Chapter 3: A New kind of War

Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread or the Ace Combat series.

The Odyssey of Discovery: Gryphus 1

The next day finds the newly fused ship hovering near the debris of the first battle engulfed in a crystal-like cocoon by the enigmatic Paksis. Inside the conference room, Magno, BC and Meia have a meeting over the events that happened so far.

BC began her report, "Our ship has been completely swallowed up. The bridge, residential quarters and engine room have been consumed by the crystals. However, the Dread platform and Reg Central were untouched, we're cleaning up and installing the new database. The bridge has stopped sliding and now situated over the ship's garden. The growth of the Paksis Pragma seems to have reached its peak. All other changes have stopped for the time being. Your report, Meia?"

The Dread leader nodded, "Right. The four Dreads transformed by the Paksis no longer fit in the Dread platform anymore so we modified the cargo bay of the men's section to store them. When carrying out an investigation, I discovered this ship hasn't been used for some time. All the circuits are decayed and useless."

BC took over again displaying the holographic map, "The real problem is our current location. Crazy as it sounds, we're a long way from Mejale territory. In fact we're in a completely different nebula and according to our calculations, it will take us 270 days to return home." Magno soaks up the information while using a hand fan to cool herself.

The aged woman sighed, "What did we deserve to be swept across the galaxy?" She looked at Meia, "Have we found out anything new about our enemy?"

Meia replied sheepishly, "Yes. My team was understaffed so I...sent some volunteers to investigate the site."

Magno asked, "Volunteers? Who?"

Meia answered, "I chose Dita because her Dread was the nearest to the hanger exit and Gascogne since the job would go more smoothly if she went." Out in space, the blue Dread flies toward what remains of the Seed Ship, Dita takes pictures and says stuff about aliens. Gascogne sits in the seat behind her.

'This is going to be a long day!' She thought with a sigh.

On the bridge the female operators struggle to cope with the rising heat spreading through the ship.

Belvedere uses a small card-like piece of paper to fan herself.

She said, "What's going with the air conditioning?" She contacted the engine room, "It's 82 degrees in here!"

An engineer replied, "Stop complaining, it's over 86 here!" She next asked the leader engineer, "How are you doing on your end, Parfet?" The brunette hovered in the room where the Paksis resides wearing one of the spacesuits.

Parfet wondered, "This thing's ancient! Is it a prototype?" Elsewhere, Paiway sits on an elevator writing in her little notebook.

She narrated, "As the pirates take over the enemy ship, Magno's family faces an entirely new crisis!"

An engineer said, "If you got nothing to do, Paiway help us out."

The nurse replied, "I am doing something!" Barnette and Jura hop on carrying bags of whatever luggage they could get.

Barnette scolded, "Fooling around again? Seriously, Paiway."

Paiway put her hand into the frog puppet, "Barnette and Jura sure have a lot of stuff. We're lucky our area wasn't affected so that means we didn't have to move, ribbit!"

Jura scowled, "That pisses me off to no ends."

Barnette said, "You're not helping matters." She noticed the rope, "Why is that tied to you, Paiway."

Paiway told them, "This elevator's only temporary until the main one is up and running. I won't be held responsible if this one falls. See ya!"

Jura said with wide eyes, "You're kidding, right? Paiway!" Down in the brig, the men of Tarak and Gryphus Squadron are busy getting "decontaminated" by the women, which was essentially using hoses to douse them with cold water. Hibiki complained, Bart scurried around, Duero stood his ground and took it and Gryphus Squadron mirror the doctor's action.

Magno and BC watch it from a screen in the briefing room.

Magno asked, "So these are the only men left?"

BC nodded, "Yes. We'll have to rely on them until we can figure it out how to run the ship." Magno remembers how the sphere ejected Bart after the battle with their enemy yesterday.

Magno said, "I've never seen anything like it before, it's like the ship had a will of its own. I won't be forgetting that anytime soon." In the brig, Bart's telling some made-up story to pass time.

He stated, "It was so unnerving, my comrades were dying one after another and it became clear that it was up to me to retake the ship. Now fate has presented me with new allies..." Duero goes with the flow, Alex listens to the story so he wouldn't pass out from boredom, Kyle was impatiently tapping his finger against his crossed arms, his hatred for hot temperatures showing itself and Hibiki dosed off to space.

