Good news, I was able to get this one done in a short amount of time. I do hope people will respond and let me know if they want to keep going with multiple people's view points, a general one were you know most of the time what a person is thinking (if it is relevant to the scene or the like), or if you want me to only follow Shirou's views.
Disclaimer: I don't own Fate/Stay Night or Vandread.
*Story Start*
Chapter 02: Enemies...?
Shirou was dreaming. Of that he was sure. All around him were copies of himself, countless copies; some shorter, some taller, others older and many his own age or younger. He wasn't sure how he knew, but each and every one of them was a different version of himself and yet the same at once. Shirou knew that each and every one of them was him from a different world. However there was one version of him that stood on a pedestal, and his instincts told him that he HAD to reach it.
Trying to push his way through felt like moving through molasses. Each version tried to reach the pillar in the center while pushing all the others away.
"Just a bit more... One hand further..." Shirou, this Shirou spoke softly as if trying to make his words reality "No, even if my arms were longer... I still need to reach... THEM!""
As he neared the base of the pedestal, everything vanished and changed. He stood in a cavern while crystal stalagmites forced their way out of the ground surrounding him.
There were four.
Each had the silhouette of one of the four women he had recently encountered. Though their faces were covered by the darkest shadow Shirou had ever seen and their eyes all glowed with some strange hunger.
"Don't get in my way!" The red headed man yelled and tried to squeeze between the crystals while reaching for where the top of the pedestal had been. Pulling himself free, Shirou looked as instead of himself, there was a green glowing thing in his place and two oddly shaped cones hurtled at him before replacing everything with a bright flash as the vestige of some giant destroyed the missiles.
*scene break*
"This doesn't look like the afterlife..." Mango Vivian spoke in surprise. She had feared the worst when the Tarak men had sent two Muramasa class missiles to strike the old section of the ship, which they had abandoned with some of their own crew still on, in the middle of a battle and the Female Pirates. But it seemed that luck was with her and her crew of 150 women. "So what happened?"
"I'll check right now." One of the bridge crew replied but had no time as as the ship began to shake.
Outside in space, a strange crystalline growth formed between the Women's Pirate Ship and the discarded section of the Ikazuchi. Both ships pulled closer together while another section of crystal formed from the center of the fusion and branched outward and forward, like arms or wings. Debris from around the ships pulled to fit places they hadn't been before as they melded into this new design.
"Is the crystal trying to eat the ship?" Was the most reasonable thing Vivian could think of as to what was happening. Activating the comnetwork for the ship she spoke again. "Gascogne, can you cut us off?"
"Not with the laser cutters." A well muscled woman appeared on a view screen that hung a few feet in the air from Vivian, she was the head of the 'Reg System' that helped to keep up moral and keep the Pirate's fighters, Dreads, supplied in battle. Gascogne Rheingau was wearing a yellow shirt and an open black vest on top with metal plates on the shoulders, dark red overalls completed her outfit. Her black hair pulled back into a short ponytail while a metal headband about an inch wide ran across her brow, two long locks ran down the front of her head framing face with one on each side ending at her collarbone. She stopped chewing on the end of a long thin piece of steel as she spoke. "If we don't hurry, this place'll get swallowed up, too."
Another screen popped up showing the pirate's First Mate, Buzom A. Calessa or more commonly call BC by the crew. BC was one of the few women on the ship that had tanned skin, which was off set by her silver hair and an emerald on her forehead emphasized green eyes. She wore a short sleeveless green shirt that just covered her ample breasts while very baggy pants covered her entire legs, while a gray green choker with a bright emerald in it covered her neck as two more gray green bracers covered her upper arms. Three gold bracelets on each wrist completed her ensemble. "The corrosion has spread throughout the ship."
"The engine's dead, too. It won't move." A mousey looking girl by the name of Parfet Balblair, the head engineer, showed up on third screen. She hit most of her figure with bright orange overalls, long brown hair tied into two large braids hung from the back of her head almost reaching her elbows. Large, thick glasses hide her eyes while what looked almost like headphones covered her left ear.
"So we have to remove it from the source. I'm going up. BC! Parfet! Come with me!" the captain decided.
"Roger!" the two replied in unison.
