close for the Indomitable's weapons. "Aww, shit…"
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The Dread slammed into the bridge of the Indomitable, seconds later exploding, vaporizing the entire crew that was present on the bridge. It basically removed the 'head' from the ship, leaving it defenseless for a short period of time. Magno Vivan watched in grim fascination as further explosions tore through the bridge of the once mighty vessel. But the cost of destroying that ship was too high, in her opinion. The death of a good pilot, one of her best. Without warning the power onboard the Nirvana came back online.
"The systems just powered back up!" Belevedere reported.
"We have power back to the shields," Amarone stated.
"Bart!" Magno yelled as Bart jumped back into the helm.
"Take this, you bastards!" Bart yelled as he acquired a lock-on to the now crippled ship. The numerous cannon lining the Nirvana's body let loose their hellish fire, all predominately aiming for the battle cruiser. The weapon surprised many an SDF pilot, as the beams curved around them, only tearing into the enemy craft, then converging on the Indomitable.
With ferocity, the beams tore and gouged into the armor all over the ship. A few seconds later, the ship's massive fusion reactor cascaded, engulfing the entire vessel in a massive blue-white fireball. Another E.D.A. ship was crippled because it was too close to the massive warship when it exploded. The entire crew on the bridge let out a cheer of excitement as they witnessed the incredible death of the warship.
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Corporal Daniel Harwell motioned for the prisoners to get moving. Most of the crew of the Divine Will that they had taken alive were dejected, but held themselves up in defiance of their captors. He motioned with the business-end of his rifle for them to keep moving. Suddenly one of the captives shoved one of their captors out of the way, then drew a gun he had hidden somewhere on his person. He had no time to mess with this man, so he took aim with his rifle and fired. The bullet took the man in the head, knocking him back against the wall, spattering his blood all over that same wall.
"Anyone else wanna play hero?" he asked with grim sarcasm, leveling his rifle at the prisoners.
Silence was the only reply. "Thought so…"
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"Get down!" Aidan yelled as he shoved Meia out of the way. The laser bolt that was intended for her took him in the left shoulder, knocking him off-balance. She got back up, and helped Aidan to his feet. She looked back over to see the person who fired at them crash to the ground, a victim of Steiner's gauss fire. They didn't have much time to act, for the enemy was getting bolder by the second.
"Are you alright?" she said loud enough for him to hear over the gunfire.
"Yeah," he replied. "But my damn arm's locked up. I can't move it."
"You two!" Steiner called. "Go on! I'll hold them off!"
Aidan nodded, then tossed Steiner his gauss rifle, which she had noticed that Aidan had never even used this entire time. He then said something that she made very little sense of, but Steiner seemed to understand. "Steiner! Es wird eine Ehrenumhüllung Ihnen gewesen." It's been an honor serving with you.
"Selben hier," Steiner replied. Same here.
With that little exchange, they basically left, with Aidan and her moving into the hangar under Steiner's cover fire. She knew with grim certainty that Steiner would be overwhelmed, and eventually killed. Aidan apparently knew it too.
"What'd you say to him?" she asked Aidan.
"I'll tell you later," he replied. "Right now, we have a job to do."
"Right," she replied. She looked around, and noticed her Dread resting in a gantry. From the looks of it, they had fully repaired it. At least they did something useful.
Using his free hand, Aidan drew his handgun and gunned down a couple of men who attempted to fire on them It took them only a few seconds to make to the foot of the gantry upon which her Dread sat. She then realized something.
"I can't pilot my Dread while wearing this."
"Well, then take it off!" Aidan said bluntly. She could tell by the tone of his voice that he was not trying to be rude, as they were in a stressful situation. "I'll cover you."
"Alright," she replied as she handed him her rifle. She then unhooked and took of her helmet. Dropping to the ground, she tapped the stud on her suit's arm that would unlock it and allow her to egress. Meanwhile, Aidan was using her rifle one-handed, firing on anyone that was foolish to attempt to fire on them.