'Man, this sucks. I thought I had changed my life for the better but I was wrong. Still, what the heck...' He thought as Bart brings him out of his mental rant.

He asked Hibiki, "What happened back there? What's up with that Vanguard of yours and why did it combine with the Mejalian fighter?" He pointed at Kyle, "The same thing goes for you, Kyle. How did that stealth fighter combine with the charcoal gray Mejalian fighter and create that silver robot?"

Kyle said without opening his eyes, "My jet has a designation name. It's called the F-22 Raptor and as for how it combined with Mia's Dread, beats me."

Bart looked at Hibiki, "What about you?"

Hibiki snapped, "How should I know? Forget about it! You think I'm gonna forgive you for socking me?"

Bart raised his hands, "Now, now, no need to get upset. I was only thinking of your best interest."

Hibiki glared at him, "You really don't know when to shut up, do you? There's enough hot air in here as it is!"

Duero informed them, "He's simply worried. He is trying to get things off his mind through conservation. Try to forgive him."

Bart said in awe, "Man, you're pretty sharp. You must be one of the elite! What do you think? With your brains, my speaking abilities and they're fighting skills..." He pointed at Gryphus Squadron, "We'll have no trouble retaking the ship."

Alex interjected, "How about no?"

Bart whined, "Why not?"

Alex explained, "Your plan has many flaws. One, there is only five of us against an entire crew that could stop us before we even got the plan underway. Second, you guys lack experience in the realm of fighting plus your Tarak Academy sucks at training its pilots. I know Kyle here could waste an entire squadron of Vanguards without breaking a sweat. The last flaw is that you don't know if your enemy is listening in."

Buzam's voice called out, "He's got a point there. Would you care to repeat that?"

Bart told her, "Nothing much. We were just joking around."

BC replied with a sarcastic smile, "I'd like to her your jokes. You'll come with me, won't you?"

Bart chuckled nervously, "I'd be happy to as long as it's of social nature!" Dita and Gascogne begin their investigation on the damaged Seed Ship.

Gascogne said, "Hm, seems like a factory to me."

Dita exclaimed, "It's amazing! Look at that!"

From the conference room, Magno asked, "Anything substantial?"

Gascogne replied, "We're searching the database but it's pretty banged up, captain."

Dita came into the Reg leader's vision, "Hey Gascogne, would it be okay if I looked around for a while?"

Gascogne flicked her away, "Absolutely not! We got work to do!" With zero gravity in space, that simple flick sends the redhead careening back.

Magno found the sight amusing until she heard an incoming transmission from her chair and pressed the button, "Yes, BC?"

The commander said, "I've brought our navigator up."

Magno answered, "I'll be right there. I leave the investigation in your hands, Gascogne. Contact me if you have found any leads."

Gascogne saluted her, "Roger!" Magno presses a button that turns her chair around, move through a set of doors and slides down to her place on the bridge.

Bart greeted timidly, "Hi there, I heard you needed something from me."

Magno pointed at the sphere at the end of the bridge, "Yes, that thing. We haven't been able to run it by ourselves so tell us how you did it." The self-proclaimed helmsman looks confused at what she meant until it clicked in his head.

Bart said, "Well, guess I have no choice." He raised the handcuffs and BC deactivated them and Bart started walking, "Now pay close attention. This is a man's ship which means only men can fly it. Consider yourselves fortunate that you were able to find me. You could say that I..." He screams as the sphere sucks him in.

Magno sighed, "I don't understand this system at all."

Inside the helm again, Bart said, "Okay, let's see. How do you move this?" He moves his arm and like before the ship responds. The engines start and propel the ship in the opposite direction, throwing anyone not strapped in off their feet. The bridge crew experience it.

Belvedere said, "The system responded."

Amarone stated, "Projecting current destination."

Magno asked angrily, "What in blazes did you do in there?!"

Bart defended himself, "Wait just a minute!" Gascogne extracts a small data disk.

Gascogne said, "I've finished copying the data. Are you there?"

On her bridge console Ezra, "Gascogne, please respond. If you can hear me, please respond." She starts breathing heavily and sweating until she faints, her face flushed.

Smoke, fire and carnage littered the interior of an enemy base, the sound of steel tearing through flesh echo throughout the room as screams bounce off the walls.

