Matthews, who was sitting in his usual spot at the helm of the ship, adjusts his cap and looks down at a poster he's holding of the Seraphim Sisters. He knew without even looking at the calendar that it would been time for their show soon. Someday my angels… A single tear rolls dramatically down his face, someday I'll see your show again…
He looks out towards the stars to take his mind off his disappointment, he can hear Tony complaining about 'the little master's curry being good but not agreeing with his stomach' or something like that in the background. It was just then that Matthews realized something important.
I don't know where the fuck we are…
"Hey, Hammer!" Captain Matthews leans forward to see that the navigator has fallen asleep at his station. "HAMMER GET UP!" Matthews lowers his chair and kicks Hammer on the back of the head, causing him to yell out in pain. "Stop sleeping on the job and check where we are!"
"You could have just asked nicely…" Hammer whines before pulling up a few different star charts on his console, "let's see here… I can't see any matching landmarks on these charts… Hey Tony will you check-" Hammer is suddenly interrupted by a popup on his screen informing him that there's an incoming transmission, "uh, captain…"
"Yeah, go ahead and answer it real quick. But if it's that professor again tell him he can find scrawny himself."
"No, it can't be the professor. This transmission's coming from outside the ship, just give me a second, I'll pull it up." Hammer types in a few commands, and then a large holographic screen appears in the middle of the deck. The figure on the screen appears to be in a dimly lit room, it was hard to make out any exact features on their face, however it's still bright enough to see them if even just a bit.
From what they can see of them though, the figure has a serious demeanor and conveys little emotion with their words. "Attention unknown spacecraft, you've entered restricted space. Please turn back now."
"Restricted space?" Matthews asks the figure, "we ain't even on any existing star charts as far as we can tell, how can somewhere that ain't even mapped out yet be restricted?" He unintentionally lets himself get a bit angry when talking to them.
The figure scowls a bit before continuing, "if you're outsiders then that just makes it even worse, I already told you this space is restricted. We founded this place, and we're not about to let any random ship come and go as they please."
"WELL IF YOU WANT US TO LEAVE SO BADLY, THEN GIVE US DIRECTIONS OR, HELL, MAYBE A MAP!" Matthews yells at the figure.
Hammer and Tony wince seeing Matthews pissed off the figure on the screen, "I CAN'T JUST GIVE YOU A MAP, YOU'LL KNOW EXACTLY WHERE EVERYTHING IN OUR EMPIRE IS!"
"DON'T BE RIDICULOUS, HOW THE HELL CAN WE LEAVE IF WE DON'T KNOW WHERE WE'RE GOING?"
"WHAT'S ALL THIS YELLING ABOUT!?" Everyone turns around to see Shion stomp her way into the room. Her hair looked a bit messy, and judging by her outfit of a simple t-shirt and some fuzzy pants it looked like she had previously been sleeping. Both Allen and Jr follow her in, they also appeared a bit tired and messy. Allen still looks half asleep, and Jr is practically asleep.
"Hey don't look at me it ain't my fault," Matthews angrily points toward the screen in the middle of the deck, "IT'S THEIR FAULT FOR EXPECTING US TO JUST WANDER AROUND LOST FOREVER!"
"YOU HONESTLY THINK I'M JUST GOING TO LET YOU COME AND GO AS YOU PLEASE THROUGH OUR EMPI-" The figure is interrupted by someone off screen switching on the light, their expression has changed from rage to bewilderment. The person on the screen also seems a lot less intimidating, they appeared to have long blonde hair that's pulled back into a ponytail, a pair of glasses that the left frame of which appeared to be cracked, and a black shirt with a cartoon cat on it that appeared to be a size or two too big.
Even the room they were in didn't appear that threatening, it was surprisingly low tech, and there appeared to be an old telephone switchboard. There were also a lot of exposed wires and many of the flat surfaces were covered with dirty dishes, papers, and garbage. "Evelyn! Keep it down in here, there's a conference going on upstairs you know!" Someone off screen shouts at 'Evelyn' causing them to scowl. "And stop turning this light off, we all know you only do it so you can sleep on the job!"