*Scene Break*
Meia slowly regained consciousness feeling a bit sore. she took in her surroundings with a careful eye. The chamber was almost like it was before the explosion, but now it was covered in crystal along every wall and pylon.
"Jura... Barnette... Dita..." The Dread Leader called out to her friends. "Everyone alright?"
"...Yeah" they each gave except for the auburn girl.
"Over here..." Dita replied, the girl sound exhausted. "Something went beep and then whoosh! Alien power is Amazing."
"Meia, are you there?" The captains voice came over the communicator on her hip.
"Yes, captain. We're all accounted for. Though there is one additional man with us.
"Good. I'll be joining you shortly." Mango informed the Dread leader before signing off.
A few minutes later, Meia watched as her commander, the Pirate Captain Vivan Mango walked into the gigantic chamber holding the large power core, the Paksis Pragma. Vivian Mango was an old woman by anyone's standard at over one hundred years old. What looked almost like a black ceremonial garb hung down from her shoulders covering her entire body, green and purple shalls hung from around her neck while she steadied herself with a strong wooden cane that was bulbous at the top for easier grip. Even though she was slightly hunched over from age, she still stood as tall and proud as she could, one of the things that had always amazed Meia.
With the captain was the first mate, the head engineer and a handful of guards, each dressed in matching uniforms of white green and black.
"Well, this is amazing." The captain spoke as she entered the chamber looking about.
"I'm sorry, captain. Making you come all way up here..." Meia began.
"You don't need to apologize. I just wanted to see it with my own eyes."
Leading the older woman to an unconscious man Meia spoke again. "This is the man that Dita was chasing."
"It's been awhile since I last saw a man in person, but did their faces always look this silly?"
*scene break*
Waking to the sight of strange man a few inches from his face, Shirou tried to leap away but only succeeded in slamming the back of his head into a wall. "Ow... huh? Man where did I end up now? A prison cell... maybe."
Looking around, Shirou was in some sort of storage room with dusty boxes and a few other miscellaneous things. Though no storage room Shirou had ever seen had energy bars running from the ceiling to the floor. The room had six cells in total with three on each side, all the others were empty of people but not boxes or other things that had been stored.
"Looks like you came to." The voice of the man with slightly tanned skin spoke. Long black hair ran halfway down his back and covered the right half of his face while a like blue eye shown out his left eye. A dark blue low cut v neck shirt showed off a portion of his chest, matched by a set of long pants while a long cream colored trench coat with purple around the neck and just above the heart and a large red X just underneath the left breast.
"Who..." I started before he continued.
"Duero McFile, a doctor. Do you have a name, Mr. Third Class Citizen?"
Third class? What could that be? I thought, though I only told him part of what I remembered. "I couldn't tell you. All I remember is an explosion, then waking up with some crazy woman chasing me around and saying something about 'Aliens'."
"A woman you say. And you don't remember interrupting the opening ceremony? he replied sounding intrigued. "You snuck onto this ship, the Ikazuchi. And when the Bangattas were revealed, you had climbed halfway up one of them. At that point you evaded the guards for almost a minute before being tackled to the ground. And you really don't remember any of that?"
"You can question me all you like, but I can't tell you anything that I don't remember." I replied getting a little annoyed.
An egg shaped device started making weird sounds and interrupting out conversations, it was slightly larger than a persons head with screen covering one side and some buttons just below that. *beep**beep* "Hmm... Pyoro! Hm where is this? Who am I?" Two large eyes formed on the screen as it too began looking around.
"Great, it's catching." a sarcastic remark left my lips.
A woman with long silver hair and a green outfit entered with four more women in white green and black following her lead.
"What do you plan to do by sticking us in here?" I asked trying not to sound overly bothered.
"This is the safest place, considering the situation. Come with me. We want to ask you a few things first." The one in green ordered while the others all pointed a ring with a lens at us.
*Scene break*
"Wow. We're now connected from the inside too." A tech told Parfet over the ship intercom.
"Sheesh, I didn't think the Paksis had such amazing energy. Seems to be just like I thought. We're now linked down to our core area..." The mousy girl spoke to herself. To everyone else though "Search for a route! Insert Linestar Particles into the main cable over there! Just make it so that we can control this thing!"
Parfet then looked up at the Paksis Pragma as she tried to figure out any secrets that she could.
