The Pirate's Soldier

by operation meteor

Heero's career as a Preventers operative takes a strange turn when he gets caught up in a fight between a Juraian royal and a notorious space pirate. As the two alien beauties settle in with him on Earth and more soon follow, the former Gundam pilot soon finds himself to be the target of their affections, with a certain lovely outlaw at the front of the pack! M for some language.

33. Chapter 33

Author's Notes: Hello there! Hope everyone's doing well. I've been… well, better, I guess. Spent all of October being sick, but that's finally past. Still a bit more stressed than I'd rather be this time of year, car's in for a bout of rather expensive service right now, so I have to worry about that on top of the holiday shopping and some other stuff. On the bright side, did burn some paid time off this month, took a few short breaks and long weekends to get my head cleared, definitely helped.

Lots of action ahead in this chapter, and if you think the space battle here's big, there's bigger to come!

Enjoy!

Chapter Thirty-Three: No Need For An All-Out Assault!

That star system RP-X378529 showed no signs of activity when Duo's fighter exited its FTL jump immediately raised alarm bells for the former Gundam pilot. Immediately activating his fighter's cloaking device, he made a more thorough check of his sensor display while flying towards the gas giant whose planetary ring system housed the third repository. Sure enough, he could not find any sign of Kagato's forces.

They had a head start on us, he thought, so if they're not already here, then it means they jumped to a point just outside the system like we did. Bastard's waiting for us to punch through the defenses, then he'll come in behind and take advantage of our hard work. I know that scenario was accounted for in the briefings, but that won't make it any easier to deal with.

"Son of a bitch…" he muttered before shaking his head, "Ah, whatever. It is what it is. Time to get to work."

Double checking the cloaking system, he gunned the throttle and made a beeline for the gas giant's ring system. His fighter's sensors quickly began lighting up as they detected the first layer of the repository's outer defenses, and Duo wasted no time in marking the high-yield plasma cannons as top priority targets. His eyes widened as he realized just how many his sensors were already tracking.

"Holy shit," he murmured, "Washu, you really don't know the meaning of the word 'overkill,' do you?"

His display was showing dozens of the heavy weapons in just a small patch of the outermost ring alone, and that was not all the fighter's sensors were picking up. Already, scores of lighter plasma cannons mounted on chunks of rock and ice were showing up, and clusters of even smaller contacts popping up on his display indicated that Duo had found the first of what were no doubt many minefields. The ones directly along the repository approach vector would be prime targets for his fighter's ionic pulse missiles.

He whistled as he went about his work. "Well, I guess if I had to guard the keys to a weapon that could wipe out all life on multiple planets, I wouldn't skimp on security. Even so, this is going to be a damn nightmare to deal with."

Cautiously proceeding into the ring system and continuing to mark targets, Duo noted that his sensors were not picking up any deployed drones. It made sense; Washu's defenses were still designed to keep a relatively low profile, so the drones were likely programmed to remain in their concealed hangars until sensors positioned in the ring system detected a threat and the stationary guns could not neutralize it.

"Can't see the repository itself yet," Duo remarked as he peered through the cockpit window, "but according to Washu's data, this is the right approach vector. Better start finding those drone hangars and getting them marked, too. Can't have the little buggers ambushing us."

Continuing his mission, Duo could not help but be impressed by the vista before him despite the abundant danger. The holographic displays during the planning sessions really had not done the system justice. Now that he was seeing it up close and personal, Duo had to admire the breathtaking sight of the gas giant. It was a massive ball of swirling blue and purple clouds, and as Duo took his fighter above the rings, he marveled at how the light of the star system's primary seemed to turn them into dazzling sheets of white and grey.

It's honestly a shame that we'll be having a battle here, he mused, I wouldn't mind flying around just taking in the view. Ah, well. War has no time for beauty appreciation. Better keep my eyes on the ball.

Humming a mellow tune, he dove back into the rings.

….

"Time to reversion?" Heero asked as the kaleidoscopic maelstrom of FTL space whirled outside his cockpit.

"Thirty seconds," Eva replied promptly.

"Duo's targeting data?" Heero inquired.

"Updated and locked in," Eva confirmed with a wink, "I checked it three times alone in the last 1.89 seconds."

Heero resisted the urge to smirk. "Showoff."

"An AI girl needs to have her fun when she can," Eva countered with a chuckle before becoming serious again, "Fifteen seconds. I have the plasma cannons closest to your reversion point designated as top priority targets. Do what you do best, Heero."

Heero nodded. "Roger that."

The fighter came out of FTL a few seconds later, just at the edge of the gas giant's ring system. As the rest of Eve Squadron and the Juraian fighters capable of FTL began popping up around him, Heero was already charging the two heavy cannons slung beneath his fighter and locking onto the nearest target.

"Plasma cannon acquired," he murmured before squeezing the trigger.

Twin rivers of golden-yellow energy raced through space in a flash, going straight down the barrel of the heavy plasma cannon they'd targeted. There was a brilliant glow from within the weapon before it went up in a spectacular detonation just a split-second later, sending shards of metal and rock flying everywhere. Heero had no time to enjoy the show, though; multiple cockpit alarms were ringing as other emplacements began targeting him. At the same time, his already-crowded sensor display was quickly filling up with small crimson dots as Washu's automated defenses immediately recognized the threat and began deploying drones from their concealed hangars.

"Targeting solution for second plasma cannon locked in," Eva announced, "but we've got a lot of company inbound!"

"The others will handle that," Heero said as he let fly with his next salvo and obliterated the target, "We have our priorities, and they have theirs."

Indeed, Heero's companions were already living up to his words. A spray of scarlet beams filled space around him as Ryo-Ohki cut loose, with at least a dozen drones being melted in just her opening barrage. As Heero took his fighter through a series of twists and turns to evade fire from both the heavy and lighter emplacements, he caught sight of Trowa unleashing a massive barrage of cluster missiles, their submunitions rapidly spreading out before lighting up the battlefield with a broad string of detonations which destroyed not only scores of drones but also put a serious dent in the outermost of the ring system's minefields. Then came Quatre and Wufei, with the former going high while the latter went low, each opening fire in unison to catch the survivors of Trowa and Ryo-Ohki's attacks in a withering and precise storm of plasma.

"Where's Duo?" Heero asked as he locked in on his third target.

"Deep in the rings," Eva replied when Heero pulled the trigger and blasted the plasma cannon to pieces, "There are new target markers showing up there every second, so that must be him."

