The crew of the Nirvana waited in infinite silence and tension for the return of the Galm team.
"It's been eight hours…" Ezra said, "You don't think they got lost or ran into the enemy do you?"
"I wouldn't worry too much about it Ezra" Belvedere said to her, "If they ran into the enemy I'm sure they could handle themselves".
"Captain" Meia's voice said as her screen appeared above the bridge, "With your permission I'd like to go out and search for them".
"I confess that I'm beginning to worry myself" the captain replied, "Meia take someone with you and find them".
Meia nodded, "Roger that captain.
"Captain!" Aramone cried, "I'm picking up three signatures at the edge of the radar. Two are confirmed to be the Galm team and the third is…its Rabat's ship".
"Rabat?" the captain muttered before the image was shown above the bridge, Rabat's ship was flying toward the Nirvana with both members of the Galm team on either side.
The three ships landed in the hangar, with both Pixy and Cipher immediately exiting their fighters.
"Should we run?" Pixy asked as they met in front of Rabat's ship.
"We don't have much of a choice" Cipher responded while clenching her fists, "There's nothing we can do again that kind of firepower".
A squad of guards entered the hangar and aimed their weapons at Rabat's ship as the ramp extended down and the door opened revealing the conman carrying an unconscious Hibiki on his shoulder, "Lose something?" he asked before tossing the young pilot to the floor.
When he noticed that the swarm of guards all had their weapons trained on him and Pixy, Rabat smiled coyly, "Did something happen while I was away?"
"Put your weapons down!" Cipher demanded, surprising everyone before she turned to Pixy, "Larry go to the brig and free Duelo and Bart, Rabat you're coming with me to see the captain".
"Hold it!" Barnette's voice yelled. The green haired pilot stepped in front of the guards and aimed her gun at Rabat, "There have been a few changes on this ship, from now on men are no longer allowed to roam free".
Cipher lunged forward, grabbing Barnette's wrist and pulling the dread pilot toward her at the same time twisting the wrist to disarm her while using her free hand to give a swift, but light backhand slap to her throat to briefly stun her.
After stunning Barnette and taking her Desert Eagle, Cipher kicked the dread pilot in the back of her knee forcing her to the ground before violently grabbing hold of the back of her head and pulling it back and aiming the barrel of the handgun at the side of her throat.
Everyone, including Pixy and especially Barnette were shock and terrified of Cipher now, her usual cold stare was gone and had been replaced with a penetrating gaze that seemed even more frightful.
Quickly flicking her hand out to the side, Cipher ejected the clip from the Desert Eagle keeping direct eye contact with Barnette the entire time, "All I need is one bullet Barnette" she said in a very threatening voice, "Do you really want to go down this road again?"
The tense silence was quickly broken when Hibiki came to and immediately remembered what happened; quickly jumping to his feet he took off making his way to the bridge desperate to warn the captain.
Cipher released Barnette and looked over to Pixy, "Larry!" she barked, "Brig, free now!"
"Right, I'm on it" Pixy said before running off.
Cipher looked back to Rabat, "You're coming with me, when we get to the captain you're going to tell us everything got it".
"Don't suppose I get a choice in the matter" Rabat said as he started following Cipher to the bridge.
Arriving at the bridge, Cipher heard Hibiki telling the captain everything about what happened, "Their coming for us next I just know it. Those people fought with everything they had they were the complete opposite of those crazy people back on Anpathos".
"And because of that they perished" BC said, angering Hibiki.
Hibiki turned to her and yelled, "That may be true, but I can't just sit back and do nothing I can't let them die in vain like that!"
"Is this the first time you've seen someone die?" Magno asked him.
Hibiki clenched at his injured arm, remembering the face of the girl who helped him while he was on board one of the Melanos ship, "We have to beat them, if we don't we'll die to".
"That may be true, but brute force isn't always an answer" Magno said, "Do you really think we can win?"
"Honestly" Cipher said, catching everyone's attention, "I say we'd be better off running now while we still have a lead on them…But…I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I left a monster like that alive…we have to destroy it!"
"Oh Cipher you're here as well?" Magno said before seeing Rabat, "And it seems you've come to us yet again".
Rabat smiled, "Well I was just in the area and I decided I'd help the little boy get back home" Cipher jabbed her elbow into his stomach to shut him up.
"Rabat's presence is irrelevant at this time captain" Cipher said, "Our top priority right now should be preparing for battle. We need every hand on this ship on standby right now and I mean every hand".
Magno gazed down at Cipher, staring directly into her eyes. She wasn't surprised to see that under that cold stare she wore was a fear of what was to come as well as a desire to protect those around her. "Very well" the captain said, "BC go to the brig and release Bart and Duelo".