A soldier parries a diagonal attack from his opponent's blade, sweat drips from his forehead due to the exertion and heat. The shadowy figure's assault becomes more vicious the movement of its weapon becoming blurs of motion until it recognized an opening in the opponent's defense and drives the blade into the man's chest and mercilessly slides it up 'till it slices the skull in two. A geyser of blood spews from the open wound as the body falls to its knees then to its sides.

The soldier's allies cower in fear as the executioner advances to them, the blood dripping from the cloaked weapon.

One begged, "Please, have mercy!" The shadowy figure drives its hand through the man's chest, ripping his heart out.

The bloodthirsty figure said in a distorted voice, "Mercy? What about my people? Did you show them any mercy when you rained death upon them from above? Did you?!"

Another soldier said, "We were just following orders!"

His cloaked attacker cut his head off, "Wrong answer!" Soulless eyes bore into the remaining prey.

A third soldier exclaimed, "Jesus Christ, what the hell are you?"

The cloaked figure responded, "I am Death incarnate! The destroyer of dreams! You have been found guilty of murdering innocent people! May hell embrace you with open arms!" He pulls out twin plasma grenades and pulls the pin off before throwing them at the group. The cloaked figure walks away from the building as a flash of light appears in the windows and seconds later, the roof of the base explodes. An unlimited supply of oxygen feeds the inferno making it grow in size and intensity. The cloaked figure screams at the heavens, his ferocious cry ringing through the ears of any passerby.

Kyle's eyes snap open. The first thing he sees is Duero's forehead on his.

He pushed him away in a moment of panic, "What do you think you're doing?"

Duero answered calmly, "Checking your temperature, that's all. I couldn't use my hands to do it so I had to improvise."

Kyle wiped the sweat off his face, "There's nothing wrong with me, doc. Aside from the rising temperature, I feel peachy."

Duero said, "You were mumbling in your sleep. You keep saying 'Make it stop! Make it stop!' Why is that?"

Kyle answered, "Everyone has done something they regretted doing. Let's say I committed an act that refuses to stay away. Anything else you want to know?"

Duero nodded, "Yes, I want to know why you're so calm around women."

Alex replied, "I can answer that one. We aren't from this dimension so that none of that propaganda garbage concerns us, where we're from men and women lived together. We've got company." He looks up to see BC standing there.

The platinum-haired woman said, "You're called Duero, right? It's your turn to come with us." Duero nods as the laser grid's deactivated to let him leave.

When grid comes online again, Kyle unzips his flight suit down to his waist he suspected the temperature must have jumped up another 10 degrees. If the air conditioning doesn't get fixed soon, he will riot.

An elevator takes Duero and company to the infirmary. The door hisses open as BC led them inside where Duero spots a crew member sitting next to Ezra's bedside.

BC informed, "She has a fever and it won't go down. I'd like you to take a look at her."

Duero looked at her, "That's curious. I was under the impression that Mejale's medical technology was highly advanced."

BC closed her eyes, smiling, "Hm, you really are one of the elite. You probe for information when you can. Very well, about 98% of the systems are offline including the infirmary." She looked at him, "Is the enough for you?"

Duero smiled, "I'll examine the patient." With the investigation team, Dita picks something up with her telescope.

Gascogne asked, "Something wrong?"

Dita replied, "Not sure, all I see are markers."

Gascogne said, "Something happened here. Our work's done, let's head home."

Dita nodded, "Roger." Suddenly the Reg leader senses movement and whips around to see strange objects slither their way towards her.

The ship flies toward a nebula.

Amarone reported, "Scanners are picking up a nebula straight ahead of us. We can't regain control of the ship."

Magno stated dryly, "It's just one problem after another, huh?" The Dread platform's offline so no one could rescue Dita and Gascogne and the fact that Jura and Barnette complaining about being stuck in the elevator don't help.

A zoom in showed Bart the approaching nebula, "We're heading into that? How do I stop this?" The ship flies into the cloud of gas.

Inside the infirmary Duero uses a hand-held sensor to scan Ezra's body, the light flashes red until it turns green over her stomach. The lights to the room go out.

Noticing this Duero snatched the communicator from the guard, much to her displeasure, "Engineering, I'm working on a patient. Make power to the sickbay a priority."

Parfet replied, "We've got our own problems here. I'd love to do that for you but I can't read man's language!"

Duero looked at BC, "If I were there, I could read it for you."