Evelyn turns back to the Elsa crew, most of which had started laughing at them. "Oh I don't have time for this," they turn around and mess with the switchboard, once they get it all right they yell into a headset. "HEY, WE GOT SOME INTRUDERS AT SECTION 4, COORDINATES 52, 12, 36! IT'S A SMALL CARGO SHIP, GO TAKE CARE OF THEM!"
That sure gets everyone's attention, after the connection's cut Matthew started barking orders at everyone to get ready to fight. Tony and Hammer quickly got into position at their consoles, Shion and Allen rushed out to go finish getting dressed, and Jr follows slowly behind them, too tired for all this shit.
Tony's fast to fly the Elsa back where they came from, hoping that they'll be able to lose their pursuers before they're able to be spotted. His eyes dart back and forth between the radar and the front window. As much as he hopes that they won't be able to detect them out so far he still has a bad feeling about the whole situation…
Suddenly, just as he glances back at the radar, his bad feeling is confirmed.
"Captain, they've found us! And they're gaining fast!"
Hammer was right, as much as he tries Tony just can't seem out outmaneuver the smaller more agile enemy ships. Luckily though, the others had finished readying themselves and now all had their weapons. Tony hopes however that they could get out without the ship being breached.
He slows the ship a bit and takes fire at two ships that had tried to get close to the Elsa's port side.
Before he has any time to celebrate there's a rumbling. "C- Captain we've been shot, there's some damage to the Elsa on the Starboard side." Damn, I was paying too close attention to those other ships, Tony decides to quickly handle the other's before they could further damage the Elsa. Veering sharply to the right he rams the Elsa right into the enemy ships, the small gunships weren't designed for an impact like that and are all either destroyed or too heavily damaged to keep moving.
"Haha! Wooo, did you guys see that?" Tony takes a minute to celebrate his victory, even the last few ships seem to be falling behind now.
"Did we lose them?" Shion leans over to see the radar.
"Of course we did. What, are you doubting my helmsman skills?"
"No I just have a bad feeling about this…"
Hammer's busy looking over the damage done to the Elsa when something pops back up on the radar, something extremely fast. "T- TONY YOU GOTTA MOVE THE SHI-"
Hammer's words are lost in the chaos.
Everyone's flung back as the ship suddenly speeds up, the enemy ship had latched itself onto the Elsa and was now dragging them along with it. Tony quickly gets back up and tries to break the Elsa free of the other ship, but it's no use, they're thoroughly stuck.
"Dammit…" Matthews lowers his chair back down, "these guys are actually pretty tough… Hammer, turn on the external camera feed! Let's see what we're up against." Hammer gives him a quick 'yes captain' before pulling up the footage.
The ship is around the same size as the Elsa, maybe a few meters smaller, it's a long thin black ship with a few claw-like appendages that it's using to keep the Elsa ensnared. Something that really stands out about the ship, however, is that it looks frighteningly similar to an Ormus ship. From the corner of the screen a few of the appendages can be seen adjusting themselves, but it's impossible to see exactly what they're doing.
Soon after an alarm starts to go off. Hammer and Tony rush to see what was wrong, "captain, they're trying to pry the cargo bay open!" On the main monitor a few smaller ships could be seen leaving the large ship, it looks like they're trying to get inside.
"Is there any way we can shake 'em?" Matthews gestures over to Tony.
"I've tried everything I can, but our engines just aren't strong enough."
"The cargo bay's open!" Hammer shouts over the alarm, "we're being boarded!"
"And you're getting a call!" Jr suddenly points over to Hammer's screen, there was a notification that he was being called from someone on the lower part of the ship. Hammer cautiously answers it, and nearly jumps out of his seat when the Professor's voice suddenly shouts through.
"What's going on up there!? How can I be expected to work when you're throwing this ship all over-"
"HAMMER, HANG THAT UP! We don't got time for that right now!"
"Are they on the ship yet?" Shion asks, completely dismissing all the nonsense going on around her.