"I've already taken care of that captain" Cipher said, "Larry is releasing them as we speak, right now I need Ezra to contact Aramone, Celtic and Belvedere and tell them to return to their posts after that I need BC to initiate a battle ready status of the highest level. If someone is sleeping then wake them, if their off duty, tell them to get to work. We need to be ready because I don't plan on dying today".
Cipher looked to Hibiki, "Hibiki get to the hangar and start repairing the Vanguard, have the hangar teams assist you if need be, just make sure you're combat ready".
"Captain!" Ezra's voice cried, "Meia's dread has taken off from the Nirvana".
"What?" the captain gasped before an image of Meia's dread was shown flying away from the Nirvana, "That foolish girl" Magno groaned, "She should know better".
"Dammit!" Cipher growled before reaching her finger up to her ear, "Larry!" she yelled, "Meia took off to scout the area, get to hangar and get out there before she gets herself killed!"
"Roger" Pixy replied from his end, "Duelo and Bart are free, but they wouldn't leave their cell".
Cipher turned to BC, telling her to sound the alarm and then to Rabat telling him to not leave the bridge before she left for the hangar. "There's no time, get to the hangar" she told him.
By the time Cipher arrived in the hangar the alarm sounded, announcing the confirmed presence of the enemy. "Enemy formation detected" BC's voice yelled, "Dread teams prepare to scramble all hands to your stations and prepare for battle".
"Yo Cipher" Pixy called to her from his fighter, "Seems like they found us".
Cipher looked at her Eagle and then lowered her head, "Larry…in case the worst happens. I just want to say I…" Cipher stopped, clearly hesitating in what she wanted to say.
Pixy rubbed the back of his neck, "We're definitely going against the tide on this one, but I know we'll win. We were brought here for a reason and I doubt it's just so we can die against something like that".
Cipher suddenly had a determined smile as she look to her wingman and friend, "You're right, we're the Galm team since when as there been an enemy that could stop us?"
"Now that's the Cipher I know" Pixy laughed as the two mercenaries climbed into their fighters.
Cipher switched on her radio, "This is Galm 1, we're in position and ready to take off".
"Roger that Cipher" BC replied, "Do your best, we believe in all of you".
The Galm team took off from the Nirvana and flew off to meet up with Meia and the rest of the dread teams.
"Do you think we can win with just us?" Jura asked looking to Meia's dread.
"I don't know" Meia admitted, "But we have to try".
"We're going to win" Cipher told them, "Not because we have to, but because we're the only ones who can. We're the only ones who can fight these things so we're going to win anything less is unacceptable".
The enemy formation began its advance with the flagship at the center. Seeing the behemoth that wiped out an entire fleet with a single blow advancing toward them, Cipher's muscles began to tense and her grip on her flight stick tightened, "I can't give in to fear now" she told herself, "We have to win, I WILL WIN!"
"Attention!" Pyoro's voice echoed from the radio, "You have no right to exist other than parts to be used by us".
"It's the enemy!" Ezra said, "They must be using Pyoro as a communication channel.
"Suppose you tell us who you are and where you're from" Magno said to the possessed NAVI-bot.
"We are messengers from the planet Earth. You are allowed to live only as provisions for the Earth's future".
"Earth?" Ezra muttered.
"That's the planet our ancestors came from" Aramone said.
"Hey Cipher!" Pixy yelled, "Did you hear that?"
"They came from Earth?" Cipher muttered, "These things we've been fighting…they came from Earth?" Cipher felt her hand cramping from gripping the flight stick too "So Earth still exists, but now it's only a..." Cipher looked out to the enemy formation, "So there really is no way back home for me now…"
"You must follow your destiny" the enemy told them, "The act of denying the future that must come to pass is against the order of the Earth. If you fight this the only other alternative is complete destruction".
"The communication has ended" Ezra said after Pyoro fell back to the floor on the bridge.
"Captain!" Aramone yelled, "Rabat's ship has departed and is retreating from the area".
"So you've decided to run away with your tail between your legs" Magno said to Rabat.
"Does a tree bear fruit if it dies?" the conman asked her, "And I assume you'd rather not die is that right?"
Magno smiled "Yes unfortunately for you".
"Righty right!" Rabat saluted, "I'm sure we'll meet again somewhere".
"Should we just let him go?" Pixy asked as the approaching enemy began entering attack formations.
"Leave him" Cipher ordered, "We have a more immediate concern".
Watching the countless enemies ahead of them spread out Cipher decided it was time, "Pixy go!" she yelled before flying forward to meet them head on.
The Galm team sped forward, forcing Meia to order the dread teams into battle behind them.
