Chapter 12: Return of a Mentor
Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread or the Ace Combat series.
Vandread Ace
It's been about a few days since Christmas and everyone was in high spirits because they are getting closer to Tarak/Mejale territory. They can't even begin to count how many bullets they've dodged or how many close calls they have encountered. However, thanks to the co-operation of both genders on the Nirvana they have managed to survive this long and hope it continues.
Somewhere else on the ship, Hibiki and Dita are picking up food containers from a supply room.
Dita wondered, "Let's see, what else do we need?"
Hibiki mumbled, "Hurry up!"
The redhead said, "Oh sorry, Mr. Alien. That must be heavy, huh?"
Hibiki replied, "I can manage."
Dita smiled, "You're dependable, Mr. Alien. Here, take this one too!" She offers him another food container when she spots Paiway spying on them. Hibiki's eyebrow twitches. Doesn't the young nurse know that it's impolite to spy on someone?
She demanded, "What are you two doing here all alone?"
Dita answered, "Nothing really. We're just here to pick up some supplies, that's all."
The nurse said skeptically, "Sounds fishy."
Dita told her, "It has nothing to do with you, Paiway. So stop bothering us!"
Paiway groaned, "Dita, don't you know what day it is?"
The red-haired Dread pilot looked at her dumbfounded, "Day? I don't know." Seeing that Dita has no clue what Paiway is talking about, she leaves them alone.
Hibiki face faulted, "I just don't get her at all!" Dita giggles from his description about the nurse.
At the bridge, Parfet looks through her telescope and spots a bright dot, the ID signature confirms it as the all-female planet, Mejale.
Magno asked, "So Parfet, how far do you think we are?"
The lead engineer replied, "Well, based on our present course and speed I'd say we are halfway there. Or it could be that the Harvesters have already gotten there and harvested everyone." She laughs like a maniac but stops when she notices that none of the bridge personnel are laughing.
BC glared at her, "This isn't the time for jokes, Parfet. This is serious." Nathan sits on the bench in the Nirvana's garden relaxing after doing a strenuous workout earlier. The main reason for that is because of the events of last night kept playing in his head so Nathan decided to do a hard workout to get rid of it.
He then hears his radio that Parfet handed to him ring and Meia's name shows up on the caller ID.
He brought it up to his ear and said, "Nathan here. What is it, Meia?"
Meia explained, "Our long-range scanners have picked up an unidentified ship not from our position. I would like you to come take a look at the pictures we were able to develop."
Nathan nodded, "I'm on my way." He ends the communication and stands up then turns around to head for the briefing room.
Hibiki walks to the kitchen with 4 crates of food stacked on top one of each other. While he was strong thanks to the training Nagase put him through, the combined weight of the crates made him wobble around. Suddenly he loses his footing and falls onto the ground causing a door to open up. He unintentionally looks at the bridge bunny Celtic changing out of her bear suit. Hibiki's face turns red seeing the aqua marine-haired girl in just her undergarments. He runs away as fast as he can when Celtic screams, barely missing Nathan who presses himself against the wall to prevent being crashed into. Nathan blinks in confusion about why Hibiki running like a bat out of hell.
Meanwhile, Bart is sitting on a bed in the infirmary while Duero types away on the computer and Snow leans against the wall.
Bart said, "So you see, doc no matter how hard I try the crew still treats me like a stranger! What do you think I should do, Snow?"
Snow explained, "You should confront them about this. Once you find out what it is that's bothering them about you, Bart then you can start thinking about what you can do to get them to trust you more."
'Hm, what should I do?' Bart thought as he rubs his chin.
Nathan is about halfway toward the briefing room when he hears a commotion going on inside the room next to him so the young Osean enters.
He asked, "Something happened?"
Celtic replied angrily, "That man saw me change clothes!" Nathan keeps his eyes on the girl's face and ignores the fact that she is almost naked, the only thing keeping others from viewing her maturing body is the bear suit but it doesn't help if one views her from behind.
Nathan explained, "I think what happened is that Hibiki was holding those food crates on top one another and those crates prevented him from seeing where he is going. He then lost his footing and tripped, causing your door to open. It was an accident, Celtic. Hibiki didn't do it on purpose. It's not like he touched you because he just bolted right out of there the moment you screamed." He turned to Barnette, "Can you tell me what Paiway is accusing Hibiki of, Barnette?"
Barnette replied, "She's saying that Dita was crying because Hibiki hurt her. Here, Paiway took a picture of it." Taking the picture into his hand, Nathan takes a closer look.
