Chapter 8: Things Begin To Heat Up

Topaz went back to her cabin to see if she could calm down, while trying not to think about Rubedo, without success. I can't decide what's worse, being without you or still not knowing where you are... Well, I'll find you someday... I promise. ...Heh. Yeah right. Who am I kidding? Ugh... After waiting a few more minutes for her sadness to subside, she decided to go and see what was going on at the bridge. During her short walk there, she ran into Shion.

"Hey Shion! What's goin' on?" Topaz asked as cheerfully as she could.

"Hi Topaz. Captain Matthews wanted me to go check out the catapult deck, would you like to come?" Shion answered.

"Um, okay," accepted Topaz.

The two girls proceeded to the catapult deck, then investigated the hatch by pressing the button on the console in front of it, and were surprised when everything checked out normal. Shion then contacted Matthews to give him the news, receiving praise from the Captain in return. The girls went back to the bridge to find Matthews and Tony confirming various information to the female U.M.N employee such as: the organization, vessel class, number, and name, along with the captain. After transmitting the flight plan and being figured out when it came to excess cargo mass, they decided to send a surcharge to the Kukai Foundation.

"I had a feeling they'd notice," said Hammer.

Matthews replied, "Well, we did pick up some extra junk."

After Hammer commented that they always go over the limit, Shion added that they could have billed Vector for the charge. After Matthews and Hammer provided their input to that comment, Tony nodded and the Elsa was sent into hyperspace to begin its trip to Second Miltia. Shion and Topaz then left the bridge to go take care of other business, Shion to speak with the director about KOS-MOS, and Topaz to do some extra tuning on her AGWS.

Topaz was working on her mech for some time, when she realized that it was almost completely fixed up. She didn't know why, but she felt sad after seeing this. Why do I feel sad? It's not like I've been here that long, so why do I not wanna leave them? I'm gonna have to leave them soon anyway, so why is that such a big deal now...? Well... the longer I stay here, the harder it's going to be when I have to leave, so I should get this done and leave soon. A short time later, she heard her name and Shion's being called over the intercom to get over to the bridge, so she abandoned her task and did as she was instructed.

"What's up, Captain?" Topaz inquired.

Matthews answered, "Just take a look at this." He pulled up a screen which showed a very small ship getting chased and attacked by several Drone ships.

After Shion commented that she had no idea that tiny ships, like the one on the screen, could enter hyperspace, it passed under the Elsa and the Drones passed around the Elsa. Shortly after Shion failed at answering Matthews' questions on the Drones and small ship, chaos announced that the small ship was emitting a distress signal. When Shion asked why the Elsa wasn't going to help the ship, Matthews replied that he had enough trouble dealing with Topaz and the others. Jeez. This guy's pretty rude. I'd do somethin' about it, but my AGWS isn't quite ready yet... Before Topaz could voice her opinions, the crew was sent into an uproar.

"Damn! We're in their line of fire!" Tony announced.

Matthews angrily answered, "What? Get out of the way!" Tony moved the Elsa to side and the Captain nervously stated, "If we hit the column walls it's over!" Right after, ironicly, the Elsa's right side was jammed into the column walls. This caused Hammer and Allen to start praying for someone to save them, and Topaz to lose her temper.

"Those bastards! That ain't right! They oughta pay for that!" Growled a frighteningly irritated Topaz.

Matthews stated with anger, "Damn it! You try to be polite and they just walk all over you!"

"What's the plan, Capt'n? We gonna join the party? Replied an excited Tony.

"Yeah! C'mon! Let's give 'em hell! Nobody does that to your ship, right?!" Topaz cheered with an evil grin.

Matthews was yelling at Topaz and Tony for wanting to get involved with this skirmish, when chaos announced that the outer hull in sector four was partially damaged by a blast from the enemy drones. This caused the Captain to get seriously angry, so he instructed Tony to speed up the Elsa and take it into battle against the Drone ships.

Allen whimpered, "Wha...? Wait a second! You're gonna take a ship like this into battle in hyperspace?! You've gotta be kidding!"

"You better believe it! Don't worry about it. With the Elsa's Logic Drive and my immaculate piloting skills, there's nothin' we can't handle! Let's do iiittt!" Tony yelled with excitement as he fired both of the Elsa's lasers at the enemy ships, destroying a few of them.

After some of the drones were destroyed, the little ship's pilots decided to take out the others by circling around the column walls and emitting flames to incinerate the remaining ships. Tony was amazed by the pilot's skill and decided to try it for himself, causing Topaz to nearly fall off the railing she was leaning against, and almost everbody else to start feeling extremely dizzy. Right after the first ships were destroyed, reinforcements arrived to take out the small ship with everything they had. The ally ship tried to dodge the blasts as best as it could, but it was hit in the left booster and was sent plunging into the column walls, looking like it would explode any minute. All of a sudden, Shion pressed the button for the grappling claw to catch the ship, resulting in amazing sucess.

Once Tony praised Shion for her excellent catch, Matthews told the occupants of the other ship to hurry up to the bridge once the hatch closed. The catapult deck was beginning to close when, out of nowhere, it stopped. Matthews was losing his temper about the electrical problems, causing Topaz to cringe. I had a feeling there was something wrong with the deck... Why can't I ever be wrong?! chaos instructed the occupants to put on their spacesuits and make it up to the ship on their own, but the male occupant stated that they both weren't human and they should be fine. Afterwards, Hammer picked up an intruder alert coming from the catapult deck.

"Surrender and maintain cruising speed. If you do not comply, we will attack. Repeat. Surrender and maintain cruising speed. If you do not comply, we will attack. We guarantee you will not be harmed if you follow out instructions," stated an Auto-Tech that had just landed on the outside of a window at the bridge.

Topaz narrowed her eyes, "Oh come on... That's a buncha crap..."

Matthews answered the Auto-Tech, "An Auto-Tech. My ass... Who are you kidding? We're screwed either way. Tony! Full throttle! Use the ship to take him out!"

"You got it!" Tony exclaimed, still filled with excitement.

The pilot moved the large ship towards the column walls, creating flames to destroy the drone ship. Once the Auto-Tech hit the catapult, the deck began to close. Hammer was pleased that the shock closed the catapult, but Allen was still whining about how this whole thing was insane. A few moments later, chaos announced that the drones were taking over the rear hangar by calling in terminal units using transfer waves.

"We'll just have to take 'em on! Prepare for hand to hand combat! Seal the internal barrier doors!" Matthews stated.