When they got closer to the enemy, the pilots realized just how many they were up against being completely outnumbered several times over.
"Hey buddy" Pixy said in an amused tone, "Kinda reminds you of our second time over the Round Table huh?"
Cipher smirked, "Well let's see if they put up a better fight then Belka did that day, split off and engage at will".
"Pixy roger".
The battle began and almost immediately, the enemy had the upper hand. Somehow they had not only learned to evade attacks, but they now were able to predict the flight patterns of the Nirvana's forces.
Both Cipher and Pixy were fine on their own, but the dread pilots were pushed to their limits from the beginning. "Pixy" Cipher began while she evaded a spike sphere, "Take your burst missile and target the center of the far flank, wipe out as many of these things as you can".
"Negative" Pixy replied, "Meia and Dita will be caught in the blast I can't risk it".
"They've learned to predict our movements" Meia gasped after just barely avoiding a collision with an enemy "Everyone remain alert at all times".
The dread teams were in complete panic and the enemy took advantage of it, easily keeping the pilots away from each other, isolating them from any form of assistance, but that wasn't all. The Nirvana was slowly being pulled out of position.
"What's going on?" the captain asked.
Ezra had the answer, "The planet at our 10 o clock has a really strong magnetic field and is drawing the Nirvana to it".
"High density of gas particles detected" Belvedere announced after scanning the planet, "If this keeps up there will be system abnormalities".
The captain growled, "Just what we need at a time like this"
Out in space, the battle continued to grow worse and worse and now even the Galm team was having trouble keeping up, "Dammit!" Cipher growled after taking a hit.
"Cipher" Pixy gasped after watching her get hit.
"I'm fine" Cipher snapped, "Just stay focused".
"Cipher look out!" Dita yelled as a large swarm of enemies flew toward the female mercenary.
Cipher jerked her fighter into a tilted half loop to avoid the enemy wave and surprisingly they didn't follow after her they retreated away from them before they began circling around each other along with several other swarms mimicking their movements.
"What are they doing?" Pixy wondered before the circles of cube types merged together revealing copies of the Vandreads, Cipher's Eagle and Pixy's Morgan.
BC was taken by complete surprise, "They've learned to make copies of the Vandreads!? How is this possible?"
"Cipher!" Pixy yelled as the fakes started their attack.
"Larry, use that bomb now!" Cipher yelled as the copies of her Eagle, Vandread Meia and Vandread Dita started attacking her.
"You're too close you'll get caught in the blast" Pixy argued.
Cipher evaded several lasers from her pursuers, but the copy of Vandread Jura appeared in front of her, firing another laser that clipped the fighter's canopy, almost shattering it.
Seeing the damage to her canopy, Cipher knew that another shot like that even just a graze would destroy it, leaving her vulnerable to the vacuum of space, "Dammit" she growled quietly, "I've had enough of you!"
Cipher tilted her fighter down and forced a quick deceleration before turning to the side and pulling a sharp loop getting behind the targets and firing several missiles at her targets, hitting each of them, but failing to destroy them.
"Cipher on your 12!" Pixy yelled as the copy of his fighter roared head first toward Cipher's fighter.
Cipher looked up at the copy of the ADFX-02 and everything began running in slow motion for her as parts of her life began flashing in her mind. The enemy was too close for her to avoid a direct collision with one way or another, this was it.
"I'm sorry" her voice said over the radio, as her fighter tilted up and to the side as the enemy ADFX-02 fired its laser while Cipher fired a missile at the same time.
The laser hit the underside of her fighter and the missile made a direct impact against the enemy Morgan destroying it, but the close proximity to the missile's detonation caused even more damage to Cipher's F-15.
"Cipher!" Pixy yelled while the rest of the pilots and crew on the Nirvana watched Cipher's fighter get hit and then engulfed by the small explosion.
Seeing the unbelievable sight before them, BC quickly jumped into her terminal, "Cipher! Cipher do you read? Cipher!"
There was no answer, not even static.
"No" Dita gasped, "You don't think?"
"Gascogne!" BC yelled from the bridge.
"I'm already on it" the Reg leader replied getting into her shuttle, "Someone cover me".
Gascogne's delivery shuttle left the Nirvana and made a straight line toward Cipher's damaged F-15, set on rescuing it and the pilot inside.
Seeing the shuttle, the enemy turned their attention to Gascogne, but their attempts were thwarted thanks to Pixy who intervened by firing several missiles to force the enemy away.
The arms of Gascogne's shuttle grabbed hold of the damaged Eagle and immediately put up its shields before retreating back to the Nirvana with Pixy, Meia and Dita covering her escape.
"Meia here, all units retreat back to the Nirvana at once. I repeat all units fall back".
