Chapter 3

"What's going on?" When Simon strode onto the bridge, nothing indicated the wounds he had sustained in powering and sustaining the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann. Even without him, the supermassive generators of the ship could easily sustain it, even if its universal teleportation required him. Viral had informed him that he was needed on the bridge, so he was needed, it was that simply.

Getting here had been admittedly a bit awkward, the distance from the ship's core to the command center could be counted in the thousands of miles, which even with a gunman would take a while to traverse. Luckily the ship possessed hundreds of teleporter boxes, some not large than a cabin and some as big as whole cities - the later was likely for the battle fleets and literal mountains of equipment and war machines it produced during the first great spiral war - that could bring him to any place he wished on the planet sized ship and factory.

Of course he felt the tremors that went through the ship, especially when he was whisked from deep within the core to the bridge. The shaking was far worse here than deep within, where he was protected by armor hundreds of miles thick, and planet collision shields to rely upon. If he had to guess it came from the tens of thousands of anti ship batteries firing, with the bigger ones being the planet crackers.

Just some guesses though, not like they had had this ship for long.

The bridge itself was in surprisingly good shape considering that fact. Rossiu, Leeron and Lordgenome had put in good work, though he was definitely going to have a more thorough talk concerning the last bit with Rossiu. Over a lot of things to be honest. But that was for later.

There was a chorus of "Supreme Commander" in the air from the various crew, with a couple even saluting, though they stopped at his raised eyebrow. Thudding guns nearby caused several to flinch, the vibrations felt like quakes.

"Viral had informed me of aliens...?" The concept was less of a shock than it should have been, or rather would have been a couple days ago. Being attacked by them tended to do that. Plus it stood to reason that where earth had survived the initial wrath of the anti-spiral, so would other civilisations.

"Yes, two kind of aliens in fact." Leeron's arms were crossed as he observed the faraway screens showing the wide area of space around them, and Simon had to whistle at the sight. There had to be tens of thousands of alien ships out there, made out of dark chitin and flesh,- if he had to guess from a glance. Both in size and number they compared to some of the earlier Mugann fleets.

Before they brought out the big ugly ships, ones looking like giant people pressed together into worm like shapes, big enough to crush even gas giants with their sheer size.

In the moment they tried to rush towards them, only to be met by a literal wall of plasma and lasers, barrages fit to sterilize whole worlds in mere seconds ripping through them with ease, though some of the large ones managed to take quite some punishment. Great laser enfilades, hot and bright enough that the uniformed could have mistaken them for solar flares, burned through their massive bulks with the stricken bioships shuddering as if they were some kind of animal.

Honestly, they might be. Who could say when it came to aliens? But still, that was only one alien race...

"You mentioned two?" So far the screens were mostly showing the ones they had engaged in combat.

Without needing to give the order, half a dozen screens switched, showing projections of ships in orbit, from ram-like ships decorated with ribs and icons, to blocky craft sporting tiny wings, some small and looking like they were gilded, others large enough to rival the warships. Most were drifting hulks, burnt out or ripped apart into debris fields, but a handful were still alive. Barely, one grouping had their engines sputtering to stay lit, another was venting air as it careened away from the fleet.

Simon squinted, seeing that one grouping was clustering around a lone ship, their various guns unleashing a hailstorm of fire against any foe who got too close. It was accurate too, he spied a swarm of smaller bug ships trying to veer around the escorts, some even getting close to the protected ship. Precise shots nailed each one before they could harm the ship, causing no further damage to its already scarred hull.

"That the one Kittan is on?" Simon was hardly a genius, but it didn't take one to decipher where and why that covering fire came from. More than once he could see even just what could be reasonably be called fighters be simply erased from existence by cannons meant to shear apart mountain sized warships. Or who could have such accuracy to aim such shots and not accidentally hit their charge.

"Yeah. Also, ummm…" Cybela fidgeted for some reason. "Technically…. he fired the first shot. So we started the hostilities."

Simon simply grunted in acknowledgement. "Show me that planet then."

Screens blinked on, showing that the world was burning. Thousands upon thousands of bioships were still above it, raining down bombardment on its surface, upon what had to be gigantic cities, arcologies in the style of the center of Kamina city, only almost immeasurably bigger. Eyeballing it, a whole sixth of the planet was…. just on fire.