Heero nodded. "Does he have eyes on the repository?"

"I'll send a transmission," Eva offered while the fighter shuddered as plasma bolts splashed against its shields, "You just focus on flying."

"Thanks," Heero said.

A series of thick orange-red beams filled the void as several of the heavy emplacements opened fire. Their target appeared to be the Yagami, but Kiyone and Mihoshi had the patrol cruiser going through a series of wild evasive maneuvers, so while some of the beams came uncomfortably close to the crimson vessel, none of them actually connected. Still, the very threat was incentive for Heero to redouble his efforts, and he plunged headlong towards the next target while his comrades flooded the space around him with beams, missiles, and bullets to keep the ever-growing swarms of drones off his back. Heero was rather relieved when he saw the amount of blue contacts on his sensor steadily increasing; the Juraian squadrons were flooding into the system now.

As Heero destroyed another of the heavy emplacements, he heard a familiar female voice come over his cockpit speakers. "Mind if we join the party, Your Highness?"

"Major Morimoto," Heero acknowledged as he saw the ovoid Tempest space superiority fighters of the 232nd Fighter Wing advance to catch up with him, "I'd appreciate the assistance."

"I'll send them your targeting data and designate priority ones for them," Eva chimed in, "The sooner we clear out those heavy guns, the sooner our battle groups can start jumping in."

"Right," Heero murmured as he side-slipped a blast of plasma before returning fire, reducing another heavy emplacement to bits of rubble, "Major, are you receiving?"

"Affirmative," Usagi answered, "Moving for our attack run now. 248th, 261st; cover us!"

While Heero moved on to his next target, with Eve Squadron continuing to provide supporting fire against the drones, he saw the 232nd's elements let fly with a volley of heavy anti-ship plasma torpedoes. The ordinance pummeled three of the heavy emplacements, with two crumbling outright under the barrage while the third had its barrel completely melted and rendered inoperable. Despite the torpedoes being intended for use against warships, as their classification stated, they were still proving to be quite effective against Washu's nasty anti-ship artillery.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Juraian Tempest squadrons were fanning out. Some followed the 232nd's lead in targeting Washu's heavy weapons emplacements, while others were firmly dedicated to drone suppression. Volleys of plasma torpedoes from the former tore the massive artillery pieces asunder, while torrents of bolts flying from each fighter's eight rapid-fire energy cannons shredded any drones that came under them in the blink of an eye. The exchanges were not completely one-sided, though. While Eve Squadron and the Juraians were pressing forward at a rapid rate, Washu's defenses were already concentrating for counterattacks. Individual Tempest fighters found themselves swarmed by drones, either falling under the weight of their plasma cannons or from the drones hurling themselves directly into the craft and detonating. Fire from the heavy plasma cannons might have been failing to hit the Yagami, but any Juraian fighter unlucky enough to be in the path of those thick beams was instantly annihilated.

And we're just the vanguard, Heero reminded himself as he destroyed another anti-ship cannon, Our fleet, not to mention Kagato's forces, have yet to enter the fray. This day's going to get a lot bloodier before it's over.

"Update from Duo," Eva announced, "He has eyes on the repository."

Heero nodded as he blew apart two drones with volleys from his lighter energy cannons before angling to get his heavy guns on the next anti-ship weapon. "Show me."

One of his displays shifted, revealing the giant octahedron monolith from the briefings in all its ominous glory. Its dark grey surface gleamed in the light of the system's primary, and it utterly dwarfed both the chunks of ice and rock around it along with all the cannons that Washu had set up as its innermost line of defense. Even humanity's space colonies paled in comparison to the monoliths size and grandeur, even more so when one remembered that it housed the next key to a weapon of apocalyptic power.

Heero's eyes narrowed as he saw glowing red lines begin to appear across the monolith's surface. "What are those?"

"The monolith has its own dedicated defenses," Eva explained, "Those lines that you're seeing are plasma canals. In basic terms, energy flows through them like a river, ready to be released outwards the instant a target comes in range."

"The stand down codes Washu provided will neutralize them, right?" Heero asked.

"They will," Eva confirmed, "but remember, you or one of the others has to get within thirty kilometers before you can transmit those codes. The plasma that's launched from those canals has an effective range of roughly ninety kilometers before its dispersion becomes too great."

Countless small crimson dots began appearing on the display, surrounding the monolith within that ninety-kilometer range as Eva continued. "These are the final defense platforms. They're mostly concentrated around anti-fighter defense. You'll have to plow through them and the drones while dodging the plasma waves."

Heero nodded. "Figures. Thanks."

"There's something else," Eva added as Heero destroyed his next target, "Duo's recon data indicates mines mixed in with the defense platforms. They're smaller than the ones we've seen so far, so they'll have less of a payload, but it also means their maneuvering thrusters will make them much more agile and difficult to shake."

"Of course," Heero muttered as he banked hard to the right, evading a swarm of plasma bolts from the horde of drones before him, "Washu just had to double down on the mines. At least we know what to watch out for."

Eva smirked. "Wouldn't be a mission for you if it was easy, right?"

"Exactly," Heero concurred as he dove further into the maelstrom.

….

"Brace yourself!" Kiyone called out as she banked the patrol cruiser as hard as she could, "This one's going to be close!"

Even with the warning and being thoroughly strapped in, Mihoshi was nearly thrown clear of her seat as the ship's emergency maneuvering thrusters were pushed for all that they were worth. It was hardly a graceful move by any means, but as a massive blast of orange-red energy flashed past the Yagami by what must have been mere meters to spare, Mihoshi wasn't about to complain.

As Mihoshi let out a sigh of relief, she heard Heero's voice come over the cockpit speakers. "You okay back there?"

"We're fine!" she chirped with somewhat forced cheer; the last thing Mihoshi wanted was for her fiancé to worry even more than he already was, even if she was understandably spooked by the close call.

Kiyone had no patience for such considerations, preferring brutal honesty. "We'll be a lot better once you've taken out those cannons!"

"Working on it," Heero replied, "but stay on your toes."

Peering at the forward monitory, Mihoshi saw a flash of golden-yellow light, followed by a satisfying explosion as Heero destroyed the cannon that had taken the shot at them. At the same time, another heavy anti-ship emplacement was crumbling under a volley of plasma torpedoes from the Juraian Tempest squadrons, further clearing a path deeper into the gas giant's ring system for the Yagami.

That did not mean their troubles were over, as the flashing sensor display indicated to Mihoshi. "More drones coming in, above and below!"

