A/N: Here we go. I'm finally back, and I plan on finishing what I had started. Numerous issues came up in the last several years, getting fired from a job for something someone else forgot to do, the last of my grandparents passing away, and an aunt of mine also committed suicide. So I apologize for not being able to write for the last few years. Well, enough about that, let's get back to the story. If you haven't already, read chapters ten through twelve again, as I had rewritten them quite a while back, and this chapter, as well as the ones after, will be based on those rewritten chapters.
Disclaimer: I do not own Vandread.
Vandread: A Renewed War
Chapter Thirteen: Exodus
Location: Tarak/Mejale Battle Line
Sweat poured off his brow and into his eyes, a result of the heat in his Vanguard's cockpit. It had taken a blow to its coolant system, raising the heat by a substantial degree, but it didn't stop him from wiping every last one of these blasted Earth machines from existence. Deftly swinging his machine's sword, he sliced one cube-type in half with first strike, and with the second he ran through the one that attempted to backstab him.
"Katana One! Katana One! Come in Katana One!" he heard through all the commotion on the communications net.
"This is Katana Three," he reported as he sliced another cube-type. Katana One is dead, so is Katana Two. What is it?"
"Katana Three, Earth forces are starting to break through the left flank, they are tearing through the Mejalean forces. You and what's left of your team are to reinforce them, we cannot let that side fall, they must not get to the evac ships."
"Understood," he replied. "Katana Team, let's go save their asses!"
After a series of acknowledgments, his team moved out. He followed a split second behind them. It took a few seconds, dodging through enemy and friendly forces, losing one of his men a blast from a Harvester ship in the process, but he made it in time, to notice a Dread about to be taken out by a large, vandread-like machine . He kicked his thrusters into high gear, putting even more stress on his damaged machine. He sliced off the machine's arm, the one that was about to fire some kind of energy weapon. It responded in kind, striking with its other arm, intending to impale him. Shit! At that moment he noticed that it was too late to dodge the blow. He raised his machine's arms, intending to shield the cockpit from the blow.
His machine shook violently, sparks flying around the cockpit. Something broke loose and slashed his forehead, and blood started to flow from the wound, getting into his eyes.
"Pilot," a female voice said through his comm. "Pilot, can you hear me? Respond."
He coughed a few times, due to the heat and smoke, before replying. "Yeah, I'm here."
"That move was reckless," she said as he freed himself from the wreckage of the machine that attempted to kill him. "But thanks for the assist. Are you the backup?"
"Yes," was all he could reply to that, still coughing from the smoke. Checking his damage indicator, he noticed that blow only glanced his Vanguard's left shoulder, tearing off the armor and exposing some of the wiring, but it was still operational somewhat. He wiped the blood from his eyes. "Corporal Kai Tanaka."
"Name's Valore," the Dread pilot replied. "You still able to fight? Your machine's seen better days."
He noticed two cube-types rapidly close in on him. Dodging their fire, he promptly used his sword to dispatch both of them in a particularly simple yet brutal fashion.
"I'll take that as a yes," the pilot named Valore said with a smirk.
Location: Infirmary, Nirvana
"You sure you're okay?" Duero asked Dita, expressing little more than a doctor's concern for their patient.
"I'll be fine Doctor, the pain is gone now," she replied, giving him the smile that she was well known for. "I'll be going now."
"Very well," he replied as he watched her exit the infirmary.
Dita walked out of the infirmary, glad to be up and moving again. She'd not made it fifteen feet out of the infirmary and when she felt a familiar grumbling. She quickly blushed at the embarrassing noise her stomach had made, but realized no one was around, and quickly recovered, letting out a slight chuckle.
"I wonder if he's hungry?" she said aloud to herself while she strolled down the corridor, looking for Hibiki.
Location: Shuttlecraft HSS-67, Adrift in Space
"Son of a…" Aidan cursed seconds after a panel literally blew up in his face.
Meia came rushing in, and her senses were assaulted by the acrid burning smell of shorted wires. "You alright?"