He found the culprit, "I think Paiway wasn't looking at the whole picture. The reason behind Dita's crying was that she was chopping onions, it's a common reaction. It happened to me numerous times whenever I cooked. Hibiki was asking Dita what was wrong out of genuine concern, not the way you were thinking, Paiway. Today happens to be the anniversary Paiway joined the crew and Dita and Hibiki were in the supply room to pick up ingredients to make an exquisite meal for the celebration. Now what kind of photos you wanted to show me, Meia?"
She handed him the photos, "Here there are." Examining them, Nathan quickly discovers that the ship is of familiar design.
He said, "This is an Osean supercarrier. What is it doing around these parts?"
Meia stated, "We don't know. It hasn't attacked us yet so we haven't retaliated."
Nathan cried, "Hm, I see. My squad and I will head out to confront the carrier and ask its purpose for being in the vicinity." Quickly donning their g-suits, the squad heads for their fighter jets and are joined by Hibiki. The machines head out.
For a while everything is quiet until the F-15E Strike Eagle sends out a warning of incoming fire, forcing them to evade. A beam grazes the armor on the Vanguard's left elbow and the armor starts to glow red-hot and melt from the intense heat, to make matters worse they hear the missile warning and take evasive action. Blaze releases chaff to disrupt the missile's radar and the projectile deviates from the its current course and explodes.
The captain of the flagship ordered, "Identify those strange craft!"
A bridge operator replied, "The robot doesn't show up on our database but the black jets accompanying it are the Ghosts of Razgriz, sir."
The captain's eyes widened, "What? The Ghosts of Razgriz? So they did survive that explosion just like he said." Blaze suddenly senses that a familiar presence on board the Osean supercarrier.
The communication officer on the ship said, "Sir, we're receiving a transmission from the lead F-15E Strike Eagle."
The man ordered, "Patch it through."
Blaze's concealed face appeared on a monitor, "This is Blaze of Razgriz Squadron to the supercarrier. May I speak with the captain?"
The man said, "You're looking at him. My name is Dave Anderson, son of former naval captain Nicholas Anderson. I am the captain of the Kestrel II."
Blaze cried, "Hm. So Dave, is someone by the name of Jack Bartlett on that ship?" The said man steps into view.
Barnett grinned, "How have you been, Kid?"
His pupil did the so-so gesture, "Besides discovering that we have been transported to a solar system where two planets are at war with each other to determine which gender is superior, being on a ship with a crew composed almost entirely of Mejalian space pirates and fighting off an enemy that wants to harvest our bodily organs, peachy." Dave allows Razgriz Squadron to land on the Kestrel II's flight deck while the captain of the other fleet orders his ships to cease fire.
Bartlett meets up with Razgriz Squadron in the hanger and sees them climbing out of their fighters.
Bartlett smirked, "Hi, Kid. It's been a while since we saw each other."
Nathan chuckled, "Try a century. How did you get here?"
His mentor explained, "Some entity called the Paksis informed me that you were fighting an enemy known as the Harvesters alongside the Nirvana and that you needed the assistance of a veteran pilot like yours truly. After digesting what it told me, I made my decision and it transported me along with the crew of the Kestrel II here." Hibiki lands on the flagship of the unknown fleet and is brought to the ship's bridge where he meets the captain.
He apologized, "Sorry about what happened out here. We're doing our best not to be harvested your planet must be facing the same crisis, right? Instead of waiting for it to happen we've decided to set up a line of defense and fight to the bitter end. Oh, forgive me for not introducing myself. My name is Sean and as you can see, I command this ship and the fleet."
Hibiki asked, "What planet do you guys come from?"
Sean answered, "We are from the planet Melanus." A while later, Hibiki stands in the hanger looking at the gaping hole in his Vanguard's right arm then touches the cut on his own. Suddenly a female mechanic approaches him.
She had short dark brown hair, blue eyes, donned a headband, stood possibly around 5'8 or 5'9, pale skin and wore a purple and white mechanic suit.
She said, "Hello, my name is Seran! What's yours, stranger?"
Hibiki replied, "It's Hibiki, Hibiki Tokai." Seran sprays some disinfectant on the wound that stung a little and wrapped it with her headband.
Another voice joined in, "Hello there." Hibiki and Seran turned their heads to see the male leader of the Melanus squadron and he continued, "Sorry for attacking you earlier. Your machine sustained some damage from our encounter. We have some of the best mechanics and they can repair that baby in no time." Hibiki lends a hand since he too has experience in maintaining his Vanguard but they first take a break. Seran hands him a can filled with some kind of drink.
The man urged, "Come on, it's not like it's poison though I can't guarantee about the taste." He adds a wink to it.
Seran scolded, "Hey, don't think you are off the hook, Ted! You drink some as well!" She handed him a can as well.