"Get the topside guns on them!" Kiyone ordered before addressing the bounty hunter who had been flying beneath them since reversion, "Nagi, earn your keep down there!"

"Calm down, Detective," Nagi deadpanned, sounding almost bored, "We've got this. Right, partner?"

"Meow!" came Ken-Ohki's enthusiastic cheer as he let fly with a barrage of violet beams, tearing into the approaching drones with vicious vigor.

As Nagi dealt with the lower threat, Mihoshi concentrated on the upper. The patrol cruiser's point defense guns were normally set to operate autonomously, capable of engaging targets as long as friend and foe parameters had already been set. Mihoshi had made sure the targeting software was still programmed to include Washu's drones as hostiles, but it did not hurt to manually oversee their operation and confirm that they were performing efficiently. Indeed, orangish-yellow beams were flying forth from the turrets at a rapid rate, picking off the incoming drones with pinpoint accuracy. The Yagami did shudder under scattered plasma impacts from some of the attackers, with one of the drones actually plowing into the vessel and detonating against its shields, but so far, the cruiser's protection was holding strong.

"We're good up top," she reported after a moment.

"Keep an eye out and make sure it stays that way," Kiyone ordered, "We're getting into the thick of the rings now."

"The first battle group should be coming in soon, right?" Mihoshi inquired.

Kiyone nodded as she checked the display. "We've just about cleared out a safe zone for them. Just a few of the big guns left before they can enter. Then it's just a matter of seeing how Kagato responds."

Mihoshi smiled. "And when he does, Seniwa's fleet will get the jump on him!"

"That's the plan," Kyone confirmed as she leaned forward to concentrate on her flying, "One step at a time."

"Right," Mihoshi muttered as she checked her screen and found her fiancé's fighter taking out another heavy plasma cannon while dancing through a storm of bolts from multiple drones.

Heero, she silently pleaded, be careful. I want to walk down the aisle with you when this is all over, and then be yours and Ryoko's wedding, too.

Please, watch yourself out there.

….

"Pushy bastards," Ryoko growled as her ship shuddered under multiple plasma impacts, "Ryo-Ohki, show them how we treat their kind!"

"Meow!" her faithful steed gleefully cried out as she sent streams of scarlet energy flying in all directions.

Ryoko smiled in satisfaction as scores of drones went up like strings of firecrackers. Leaning over the console, she plunged Ryo-Ohki further into the raging furball, determined to stick to Heero's fighter like glue and cover him every step of the way.

"Get the hell away from him," Ryoko snarled as she saw a cluster of drones move towards Heero from the right flank, "Ryo-Ohki, they're next!"

Another volley of crimson beams flashed through space, and a fresh series of explosions briefly lit up the void. No sooner had the debris from those drones scattered when another group of targets presented itself, and Ryoko wasted no time in having her living starship gun them down.

Behind her, she heard Yosho grunt in approval. "So far, so good. Be careful, though; it wouldn't do to wear yourself out before we reach the repository."

"I can do this all day, old man," Ryoko quipped.

Yosho chuckled. "Truly? I envy your energy."

"You're going great, Ryoko," Hilde encouraged from further back, "You've got this!"

Ryoko grinned as she spun Ryo-Ohki between chunks of rock and ice, blasting mines and drones with wild abandon. "Damn right, I do!"

Yosho and Hilde were not her only passengers for this mission. While Ayeka and Washu were riding aboard the Yagami to keep from having more than one Juraian Royal aboard a single ship, Ryo-Ohki was playing host to two squads of Jurai's Imperial Marines. Ryoko wasn't exactly thrilled about having twenty-six soldiers crammed into her ship, but she hadn't been given a choice in the matter; Heero had insisted on a larger ground contingent for this operation, and the carrier Suzume's commanding officer had readily volunteered the ship's troops.

"Kagato's bringing his proper military forces to this fight," Heero had said prior to the operation's launching, "not hired thugs. We should expect his ground contingent to be tougher than the previous encounters."

I know you're right, Heero, Ryoko silently conceded as she cast a quick glance over her shoulder, but still, I don't like having these guys on my ship. They're too damn stiff… almost like I'm stuck riding with a bunch of cops, and not the fun ones like Mihoshi and Kiyone. At least I have your grandpa and Hilde along to liven things up a bit.

Personal distaste for Jurai's military aside, she would begrudgingly admit that having the additional support was nice. Clad in dark grey armor which, according to Washu, was quite formidable despite being inferior to what she had equipped Heero and the others with, the Marines were armed to the teeth. Sidearms, plasma burst rifles, knives and grenades were the average soldier's weapons, but there were specialist members along for the ride, too. Ryoko had seen at least two in each squad armed with a designated marksman's rifle, one with a grenade launcher, and one with a close-range scatter gun analogous to Earth's shotguns. She didn't know how much good any of that would do against the likes of Kagato or Ragyō, let alone Tokimi, but Ryoko could at least be confident that all the firepower would prove useful in dealing with the repository's internal defenses.

Ryoko suspected that the soldiers were probably less than pleased to be having a former notorious pirate flying them to their engagement zone, but to their credit, none of the Marines had so much as uttered a peep in protest when they'd boarded Ryo-Ohki. She'd heard some minor grumbling as she'd taken Ryo-Ohki through sudden evasive maneuvers or when she'd taken hits, but that was the extent of any complaints. For the most part, they seemed like professionals focusing on their job, and Ryoko could respect that.

Her thoughts were pulled away from her passengers as Heero's voice sounded. "I have my next target in sight, but it's heavily protected. I need cover."

"You got it, Heero!" Ryoko eagerly replied.

She checked the display and saw a blinking red dot appear; the next heavy anti-ship cannon. Eyes narrowing, Ryoko saw scores of drones swirling around the weapon, with dozens of them already advancing on Heero while still more poured in from the left and right flanks. Positioning Ryo-Ohki above and behind Heero, her fingers danced across the console as she designated targets.

"Light 'em up, Ryo-Ohki!" she barked a moment later.

"Meow!" her living starship acknowledged with delight as a fresh barrage of scarlet beams flew forth.

