Chapter 13: Orbital battle

10:14 AM (Japan Time), Thursday September the 2nd…

"… Real-space exit in… 38 seconds."

"We're almost there! Epsilon! The decisive battle's battleground! Today, we're going to bring down Tabuu…!"

"He's put people's safety at risk and tried to toy with Earth as it was his. We've got to put him down!"

"Hmpf. I don't care for that. I merely came to settle the score…"

"Of course, Solo… As for you, War Rock, behave!"

"Sheesh! At least there's a big brawl! I won't complain!"

"Sheesh. Tia and her persistence… I'll be fine! I don't need her to insist!"

"She has the right to be concerned, given what happened at Omicron…"

Subaru, Misora, Akatsuki, Solo and Lartes were sitting in chairs inside of a metallic room containing a table which had a built-in "Air Display" system and a command console on the south end.

The "Air Display" was showing a hologram of planet "Epsilon", which was constantly rotating.

"Rotational time: 16 hours. Year: 288 days. Furthest distance (Aphelion) from its local Sun: 800 million kilometers… Air composition: 80% water vapor, 15% oxygen, 5% minor gases… Atmospheric pressure: 88KPA… Mean radius… 5800 km… Surface area… About 300 million square km… Escape speed… 7.000 km/s… Surface winds speed… 133 km per hour… Average temperature… Minus 59 Celsius…" Black Ace listed.

"Luckily, we have designed carbon dioxide filtration masks and our forms make turn us into energy bodies, thus eliminating the need for breathing… I tested that myself during the Brachio Wave incident when I had to dive into the lake..." Subaru muttered.

"… Real-space exit..."

The hologram switched to display a live camera feed.

Cracks had formed on the equator's ice and the shape of something underneath it was clearly visible.

The thing down there was waiting to come out, and similar objects could be seen in several spots across the planet.

"All the players have been gathered Let's start the show, ladies and gentlemen!" Tabuu's voice boomed out through the speakers.

The camera zoomed to show a detailed area of the equator as the ice began to crack and crumble.

Jets of steam came out and a diamond made of a random mix of colors began to emerge from the ocean-

It was followed by eight metallic curved tooth which seemed to support the diamond structure.

A metallic tower structure several tens of meters tall which included a cone-shaped base with two carved locked doors built into it followed.

The main body had the golden words tengoku no tou (Heaven's Tower) drawn into it.

"Heaven's Tower… Now you think you're a God?" Vadous questioned.

"Nope! I am but the gatekeeper to Heaven… A fallen angel who has been able to disguise his fall…"

"Whatever. We only need to land and beat you up!"

"But that'd be boring! That's why I'll summon my chess pieces using an incantation and make things interesting. Ever heard of reserve troops?"

"Reserve troops? You're not the CO of an army, and… Wait! That can't be! You're bluffing!" Vadous gasped.

"Whether I'm bluffing or not… will become clear in just 10 seconds. That's the time they need to revert into real space… They've travelled far from remote shipyards… My. I sound like a narrator!" Tabuu laughed.

"No way…!"

Several purple gateways opened with bright purple flashes of light and a whole spaceship fleet began to surge out of it.

They deployed at different spots around the planet and began shooting a storm of lasers headed for the group.

"Black Ace! Bubble Shielding: Max Power NOW!"

"Roger…"

The camera showed a green shield forming between it and the lasers, deflecting them.

"Too close…!"

"It ain't over yet!"

The camera switched to the planet again to show several AAC turrets emerging from beneath the ice across the planet followed by red lasers which drew a tornado climbing upwards around the Heaven's Tower which reached up to space.

A "Dimensional Area" surrounding the whole planet then formed up.

"There. Setup's complete. Come anytime!"

"You lowlife…!" Vadous cursed.

"What do we do?" Solo calmly asked.

"Regarding the "Dimensional Area", I can easily open it up using an attack from the HQ. The shield can also power up the spears and make them shoot at the ships… But something inside of the "Dimensional Area" is messing with the portal generator! It can't calculate the coordinates of the target!" Vadous replied as he typed into the keyboard.

"We've got no choice but to fly there in a spaceship, then?"

"We'll need Omega! He's the only one who is skilled enough to make it past that swarm. Lartes! Come up here and handle the counterattacking as we get the ship ready!"

"Roger!"

"War Rock. Do not plot anything uncalled for…" Acid warned.

"Sheesh! Shaddup, Claw Man! Go claw the nails!"

"I fail to understand the sentence… Be more specific…"

"Sheesh! Lawyer Man should go read the books!"