*Scene break*
They put some kind of handcuffs with laser beams in the center pulling the hands together. As they led Duero and myself, I noticed that the hallways and rooms that I could see into had ice like crystal covering much and running from the ceiling to floor. The entire time there was a smell of something, it took my mind to come up with what it reminded me of and all I could say was that it smelled like warmth. Not the feeling of being warm, but what warmth would be if it was a smell. It was everywhere and the only thing that I could come up with giving off the smell was the crystals.
Eventually they lead us into a small room with a bench in the center that could seat three or four comfortably, indicating that Duero and myself should sit. After waiting for about twenty minutes another woman with blue hair walked in wearing a white and black body suit. I had seen this one before but not her male prisoner. The new guy had what I could only call a cadet uniform. It was brown on the outside with red lapells, a brown cap topped his short blonde hair. He looked almost completely scared about what was happening and he gave off an aura of being a wimp.
"What, another one?" The silver haired woman asked, though almost making it sound like a statement.
"Yes. he was hiding inside a statue." the bluette replied.
"Oh, comrades. I'm glad to see you." spoke the new man, though he was pushed over to the bench to join us before he could say anymore.
Luckily we didn't have to wait much longer as an old woman entered. She looked well into her late years though she carried herself with true presence those years had granted her.
"Oh my. I came here to see the prisoners, but their all kids!" the old woman spoke.
"Hey! Hey! Interrogation time! I'll tell you everything!" the small robot announced as it hopped over to the elderly woman.
"Oh, how nostalgic. A Navi-Robot. There's still a functioning one, I see."
"What do you mean?" Duero asked.
"This is a man's ship!" the wimp interrupted the doctor.
"But it was a colonization ship before that. Oh, you didn't know anything, do you?" She smirking as she began her tale. "This was one of the many ships that left a planet called Earth." 'No! No no no. Zelretch! Where did you send me to NOW!'
"Of course, that was before this part of the ship was cut off." Continued the old woman, not noticing how I tried to conceal my anger at the Wizard Marshal. "Your cowardly grandfathers took it from us and fled."
"They overhauled an old battleship with residential quarters." the Navi-robot added.
"And we are now unexpectedly back on that same battleship. We'll take the ship, since it's our business, but the problem is what to do with all of you." Finished the pirate leader.
"Let's get rid of them. The situation is unstable enough." Her subordinate with blue hair suggested.
"No need to rush. We'll carefully consider how we want to cook them up." Threatened, licking her lips as she gazed at us. Drawing an 'Eep' from the blonde.
I blinked twice before breaking out into laughter. Everyone began to stare at me with strange looks. "Wait. Wait wait wait. Sorry had to catch my breath for moment. Really, you expect us to believe that. Everyone know that women don't really eat people." Well not counting Alice and her ENTIRE race.
Everyone continued to stare at me as if I had said something very, very, very weird. 'Ok, I think I am missing something very important.'
"You don't remember the films from Tarak... do you?" Duero asked me with a slight bit of concern and curiosity.
"Women are from Mejele! They are monsters that eat men's innards! The eternal enemy of us men from Tarak!" The blonde male informed everyone as if recalling it from memory. "They use us and then suck us dry of life! They repeatedly pillage and destroy everything in their path. They even forced us into hard labor to oppress us. It's only thanks to the Leadership of Lord Grand-Pa that we have fought them off as we have, and they won't stop until we defeat their leader, Grand-Ma!"
It took me a moment to process what he said, I looked around the room at each of the women that had captured us to see how truthful his statement had been. If this was how the world truly was, then it was unbelievable but then again... then again... to deny what the old woman might have threatened us with and the certainty in the fops voice...
I could only come to one conclusion. "That's a load of crap! How could there be any civilization without men and women!"
The leader of the pirates gave me a sharp look as if trying to figure out exactly what I was talking about and how I came to this conclusion. The woman with silver hair considered me just as sharply but more like 'how to put down something that is obviously insane'.
"Are you sure you don't have any brain damage from when they attacked the ship or when the missiles exploded?" The doctor questioned me as he tried to give me a diagnosis on the spot.
"So that long haired one is a doctor, and the short one..." The captain started talking to the woman in green and the one in white with blue hair.
"...is an attacker. I saw him climb into an enemy powered suit. Though I don't know if he is trying some ploy to lower our guard." Meia finished for her commander.