BC smiled in amusement, "Go ahead." He rides the elevator to the engine room and upon arrival, he gets the expected reaction from one of the engineers.

She exclaimed, "It's a man!"

Parfet turned around, "Come over here. I'm trying to check the status of the Paksis but I can't read the data."

Duero answered, "It's just a high-tech number six. What are you doing?"

The young woman pointed to the white robot and explained, "I don't know the exact reason but the Paksis and this guy's wavelengths are linked. I thought it'd make a good sensor but I cannot read the display." Duero walks over to the little machine and types on the keyboard.

The doctor cried, "Impurities are spreading within the main engine room. It's likely a reaction due to the sudden changes."

Parfet told him, "As I understand it, this system was originally designed to tap into the energy produced by the crystal's growth. But this reaction..."

Duero looked at her, "Perhaps it's due to the fusion of the two ships."

Parfet nodded, "Probably. Do you know how to fix it?"

Duero explained, "I'm sorry but I happen to be a medical doctor not an engineer."

Parfet retorted, "That's no excuse! Everything that moves is alive, that's what I believe. And it's the doctor's job to fix all living things, right?" Duero's curiosity of the engineer was piqued after that.

"You have a very interesting perspective." The man commented before removing his coat.

The ship shudders as it dips into a stream of water ice.

Amarone stated, "The engines have shut down, captain."

Magno grumbled, "Just when I get the good news we've stopped we end up in a nebula of all places." The small electrical fan next shuts off making the pirate leader sigh.

Belvedere alerted, "Captain, readouts show the ship is transforming again!" Ice crystals begin collecting on the wings.

Duero and Parfet see this through the display screen in the engine room.

Duero informed, "The ship's parameters are starting to change."

Parfet looked up from her clipboard, "I see. Why is this happening?" She flinched when the robot blew out the cables as it started "blushing", "What's wrong with this thing?"

Her companion speculated, "Perhaps it's due to the composition of the nebula." Parfet bangs her fist into her open palm as she realizes the ship was using the nebula to expel the impurities like the immune system would to fight off an invading virus.

The ice crystals on the ship's wings begin to peel off, unveiling a new, sleeker design to them.

BC showed up on a screen, "Captain, I have a suggestion."

The aged woman replied, "Go ahead, I'm all ears." She had an icepack on her head to desperately stay cool

BC explained, "Our investigation's determined that the male Vanguard and one of the Aurelia pilots should launch without problems. It's a risk but we could have them use their machines to search for Dita and Gascogne."

Magno blinked at the plan, "That's not a bad idea. Oh yeah, why are you in the men's section of the ship?"

A moment of silence ensued before the platinum-haired woman smiled, "Just fulfilling my duty as your first mate. Over." With the investigation team, Dita shoots her laser ring to break up the yellow vined objects holding Gascogne.

Dita said, "It's not working!"

The Reg leader said, "This is just great. I can't believe I screwed things up this bad."

Dita told her, "Hold on, I'll get tools from the Dread!"

Gascogne shook her head, "Don't bother. Did you forget about our mission? We need to return with the data."

Tears filled the redhead's eyes, "I can't leave you here!"

The older woman gave her a reassured smile, "Who says you're leaving me here to rot? This isn't some third-rate soap opera, I want you to go back and get some help."

Dita reluctantly agreed, "Alright. I'll be back soon, don't go anywhere!" She flies to her Dread so she can quickly return to the main ship for help before it's too late.

In the brig, Hibiki stripped down to his loincloth in the battle against the temperatures that must have risen by another 20 degrees.

He moaned, "Hottttttt." Gryphus Squadron agrees with him there, Alex felt like they lost two gallons of sweat.

BC teased, "My, my, what an interesting outfit."

Hibiki asked, "So it's my turn now?"

The commander said, "Actually I came here to ask for a favor."

Kyle raised an eyebrow, "And what would that be?"

BC explained, "I'm going to be honest. We left some crew members behind." She pointed at Alex, "I want you to rescue Barnette and Jura from the elevator." She then pointed to Hibiki and Kyle, "And I want you two to rescue the investigation team we sent out earlier."

Alex asked her, "Why? Pirates have been known to use their captives for some purpose and then either kill them or throw them into the brig again. I haven't forgotten what your captain did to us after our first battle with the enemy. We risked our lives and your form of appreciation is throwing us in here afterward?"

