Sorry if you though this was an new chapter, just revised it after rereading my copy while login was down. Next one will be tomorrow for Friday.
Enjoy!
*Disclaimer*
I do not own Gundam or Vandread.
A shockwave rippled through the Ikazuchi as the ship behind it exploded. The entire crew was on their feet in a single collective leapt. Surprisingly, the bridge was rather chaotic.
The Prime Minister, still furious over the incident with the third-class brat, roared, "I gave the order to stop the exhibition!"
This isn't apart of the exhibition!" Replied a helmsman as he frantically ran his fingers across the controls.
"Enemy fighter at three o'clock!"
"It's the women! They're mounting a surprise attack!"
The ship shook even harder than before as two pink particle beams discharged just meters below the bridge.
"Damage report!" Ordered the Captain before mumbling to himself, "What the hell was that?"
"Shield's at 95%! Firs in blocks three and five!"
"Evacuate and seal those areas off!" The Captain demanded.
"What about the weapon systems?" The Prime Minister asked.
"All cannons functional!"
"All ships! Guard the Ikazuchi!" The Prime Minister ordered over the comm channel. "Return fire!"
Tieria swerved sharply as a volley of cannon fire hailed down upon him and his squadron. A few Dreads were hit, but nothing serious. They returned fire immediately and were rewarded with the death of another ship.
"Good job, ladies!" He said, "Now make way to the port side hangar!"
"But, mam, our Dread's don't have the fire power to breach those doors!" Responded a red-haired maiden.
"Leave that to me," Muttered the former-Innovater as his eyes shined a familiar golden hue. He sifted through the men's communication channels. 'Get those Vanguards prepped and ready!' 'Evacuate and seal off those sections!' 'The women have broken through the line! Reform at their flank.'
"Jura, they're reforming behind you!" Tieria cried to his new friend.
"What? How—"
"Doesn't matter! Just trust me."
"R-roger!"
Returning to the Ikazuchi and barely maintaining the GN Arms, Tieria deeper into the flagship's system. Eureka. He'd found the catapult mechanism for the Vanguard's hangar, and, with a single thought, he disabled it.
"All pilots! Once the Vanguards have launched we'll eliminate them and the ship is ours!"
Within the Ikazuchi….
The few recruits that were resting in their rooms quickly adapted to the chaos, already in the locker room when the Prime Minister ordered them to their stations. The rest of the recruits (except Bart) dropped their glasses and bolted out of the room in a matter of seconds.
Setsuna stepped out the way of the stampeding bulls, their beady eyes flashing over his calming blue outfit. At the end of the herd, Duelo McFile stopped to stare at the Krugis youth.
"Doctor Duelo McFile."
The young doctor's eyes widened in shock and his breath grew shallow. Only a few people knew that he planned to serve as a military doctor.
"How—"
"The women aren't all bad. At least not the pirates," Setsuna declared calmly, "They would welcome a decent doctor when they board."
Duelo stood there quietly as the young boy stepped pass him and disappeared around a corner.
"Duelo, what the hell are you doing?" A fellow recruit shouted from the other end of the locker room, "We're in the middle of a battle!"
"Right," he mumbled to himself, returning to the present.
"Never underestimate a mechanic's knowhow," Hibiki Tokei mumbled to his egg shaped robotic guard as he used it's wiring to disable his cell's plasma bars. For a moment he just sat there, staring at his "brother." Finally, he scooped up the navi robot and entered the hall.
And stepped eye to eye with a pistol. Its wielder stood about his height and was dressed in a blue pilots suit. Nothing suggested whether they were man or woman.
"Hibiki Tokei?" The blue-suit asked in a monotone voice.
"Y-yes!" the raven-haired boy stuttered. 'Oh my God, not this way! Not this way!'
Blue suit holstered his pistol and removed his helmet, revealing a black haired Arabian boy. "Come with me if you want to live."
And before he knew it, Hibiki Tokei was marathoning the halls of the Ikazuchi with this mysterious young man. He remained silent the entire time and only stopped to flex his hands, which ultimately led to a series of explosions that caved in the walls behind us.
Eventually, Hibiki had to know, "Hey, thanks for saving me and all, but who the hell are you? And how did you know my name?"
Blue-suit stopped right in front of the Taraak youth, causing him to fall flat on his ass.
"Sorry," blue-suit replied as he helped Hibiki up. "My name is Setsuna F. Seiei and I am friend of your Grandfathers"
"Grandpa? He never mentioned you!"