"I see..." replied Mango.
"Something is approaching us!" A voice came from the communicator on BC's hip.
"...Male reinforcements?" the First mate asked.
"Actually...""It's a UFO!" a second voice interrupted the first, and Shirou recognized it from when he first woke up in the crazy world.
*scene break*
"Oh no, none of them match." Ezra exclaimed in as close to panic that Dita had ever heard the woman as she compared the constellation they could see now with the ones loaded into Ezra's handheld telescope that was shaped like a sphere. "I don't understand."
"You don't understand? It's an amazing thing to come across and alien!" Dita chirped as the two leaned against a rail in the Pirate Ship's Bio-Park.
"We thought that the Paksis was just an energy source, but it revamped the entire ship!" Erza was a kind woman, soft brown hair that hung down to her waist with a yellow bow on top. A bright smile always graced her face while her black eyes were almost lidded shut. She was garbed in a gentle looking dress made of dark and like green colors with a yellow bow around her waist and a short red tie hung loosely around her neck.
"Revamped, huh?" Dita sighed in amazement. "If I get abducted..."
With a sigh, Ezra lower the electronic looking glass.
"Ezra, what's wrong? A fever?" the auburn girl asked her friend with a little concern.
"I was just remembering everyone..." Ezra replied.
"That's true... We left behind all our veterans at the base."
"I hope we get to go back soon."
"AH! There! There!" Dita pointed as she saw something glint off in the distance of space.
"What?"
"Over there!"
"Where?" Ezra questioned as she looked again through the telescope. "Oh no, what is that?"
"It has to be a UFO, of course!" Dita gushed as she watched the three things get closer.
Erza pick up her comm-unit and tried to reach the First Mate. "Something is approaching us!"
*Scene Break*
The things in space had begun firing on the stranded ships as they relayed coordinates to their own ship.
"They've commenced attack!" the first voice reported over the comm-unit as Meia listened in from next to the captain.
"The Aliens are upset!" Dita commented as well.
"What is it now?" The strange man asked to himself out loud. Meia had fought men and women before but this one seem off in many ways to the Dread leader. It wasn't just that he had laughed off the rumors that the Tarak government feed it's people, though that had nearly startled a noticeable reaction for her. But instead, it was the surety that he had spoken with that unhinged her.
With another shake of the ship from the attack, Meia made a quick decision. "Dreads are going out."
"Parfet, can we move?" she heard BC ask through the communicator as she turned hers to listen in on the general channel.
"It's impossible! I can't control it! The only thing that's barely operating is the auto-defense!" Parfet retorted.
The ship continued to rock from enemy attacks. "Barnette, where are you?" Meia demanded as she ran toward the last location of her Dread.
"Paiway's locked me in, and I can't get out!" the woman called back, almost sounding in tears as water from a shower ran in the background.
"None of you are allowed out until all the nasty male germs are gone!" Paiway, the young and only nurse aboard the ship could be heard over Barnette's com.
"Ms. Gasco, what about you?"
"The Dreads have been swallowed up by the Paksis. Sorry, but we won't be able to provide support." The Head Supplier sighed before half yelling into the com-unit "And it's not Gasco. It's GASCOGNE!"
"Jura! Dita! Where are you?" Meia called to her wing-mates, hoping that she would have to fight alone.
"I'm heading to our ships now!" Jura's voice replied.
Meia arrived a moment later and saw why both women had stopped in their tracks just outside where the dreads had been left since the explosion. All four had changed dramatically. The Dreads were almost twice as large as before, stronger and each changed in their own ways.
Meia's silver Dread had thinned out and elongated it general shape, looking faster and sleeker with large twin engines in the back ready to propel it forward. The wings that had been to the side of the cockpit before, were now raised upward and behind where Meia sat. Her entire ship seemed to emphasize speed and maneuverability.
The red dread that belonged to Jura had thinned out even further than Meia's. The wings curved along the entire length of the dread and almost meeting in front while the space in between the wings was open with the exception of her cockpit at the point were the wings met at the base. Both engines where behind the cockpit where the wings met.
Dita's blue dread was the largest as it had grown more armor than Meia and Jura's dreads combined. The overall design of the ship was like a large V, with the engines on the wings while crystal like protrusion reached from the engines to the back of the ship.
