Chapter 13: The Restoration of Conflict
B.C. quickly uses the intercom system to call over to the pilots in the hangar. " The enemy is mobilizing, all pilots head out and intercept the enemy force!"
Hibiki smirks as he sees the hatches of the ship open and says to himself, " At last partner, we get another chance to fight together. Let's make it interesting." After that short moment with him and his Vanguard he launches his machine with a scream, " COME AT ME FURBALLS!"
Seeing Hibiki launch off in his usual brash and thoughtless manner the others quickly attempt to catch up to him as Alexei radios over to Renz during launch.
" Hey Renz… have you ever piloted a Vanguard in outer space?" Renz pauses and radios back, " Well umm, no… no, not really. But hell, Hibiki could pull it off so it should be easy." Alexei laughs slightly and grins, " Alright, but I swear if we all blow up and crash I'm blaming Jura."
With that both men laugh heartily as Renz nods his head wiping a tear of amusement from his eye as he responds, " Alright, focus we'll be encountering the enemy in seconds, stay sharp." Alexei nods as he ends the communication and focuses as he soon sees a terrible site.
" What the hell is that?" exclaims the astonished pilot as the bridge crew receives pictures of what Alexei is seeing shortly after his question.
Ezra turns in wonderment towards B.C. " What in the world is going on? You think they are trying to bait us?"
B.C. shakes his head and just watches the image, " I don't know, why on Earth did all the fighters stop moving. And… wait, now they're glowing." Bart squints as he gets a distance check on them and hollers up to B.C., " Hey B.C.! You want me to fire off the cannons? They're barely in range and it'll be a good way to feel out why the hell they stopped."
B.C. stalls slightly and looks over to Magno. " Captain, do you think it wise to possibly play into their trap?" Magno's eyes taper slightly as she nods, " Bart! Fire the damn cannons now!" Bart grins widely and pushes a few buttons, " ALRIGHT!"
And with that a huge cannonade is fired off from the ship as the awaiting fighters don't move an inch and appear to take a direct hit.
The pilots look on wide eyed in amazement unable to fathom why the hell anyone, or anything would just sit by and take the full effect of the Nirvana's cannons. As the smoke clears, the pilots now have a new reason to be amazed.
" Okay… now someone tell me what the hell those are!" shouts Hibiki. " There were like dozens and now they're just two giant spheres of light." Shortly after saying that the light now forms into something they didn't want to see.
Alexei then updates Hibiki's shortsighted statement, " Nope, not light, now they have formed into what appears to be two very large, and umm, disgusting and menacing and well… damn you figure out more descriptive words. All I know is that it's freakin scary and I think we need to shoot at it more! Much more… like… umm, how much more can we fire?"
Everyone stands silent unaware of what the hell to say as they find themselves staring down two very large and very deadly looking monstrosities. They no longer seem mechanical, now they look very biological. They also appear to look like some sort of mythical animals, a part bionic and part organic lizard of space. The only way of distinguishing between the two of them is that one is bright yellow and the other is a very dark green.
Before anyone can speak or give an order the two monsters eyes glow an ominous deep red as a sudden shock is sent to the Nirvana's systems. Along with affecting the computer system it also sent a slight shock to all of the crews nervous systems.
" What is going on?" B.C. yells as he slumps down to a knee and looks around in confusion.
" All systems on the fritz Commander, we need to shut down the system!" Ezra screams as Parfait then radios up to the bridge. " The Peksis is going haywire! We need to shut down to give the system a break. And along with the problems with the system all of us are experiencing what feels like sudden sharp pains in our bodies. Nothing major though, just enough to slow us down and cause very sharp cramps. Oh and I almost forgot, Pyoro has totally shut down. After the surge to the system his entire screen went black and he's just laying in the corner."
" Alright Parfait, looks like we have no choice but to restart…" B.C. grits his teeth as he stands up and turns to Magno who is clutching her chest with her eyes bulging out of her sockets slightly, " Captain, are you okay? You want me to call Duelo or Paiway up to the bridge?"
Magno looks at B.C. and smirks weakly, " Well… looks like this will be the end. I… I've been fighting… this too long. It finally beat me…"
Ezra, B.C. and the rest of the bridge crew all gawk at their struggling Captain as she smiles in a subtle yet reassuring way as to tell them not to worry, " It's okay… just… beat them…"
With those last few words Magno's life ends in a slow but not very painful way. Her body slowly slides back in the chair, her eyes close and her always-present smirk still lingers upon her face even in death. The great Captain Magno of the small group of space pirates is now no more. As a consequence of the weakened state of the ship and almost as if the monsters knew Magno was going to die they now mount a furiously quick and damaging attack towards the ship.
Without a chance to react to Magno's passing or inform any other crewmembers B.C. needs to try and assume command in this situation. Yet, right before B.C. can give any orders the two creatures open their mouths and send two beams of energy hurling towards the already battle worn Nirvana.
The shear velocity of the beams is enough to send the pilots flying backwards in a violent tailspin away from the Nirvana and the line of attack as the pilots try to regain control of their ships, unable to watch what could be the last few seconds of existence for the legendary ship Nirvana.