He closed his eyes for a moment.

"Open comms to all ships, of both alien species. Use all frequencies we can detect. Lordgenome…" He couldn't help but have some distaste in his mouth when he addressed the man, who almost had Nia crushed to death while laughing, the man who abandoned his own daughter and kept all of humanity in caves.

And he did not care that he was technically not the same person.

"Have you decoded their language?" He was supposedly a bio computer now, after all.

The irony of using a severed head to pilot a super advanced starship was not lost on him.

Said head simply chuckled. "At least for the aliens with the blocky church ships. Their language is similar to humans in a lot of ways and their decryption is no match for the technologies of ancient humanity. Course, so far I've only used them so that your local stripper here-" How he managed to push his chin towards Yoko without a neck, Simon had no idea. "Threaten extreme violence towards any and all who didn't treat her boy toy with gloves."

Simon coughed a little, glancing over to Yoko and if she would react in her usual manner to such obvious provocation, only for her to ignore the former spiral king and favor of smiting even more bug ships.

Still, Lordgenome did sound irritated, for some reason? Could it be his lack of male parts to appreciate Yoko's outfits? Calling her a stripper was rude….. but Yoko did show more skin than not so it wasn´t really inaccurate.

Was taking satisfaction out of the 'annoyance' of an former enemy petty and perhaps uncalled for?

Perhaps, but Simon did so anyway.

"Why haven't you put their calls and messages through then?"

"Because it's just mostly a whole bunch of screaming, how the things are in the walls, they are using the vents, they're being digested alive, lots and lots of begging for some emperor to save them… " The man rolled his eyes. "I assumed that the noises of hundreds of thousands of people dying various horrible deaths would be more distracting than aiding."

…Right.

"Put me through then. Translate my voice."

For a moment, Simon felt his good old power course through him and his eyes glowed green, before he pressed down his anger, fueling it into his voice.

"You all out there! Aliens who so assault this world! These people! I do not know what has happened for this war to exist, but to attack civilians? To burn down an inhabited world?" He snarled, crossing his arms over his chest, his cape waving behind him. "JUST WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?! I am Simon! Leader of Team Dai-Gurren! Supreme commander of all of humanity! And I will not stand aside for such atrocities! Cease all combat or face the consequences!"

There was silence for a moment as Simon stared out into the emptiness of space, the Super Galaxy Gurren Lagann's massive broadsides still shearing apart alien ships in their thousands.

"Hmmm, seems like the closest ships are trying to respond." Lordgenome chuckled for some reason, before a click was heard as the line went on.

"Thank the Emperor you are human!" Through the translator he heard that the speaker was a woman, one with an actually pretty voice. Huh, Simon had expected an alien to have a different type of voice…. also what was that about being human? "We had thought you xenos! Please, I beg and plead to you, Lord Supreme Commander! We're in mortal danger, our fleet is carrying refugees from the Calim 4, including several high ranking nobles, such as myself! By the Emperor, help us!"

Pretty or not, her odd pronunciation sounding weird, there was no mistaking the desperation in her voice…. plus a rather commanding tone, despite the obvious power imbalance between them.

"Noble, huh?" Viral had been quiet so far, a certain level of interest entering in this voice.

"If you help us, you will have the eternal gratitude of House Sperro, by way of myself, you may call me Catalina. I assure you, my House can offer you many great boons." She went on, trying to sound like she was making a business deal, although the panicky tone was making her sound even more desperate than before. "Anything you desire, my House will provide! We-" He heard her shriek for a moment and he could hear what sounded vaguely like gunfire in the background.

As well as a very, very familiar voice cursing.

"We have taken in your princeps pilot! We will give him the very best of aid! Please!"

"We're on our way, just hold on for a bit." Simon whipped around to the crew, pleased to see the determination on their faces. "We're not shooting that close to them, that's begging to catch some within the explosions. I'll need some backup. The rest of you, keep hammering the bugs."

While they were easily enough dealing with the ships that were out in space, there were many that were near ships or space stations and orbitals that would be caught in the crossfire. Or rather, given that this ship's weapons could very much ignore distance, they´d be caught in the explosions.