It was not just Ryo-Ohki; the rest of Eve Squadron was getting in on the action. A storm of missiles spread outwards from Trowa's fighter, creating a broad and rapidly expanding hemisphere of munitions that detonated amongst the drone swarms, destroying many of the automatons and causing still more to scatter according to pre-programmed responses. In doing so, however, they became much easier targets for the rest of Eve Squadron to attack. Precise bursts of plasma from Quatre and Wufei coming from above and below, respectively, picked off survivors with clinical efficiency. Meanwhile, the Yagami opened fire with her forward cannons, sending orange beams downrange which punched into the disorganized drone formations and sent them into further disarray. A series of purple beams flew from beneath the patrol cruiser as Nagi lent Ken-Ohki's firepower to the mix, resulting in further explosions and a rapidly expanding sphere of metallic debris.

"That work for you, Heero?" Ryoko asked with a smirk.

"It does," Heero confirmed as he sent forth a salvo with his fighter's heavy guns which reduced the targeted emplacement to bits of molten metal and rock, "Thanks for the support."

"The initial safe zone's almost cleared out," Quatre announced over the tactical channel, "Another emplacement or two and the fleet will have their space for initial deployment."

"Any sign of Kagato's forces?" asked Trowa.

"Nothing yet," Wufei answered, "He's taking his sweet time."

"He must have the system under watch," Kiyone surmised, "Once we clear out the safe zone for our fleet, he might jump in then."

"There's a good chance of that," Heero concurred, "Watch your backs, everyone. Once we clear this last line, we might have company at the rear."

Ryoko offered a predatory grin. "Front or rear, it doesn't matter; I'll take 'em all down!"

….

On the bridge of the Second Fleet's flagship carrier Ōtaka, Admiral Mayumi Fukunaga had her arms folded as she studied the holographic tactical display. The gas giant whose planetary ring system housed the third repository was presently at the center, its rings dotted with orange contact markers that represented Washu's currently known defenses, with new markers being added rapidly as the advance Juraian fighter element continued moving forward. The Juraians, including Eve Squadron, were represented by a wedge of blue contacts being driven steadily into the sea or orange markers. Behind them, a wedge of purple was growing outwards from the section of the ring system that the advanced element was attacking, representing the section of space that larger vessels would be relatively safe operating in.

Just about there, Mayumi thought, I just need you to get me a little more breathing room, Your Highness, and I can start sending some heavy hitters your way.

She had full confidence in the young prince's ability to deliver, which Mayumi found mildly surprising given just how short a time she'd known him so far. Mayumi liked to think of herself as a fair and open-minded officer, yet she was still the type who required people to consistently prove themselves to her before she would grant them such faith. It was hard to believe that she'd just met the Royal from the Outland Sector roughly a month and a half ago; it already felt like much more time had passed. Nevertheless, she had no doubt that his squadron and the fighter wings supporting them would achieve the first objective of this operation on schedule. In fact, at their present rate of advance, they were quite likely to achieve it early.

"But that's the easy part," Mayumi whispered to herself, "The real contest begins once we start jumping battle groups in. Whoever makes the first move will be in the most dangerous position…"

She tapped a key on the console before her, and the holographic image zoomed out so far that the entire star system where the operation was taking place was now represented by a single blinking red dot. Surrounding that red dot were three blue dots and a green one. These represented the Juraian Second, Fifth, and Eighth Fleets, while the green one represented the Seniwa Domain's Third Fleet along with reserve battle groups from the Domain's Fourth and Sixth Fleets. Once the designated amount of 'safe space' had been cleared, Jurai's Second Fleet would be the first to commit a battle group to support the ongoing action…

…and to serve as bait for Kagato's forces.

She'd reorganized the Second Fleet's constituent battle groups accordingly, and Second Battle Group would be playing the role of both heavy fire support and the proverbial worm on the hook for Kagato. With the full expectation that Second Battle Group would have to endure a beating before friendly reinforcements could arrive, Admiral Fukunaga had adjusted its makeup to lean heavily towards a more traditional 'battleline' force than she would normally deploy, dominated by Second Fleet's most powerful dreadnoughts, with some of the fleet's lighter carriers providing fighter cover while the much larger and more valuable fleet carriers hanging back with the Ōtaka until Mayumi judged the time right to fully commit her armada. Fifth and Eighth Fleets were similarly organized, ready to deploy either battleline or carrier groups as the situation called for. Then there was the Seniwa Domain's contingent, lying in wait until the Juraians had confirmed Kagato's forces were fully committed to action, at which point they'd jump in to cut off the most likely escape vectors and help the Juraians catch the traitor's fleet in a crossfire.

That's the plan, at least, Admiral Fukunaga thought grimly, but we'll see just how much of it survives contact with the enemy…

It was not like she was just passively waiting for Kagato's armada to show itself. As soon as the various fleets had reached their reversion points, the Juraians and Seniwans alike had dispatched scouts to hunt the surrounding space and even neighboring star systems for the enemy's fleet, all the while Admiral Fukunaga was keenly aware that the traitor's forces were no doubt doing the same with regards to her. No positive contact reports had come in yet, and for all the Admiral knew, Kagato had already found portions of her force and was simply waiting for the right chance to make his move.

Her eyes narrowed as a chime sounded from the console, and the purple wedge on the holographic display suddenly brightened; the minimum safe zone requirements had been met, which meant it was time to roll the dice.

"Second Battle Group is clear for jump!" the Admiral barked, "All remaining forces, stand by."

As the communications officer rushed to relay her orders, Mayumi's gaze did not leave the holoprojector. If any of her subordinates had been standing just a bit closer, they might have heard their Admiral whispering some rather uncharacteristic words.

"Come on, you son of a bitch… where the fuck are you hiding?"

….

"I've probably done enough scouting by now," Duo muttered as he finished a circuit around the third repository and angled towards the raging battle, "Better go help the others before they start complaining."

He'd hated sitting out the action for as long as he had, but Duo had hardly been idle. Keeping his fighter cloaked, the God of Death had been thorough in mapping out the repository's final layer of exterior defenses, and he knew just how valuable that data would be to Heero and the rest. When combined with all the defense platforms, drone hangars, and minefields that he had charted during his stealth run, Duo could quite confidently boast that this recon work was amongst his best yet.

Checking his sensors, it did not take him long to find the rest of Eve Squadron. Duo's current position was quite advantageous; he was on their line of advance, and since his fighter was still invisible, it meant that the repository's drone swarms had flown right past him in blissful ignorance. It was tempting to swoop in and start blasting away with his plasma cannons or pop off a volley of ionic pulse missiles at them, but there was a much more valuable target that Duo knew he needed to use the latter on.