"I am not a lawyer!"

"Hmpf. Typical of fools… Destroying each other…" Solo scoffed.

"And you're going to say that you're perfect next?" Akatsuki sighed.

"Who knows?"

"Whatever. That can wait…"

"Here's Kir Osh… I'm coordinating with WAXA and the Satella Police but insofar Hyde hasn't shown up…" Kir Osh reported.

"No wonder. I did give him some money and suggested he go direct a troupe at Sussex!" Tabuu chuckled.

"Sheesh. You were eavesdropping?" Subaru grumbled.

"Get ready! I'll paint you pink!" Misora challenged.

"My. Guess it's better than tarring and feathering… Saw it often in the Lucky Luke series!"

"How can you compare both?" Akatsuki sighed.

"I'm an alien. I make odd association of ideas!" He shrugged.

"Hmpf! I'll show you the strength of the mighty AM Warrior!"

"Because you wake up at 6AM and train under a waterfall?"

War Rock grumbled something under his breath and Subaru sighed.

"Focus on the battle!" Misora fumed.

"My blood's boiling! Bring it on, punks!"

10:49 AM (Japan Time)…

"I missed being the space cowboy! It's been a while since I last flew in this. But I remember all my skills and the little tricks I made into this one, Shuttle #7! I renamed it Thunderbird! Cool, ain't it?"

"Thunderbird… That's a mythological bird depicted in the ancient tribes of North Ameroupe's Pacific coast… Not a bad choice!"

"Thanks, Akatsuki! O. K.! Here they come~!"

"The enemy's fighters…!"

"Let's blow them up!"

"Relax! The Superhero spirit guides us!"

"Shidou… Spirits don't…"

"Don't spoil the mood!"

"Claw Man got shut up!"

"Don't get cocky now!"

"Hmpf. What a pointless fuss…"

Omega, Solo, Subaru, Misora and Akatsuki (plus their Wizards) were sitting inside of a small aerodynamic shuttle.

It had two short wings near the rear, a tail wing and a main Plexiglas window.

Laser guns were mounted on the nose and the wings.

The rear didn't have a visible propulsion system, yet the shuttle was moving forward at a constant speed.

Omega was sitting in the pilot's seat while the other four were occupying passenger seats set behind his seat.

"Hold on! I'll drive them to meet their bosses!"

"Keep your humor under check, too!" Akatsuki warned.

"Don't worry! I'm just saving up mood for the real battle!"

He spun towards the NE in a sharp curved trajectory and headed for the left side of one of the motherships.

Ten enemy fighters were trailing him, but he moved up and down plus left and right to dodge their lasers and kept heading for the hull.

He pulled the stick downwards to lift and skip the crash by a few centimeters' margin.

"Too close!"

The enemy fighters couldn't react in time, and they crashed one after the other into the hull, opening a hole at least five meters wide and two tall.

The hole exposed of circuitry and pipes, and one of them was labeled red.

"That's the energy feeding pipe for the port lasers! If I blow it up, the ship loses 50% of its attacking capability plus the energy for the port hangars!"

"I see! That's why you made them crash there!" Misora realized.

"Let's toss a mine here and then we'll go visit the fusion engines exhausts! I know a quick method to disable the whole ship! Boss designed weaknesses in case a day like this ever came!"

"Hmpf. Get rid of the chaff!"

"Fire!"

Omega shot several laser shots into the hole, severing the pipe in several spots and making electricity jump out.

The port laser guns shut down and the hangars lost illumination.

Omega flew towards the starboard side and hovered below the laser guns in angle where they couldn't be lowered anymore.

Six enemy fighters headed for them in a square formation.

He pressed a green button on the command console.

A hatch opened beneath the shuttle and debris floated out.

The fighters broke their formation and began to move around at random.

Omega chased one and shot two precise shots to the north and south of the engine exhaust port.

The ship lost control and spiraled towards the hull, opening a hole there.

"Time Bomb!"

Another hatch opened and a small cylinder with a red blinking LED.

Omega sped up, heading for the rear of the ship, while an explosion became visible behind them and the starboard side was disabled, too.

"There they are!"

He shot past the mothership and turned around to face the ship's gigantic cylindrical exhausts.

Each of them was wide and tall enough for the shuttle to fill inside.

"Torpedoes! And let's go towards the next one!"

Omega made the nose open to reveal nine torpedo tubes built inside of the space.

Five of them flew out and Omega quickly headed downwards towards another mothership about 500 meters downwards.

"… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… KABOOM!"

A brutal explosion engulfed a third of the mothership and part of the tower supporting the command bridge.