A fourth dread was left unattended as it sat and waited for it's pilot. Barnette's purple ship had changed much like Jura's in shape, but while the red dread's wings curved in the front like a blades, Barnette's angled back and to the side, looking almost like a bow while the engines spouted from the crests.
Climbing into her dread, Meia sighed slightly as she started up the ship. "The system hasn't changed too much... how about you?"
"It looks like it can fly." Jura spoke as a holographic display popped up showing the blonde.
"I'm sure that they've been powered up! I'm so excited!" Dita exclaimed.
"Just don't get out of your league. Got that?"
""Roger!""
Wit that, the three rocketed out of the former hanger of the Tarak males. Meia noticed that Dita had been right about the ships getting powered up. "What's with this response? The Dreads were never this fast before."
"I'm from a peaceful race! Listen to what I have to say!" the pilot of the blue dread called out over an open channel.
"Dita, they're all enemies... It sure is an unknown enemy." Jura commented as the three continued to try and defend their pirate ship.
"It isn't men!"
"I know!" Dita agreed "These are evil aliens!"
*Scene break*
Chatter continued over the ships intercom as people, no, WOMEN, tried to get a hold of the situation. Shirou was still confused about what exactly was going on, and knew that his slip earlier might have been a really bad consequences real soon.
"BC, I'm leaving the bridge to you." Called the captain, as the woman in green with silver hair was about to leave, the ship was rocked by another explosion and a section of the wall collapsed onto one of our captors behind us in white and green.
"Hold on! I'll help you!" her comrade called.
"Don't move her!" Duero shouted as he rose, only to be met with her raising her laser ring at him. "Don't worry! I'm a doctor!"
Leaping over bench and moving next to the downed her he tried to reassure the other girl. "I just want to check my patient. You, help me move the rubble carefully."
"It looks like you need our help." the other male next to me began. "It's true that we are enemies, but under these circumstances, survival must come first."
As he began talking I couldn't help it, but he reminded me too much of how Shinji had been.
"Well, you know, I am actually a helmsman. Bart Garsus." the blonde introduced himself.
"Oh? You, a helmsman?" Vivian Mango asked with a bit of suspicion in her voice.
"Warning! Warning! This guy is trying to pull something!" the white robot at the old woman's feet spoke up.
"You, stay quite. So, what do you want to say, Mr. Helmsman?"
"Well, right now, we can call a cease-fire." Bart began his ploy. "And provide each other with what the other doesn't have... We can momentarily gather our forces, and get over this crisis. I believe that would be wise..."
"I see... That's not a bad idea." the captain agreed.
"I thank you for your wise decision. So, should we shake on it..." Bart extended his hand toward the old woman in what he hopped was an honest smile.
The old woman on the other hand, knocked his hand away and raised her walking stick toward his collarbone. "I have no wish to be chummy. I'll still be treating you as a prisoner."
"It's impossible here." Duero spoke up and indicated the downed woman. "I'm taking her to the sickbay."
"All right. You, come with me to the bridge. BC, take the attacker to the warehouse."
*Scene break*
"There's no end to them! We need to get to their main ship." Jura suggested to Meia.
"I know, but if our flagship moves at all..." Meia half spoke to herself. She knew that the little fighters that they had been destroying hadn't made a dent in the enemies forces.
Each of the enemy fighters were like a cube with arms and legs sticking out, while they shot lasers from their main body. The cubes fighters hadn't been the real problem though, it was the ship that kept spawning dozens of them at a time. It was a moderate sized ship shaped like nut or a seed. All of the enemies had a dull gray, almost black color too them.
*scene break*
BC and one of the unharmed guards-women led Shirou down the corridors they had come through before as they guided him back to his cell.
"It looks like it'll be a while before it stabilizes. I guess when the enemy attack supersedes this change, it'll be the end for us." The first mate spoke as she gazed down one of the corridors that had crystal covering the entire surface.
"Hey..." I started before continuing on when she looked at me "I came all the way here without saying anything, but I'll confess. Actually, I'm not a fighter pilot at all... I can't even remember what I was doing before everything went to hell. I didn't really have a chance to explain before everything turned into a mess."
"I see. Then why are you here?" BC asked with a sigh.