Hibiki scoffed, "Yeah, give us one good reason we should help you."

Kyle said, "We'll do it." The three looked at the calm young man, "You heard me. We'll help you rescue your comrades, it'd be for the best we help each other than being at each other's throats. The strong help the weak. For some reason, I sensed no deceit in your words. Besides it will help relieve me of boredom. However, I would like to speak with Magno after this is over."

BC nodded, "Very well, I agree with your terms." The four men get dressed and head for their assigned tasks.

The screen in the engine room shows the impurities continuing to spread.

Duero said, "Look at this. The intake-outtake ratio is off."

Parfet replied, "It's because there aren't enough link routes!"

Duero added, "But the current ones can't handle the stress."

The lead engineer told him, "Don't be like that, there has to been an answer!"

The Tarak doctor cupped his chin in thought and looked at her, "How about a bypass? When there's a blocked artery you need to create a different route for it."

Parfet smiled, "A detour, huh? That's not a bad idea!" She patted him on the shoulder, "You know, you wouldn't make a bad engineer!" Parfet runs off to tell the other engineers while Duero contemplated on the sensation he felt when Parfet touched his shoulder.

Dita struggles to get a chasing pair of cube-types off her, the blue Dread shakes under the gunfire. Her radar picks up two unknown signatures and out of reflex, she fires her Dread's lasers at them. It's revealed to be Hibiki's Vanguard and Gryphus 1's F-22. Gryphus 1 avoids the lasers so Hibiki's machine took the hit.

Hibiki scolded, "Hey! Is that the way you thank someone coming out here to get you!"

Dita smiled, "The aliens!" Hibiki starts back up as the Dread approaches him, ultimately combining with it to form Vandread Dita. The two teens find themselves in the futuristic looking cockpit again.

Hibiki asked, "Would you quit moving around so much?"

Dita looked at him, "I want to thank you for coming to my rescue, Mr. Alien."

Hibiki said, "I didn't come to rescue you, I was...looking for you."

The redhead giggled, "Well, thank you."

Gryphus 1 told them, "This moment's touching and all but we still got a crew member to save. Get moving, I'll hold these cube-types off." Vandread Dita heads for the damaged Seed Ship as Gryphus 1 engages the cube-types.

He fires the Raptor's Gatling gun to let the enemy machines know he is their opponent. The cube-types swarm in on Gryphus 1 who barrel rolls through their gunfire and retaliates with missiles. Two more cube-types attempt to attack him from both sides but Gryphus 1 dives so they end up crashing into each other. His eyes pick up explosions taking place in front of him and a large plane flies through the fireball with a whole bunch of MiG-29 Fulcrums pursuing it. Using his helmet's mysteriously added zoom in, he spots holes in the aircraft's frame no doubt the result of the enemy's cannon.

His radio picked up the pilot's voice, "Mayday! Mayday! This is Crux, I'm under enemy attack! Requesting immediate support!"

Gryphus 1 replied, "Crux, this is Gryphus 1. I am flying towards you, I want you to pull up the moment I fire my XLAAM at your pursuers."

Crux told him, "I can't put further stress on the airframe otherwise it'll break apart!"

Gryphus 1 said, "Just trust me, okay?" The radio operator listens to his advice.

The belly underneath the F-22 opens and the XLAAM missiles deploy, gaining 4 locks Gryphus 1 fires them Crux pulls the joy stick back in turn causing his craft to rise. The XLAAM fly past the engines and obliterate the enemy fighters head-on. This didn't seem to faze the enemy formation because they continue pursuing their target.

He readies another set of XLAAM on the group, firing the missiles upon gaining a lock. The same result happens.

Gryphus 1's eyes become a glowing red with slit pupils and his already formidable piloting skill become more deadly. He approaches the MiG-29s from below and fires the Gatling gun tearing the Fulcrums apart in quick succession, dwindling the number of enemies. Eventually only 15 are left, the wings to the F-22 start to glow yellow and grow longer until they reached 6 feet in length, resembling blades. Gryphus 1 firewalls the throttle closing in from the enemy's 12 o'clock and barrel rolls, becoming a whirlwind of destruction. The blades tear the remaining MiG-29s apart and explode. With the enemy now eliminated, Gryphus 1's eyes return to their normal appearance and the wings return to normal as well. Confusion followed. What was that power he felt surging within him?

Crux said, "Gryphus 1, are you alright?"