Spread out between him and his friends was a vast minefield, much larger than the scattered ones that Eve Squadron and the Juraian advanced element were presently working their way through. It was set up in a giant hemispherical formation, with the arc bending outwards towards potential intruders. There was no way for Duo's missiles to disable every mine in the field, but he did not need to. All he had to do was open a pathway for his friends.

Racing through the ring system to close with his target, Duo suddenly heard a series of chimes coming from his console. Checking the sensor display, he saw a host of blue contact markings appear just outside the planetary rings, at least two hundred strong and rapidly growing as swarms of smaller contacts poured out from some of the larger ones; the first of Second Fleet's formations, in this case the Second Battle Group, had arrived. While Whirlwind Interceptors launched from the light carriers as well as the smaller hangar bays of the battleships and cruisers, sheets of blue energy immediately began ripping forth from the formation as the capital ships used telemetry from the advanced fighter element to begin eliminating defense platforms and suppressing drone swarms. Squadrons of wedge-shaped Deluge bombers were taking flight as well, splitting into two groups, with the larger moving towards the ring system accompanied by Whirlwind Interceptors while the smaller remained amongst the Second Battle Group's capital ships, standing by for deployment against whatever fleet units Kagato would undoubtedly send in to contest space against the Juraian loyalists.

Bastard's got to show anytime now, Duo thought while he weaved his fighter through the chunks of rock and ice, rapidly approaching the massive minefield, Kagato might want us to do the heavy lifting of clearing out Washu's defenses, but I doubt he'd like us having too much of a lead on him.

Second Battle Group's deployment left no doubt in his mind that they were fully prepared for Kagato to jump them. Its dreadnoughts and battlecruisers were arrayed in broad arc-like formations, with their accompanying cruisers and destroyers fanning out up and down to create hemispherical shells similar to that of the minefield Duo was racing towards. The light and escort carriers had moved to the relatively safe center of the formation where they could hide behind the force's heavy hitters while using the interceptor squadrons they'd kept in reserve to screen their much larger protectors against the enemy's expected fighter and bomber strikes. Duo inwardly grimaced as he imagined just how brutal the inevitable slugging match would be once Kagato's fleet made its move, but he then shook his head; the coming clash of titans was not his part of the operation.

"Enough sneaking around," he declared with a smirk as he locked on to the center of the minefield and pulled the trigger, "Let's make some noise, baby!"

The missiles flew forth, and Duo had the satisfaction if seeing a wide swath of the minefield go dark on his sensors a few moments later as the ionic pulse warheads did their job. That satisfaction was soured, though, when just after the missiles had detonated Duo heard a series of new alarms coming from his display, and a large cluster of red contact markings appeared above the Second Battle Group, dominated by a massive ovoid-shaped dreadnought.

Kagato had arrived.

….

Much like the dreadnought it had launched from, the vessel that was now carrying Kagato and his selected ground team through the raging fleet battle and into the teeth of Washu's defenses was a notable departure from classic Juraian design philosophy. Taking the form of a gleaming inverted metallic teardrop, with the cockpit situated in the forward tip while banks of powerful engines dominated the wider rear, the JAT-55 Gale was a new product of Kiryūin Aerospace Engineering, one of Kagato's chief military contractors. Designed to rapidly ferry small teams of infantry through hostile space and then provide on-site fire support, the 40-meter-long craft was a cutting-edge assault transport. Capable of carrying up to three squads of a dozen troops each when fully loaded, the vessel was protected by potent shields powered by a robust new model of generator that prioritized rapid recharging of the barriers as well as allowing the engines to enter sustained states of high boost for evasion or closing distances rapidly.

As a consequence of devoting so much power to protection and thrust, the Gale's weapons balance tilted more towards explosive ordinance rather than energy armaments. The latter consisted only of a pair of rapid-fire plasma cannons mounted beneath the cockpit and a top-side dual plasma turret, while the former was much more extensive. Set above and behind the cockpit were two clusters of multi-purpose missile launchers, with eight tubes per cluster holding what had been designated as the UM-35X 'universal' missile, which as the name suggested was capable of engaging basically any target, from incoming drones or fighters up to surface emplacements or warships. While the power of each individual warhead would only be sufficient to destroy perhaps a single fighter or ground vehicle, the Gale could also unload all sixteen tubes at a target if a single overwhelming barrage was necessary. In addition to the missiles, the Gale also possessed sets of three hardpoint rails mounted on both sides of the craft where the 'tear' hull flared out and widened into wings. These hardpoints could mount a variety of ordinance, and seeing as the present engagement was taking place in outer space, each rail currently held a cylindrical AAM-72 missile launcher. These were dedicated air-to-air weapons, with each launcher holding six small missiles, for a total of thirty-six. While individually weaker than the UM-35X universal missiles, Kagato knew that raw firepower was less important here than sheer quantity given that his ship would primarily have to punch through drone swarms and any Juraian fighters that his vessel's dedicated escort squadrons failed to deal with.

And there will be plenty of them, he mused as he looked on from the back of the ship's cockpit as the flight crew took the Gale through a series of violent evasive maneuvers, before we reach our destination. This battle has only just begun.

The First Battle Group of Kagato's armada, numbering slightly over three-hundred vessels, was wasting no time in engaging the Juraians. While Kagato's force on the field currently had the numbers advantage, he was under no illusions of that meaning they possessed permanent superiority. No doubt, the Juraians present were already contacting formations positioned just outside the star system, and reinforcements would be jumping in shortly. That, in turn, would trigger for Kagato's reinforcements to arrive, and the confrontation would rapidly escalate from there

Even with the brief quantitative overmatch, Kagato's First Battle Group wasn't about to have an easy time against the Second Fleet's Second Battle Group. While it was true that Kagato's flagship Unmei no Shinka was the toughest capital ship on the battlefield, and that the Juraian dreadnoughts would thus have to concentrate heavily on her in order to break through her shields, the Second Battle Group's focus on battleline firepower made her well-equipped to counter the First Battle Group. Kagato's initial formation was much more well-rounded than the Second Battle Group, and while that meant he currently possessed a greater number of carriers and thus fighters on the field, the Juraians were deployed so that the escorts of their battleships and battlecruisers could overlap their anti-air weapons to create a formidable umbrella, augmented by the interceptors which had been held back in reserve. In order to achieve breakthrough, Kagato's heavier warships would first have to focus on punching holes through the escort screen for the fighters and bombers to exploit, which in turn meant that the Second Battle Group's brawlers could focus fire on Kagato's capital ships while taking reduced return fire. In addition, Kagato's carriers could not concentrate all their fighters against the Second Battle Group; squadrons were also required to pursue the Juraians into the planetary ring system and contend with Washu's defenses.