Bart screams right before the impact, " We're all gonna die!" With that the two cannon beams hit the ship dead on and since it's shields were only at about 40 percent due to the fact that the system is currently haywire. The Nirvana is now dead in the water, all systems are down, the shields are destroyed, and the entire body of the ship is blackened and charred.
The crew within is strewn about Magno's corpse is flung from the Captain's chair and landing upside down against a wall seemingly with her neck now broken. B.C. took a dive head first into the control panel causing a pretty deep head wound and knocking him unconscious for the moment being. Ezra was thrown about in her chair, her faced bounced off the control panel as she now lays unconscious with half of her body over the arm of the chair and as are many of the others Bart too is unconscious within the control area.
Elsewhere in the ship Parfait hits her head on a piece of machinery in the main control room with the Peksis knocking her unconscious as well. Gascogne is sent flying across the kitchen area smashing into the counters and hitting random objects before finally falling down with what appears to be a broken leg and a fractured left arm. As for Duelo and Paiway, they were thrown about in the medical lab ending up on the floor and quite injured but still barely conscious.
" Paiway… are you alright?" Duelo manages to inquire as he crawls back up to his feet leaning fuzzily over the bed to the other side of the room where the poor young girl is laying.
Paiway looks up dazed as she holds the back of her head with her right hand and holds her cut shoulder with her left hand. " I'm… not dead, does that count for anything?" Duelo smirks slightly as he looks around. " The ship's system is very dead though… we need to check on the others" he says letting out a groan of pain as he looks about trying to find something to walk with.
Paiway looks up and says in a very wistful way, " I hope they are alright out there. I don't think we expected this…"
While all of that was going on the pilots were being tossed around in their fighting units, but not by enemy attacks, but still attempting to regain control of their partners from the shockwave of the two cannon blasts.
Hibiki and Renz are the first two to regain control as they both see what happened to the Nirvana. So in response they both open all communication channels between the pilots and the Nirvana.
" The Nirvana's been decimated! Another hit and it's gone! It's barely still together!" both frantic pilots scream as their anger starts overwhelming their judgment. As the other pilots receive this stereo message they all gaze upon the wreck of a ship that they call home and stare off speechless and unable to get through to the ship.
" No! Why aren't they answering?" cries Dita as Jukkai tries to calm her down. " Dita, damage like that probably shorted out the system. So all we have to do is defeat those two things there and head back to the ship. I'm sure everything is fine…" As soon as he says that he looks over at the two other Vanguards of Hibiki and Renz and notices that the suits themselves are twitching a bit.
" Guys…" Before he can continue Renz cuts him off, " Hey Hibiki… let's go teach those two ugly pieces of after birth who the hell is the boss." Hibiki laughs a little, " I'm with you Renz the Nirvana has been more of a home to me then my real home. There's no way I'm letting those bastards take it away from me!" Fueled by anger the two Vanguard pilots charge ahead towards the two monstrosities as the others gaze in fear and shock.
" No! Don't charge ahead!" screams Barnette as Jura's eyes narrow and she hits the thrusters on her Dread and joins the attacks, " There's no way I'm letting you two men take all the glory!" as she bolts off towards the new battle area Meia stays quiet for a moment and then speaks.
" Dita, let's get going. Maybe charging ahead isn't the smartest move, but I do not wish to just float around motionless becoming an easy target for those freaks. So, join me if you'd like." Meia hits the thrusters heading towards the two monsters as Dita starts crying a bit before speaking.
" No matter what happens, I want to try and protect my friends. I'm going…" Dita heads off shortly followed by Jukkai as Barnette sighs and stares at her controls and mumbles to herself, " Well, if it is to end now… at least there won't be anyone to mourn us, cause they'll all be dead within moments of our failure. Such a pitiful outcome… I won't let it come to that!" Barnette stares out her window with tears in her eyes as she hurries to catch up to the others who are all nearly at the battlefield.
The two creatures were about to begin a direct assault on the Nirvana until they see the last line of defense quickly approaching them. " Foolish humans, we will put them out of their foolish misery." With that the yellow one sends out a quick volley of energy darts towards the oncoming enemies as the pilots dodge the energy darts with laser like precision getting a rather surprised reaction out of the beasts.
" Well seems like this group is feistier then the last batch." Says the yellow one in near awe as the green one's face contorts into a hideous and haunting sneer as he then speaks. " More skilled, feistier, or just luckier… it matters not. We will feast upon their blood just as we did the ones before. So calm down and just prepare to dine."
Renz and Hibiki enraged and driven unsheathe the new dual swords that were added to the Vanguards and rush towards the two creatures. Throwing caution to the wind, and doing nothing more then trusting their own skill and their hate driven power the two Vanguard pilots poise the swords to attack and ready their strikes.
The battle for self-preservation begins once again, this time the enemy is much more powerful and a large bit more gruesome. Who will prevail? Will Magno's death even matter, or will it just be marked off as beating the others to the inevitable?
To Be Continued…