"Umm y- yeah it looks like a few enemy ships are in the cargo bay, and there's some soldiers getting out-"
"RIGHT, WE'LL GO TAKE CARE OF THEM" Jr grabs Allen with one hand, and his gun with the other, then darts out the door. Completely ignoring Shion yelling after him about how they should come up with a plan first.
Shion sighs, hearing only distant gunfire over the blaring alarm. "So, do you think chasing them all out will help?" She turns back to the captain, "I mean it will definitely help to not be shot at, but do you think that'll be enough for us to get away?"
"Probably not," Tony answers her while looking through to see which of their weapons were still online, "Until we get that big ship up top off we can't really go anywhere… Oh hey, I forgot we had this ion cannon… I might be able to shoot 'em off, eventually, but you guys will need to buy us some time." He had already started to fire off a few weapons while talking to her. Shion, in turn, only gave Tony a small nod before running off after the others.
Shion Jogs down to the lower floors of the ship, simply following the sound of gunfire to where she presumes her friends are. Up ahead she sees Allen struggling to hold off a realian soldier, unsheathing the blade from her M.W.S. Shion runs ahead and slashes at the soldier.
The realian falls back after that slash, bleeding heavily from the cut she left.
"Chief! There you are!"
A few more soldiers stray too close so Shion and Allen quickly takes fire at them. Shion feels one of the enemy's bullets graze her leg, shooting pain up her side.
"Argh! Where's Jr at?" She shifts her weight to her right side to try and stop the pain before firing once again at some more realians. It seemed as thought those were the only soldiers their attackers had sent.
Before Allen could answer her, a rain of bullets strikes the realians from behind.
"I'm right here!" Jr catches all the other realian's attention when he shouts that.
How did he get over there? Shion doesn't let it bother her for too long though, she takes Jr's distraction as an opportunity to shoot a few of the other soldiers while they're facing away.
The realians are caught off guard, and there were a few moments of chaos as they turn to and fro trying to decide whether they should aim at Jr or Shion and Allen. It really helps their odds that they have the enemy surrounded, even if they were still horribly outnumbered.
After a little while of fighting the ship suddenly turns sharply, causing Shion, Allen, Jr, and all the realians to fall over. Afterwards Hammer's voice could be heard over the intercom, "um hey… Not to cause a panic or anything, but it looks like the big ship up top is trying to pull us back to its base." The ship shakes for a few more seconds before Shion is able to pull herself off the ground.
"Allen, Jr, give me some cover for a second!" She runs over to the nearest comm device and calls the bridge, and in just a few seconds they answer.
"Hey there Shion, how's it going down th-"
"WHY AREN'T YOU SHOOTING AT THAT SHIP!?"
Hammer winces at her tone, and off screen Tony could be heard, "that's what I want to know!"
"We can't just shoot at it while it's still attached to the Elsa, we'll be damaged as well."
"IF YOU DON'T SHOOT IT THEY'RE GOING TO TAKE US PRISONER!"
"W- Well yeah, but… Ahh!" The ship shakes again for a second, "Tony, what are you doing!? You can't shoot a ship that's literally on top of us!"
"Hey don't worry about it, we'll deal with the damage later. Anyway a ship like that can't be too sturdy, we'll outlast it no problem."
"CHIEF, LOOK OUT!"
Shion turns and tried to avoid her attacker, but unfortunately the realian's a bit faster and she's struck in the head with the broad side of their gun. She falls to the floor after that, only barely conscious. Her ears ring loudly, drowning out the sound of fighting and explosions around her. She thought she saw the realian who knocked her out get shot as well, but couldn't be sure.
Everything started to become a blur, as she reaches her hand up to where her head hurt she feels something wet. She so badly wants to just close her eyes again, to just fall back asleep here on the floor and pretend like nothing went wrong.
Why can't anything in my life be easy…
…
Meanwhile out in an unknown part of space, near an old and forgotten planet. Something, or rather someone, floats aimlessly in the cold void. You would never be able to tell she once had so much life in her by looking at her now, there wasn't even much of her left to see.