Already, the space between the two formations was filled with sheets of blue energy as plasma barrages were exchanged. The shields of warships on both sides rippled as salvos slammed into them, with any breaches in the barriers swiftly followed by the vessel in question either spewing out short-lived plumes of flame and debris or crumbling entirely under the weight of follow-up strikes. Kagato looked on with pride as he saw his flagship take on no less than two of Second Battle Group's battleships and two battlecruisers simultaneously, weathering the broadsides of the former while electing to punish the latter first and breach their weaker defenses. A brutal battle was ahead of the Unmei no Shinka, but the pride of the Kiryūin shipyards had been built just for this kind of contest.

As the Gale rapidly left the fleet brawl behind them and plunged into the ring system and the chaotic dogfights unfurling within, Kagato turned to the Gale's co-pilot. "Have you found Prince Yuy's squadron?"

The co-pilot, a young woman with short-cropped raven hair, nodded curtly. "Eve Squadron's at the head of the enemy's advanced fighter element."

"Show me," Kagato ordered.

The woman's fingers danced across the console before a blinking red dot appeared. "Here, sir. They've already made considerable headway."

"As to be expected," Kagato remarked as he appraised his foes' progress, "Roughly a third of the way in so far, and moving quickly."

"Our plan remains the same, sir?" the co-pilot asked.

Kagato nodded. "It does. No need for a race out here; we'll let them carve our path through Washu's defenses."

"You might want to head back and strap in, sir," the co-pilot advised, "Even with them doing the hard work, we still have a bumpy ride ahead."

Kagato smiled and inclined his head. "Of course. Carry on."

Ducking out of the cockpit, he returned to the Gale's main troop bay and took the empty seat to his sister's right. Tokimi was sitting across from Ragyō, as were the assassin twins Kana and Kayda. The rest of the seats in the troop bay were occupied by two dozen figures in dark grey armor with helmet visors that gleamed metallic blue. These were Imperial Marines loyal to Kagato himself, and their armor had been designed by him. While the troops calmly checked over their rifles and gear, Kagato made sure his straps were secure before gracing his sister with an amused smirk.

"Your new obsession has already blazed quite the trail," he said, "He's as deft with a starfighter as he is with the blade. Perhaps more so."

Ragyō sighed wistfully. "Ah, would that I had trained myself in the fine art of starfighter combat! It would be one more arena in which I could test myself against him. Alas, it's not to be. Do make sure that our forces save any recordings of him flying; I'd very much like to watch them after the operation."

Kagato chuckled. "I'll wager that our pilots have more pressing priorities than ensuring they get good footage for you."

"A pity," Ragyō remarked, "I do so enjoy seeing a master at work in their domain. Oh, well. I'll just have to content myself with the thought of him achieving mastery in my domain. He'll no doubt take a great step towards that today."

"Assuming he survives our impending encounter," Kagato countered, "Do remember, dear sister, that one of our goals today should be to kill him."

Ragyō smirked, a delighted gleam in her eyes. "Rest assured, dear brother, that I will give nothing less than my best towards that end. As my precious foe, he deserves nothing less."

"Not just your foe," Tokimi chimed in, "While I would normally refrain from intruding on your fun, Ragyō, I'm afraid that I can't permit such indulgence this time. You are not the only one who will be testing him today."

Ragyō shrugged nonchalantly, though Kagato detected a hint of displeasure in her slightly-narrowed eyes. "Do as you will. Just don't take him lightly."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Tokimi replied.

That goes for more than just the young prince, Kagato mused as the face of his old friend flashed through his mind, Yosho… I won't be holding back this time.

….

It's a real mess back there, Nagi thought as she took a brief moment to study the unfolding fleet engagement, and it's only going to get worse. We need to hurry.

She could see Kagato's forces pressing the Second Battle Group hard, with the flagship alone wreaking absolute havoc. A Juraian battlecruiser turned into a spectacular fireball as a concentrated barrage from the Unmei no Shinka punched through its shields and hull, just the latest victim of the dreadnought. The Second Battle Group was already condensing its ships under the assault, relying on overlapping shield coverage between the larger vessels to lessen the bite of the enemy's barrage and giving smaller vessels a chance at survival. It was an effective tactic, but in Nagi's experience turtling up like the Juraians were now usually just delayed the inevitable. Still, Kagato's force was not attacking with impunity; the Second Battle Group's return fire was concentrated against the lighter escort units, with destroyers and cruisers falling rapidly under salvos from the Juraians heavy hitters as they methodically cleared out any vessel between them and the larger threats. Even so, at the present rate of exchange, Kagato had a clear advantage.

That advantage, however, was not to last. Nagi's display lit up with another large cluster of blue contacts numbering two-hundred strong materializing above and behind Kagato's force; the Second Fleet's Third Battle Group was now on the scene. Fresh salvos of blue beams flew forth from the guns of the new arrivals' warships as swarms of fighters poured into the battle from the carriers. Nagi had no doubt that Kagato would summon reinforcements of his own in response; this battle was still in its early stages, and it would get far bloodier before it was over. Still, at least for the moment, the Juraians now had a bit of valuable breathing room.

Ken-Ohki rumbled as he was hit by a series of plasma bolts, prompting Nagi to return her focus where it was needed most. Thanks to some well-placed ionic pulse missiles from Duo, Eve Squadron had passed through one of Washu's giant minefields without incident, but they were still a long way from the third repository. More drones were pouring out of concealed asteroid hangars with each passing second, so there were plenty of targets to contend with.

"Let's show these guys that they picked the wrong fight," Nagi growled, "Ken-Ohki, take 'em out!"

"Meow!" her living starship cried out.

Purple beams flew out from the pale crystalline vessel, resulting in a circle of explosions appearing around Ken-Ohki. Still maintaining her position below Yagami at the rear of the formation, Nagi had the role of rear guard, and while Washu's drones were presently her main concern, the bounty hunter was more worried about the fighters Kagato's forces had dispatched into the planetary ring system. So far, those fighters were still quite a way back and caught up in dogfights with both the Juraians and Washu's drones, but the progress they were making was undeniable.

"Is everyone okay?" asked a gentle female voice from behind her.

Nagi did not have the luxury of looking back at Sasami directly, so instead she glanced at one of her consoles, hoping the princess would see her confident smile reflected. "Your friends are fine, don't worry."