"Yeah," he lied, holding his left hand, which was obviously burnt. "But that panel's fried, several of the wires shorted out as I was trying to reconnect them."
"Nothing we can do about it right now," she said flatly as she grabbed the first aid kit. "Let me have a look at you hand."
After a slight hesitation, he let her tend to his wound. He winced only slightly as she finally finished bandaging the wound. "Thanks," he said.
"You're welco-," she started to reply, but was abruptly interrupted when Aidan grabbed her around the waist and pulled her into an embrace. Her heart began to race and she felt really warm inside.
Why do I feel this way? was one of the many thoughts that ran through her head as they embraced. Do I really feel this way about him? Is this what love feels like?
The moment felt like forever to her, until it was interrupted by the beeping of the console from the cockpit of the shuttle. Grateful, but at the same time disappointed for the interruption. He slowly released his grip on her, and they both proceeded to the cockpit of the shuttlecraft.
"Looks like someone noticed our distress beacon." Aidan said as he glanced at the sensor panel. "There's a ship incoming."
"I'll bring up a visual," she replied as she tapped a few buttons on the controls.
A few seconds later the ship popped up on screen. Her eyes widened with surprise with what she saw on the screen. "It can't be…"
Location: Vanguard Hangar, Nirvana
Hibiki stood there, tinkering away at the wiring and internal components of an open panel on his Vanguard. Many thoughts had crossed his mind the last few hours, but a few remained constant. They were on what was happening back in his home system, the Harvesters, the inactivity of the Paksis, and most importantly, Dita's wellbeing.
He was busy repairing his Vanguard, which was helping him keep his mind focused away from the many thoughts that plagued his mind. There was something so simple as fixing something that kept one's mind off more troubling concerns. So focused was he on what he was doing that he almost failed to notice that someone had come up behind him.
"Whatcha' doing?" Dita asked as he turned around to face her. "Want to go get something to eat?"
"Sure thing, Dita," he replied with a smile, which got a blushing smile from her. "Let's go then."
She nodded, and they both started to make their way to the ship cafeteria.
Location: Shuttlecraft HSS-67, Adrift in Space
"I don't believe it," Meia said aloud after she had seen the ship that appeared on the view screen.
Aidan looked at it, noticing the sleek rust red appearance of the craft, with two nacelles, one on each side of it, with what appeared to be some kind of sail near the rear of the craft. Overall, a very unique looking ship, why Meia was staring in surprise at it he had no idea. Unless she knew who was operating it.
"Who is it?" he asked, still looking at the ship on the screen.
"You'll find out," she replied as she tapped a button and the appearance of a man with black hair with a red lens optical device over his right eye appeared on screen.
"Oh, if it isn't you," the man said to Meia. "How've ya been darlin'?"
Aidan noticed that Meia's eyes narrowed slightly at being addressed so familiarly by this man.
"This craft has incurred some damage, and is unable to get us back to the Nirvana," she said flatly. Aidan could tell she was going to hate what she was going to say next. "Could we trouble you for a ride?"
"Always to the point with you," the man replied with a smirk. "Sure darlin', but what's in it for me?"
"This shuttlecraft," Aidan interjected into the conversation. "Keep it, sell it for parts, I don't care. Do we have a deal?"
The man's one visible eye narrowed slightly at Aidan's blunt proposal. It took a few seconds for the man to reply. "You have yourself a deal. Standby for docking."
"We'll give you the coordinates to the Nirvana's destination after we dock," Meia said as she tapped a button to close the view screen and cut the comm. She let out an audible sigh of relief a few seconds later. "I really hate that man."
"So what's the whole thing with him?" Aidan asked a few seconds later.
"I'll tell you later," she replied, glancing over at him. "It's a long story."