The pilot snapped out of his confusion, "I'm fine." Gascogne watches a worker cube-type remove the yellow metallic vines.

She commented, "You guys work pretty efficiently, we could use someone like you." The hand came closer and Gascogne gave an uneasy smile, "So it's my turn now, huh?" However, the machine doesn't get the chance to lay harm on Gascogne because it gets crushed in the hand of Vandread Dita.

Gryphus 1 asked, "You okay?"

Gascogne chuckled, "Heh, saving me at the last minute. It's better than nothing." She gets inside the Vandread's cockpit and the group returns to the former Ikazuchi.

On the bridge, Magno grits her teeth as the asteroid-sized ice rock coming towards them when the fan next to her starts working again indicating that power was restored to the ship.

The pirate leader demanded, "Hard to starboard! 30 degrees!"

Bart exclaimed, "Please no!" He raised his arms to shield his eyes as he prepared for the end, when it doesn't come he lowers the arms to see the rock blown in half by Vandread Dita and scoffed, "Hmph, so he saves the day again."

Gryphus 1 said, "Quit complaining, be thankful you're not dead." Inside the cockpit of Vandread Dita, Hibiki looked like a zombie.

He groaned, "For some reason, I feel really tired."

Dita bounced on a certain part of his anatomy, making him feel more uneasy, "See? I told you it was amazing."

Gascogne replied in annoyance, "Yeah, great. Now get me out of here, would ya? Geez!" The guards lead Alex towards the elevator where Jura and Barnette were stuck in, he grabbed some rope along the way.

Alex turned to the guards and said politely, "Thank you for escorting me here, ladies. I assure you no harm will come to your comrades." He turns back around to search for an area that can hold the women as they climb up.

Jura shouted, "Is someone out here? Please help us!" The Aurelian comes into their view.

Barnette exclaimed, "What are you doing outside the brig, male?"

Alex brushed off that insult, "I was sent here by your captain." He lowered the rope, "Here. I have feeling this elevator is not going to last for much longer so I suggest you start climbing."

Barnette scoffed, "Like hell we will!"

Jura cried, "I'm getting out of here!" She grabs hold of the rope and climbs with expertise, Alex helps up over the railing then locks eyes with Barnette.

He said, "You're up next. It's either join us on safe ground or falling to your death, your choice." The dark green-haired woman reluctantly climbs up and no sooner because the elevator starts making groaning noises then its cables snap sending the elevator free-falling to the ground, shattering upon impact. The loud noise made Barnette jump into the arms of the nearest person out of reflex, Jura's eyes widen at the sight. Barnette soon realizes what she's hugging isn't feminine due to the feeling of lean muscle and lack of certain assets on the chest, she looks up to see the blushing face of Alex Irvine her face turns bright red.

'I'm hugging a man!' Was the only thought running through Barnette's mind before fainting.

Alex catches her in time and turns to Jura for answers but the blonde didn't have any answers.

Later that day, BC walked to the front of the bridge underneath Magno, "The captain and I have concluded our meeting. Upon analyzing the data we retrieved, we've decided to tell the entire crew." Her image was replaced with a dark planet with gears nearly covering its surface, "This is the enemy's home planet, we don't know its exact location but we assume they have quite a lot of firepower. They are attacking us in their territory because they believe our presence to be hostile. For this reason we'll expect more battles with this enemy along our way back to Tarak/Mejale territory. There's something else we discovered. The enemy has called upon the destruction of our home world Mejale as well as the men's world of Tarak, our faceless is hellbent on the complete annihilation of our home planets."

Magno took over, "We are pirates and our loyalties are not bound to Mejale or Tarak. However, we cannot allow an unknown drive away our potential customers therefore I have decided to head back as soon as possible to alert both worlds of this crises. In order to be successful we must incorporate the men we have taken prisoner into our crew." The crew gasp at that.

Bart said in a smug tone, "So you finally see it my way."

Magno concluded, "There's still many things we don't know about such as this ship and that large machine though I am certain we'll learn one piece at a time throughout our journey. I expect full cooperation among the entire crew. That is all." She ends the transmission with a sigh as the door to the bridge opens, Duero and Ezra appear.

Ezra apologized, "I'm sorry for what happened earlier but I'm ready to resume my duty, captain."

Magno asked Duero, "Well doctor, did you figure out what caused her to faint like that?"