"I don't know that myself. Geez, if you think about it..."
"I guess our data was wrong." She interrupted. "I heard that men were a proud race, but to think they were such pathetic weaklings." Her words cutting deep as she spoke. "No matter what the reason, aren't you here now? To show some proof of your existence? Male or Female, it doesn't matter now. Under these conditions, as a human, as a lifeform, while there are people desperately trying to overcome this crisis, you're going to just curl up and wait for your final moments to come? No matter how pathetic, no matter how ugly the situation, if you cower at the obstacles before you, nothing will change. Your life will end without knowing. Isn't that so?"
"But... I don't know. Some of what you say is true, but it isn't as simple as that."
"I guess I wasted my breath. Let's head to the bridge." BC informed the guard behind me as she began to walk in the opposite direction.
"But..." the other girl started.
"Don't worry. This guy has nowhere to run now. And neither do we." with that they both walked off leaving me behind.
I clenched my fists in anger at her words as I came to a decision.
*Scene break*
The bridge that the pirate's now used was the original one belonging to the Ikazuchi, it now had an over looking view of the women ships bio-park, having slowly shifted from when the ships had first been encased in crystals.
Vivian Mango led the man who had claimed to be a navigator onto the bridge, but to one point in particular.
"What is this?" Bart asked looking at the layout.
"The bridge has been pulled out all the way to here. Now, show us what you can do." The old woman ordered, pushing Bart toward the glowing green spot past all the consoles.
"Geez this is dangerous." he yelled as he looked over the side at the long drop to the ground of the bio-park. "What is this?"
"What? Are you saying that you don't know what it is?"
"What are you talking about? This is one of our army's secret weapons. Um, here." the man replied trying to laugh his nervousness off, while slowly extending a foot toward the glowing green well.
In response to his touch, a portion reached out and pulled Bart Garsus inside with a green flash.
"Oh, my. This is some secret weapon!"
"He doesn't get it at all!" the Navi-robot at my side exclaimed.
The ship started lurching and trying to avoid the fight happening outside the ship. "Oh, it moved!"
"Pyoro!"
"Stay away!" Bart voice came from the glowing well and round the bridge in response to some of the cube like fighters charging. The ship then turned around and tried to escape the battlefield.
"The enemy's main ship is approaching!" one of the bridge crew, Amarone Slaintheav, informed me as I took my captains chair in the back part of the bridge with an overlooking view.
"Meia's group is coming up the middle to help us out, but it's no good!" the second of the four bridge operators, Belvedere Coco spoke.
"Do you think we can get away?" BC asked me as she stepped onto the bridge heading the situation.
"Who knows what will happen."
"Port engine hit! The shields won't last!" Celtic Midori, the third bridge bunny, asset the damages from the latest hit.
"We can't regroup under all this pressure." the words came from my mouth as I tried to figure out what to do.
"Hey, can you hear me?" The man that had laughed at my taunt of eating him and his friends, questioned over the ship intercom.
"Leave this to me." BC suggested. "What's your plan?"
"I'm going to fight with you, of course!"
"Fight, you?"
"It's true that I don't know much. But I've already gotten sick of all this. I can't just stand around and let others die in front of me."
"Is that a man's nature? Or are you just being prideful." BC taunted the young man.
"That's not it! At least for now, that's not it. It's to be strong! To be strong and protect those that can't protect themselves!
BC raised a remote and pressed a button that undid Shirou handcuffs, with a smirk on her face.
"Now just tell me where my mecha is and I'll do what I can!" Shirou spoke with confidence.
It didn't take long to get to the Vanguard launch hanger where the Bagatta was stored. Much like the four dreads, the vanguard had changed. It was still the same size as before, but the thrusters had been moved from the center of the back to the shoulder blades. The conical shape of the head with a sensor in the center had been replaced with a more human face. It closed over chest from the top, instead of sliding in from the side under the arm. A large double sheath hung from the back of the waist with a few handles already sticking out. The chest and legs were as black as the night while the arms, sheath and highlights on the knees were yellow, finally a covering a white surrounded the face. If Shirou hadn't know that someone actually was toying with his, he would have found it almost haunting how it was colored almost like a certain heroic spirit.
Climbing in, I once more imagined the hammer to a gun pulling back and striking down to flood my body with OD. "Trace On. Structural Analysis. Complete. Seems you changed a bit. Huh, partner?"