The pilots all returned to the safety of the Nirvana's shields even though the ship continued to drift closer and closer to the gas planet ahead of them.
Pixy immediately landed in the hangar and jumped out of his fighter, running over to the wreck that was Cipher's Eagle.
The F-15 had sustained extreme damage from the close impact, most of the underside was torn apart and the canopy was shattered so the hangar team could get Cipher's body out.
Once Cipher was pulled free from the fighter, Pixy ran over to them just as they placed her on an infirmary bed. "Cipher" Pixy said, but Cipher didn't respond. She was laying on the bed with her eyes closed and a small amount of blood running from her temple, thankfully she was still breathing, but barely.
Pixy helped the hangar team get Cipher to the infirmary where Duelo was waiting.
Once they reached the infirmary, Duelo began checking Cipher's vitals she was definitely still alive, but her heart rate was well below normal and it was slowing down more and more.
Duelo asked Pixy to help him place monitoring patches on Cipher's body to help him get a full check into her condition. While Duelo set up the monitor, Pixy silently apologized to Cipher as he removed her shirt and began placing the patches against her bare skin.
Moving his hand up to her shoulder, Pixy noticed a scar under her shoulder, "You never told me about this one" he said to himself as he gently rubbed his finger over it, it was long since healed, but whatever cut her had to have been bad.
Pixy moved his hand to place the last patch on Cipher, but once he touched her, she shot up into a sitting position and grabbed hold of his wrist while choking him with her other hand.
"Cipher its ok" Pixy tried to say through the pressure against his windpipe, "It's alright, its me" he choked before Cipher came back to reality and slowly loosened her grip.
Cipher looked up to her wingman, but everything around her was spinning and her head was in incredible pain.
"You'll be fine" Duelo told her as she placed her hand against the side of her head, "At most you just have a minor concussion, but you need to rest all the same or it'll worsen".
"The enemy?" Cipher muttered, "I can't be laying here with them still out there".
Cipher looked like she was about to try and get up, but instead her vision completely faded and she felt like she was falling.
"Cipher!" Pixy quietly yelled as Cipher's body went limp and she fell into his arms.
Duelo calmed his concerns, "She just passed out, she'll be fine, but I still need to treat her".
Pixy gently laid Cipher back on the bed and turned around, "I need to head back in case they need me…Duelo please, do everything you can for her".
"I will" Duelo told him before Pixy ran off to return to the bridge.
Cipher was standing alone in an open field, a small patch of green grass under her feet, but the surrounding area was different. To her right was a scorched field with trees that were still burning with open briefcases and envelops of money lying around.
And to her left was nothing, no trees of cases of money, just an empty space of ground without grass and lit by a flickering dim light.
As she looked at them she had mixed feelings that seemed to be pulling at her. From her right she felt a rush of adrenaline, thrill and anger as she looked out at the destruction and money, but to her left she felt nothing, but despair and loneliness accompanied by a cold air.
The area around her was evenly split between the two minus the single spot of grass under her that was just enough for her to stand on.
"What is this?" she wondered as she looked between the two areas, trying to ignore the tugging feelings she had from both sides, "Is this…how I see my life?" Feeling an unbearable pain in her head Cipher clenched both of her hands against it, struggling against the powerful headache that was overwhelming her, "No!" she yelled, "This isn't me, none of this is!...This isn't what I want I don't want any of this!"
Cipher fell to her knees still clenching at her head, "I don't want this!" she screamed before her headache lessened and a pair of voices echoed above her.
Cipher looked up, the sky above her matched the two areas on both sides of her, but there was also a single space of open blue sky directly over her, just like the patch of grass she was kneeling on. From that single space of clear sky she could hear two voices as well as see a pair of silhouettes. She couldn't make out who they were or if they were male or female, but she could hear their words even if just barely.
The two voices were calling out to her, telling her to come with them to free herself from the pain around her, but that wasn't all. More voices started speaking, they sounded further away and more silhouettes began appearing behind the first two all of them sounding just as welcoming as the first two.
Cipher slowly reached her hand up to the sky, reaching out to the figures above her, wanting to be free from what she was trapped in, but right as the two silhouettes reached out to her she withdrew her hand feeling a pain in her chest and a different kind of fear in her mind. She was afraid of being left in the place she was now, but she was also afraid of the figures above her, unsure of if they would accept and protect her or reject her.
Cipher looked to the ground at the small patch of grass that slowly started to fade away as it was consumed by both sides. And just as it was about to be completely engulfed she closed her eyes and quickly jumped back to her feet before reaching out to the figures above her once again.
Both of the figures grabbed hold of her hand and slowly started pulling her up as the two areas below her vanished entirely.