"I wouldn't come up in average a conservation. Now, if we can continue." Setsuna motioned down the next hall.
"Of course," Hibiki said, taking a deep breath before it disappeared behind him.
The Prime Minister sat silently in his command chair as the rest of the crew tried to salvage the operation. He remained like that for a matter of minutes.
"Escort ship Majery has been destroyed!" Declared a helmsmen as he frantically manned his station, "The Maberoshi's down too!"
"The Ikazuchi's new sections have been breached!" Another shouted.
"What deplorable tactics! They are hiding in the background fire!" The Prime Minister muttered sternly.
"Keep the Ikazuchi level!" Ordered the Captain.
"Send the Vanguards out!" The Prime Minister commanded without hesitation.
"What?" The Captain questioned, "But most of them are just trainees, Minister!"
The Prime Minister glared at his second in command like the Devil at God. "If we lose this battle because we didn't use our latest weapons we'll forever shame our forefathers!"
The sheep followed the dog of the cliff, and Tieria's little trap sent the wolves down upon them.
With the deployment mechanisms disabled, the Vanguards dove out the hangar doors, pilling atop the closest Dread, which just happened to be Jura's.
"Hey! What are these things?" She exclaimed as the men tapped their fists against the Dread's window, kind of like a broken ex. "They're getting in my way." Like a broken ex when you back out your car.
"Don't worry about the Vanguards," Meia stated, "Just focus on the enemy flagship."
"Roger!" Meia said as she accelerated, flinging of the annoying little ex's.
"Tieria, is your group ready?" Meia queried as she destroyed two enemy cannons.
Tieria awoke from his stupor, having grown tired of picking off ships. "Ladies! The way is clear! Lets claim our Booty!"
"Roger!"
They skimmed the hull of the Ikazuchi, their noses aimed at the hangar doors, which, sadly, were slowly closing. At the lead of the squadron, the GN Arms accelerated, burrowing through the doors and creating a clear hole for the pirates.
They landed in the main hangar, a massive room that once housed the Vanguards, and a soon as the gravity was ready, they'd swarm down upon the men like locust, except that they were locust dressed in female skin dressed in biosuits that made them look like demons. Demon Locusts.
"What the hell is going on in this place?" Hibiki shouted neurotically as he leaned against a wall, least, what was left of it.
The past dozen of hallways had steadily become more and more grave and crippled, their current one being the worst. Decaying cords hung from what could only be assumed as wall and ceiling panels.
"Women pirates," Setsuna stated as he scanned through his datapad. "They launched a surprise attack just after the fleet left Taraak's atmosphere."
"Hell, then we better get out of here!"
"They've taken the hangar," Setsuna stared at his datapad for a few seconds before he looked up at Hibiki. "Do you hear that?"
"Hear what? With all that shouting from the loudspeaker I'm surprised you can hear anything!"
"It sounds like someone's screaming," Setsuna said, rubbing his head, "Never mind. Lets continue."
They did just that, climbing up a series of ladders into the engine room. Though spectacular, neither of the boys even glanced at the shiny blue Paeksis, a massive orb at the center of the room. Climbing high above it the two balanced on the catwalks, praying no one hit the ship at just that movement.
"Hold it!" Setsuna shouted at Hibiki, who was now ahead of him. Suddenly, as his first act of emotion, his eyes grew wide with fear. "Get down!"
Then, the world exploded.
Back at the Bridge, the Prime Minister entered his personal pass code into his control station, opening a small panel. From it rose up a single lever.
"You mustn't do this! Minister!" Shouted the Captain nervously.
Tears in his eyes, the Minister exclaim, "We can't afford to let the entire ship to be captured by our enemies!"
He glanced around the room, gazing into each of his teary-eyed subordinates teary eyes. "I must at least save the new section of the Ikazuchi. Before everything falls into the hands of women," he pushed the lever forward, "I will separatethe old from the new."
Explosions three times the size of the ones Setsuna set off rippled across the hull, disconnecting the bindings between the old and new sections. The center part, a broadsword shaped bridged, slipped out of its bindings and drifted away from the old section.
Tieria, armed with an automatic rifle he'd scrounged off a dead corpse, cautiously entered a small control room. While Meia and the others secured the hangar he had slipped away to deactivate the defense grid.
With a few taps of his fingers he did just that. Sighing, he scanned the room one more time.