Duero nodded, "Yes. It appears she has some sort of parasitic organism inside her." Magno gasps in fear!

Ezra soothed her fears, "It's nothing like that. You see...well, I think I'm going to have a baby!" Amarone and Belvedere smile at the announcement and head over to the gentle bridge bunny.

Amarone asked, "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"

Bart stood up, "But I thought all babies were born in the factory."

Ezra said, "I'm sorry for not tell you earlier, captain. I wanted to tell you after the raid."

Magno smiled warmly, "There's no need to apologize, Ezra. I hope you have a healthy baby."

Belvedere said eagerly, "Come on, Ezra tell us. Who's the Ohma?"

Duero asked, "What is that exactly?"

Belvedere answered, "An Ohma donates an egg and the Fahma nurtures it in her womb. Don't you know anything?"

Duero shrugged, "This is the first time I've heard of it." They didn't see Buzam retrieve a data disc from a nearby bridge control console.

Magno admitted, "There's still a lot of things we don't about each other, right BC?"

The platinum-haired woman answered quickly, "Yeah."

Magno told her, "Everybody better work hard especially with the new life that's going to join us."

BC nodded, "I agree. This looks to be one amazing journey!" Much later, Gryphus Squadron and Eugene sit in the conference room with Magno and BC.

Magno asked, "I heard you wanted to see me?"

Kyle nodded, "Yes. There are some things I want to speak to you about since I know you have questions too. As long as they're within answer range, I will tell you. First off, this man sitting to my left is Eugene Solano, our AWACS. In laymen terms, our eyes and ears of the sky during combat."

Magno began, "First thing I'd like to know is where you three come from? It's obvious you are not from Tarak judging by the attire you wear."

Kyle replied, "We hail from the Federal Republic of Aurelia or Aurelia for short on the continent of Osea. As for how we came here, I honestly have no idea. Last thing I remember is me and Alex trying to thwart an invasion on Port Paterson orchastrated by one of the two people I despise so much." He added the last part with so much hate that the two pirates could feel it.

The pirate captain said, "Next question is what are those fighters you pilot? They're not like anything I have seen."

Kyle answered neutrally, "They are stealth fighters, the most advanced of our dimension and I won't go any further than that. Call it being cautious around strangers since we don't trust you enough to share more information!"

Magno said, "Last question. You guys are calm around us. Why?"

The Aurelian replied, "We are from a society that is composed of men and women. With those questions answered, I'd like to go over the demands with you. First, nobody including the engineers are allowed to tamper or modify our fighter jets without my permission. Second, my g-suit and weapons are off limits. No excuses! Third, we only take orders from you or Buzam. In return, you get our services of protecting your crew during this journey back to your home worlds. Lastly, I ask permission to have rooms of our own. You do have spare ones, right?" Buzam nods though she along with Magno were kind of hoping to find out more about the F-22s and that large aircraft Eugene flew.

Magno agreed, "Very well. I accept your terms. I'll have whatever stuff you have on ya brought to your assigned rooms. Take it as the first step to knowing we mean you no harm."

Kyle warned, "I hope so, Magno for your sake. I do not take too kindly to betrayal, cross me and you will regret it."

'Still obsessed with that, Kyle?' Alex thought with a sigh.

The Gryphus Squadron leader stood, "I bid you farewell then." BC gives Kyle his gauntlets, wrist blades, miniature computer and M9A1 pistol to him upon orders from Magno.

The young men wander the hallways toward their rooms.

Eugene asked, "Was that tone of voice really necessary, sir?"

Kyle calmly replied, "Eugene, I have seen things you can barely imagine. Betrayal is something I will never forget nor forgive so get off my back." Entering his room, Kyle falls onto his bed releasing a big sigh.

He looks out the window to see the stars pass by, wondering what happened on Earth to make the inhabitants colonize other worlds in the span of 100 years. Did some kind of catastrophe trigger it or something more? He believes he will find out during this journey.

A/N: Chapter 3 done.

The ship later named the Nirvana underwent a transformation resulting in the new shape we all know.

Alex saved Barnette and Jura from the elevator.

What caused Kyle's eyes to become glowing red and slit pupils?

He also negotiated with Magno on how they will have Gryphus Squadron's services in battle as long as she or the crew don't betray them.

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Stay tuned for chapter 4.

Vader 23A