Though the bounty hunter could not see Sasami, she knew where she was. To keep the princess comfortable and secure during the furious evasive maneuvers Ken-Ohki would have to undertake, she had been set up in a small bed lined with specialized gravity locks developed by Washu. These locks generated an invisible gravity field around Sasami's bed that kept her in place. She was not strictly restrained; the devices were programmed to deactivate by voice command from multiple sources, including Nagi and Sasami herself.

"What about the others?" Sasami pressed.

Nagi sighed as Ken-Ohki shuddered under a series of hits. "Your fleet's doing its best, Sasami… but they're taking losses. That was always going to happen, though. You know that, right?"

There was a pause before Sasami answered, her voice quieter than before. "I know. Is… is there anything we can do to help them?"

Nagi considered her words carefully; it was hard not to develop a soft spot for the gentle Royal. "We're doing what we can right now. The quicker we get Heero and the others inside the repository and they get the data, the quicker we can end this. You already know your part in all this. Play it like you're supposed to, and that'll be enough."

It's all any of us can do, she silently added as she twisted and spun Ken-Ohki through the next wave of drones, letting fly with volleys of violet beams and leaving clouds of hot metal in her wake, I have my part, princess, and you have yours. Seeing as my part before now helped bring us to this point, I guess it's only right that I make up for it now in my new role.

I just hope I didn't change sides too late in the game.

….

"Welcome back," Heero said as Duo's fighter fell into formation behind and to the left of his own, "I see you had a fun solo trip."

"Fun and productive," Duo boasted as he shredded two drones with his plasma cannons, "You're welcome."

Heero suppressed a smirk as he picked off new targets of his own; as much as he appreciated Duo's thorough recon work, he was not about to let it go to the God of Death's head. "You're still on the clock, so no slacking off now."

"Copy that, buddy!" Duo chirped.

After letting fly with another salvo from his fighter's heavy guns that silenced one of Washu's defense platforms, Heero took a brief moment to check how the unfolding fleet battle was going. When he'd last looked, he'd been worried about how long Second Battle Group could hold out under the assault from Kagato's formation, but his fears could now be somewhat alleviated, for the Second Fleet's Third Battle Group and the Fifth Fleet's First Battle Group had just joined the party. The former formation had reverted above and in front of Kagato's force, while the latter had landed in a perfect flanking position to the enemy's right. With more than four hundred new friendly warships on scene, their heavy hitters firing away while the escorts arrayed for screening and fighters poured out of their carriers, the Juraian loyalists had once again gained the upper hand.

At least until Kagato brings in reinforcements of his own, Heero thought, and it's just a matter of time until he does.

Knowing that Admiral Fukunaga and the other senior fleet officers would handle that situation as it unfolded, Heero returned his full focus to the obstacles ahead. Eve Squadron and the rest of the Juraian advanced element were progressing rapidly, already at roughly the halfway point between the ring system's edge and the third repository. However, Washu's defenses were only growing thicker, as Duo's excellent scouting work had made clear. To Heero's sensors, there were almost as many anti-fighter defense platforms alone as there were drones, and still more of the latter were pouring forth from hangars concealed deeper within the ring system. To make matters worse, there were even more mines ahead, and Duo's fighter did not have an unlimited supply of ionic pulse missiles to clear paths through all the fields.

"Eve Three, how are you doing on missiles?" Heero asked as he picked off a handful of drones with precise plasma bursts.

"Down to forty percent of my payload capacity already," Trowa answered while shredding automatons with bursts of slugs from his rotary cannons, "Washu stocked this place with plenty of targets."

"Try to conserve what you have left," Heero advised, "We might need you to help out Eve Two with mine clearing."

"That means less anti-fighter cover for you," Trowa pointed out.

"We'll adapt," Heero said, "You catch that, Eve Six?"

"Loud and clear," Ryoko acknowledged as Ryo-Ohki sprayed scarlet beams in a broad fan-like pattern ahead of Eve Squadron, "Ryo-Ohki, crank it up a notch!"

"Meow!" the living starship cried out as the already-considerable volume of fire she was putting out intensified further.

"Watch yourself!" Wufei called out as he picked off a trio of drones which had been coming in from the left flank, "I'm picking up individual mines hiding behind ring fragments."

"Just shook off two of them," Quatre chimed in as he took his fighter through a series of dives and climbs, "Their magnets have a pretty decent range, and their thrusters are powerful. Keep an eye out for them!"

"These things are really getting on my nerves," Duo grumbled as he blasted two mines with his plasma cannons while orange bolts from incoming drones peppered his shields, "Can I get a bit of help here?"

"Calm down, flyboy," Nagi interjected as precise volleys of purple beams from Ken-Ohki picked off Duo's attackers, "I've got your back."

"Meow!" Ken-Ohki added, as if to emphasize your point.

Duo chuckled as he shot down a pair of incoming hostiles. "How about that… you really are earning your keep."

"I always give a contract my all," Nagi declared, "Don't forget that."

"Guys, we've got a problem!" Kiyone called out, "Kagato's lead fighter squadrons are closing the gap quicker than we thought they would!"

"There's a larger contact with them," Mihoshi added, "Looks like a gunship or armed troop transport of some kind. I think Kagato's ground team is in that one!"

"He is," Yosho confirmed, his voice somewhat faint as he was speaking from behind Ryoko, "I can sense him. His sister, too."

Heero gritted his teeth as he downed a group of drones with quick bursts from his plasma cannons. "We need to delay him. 232nd, what's your status?"

"Still with you!" Usagi quickly replied, "What do you need, Eve One?"

"Take some of the escorting squadrons and turn about," Heero ordered, "Kagato's squadrons are coming up from the rear. Can you stall them until reinforcements from the fleet arrive?"

"Affirmative," Usagi acknowledged, "232nd, 290th, 314th, redeploy with me for rearguard intercept! Everyone else, stick with Eve Squadron until they make their insertion!"

Heero nodded in gratitude while blasting another defense platform with his heavy cannons. "Good hunting, Major."

"Likewise, Eve One," Usagi answered, and Heero could all but hear the grin in her voice, "Survive so we can compare kill counts when this is all over, you got that?"

"Roger that," Heero replied, "I'll be looking forward to it."

He was sorely tempted to join them. After all, was not this whole campaign an undeclared war against Kagato himself? If he turned Eve Squadron about and launched an attack against Kagato's formation, Heero and the others could seize a chance to eliminate the man responsible for this whole catastrophe right here and now. Heero could already imagine Kagato's craft in his gunsights, practically taste the satisfaction that would come from pulling the trigger and reducing him to atoms.