"Sorry Jura. Looks like I won't be able to give you that massage I promised," He whispered despondently before enter his pass code into the control system. His Veda eyes sparkled to life as he delved back into the Ikazuchi. With another single thought, he deactivated a small lock in the Vanguards' hangar. Such a small lock for a big door.
Turning to leave, the Gundam Meister muttered to know one, "Sayonara, Jura."
Setsuna stared longingly at the blackness of space, silently wishing he could wear a bra like Tieria. Blinking several times, he discovered that he wasn't staring into space, but at a gaping hole a Dread had exploded through, weapons blaring in every direction. Also, all those pretty stars were just his mind rebooting.
Sitting up, he found he had been flung on top of another catwalk, this one more stable and concrete than the last. Unharmed, he rose to his feet and scanned the area for Hibiki.
Surprisingly, the younger boy was not far away, just a catwalk below the Krugis boy. A crushing weight gave him a splitting headache, so he felt around with his hands. He found something soft, leathery, and firm hanging above him. So, of course, he squeezed and wiggled it.
"What the heck is this?" He exclaimed as he blinked his eyes. Then, he realized he was gazing into a ghost mask on top of a purple hood. Screaming, he shoved the body off of him and crawled away.
He stopped when a bubbly voice called out to him and, slowly, turning his head, found the monster reaching out to him.
It pulled off its helmet and shrugged off its biosuit, revealing a beautiful, cherry-haired girl. She wore a light pink jacket over a black tank top and covered her legs in a long skirt that matched her hair. Blinking her deep blue eyes, she exclaimed joyfully, "Wow! A real life alien!"
"Alien…" Hibiki muttered in confusion, praying this women didn't want devour his liver.
Without taking her eyes off him, the young girl raised her hand, clenched it, unclenched it, clenched it again, and unclenched it again. Again.
Hibiki, praying, again, this wasn't some death threat in Mejarien, repeated this process perfectly.
In response the girl clapped her hands together and smiled widely, eyes aglow.
"I did it! It worked! I made first contact!"
A loud thud echoed behind Hibiki, causing the two to leap in fear (well, at least one of them.) Swerving his head around the young man found Setsuna standing behind him.
"Where the hell have you been?" Hibiki cried out nervously and with a smile on his face.
"I could ask you the same thing. Done playing with your new friend?"
"Its not my—"
"Oh my god! What luck!" Shouted the young girl, eye shining. "Two aliens! This is the greatest trip ever!"
Setsuna quickly passed over the idea of shooting the girl dead, mostly because explaining it to Tieria would be a pain in the ass. Instead, he squeezed his hand, causing a GN mine to explode far below them, shaking the catwalk.
"Now, Hibiki!" He shouted, grabbing the younger boy's wrist and dragging him to his feat. The leapt down to a ledge below them, making sure they grabbed the egg robot on their way.
"Hey wait a second!" The red-haired maiden squealed, "I just want to take a picture!"
"Tieria, you there?" Setsuna said over the comm system in his helmet.
"Just finished changing. God! I hate bras!" Responded the fellow Meister, his male voice back.
"Prepare the GN Arms, I just got a reading from the new section of the Ikazuchi. They're planning to hit this place with a torpedo once the pirate's main ship gets close." Setsuna said in between jumps from catwalk to catwalk.
"Sorry, but I don't think I wanna have my guts eaten by women today!" Shouted Hibiki in between breathes at the young female chasing him.
"…Is that who I think it is?" Tieria asked.
"Yes, that's him," Setsuna stated bluntly.
"Mr. Alien! Lets sit down and have a little chat," the red-haired girl shouted back at the two men.
"Dita?" Tieria bellowed.
"Know her?" Setsuna queried as he reached the exit to the Paeksis chamber.
"Yah. She's one of the Dread pilots in my squadron. What the hell is she doing there?"
"How should I know? Look, just have the GN Arms prepared to leave. Hibiki and I will be there in time."
"And if you're not?"
"You know what to do."
"Roger. Good luck with Dita."
"Right," Setsuna replied dryly as the trio entered a long hallway.
Hibiki stumbled behind him, losing his bag in the process.
"Hey! Who was that you were talking to and what was that about a torpedo?"
"A friend of mine who can get us out of here," Setsuna said without missing a beat, "And the Taraak military is planning to bomb this place with all of us inside!"
"What?!"