Hibiki narrowed his eyes, "Sorry if this is a personal question but have guys known each other."
Seran nodded, "Yeah, we have known each other since the day we were born and we'll be always be together no matter what."
Hibiki took a sip of the drink but immediately spat it out, "Yuck! What's in here?"
The female mechanic informed, "It's a drink filled with vitamins and herbs. It's good for your skin."
Hibiki blinked, "My skin?"
Ted nodded sternly, "Yeah, we discovered that the enemy is targeting us for our skin." Inside the Kestrel II's kitchen, Nathan and Bartlett share a drink.
Upon taking a sip of his drink, Nathan asked, "What's going on between you and Nastasya? Have you two reconciled?"
Bartlett sighed, "Well, we did reconcile but after a week of trying to form the relationship we once had before she broke my heart, we both concluded that things weren't exactly the way they use to be so we decided to go our separate ways. We still keep in touch with each other though."
Nathan teased, "Maybe because you're getting old."
His mentor shot him a playful glare, "Watch it, Kid. I may have turned 43 years old recently but I can still kick your ass."
Nathan laughed, "I'd love to see you try." The alarm on both ships go off and inside the Melanus flagship's hanger, a monitor displays the incoming enemy fleet.
Hibiki saw the huge ship in the center of the group, "What is that?"
Seran stated, "That's a Harvest flagship. They're really powerful!"
Hibiki cried, "Hold up, are you saying that you have been fighting that behemoth this whole time?"
The female mechanic told him, "If we didn't we would have been harvested by now. But that's not going to happen, we will fight to the bitter end!" Razgriz Squadron and Bartlett hop into their respective aircraft but Hibiki stays behind to help Seran finish repairs on his Vanguard, when the repairs are complete an explosion rocks the ship sending Seran falling off the platform and crash onto the floor severely injuring her. Hibiki attempts to wake her but he can't find a pulse meaning that she's dead. He sits there on his knees like he was in another world.
The Harvest fleet continues to exchange fire with the Kestrel II and its escorts.
The Melanus captain barked, "Don't fall back! We need to show our enemy what we're made of!" Hibiki arrives in his Vanguard.
He wondered, "Do people really die as easily as she did?" He screams in rage and downs any cube-types that come near him.
Blaze orders his wing men to disperse in groups of 2.
The Kestrel II's anti-air fire fills outer space as they try to shoot down enemy bombers. The rounds tear off one of the Tu-160s' right wing off like paper, the bomber disintegrates further as more AA fire fills its body with holes. Meanwhile, it fires a full broadside of its nine 14"/50 caliber guns stationed on its flight decks at a Seed Ship, annihilating the enemy vessel.
Blaze lines up on an enemy MiG-21's tail for an AIM-9X Sidewinder, after hearing the tone of the missile he fires, the Sidewinder follows the enemy's heat signature with accuracy and destroys the MiG-21. Eying the radar, he turns his F-15E Strike Eagle towards his next and switches to the AIM-120D.
Edge fires the M61 Vulcan Gatling gun on a MiG-19 and the enemy fighter blows up. Shots from another MiG-19's NR-30 cannon makes her take evasive action and a game of tag ensues, only this tag ends in death. Edge barrel rolls when her enemy fires its cannon again.
Edge chuckled, "It'll take more than that to defeat me!" Turning her fighter around, Edge destroys the MiG with an AIM-120D AMRAAM. Suddenly the young woman hears an alarm sound and whips her head around to witness something she'll never forget.
After trashing another cube-type, Hibiki said, "Come on! Who wants to be next?" The captain of the Melanus flagship orders his fleet to follow Hibiki but then the Harvest flagship charges up its main cannon and fires. The rest of Razgriz Squadron, Bartlett and the Kestrel II pull out of the way, the group watches in horror as the enemy blasts the Melanus fleet to smithereens.
Blaze ordered, "Guys, we need to head back to the Nirvana immediately. There's no way we can win right now, they outnumber us 10-1."
Dave contacted him, "Blaze, lead us the way back to this Nirvana you speak of." Nodding, he leads the group away from the remains of the Melanus fleet. Dozens of brave soldiers extinguished in the blink of an eye.
'Looks like we're in for one hell of a battle.' Swordsman thought with certainty.
A/N: Chapter 12 done.
I've decided to bring Bartlett in.
The Kestrel II looks the same as the Kestrel in terms of appearance but it's bigger and more advanced in technology.
To those who don't know, a supercarrier is a term given to the largest aircraft carrier that has a displacement of usually over 70,000 tons. The United States currently has 11 of these ships. A prime example would be the supercarrier U.S.S. Enterprise (CVN-65).
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Stay tuned for chapter 13.
Vader 23A