After she exited the armor, all she had on was the sensor suit. Aidan started to take off his, as well. His was a little more problematic, as his suit's left arm was damaged. After he managed to struggle out of his armor, he moved over to her. It was then she realized something else.
"What about you?" she asked. "You're coming with me."
"Sorry," he replied. "But I'm not."
"Why not?" she asked.
"Because there is something that I have to do," he replied. "And besides, I can't fit into your fighter."
"But I can't just leave y-" she found herself interrupted by Aidan embracing her and kissing her on the lips. At first, she was surprised, and she almost forgot to breathe. A feeling washed over her that she had never felt before, and her heart felt like it had skipped a beat. They remained like that for several seconds, before Aidan released, and motioned her to her Dread.
"Now get going," he commanded. "And don't worry, I'll find another way out. I promise."
"You better keep that promise," was the only thing she could manage to say as she made her way up to her Dread. She climbed into her cockpit, and activated her Dread. As the canopy closed, she took one last look down at him. She activated the Dread's thrusters, and broke free of the gantry. Blasting free of the hangar, she flew right over the troops who were advancing on the hangar.
After she had broken free of the atmosphere, she had noticed that there had been a massive space battle up here. It was then that she noticed the Nirvana. She keyed her comm system on the frequency used by them. "This is Meia.'
"Meia?" an astonished voice came over the commline. She recognized it as the Captain's voice. "Where the hell have you been?"
"It's a long story, I'll tell you later," she replied. After she broke the connection, she touched her lips with the tips of her fingers. What was this feeling? Could it be that she actually was in love with him? For one, she hoped that he made it out alive, so she could figure out exactly what these feelings mean.
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Aidan watched as Meia's Dread managed to blast free of the hangar, and escape into the sky. He knew that he had accomplished that objective. Now he had something else to do. He walked over to his armor and reached underneath the left forearm. He grabbed hold of what appeared to be a lever, gave it a simple twist, and pulled it free of the suit. He then picked up the pulse laser rifle that Meia had been using, and proceeded to look around for something to escape in. There! He noticed what appeared to be a Striker standing in a gantry, several meters to his right.
Without a second thought, he ran over to it. He quickly climbed the gantry and climbed into the open cockpit. Once he was in the seat, he shot and sealed the cockpit hatch. He tossed the rifle into the small space back behind the seat, and started to bring the machine online. Even after starting it up, he couldn't manage to get it to move. He looked around to see if he could find something to bring this thing completely online. He noticed the compartment where one would store the pilot suit.
Inside, he noticed that there was a pilot suit in there. Maybe it'll work if I put this on. After a few seconds of struggling, he managed to change out of his sensor suit and into the pilot suit. He turned around and grabbed the helmet off the rack up behind his head. After he got the helmet in place, he tried starting it up again. Once he got the thing started, a computerized female voice spoke up.
"Brainwave Pattern Synchronization Complete. Neural Interface System has been activated. Releasing Weapon and Actuator Controls to Pilot."
"What the hell…" he muttered. "That isn't normal."
Once he freed himself from the gantry, his machine started to take fire from the powered armor soldiers that made it into the hangar. He looked around for a weapon control, and noticed a weapon labeled, 'Close-Combat Automatic Weapon'. He brought the weapon online, turned the machine's head, and fired.
A stream of armor-piercing shells tracked up and into the enemy soldier, literally cutting him in half. Another one attempted to climb the machine's left leg, and he just kicked it off and into the gantry. Time to get outta here.
He kicked the thrusters of the machine into high-gear and managed to exit the hangar. Once clear of the hangar, he grabbed hold of the detonator, and pressed the stud. A chain-linked series of explosions tore through the facility, until nothing was left bur a massive pile of rubble.
"Now," he said as he used the powerful backpack thrusters of his machine to launch himself into the air. "Time to keep my promise."
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I would have had this up Friday, but unfortunately the site wasn't letting me upload the dang thing. Expect the Epilogue sometime this week. Feedback is appreciated.