She was partially illuminated by the nearest star, that light on her shimmers a bit when it comes into contact with the thin layers of ice that had formed on various parts of her skin. It gives the poor broken girl an illusion of beauty.
Her face displays absolutely no emotion, but despite that her there was still a torrent of thoughts going through her mind…
Kos-mos stands perfectly still, the light breeze makes the flower speckled field she's in that much more peaceful and beautiful. Kos-mos, however, isn't worried about the scenery and is looking straight ahead, right where Mary, Nephilim, and Able are standing. Mary and Nephilim both move their mouths at the same time, talking completely in sync.
"Kos-mos… I'm so sorry that I must leave you here like this…" Mary and Nephilim, who are standing on either side of Able, both tighten their grip on Able's hands "but I… We can no longer stay in this world. We must take U-DO and go now."
Nephilim shuffles for a moment before speaking on her own, "you should be proud you know, the ripples you created will most likely save this universe."
"And then Mary places her hand on Kos-mos', YOUR, shoulder and assures you that 'there's nothing to worry about. That you can choose your own life and no longer need me to exist'… Or at least, I think that's how it went." Kos-mos slowly blinks, it was more to clear her head than her actually needing to. The place that Mary, Nephilim, and Able had previously been is now occupied by only flowers being nudged slightly by the breeze. "What do you think, did I do good? I've been practicing you know~ I know you've been replaying this scene over and over again, I just had to wait until the right moment~" Chaos speaks in a sing song voice as he comes up and sits on the grass next to Kos-mos.
Kos-mos doesn't say anything for a while, she just listens to Chaos go on about how he's been practicing imitations, singing, and… tap dancing? She speaks without even glancing at him "Chaos?"
"Hmm," he turns to look up at Kos-mos, who's still looking elsewhere, "what is it Kos-mos?"
"Why is it that you decided to stay? Should you not have gone with Nephilim?"
"Ah, so that's it. Well I guess I technically could have gone," he reaches down to pick one of the flowers while putting together his thoughts, "but I feel like I'm still needed here for something. Besides wouldn't you get lonely here by yourself?"
"Well technically she's not here by herself."
"Oh, T-elos how nice of you to finally join us." Chaos smiled looking over to where T-elos suddenly appears, she's facing the other way with her arms crossed. "You usually keep to yourself so it's nice to finally get to speak with you."
"Don't get used to it, I'm only here because I have to be." T-elos snaps at Chaos.
Chaos just lightly chuckles at T-elos' remark, "of course, it couldn't have been because you were lonely or anything right?" She doesn't respond to him at all, making him laugh just a bit more, "well in any case now that you're here maybe you can help me out. Kos-mos here seems to be upset, but she won't tell me what's wrong. You see she's been-"
"Yeah, yeah, replaying that same memory over again. I've been here the entire time too you know." T-elos turns around to see that Chaos hadn't even flinched at her aggressive remark, "anyway it's not every day that you lose your entire purpose for existing in the first place."
Chaos stops smiling, "oh yeah, I see… With Mary and Gnosis being gone…"
"Actually T-elos is only 38.2225% correct."
Chaos and T-elos are a little surprised at the sudden sound of Kos-mos' voice. T-elos in particular is a bit bitter, mumbling how that was an unnecessarily specific percentage.
"While it is true that the purpose for my creation no longer exists, I do not necessarily feel sad or lost. Perhaps that is partially because they stopped being my prime directive a while back."
She turns around to see the two of them staring at her, waiting for her to continue. Kos-mos breaths out long and deliberately before continuing, "the main cause of my distraught feelings… Is the fact that I still exist here…" She looks back to where Mary was once more, "T-elos… If the reason we existed was due to Mary, then how are we still here now? Are we even meant to be here?"
Chaos looks concerned, so that's why Kos-mos… He looks over towards T-elos to see that she looked uncharacteristically down as well.
She sighs, "I don't know Kos-mos… Maybe it was a mistake…"