The tower and ship were "pulled" by the planet's gravity.

The turret's bottom hit the command bridge of another mothership and the remaining main body kept on falling until it hit the "Dimensional Area" and became a gigantic sphere of energy which expanded across a good deal of it before dying down.

The turret eventually crashed as well.

"Impressive!" Subaru gasped.

"Man! You're an ace!" Akatsuki whistled in admiration.

"Mars Ace, then?" He laughed.

"Don't steal my motif!"

They looked up and to the north where a large green bubble could be seen hovering there and repelling the laser blasts from the motherships.

A green thick laser shot out and pierced a mother-ship's rear area.

It blew up, too, and its remains plunged into the "Dimensional Area" too.

"Boss' aiming ain't bad! Out of 21 motherships, he's defeated 8 of them! He can handle the rest as we make our way down to the planet surface!"

"Say… Won't we be in trouble to dodge the AAC turrets?" Misora asked.

"Nope! Boss scanned them and found out that Tabuu had reused the old IFF codes. He just switched them around and tried to make them hit the tower yet it's too thick to be damaged! He's decided to shut them down and will use them when the "Dimensional Area" vanishes to hit the motherships from beneath!" Omega detailed.

He speeded up and looked at a display showing a group of ten fighters in a pyramidal formation chasing them from behind.

Omega shrugged and pressed a black button.

"Let's treat them to some mines!" He calmly announced.

Metallic, spherical mines with red blinking LEDs set into them were deployed from a hatch on the top part of the shuttle.

Omega increased speed while shooting downwards in an attack angle.

The fighters focused their shots on the shuttle but fell short.

They crashed against the mines and were taken out.

Omega snapped his right hand's middle and index fingers.

"They're so predictable, really!" He exclaimed.

"ETA to Dimensional Area… 2 minutes..." Acid reported.

"We've got company…" Omega whistled in surprise.

The biggest mothership was aiming its 30 guns at the shuttle.

Alarms rang out and the message "LOCKED ON" showed up on the display.

"Chaff!"

He released chaff and the guns aimed at random, missing coordination.

"What's that?"

He looked towards the command bridge of the mothership and spotted Tabuu inside of it beating his wings and looking towards them.

"There! Gonna be chuckling under the helmet! I'm so eager to show 'em my strength! Bring it on, punks!"

"Hmpf! Let's shower him up with some DX torpedoes. Go!"

Omega shot the nine torpedoes at the command bridge.

Tabuu beat his wings and turned invisible before a golden flash happened.

The torpedoes blew up the command bridge and the ship began to drift, given the lack of control.

Omega flew over the cannons and tossed some mines.

"Bye – bye, Admiral Rookie!" He laughed.

The guns tried to shoot at the shuttle, but they hit the mines instead and ended up crippled.

"These ships have a secondary command center which takes over once the main one is left outta commission… I can upload a little program to remove all safe-guards and have this mole do us a little favor, even…"

He inputted some commands into the screen and then pulled away.

The mothership turned on its engines and inclined the nose forward, diving for the "Dimensional Area" surrounding Epsilon.

"Knock, knock. Our battering ram is gonna knock the door out of its hinges and into the ground paving the road for the invading army to get inside of the fortress. Too bad you didn't insure it with Winterthur Inc., though, Tabby!" Omega sarcastically announced.

"Hmpf. Fitting…" Solo sneered.

"That looks creepy, even…" Subaru grimly muttered.

"Let's focus on the task at hand…" Akatsuki whispered.

"Sure…" Misora whispered back.

The mothership hit the barrier and produced a gigantic ball of energy which expanded and opened a gigantic hole.

Omega didn't waste a second and headed for the hole at top speed as the energy channeled across the shielding, surging out of it at several spots.

"Even "Dimensional Areas" have a limit to how much energy they can handle before allowing something in or out!"

The shuttle flew past the hole as it began to slowly reform and landed on the metallic platform surrounding the base of the tower.

He performed a series of checks before shutting down the engines and activating three small legs which included magnetic ends.

The nose opened and a metallic sphere dropped into the ground.

"I'm securing the ship to make sure that the winds don't blow it away. Let's transform and get inside of the tower… I dunno what Tabby prepared but I'd stake my money on Viruses and "Darkloids"… It'll be intense!"

Omega equalized pressure and opened the door.

"I see that you've made it this far… Come in! My dear pawns are itching to play with you guys… This is going to be a very intense experience! I can promise you that!"

"Ready… Go!" Omega rallied.

Here we go! To the final battle…! To end this stupid farce…!