Despite the entire situation Simon's gaze was still captured by Yoko bolting upright, her cape fluttering around her. This also made her body stand out in sharp relief, but he focused his eyes on her face, unlike most of the male crew. One look at her narrowed expression and he recognized that she wasn't taking no for an answer. After a second several others rose, forcing the same look on their faces.

"Last thing….." Simon halted for a moment. "Any sign of the anti-spirals or their mugann puppets?" He had honestly expected to be attacked by them by now. There was no place in the universe outside of their reach.

"Nothing."

"Very well." Something to be explored in greater detail later.

:::::::::::::

As always, the Lagann's cockpit came with a sense of familiarity, it and the machines it was nestled within glowing with power. The Gurren beneath it, and the Arc Gurren it controlled, flashed a green light in its eyes. The massive space gunman stomped out of its launch bay, preparing to launch itself into the void.

"Ready Viral?" Simon gripped the controls, feeling the machine around him surging.

"Always. Seeing as you insist on using overkill." Viral barbed back, flexing his arms in preparation while flashing his sharp teeth.

"Look around, we need the extra firepower this time." Simon glanced at the display, seeing his allies readying themselves as well. Sorthy, Jorgun and Balinbow, and Yoko were going to follow him, Kidd and Iraak were hanging back in case anything got past the ship's guns.

"Did I disagree?" Anything further had to wait, the Arc Gurren shot away from the Super Galaxy Dai Gurren.

The Arc Gurren shuddered a second, then a rumble translated into a dull roar that filled his cockpit. Inertial dampers -or whatever Leeron had called the devices- kept the tremendous speeds from turning him into paste, and more importantly propelled the enormous gunman into the fray. Raising arms the size of skyscrapers, Simon clenched fists that would have fitted the old Dai-Gurren with room to spare, opening gun ports and taking aim.

Beams of green power scythed through a bioship that dwarfed even the Arc Gurren, cleaving it apart in a dazzling rain of flash boiled gore. Smaller creatures evaporated wholesale, simply easing to exist after he cast his beams over them.

While Yoko was swerving around to blow up another bioship, another blast of bright red blew apart a smaller bug swarm ahead of them. The fleet was still in action, using the opportunity they provided to renew their defense. Streams of red beams and streaks of missiles slammed into the swarm, taking out thousands in minutes. Whether or not they were motivated by inadequacy, their aid was doing wonders to clear out the space around them, keeping the monsters from finishing off the refugees.

However, the bugs' numbers were still considerable. Even with their attacks and the barrage from the refugees, the swarm could amass a huge number of attackers, more than enough to strike at both factions simultaneously.

And that wasn't the only problem. From here Simon could peer at the planet, seeing that its surface wasn't a sprawling mess. He could make out lines of concentric bands around mountains, even bathed in flames he saw the continent sized layouts. An entire hemisphere was devoted to cityscape, the sheer level of planning needed to make that possible boggled his mind.

Actually, there was something on his mind. A weight pressed against him, not on his body but like there was a heavy blanket being laid over his mind, thick and stifling and… he heard something, like a screech but constant, droning, endless…

He tapped his head. "Viral, anything on your end?"

"Nothing aside from this." Another beam lanced a medium sized bioship, blowing it in half. The Arc Gurren blew through its remains, a fist jabbing forward to punch the next monster, ripping it apart. "Head in the game Simon, you sent us out here."

Simon shook his head. That buzzing was getting a bit quieter, weird.

At a glance, the people here weren't giving away their world. Zooming in let him see that wherever the bugs on the ground were, flashes of fire both big and small were hitting them back. Even if that meant resorting to extreme methods, like seeing a big cluster of lights suddenly bloom in a single explosion. That blast swallowed an entire chunk of lines at once, putting the defenders in danger but taking countless invaders with them in the process.

Simon gripped the controls. "Yeah, to help these people. So let's get this done."

This time he slew the next one, the Arc Gurren's fist ripped through its chitinous hide into its guts. Its gore tried eating through the hull, it was apparently a potent acid. Nasty stuff, he had to keep using spiral power to repair the damage.

Oh well, he could take it.