"Don't worry. As long as we follow this route we'll be out of here before they fire," To himself he mumbled, "As long as they don't get trigger happy."
"Hey! Mr. Aliens, why are you running away?" Dita inquired, our a few feet behind them.
"Not only are women the scariest things I've ever seen, but they don't make any sense either!" Hibiki proclaimed.
Setsuna had to suppress a smile as they entered the chamber below the Paeksis chamber. What the hell were they thinking when they built this place? He thought to himself. Strangely enough, he sense two life forces above him.
"Stop following us!"
"Mr. Aliens! Wait!"
'Would you look at that Meia? She's chasing a man.' A seductive, female voice entered Setsuna's head.
"Wait please! Ooof!
Setsuna turned his head to find that they're little stalker had been tackled by a blue-haired female just a few years younger than him.
'Good.' He thought, 'Lets let pirates take care of pirates.'
Suddenly, they stopped. Before them was a gaping hole where a Dread had dug into the ship. Trekking into it, they found themselves in the hangar for Vanguards.
"Perfect!" Exclaimed Hibiki as he dashed around the room, "Now where's that Vanguard?"
Setsuna hid a warm smile from the younger boy, slipping into the back of the room. With eyes that no normal human had he found a slit in the wall. Running a finger over it, he muttered, "Passcode, Setsuna F. Seiei. Command Key 8902394."
"Hey Setsuna, where did you go?"
Setsuna ignored Hibiki as invisible gears shifted in the ground, and, with a slight hiss, the wall slid open. Within the darkness beyond twin emerald lights hummed to life, spreading GN particles everywhere. Gundam 00 stood roughly 19 meters high, bearing twin wings on either shoulder over its GN Drives and matching swords on its hips.
"What the hell is that?" Hibiki shouted with both awe and fear.
"00 Gundam." Setsuna declared with a proud smile. As he climbed into the cockpit he shouted, "Get loaded up. We need to leave now."
"Yah," was all Hibiki could say as he backtracked out of the room. Climbing over a pile of rubble, he found a damaged vanguard lying on its back.
"There you are partner!"
Climbing into the main seat (and still clutching the navi robot) he awkwardly slid into the cockpit.
"Um…how do you work this thing?"
On the bridge of the new section, all the helmsmen rose to their feat and saluted the battered ark of their ancestry. Twin torpedoes arched through space, carrying death upon men and women together.
Belvedere gazed with wide eyes at her monitor. Finally, after collecting herself, she shouted to the Captain, "30 seconds to impact! We can't avoid a direct hit!"
"Hit or miss," The Captain spat bitterly, "Either way it's our destiny."
As soon as they were onboard their Dreads, Jura and Meia hovered above the ground, ready to get the hell out of there. Except, they'd forgotten someone.
"Dita!" Meia exclaimed as she looked over her should at the young pilot's ship.
The blue ship shook violently as its engines tried fruitlessly to push itself out of all the debris atop of it.
"Woah! My Dread is stuck and I can't get out!" She exclaimed nervously.
-
"Come on dammit! Move!" Hibiki barked at his Vanguard, banging the joysticks back and forth.
-
"13 Seconds!"
-
"Dita!"
"We can't wait any longer." Jura said begrudgingly.
-
Twin spears of death rained down upon the Ikazuchi, mere moments away.
-
Tieria slipped briskly into the GN Arms, flipping it on with one hand while the other steered it to the exit.
"Setsuna! You there! They launched early!" He clamored into his helmet.
-
'Come on! Move dammit!'
'11 Seconds.'
'Dita'
'Hit or miss, either way it's our destiny.'
'Setsuna!'
'Help me!'
In a mere moment, Gundam Meister Setsuna F. Seiei entered his pass code into his monitor and shouted a single word.
"Trans-Am!"
As death burrowed down upon the unlucky few, a lustrous God burst to life and empowered the radiant Angel, filling its fears and hopes into the single young warrior. And with a flick of his wrist, they were gone.
*Preview*
"I don't know what I should do."
The Gundam Meister gazed down upon the young Taraak boy with both pity and wonder. As the guards tugged at his wrist, he said one word.
"Fight."
Well, I hope you all enjoyed the newest chapter just as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'm planning on setting up a timetable so that I'll have new chapters posted either every Tuesday or Thursday, but with the way Gundam 00 S2 is looking right now I may disappear for a while to redesign my original ideas.
Anyways, please review.