After flipping a few switches and pressing a some buttons, I was glad then the thing still powered up. With my hands on the controls I quietly spoke to myself. "Now, lets hope this isn't any harder than an Eva to pilot. Come on, stand up."
With luck on my side the mecha began to get up; then setting the thrusters to full throttle and leapt out the launch bay.
It took me a second to suppress a growing sense of vertigo as I look out at the vast nothingness around me. 'We really are in space.' As my mind processed this thought, a pack of drones charged me.
Thanks to my Structural Analysis, I could tell that they were all unmanned. It was the same with the large seed like ship, all unmanned and VERY dangerous machines.
With the sense of vertigo gone, I reached back to the cross like sheath and pulled two of the handles out. Each one was made up of only a handle and pommel, but once they had cleared the sheath, a blade of transparent green energy formed from the base and sliced through the first cube fighter. It only took me a second to cut the others down as I figured out how to fight in zero gravity, but the mecha seemed to glide through the motions that I would have made if it was my own flesh and blood.
Putting full power into the thrusters, I charged the large seed ship hoping to end this fight quickly. the 'front' of it opened up and launched more fighters, but I just sliced through the ones in my direct path. Laser bolts shot from over my shoulder destroying the others. A quick look back showed one of the three human piloted ships , the blue one, following in close and watching my back.
"Dita, pull back!" the woman I had seen before, the blue haired one, spoke over the radio, a video display of her her showing up in the corner of the screen displaying what's outside.
"There's no reason to worry! Mr. Alien's doing this for us! I know it!" The auburn haired girl replied with excitement in her voice.
"Dita!" Meia tried to order the other girl.
"Here I come!" Shirou yelled as he pulled another hilt from his back. This one a long pole, the energy forming around one end and turning into a bardiche. "And nothing will get in my way!"
As I got close to the large his, four of the drones latched onto my vanguard and holding me in place. "Just a bit more..." I spoke in determination trying to get just a little further. I poured OD into the machine and further out. Imagining something that could defeat the enemy.
Metal tendrils burst forth from the seed ship and ensnared the Bangata, before they exploded. The blue dread behind engulfed in the blast.
"That idiot..." The blonde dread pilot began to grieve at Dita's death..
"It looks like a miracle didn't happen." Vivian Mango bowed her head as two lives had been lost before her.
"All hands, abandon..." BC started.
From the center of the explosion, a large blue mecha emerged, crushing the restraints. It was as large as the new dreads, in fact everyone noticed that it was Dita's new dread. The mounts for the engines turning into arms, while the engines themselves folding onto the back, the tail section rotating upon itself then splitting into legs and the cockpit flipping forward as it revealed a face like the one on the vanguard. Two glowing gauntlets, one on each arm, protruded slightly over the hands.
"Is that another secret weapon that the men had?" the pirate captain exclaimed.
"Impossible... is this a miracle?" BC replied.
The blue mecha pushed forward, plowing through the remaining cube fighters. The transformed dread raised it's arms as two swords formed in it's hands, one the purest white and the other a shade blacker than the void of space around it. As the seed ship tried to close the opening it had used to attack the vanguard, the swords moved in a flash, cutting open a wide square.
With a large enough opening, the engines flipped over firing it's energy like a cannon and tearing though the gray ship and punching though the other side. Something inside detonated and causing a chain reaction destroying most of the insides and some of the hull.
The remaining cube fighters deactivated as they no longer received a signal.
The image of destruction and beauty of the blue dread burned itself into Meia's memory as the explosions cleared.
'I did it... I protected...' Shirou was pulled from his dazed thoughts as he noticed that his hands were cupped over someone else's. The auburn haired woman, Dita, was sitting precariously on his lap, an exhausted but satisfied look on her face. The two of them were in a cockpit like the one Dita's dread normally had, but the pilots seat was large enough to accommodate two people if one person sat on the others lap. The console was much like the one in any dread though there were more switches and buttons, as if the consoles of both ships had taken some from each other.
Shirou body had warmed up considerably as more and more of the prana in his body had been used. "W-what's going on here?"
"You're amazing Mr. Alien..." Dita spoke to noone, smiling as she relaxed against the man behind her.