Location: Mejalean Pirate Ship Paraiso, Tarak/Mejale Space
With the grace of a falling brick, Kai Tanaka managed to land what was left of his Vanguard into one of the hangars of the Mejalean pirate ship Paraiso. The machine skidded for several meters, throwing up a shower of sparks as it went. It finally came to a stop, and he blew the hatch, which wouldn't open normally due to combat damage. He jumped out, stumbling as he hit the deck.
He forced himself to stand, and he knew his injuries looked worse than they were. His uniform was covered in blood, and one of the sleeves was ripped off. He had used the ripped sleeve as a makeshift bandage on his forehead, to keep the blood from running into his eyes. He looked over to notice the Dread of the pilot named Valore land in the bay, it also had sustained damage. The orange-haired pilot stepped down from her fighter and started to make her way over to him.
"What you did took guts," she said, looking him over. "Taking the hit for a civilian transport, Mejaleans even. I've never seen a man do that before."
"They were innocent," he replied. "I'll be damned before I let innocent people get slaughtered, women or not."
As Valore was about to reply, her communications device sounded off. "What is it?"
"This is Rebecca, have the male soldier report to the infirmary, then come to the bridge," Rebecca said. "The evacuation is almost complete."
"Understood," she replied, then turned to him. "Let's get to the med bay."
"Alright," he said, following her as she escorted him to the infirmary.
"Valore, reporting as ordered," she replied as she stepped onto the bridge.
"We are starting to get underway," Rebecca said as she turned to face her. "How's our guest?"
"He's looks a little worse for wear, but he'll be fine," Valore replied. "As soon as he gets his wounds treated, we'll send him over to one of the Tarak ships."
"Good," Rebecca replied, obviously under a lot of stress. "We're still leaving so many behind."
"Look," Valore said. "As much as I hate to say it, we can't save everybody. They can't be stopped this time."
"Still, I feel like we let the ones we're leaving behind down," Rebecca said. Before she could say anymore, the communications officer spoke up.
"Captain, we are receiving an incoming message from a Tarak Vanguard."
"Patch him through," Rebecca ordered.
"Yes, ma'am," the comms officer replied.
"This is General Ozeki Kyunmel, commander of the Gale Squadron," the grizzled old man stated. "The enemy is rapidly advancing on the evacuation fleet. We are going to intercept them and buy you the time you need."
"Understood General," she replied. General Kyunmel acknowledged her reply with a nod before cutting the connection.
"That's a suicide mission," Valore stated.
"But a necessary one," Rebecca countered. "We cannot have the Earth forces reach the evacuees."
Several seconds passed, before speaking up. "With you permission, I'll see to the repair of our Dreads."
Rebecca nodded, and watched as Valore exited the bridge to carry out her duties.
I wish Magno were here right now, she thought.
Location: Edge of Tarak/Mejale Space.
Behold, for this is your end…
At the very edge of the massive Harvester fleet was the distinctive three-pronged shape of the a ship that easily outsized all other in the fleet. With an ominous, massive red glow, it fired a very large beam of energy, obliterating the remnants of both fleets, as well as any Harvester drones in the path of the massive energy blast.
Pathetic, you are crushed like the ants you are. Now it is time to destroy the nests of these pests…
After several moments of silence, the ship adjusted it's aim, and charged it's primary energy weapon. This beam was over twice as large as the first one. At first glance, it appeared as if it were going in-between the two planets. Then suddenly, some distance away, it split into two separate beams, and defying the laws of physics, curved and hit their intended targets.
Their targets were the planets of Mejale and Tarak. Both planets' atmospheres were burned away as the raw energy collided with them. Anyone left alive on the planet was either vaporized or flash-burned. The beams then continued onward until they penetrated the core of each planet. Mere second later, both planets started to fall apart, until their cores finally exploded, tearing both planets into millions of pieces of debris. In a matter of moments, the thousands of souls were silenced…
Well, there you have it, a rather dark ending to the chapter. Again I apologize for not getting back to writing this sooner. Expect to see an new chapter for Trials of Error and the new, revamped version of The Perfect Weapon soon. Read and review if you want to. As always, constructive criticism is welcomed, but no senseless flaming please.