As ever, though, Heero would stick with the mission. He had his task; get to the repository and protect Washu while she took the data, then get her and the rest of his team out of there before the whole place blew apart. While turning around to attack Kagato directly might have seemed like the smarter option, Heero was all-too aware of the potential downside; that Kagato's fighter squadrons could succeed in effectively screening him and buying him time to break through the engagement and reach the repository before Eve Squadron. If he secured the data and Washu did not, then the consequences would be calamitous. That was a risk that simply could not be tolerated, and so Eve Squadron would remain on course.

Heero could only hope that it was the right call.

….

So far, so good, Washu thought as the Yagami shuddered from a series of plasma bolts peppering her front starboard shields, I just wish I hadn't been so thorough in constructing these defenses. Sorry, everyone.

She had come up to the bridge of the patrol cruiser a little while ago to observe Eve Squadron's current progress, taking one of the empty consoles at the back and sitting in silence while Kiyone and Mihoshi did their work. As ever, Kiyone was a picture of professionalism, razor-focused on piloting the Yagami through a combat environment that the ship had by no means been designed for but was handling quite well. Meanwhile, Washu found herself quite impressed with Mihoshi's actions as copilot so far. While the clumsy Galaxy Police officer had made a marked effort to improve herself for the sake of her friends ever since they'd left Earth, her progress still caught Washu off guard. Like Kiyone, Mihoshi's attention was fixed firmly on her duties; none of her previous scatter-brained nature could be found now. The commands she entered in her console might not have been as quick as those of her partner, but Washu recognized the extra time needed as Mihoshi's way of double-checking herself and making sure that she did not screw anything up.

Measure twice, cut once, Washu mused with an approving smile as she watched the sweet dark-skinned blonde carry out her duties, Mihoshi… you've come a long way. Then again, seeing as you're backing up your fiancé now, you certainly have motivation for that improvement.

"We have drones coming from our starboard ten o'clock high!" Kiyone called out, "Mihoshi!"

"Already on it!" Mihoshi immediately answered, "Topside guns locked on and firing!"

Washu quietly tapped a few keys on her console, shifting the screen to the viewpoint of one of the ship's exterior cameras. Sure enough, bolts of orange plasma were spewing out of the upper turrets at a rapid rate, igniting a string of explosions. Satisfied that Mihoshi had the immediate threat well in hand, Washu adjusted the display, shifting instead to a wider tactical setting so she could analyze the current situation.

While reinforcements from the Juraian Second Fleet's Third Battle Group and Fifth Fleet's First Battle Group had briefly swung the fleet engagement in the loyalists favor, Kagato had wasted no time in summoning reinforcements of his own. Two new hostile battle groups, each roughly equaling the strength of Second's Third and Fifth's First, had now jumped into the fray, one above and one below the plane of engagement. While this granted them ideal firing arcs against the Juraian's, Kagato's reinforcements still had to proceed with caution due to risk of also catching their own comrades in the middle. As a result, rather than blanketing the Juraians with a broad and overwhelming opening barrage, Kagato's reinforcements were forced instead to initiate much more precise salvos, which while deadly still granted the loyalists a precious bit of breathing room to reorganize and counter the new threat.

Admiral Fukunaga will respond with her own reinforcements, Washu thought, probably including another Fifth Fleet battle group and one from the Eighth. She'll keep the Domain's Third held back as a surprise reserve, along with the Second's First Battle Group as a last resort since she's coordinating the wider action from there. It all comes down to this; just how many Juraians did Kagato manage to sway over to his side? Funaho had her estimates and margins for error, and she gave us the best intel she had available… I just hope her sources were accurate with their figures.

Her brooding was interrupted by the hissing of the bridge door opening, and Washu looked up to see Ayeka step inside. The crown princess briefly surveyed the area before taking the other rear console seat opposite Washu.

"How do we fare?" she asked, quietly so as not to distract Kiyone and Mihoshi.

Washu let out a heavy sigh as she turned back to watching Juraian loyalist forces and Kagato's faction continue to pound away at each other. "We're progressing on schedule, and the fleets are engaging. So far, we're ahead of the enemy."

She watched as Ayeka adjusted her console so that the screen focused on Eve Squadron, particularly Quatre's fighter. "I see."

Washu gave the crown princess what she hoped was a comforting smile. "They know what they're doing. Heero, Quatre, and the others, I mean. A battle like this is their arena far more than it is yours or mine. Trust them."

Ayeka took a deep breath. "It is not a matter of trust… only of fear."

Washu could not fault her for that. "Yeah… I know what you mean. Still, have faith in them. They've pulled through plenty of close calls already."

"You would know better than the rest of us," Ayeka quipped with a slight scowl, "seeing as you made a habit of violating Preventer's database for their dossiers."

Washu eyed Ayeka curiously. "You trying to say something, princess?"

Ayeka folded her arms, almost looking like a pouting teenager. "Leaving aside Lord Heero's benevolence in keeping his organization from taking action against you… did it never occur to you that some of us would've appreciated the chance to learn more about him and his friends?"

Washu immediately put two and two together, and she gave the princess a knowing smirk. "Oh, I see how it is… you want the goods on Quatre, don't you? The crown princess of Jurai, stooping so low as to seek illicitly obtained information about her paramour… how scandalous!"

Ayeka's face flushed furiously, but she did not back down. "I simply wish to learn more about him so I can do my part to facilitate warm relations between Jurai and Earth. Quatre occupies a position of great economic influence thanks to his family's interests in the orbital colony construction and maintenance industry, and any future Juraian diplomatic and business contacts will likely be facilitated through those colonies before Earth itself."

Washu chuckled. "Don't bother dressing it up, Ayeka! The only 'warm relations' you want to facilitate are the ones between you and Quatre in the bedroom."

"It can be both!" Ayeka snapped, the shade of red in her face only deepening.

"Uhm, can you two keep it down?" Mihoshi tentatively interjected, "We're trying to concentrate up here!"

"Now's not the time for bickering," Kiyone grumbled.

Washu and Ayeka both hung their heads in shame, apologizing in unison.

Washu waited a few seconds before speaking to Ayeka again, this time in a lowered voice and with a conspiratorial wink. "Look, if you want the goods on your handsome blond bombshell, all you have to do is ask."

Ayeka was quiet for a long moment before muttering her response. "After the mission, I think."

Washu made a mental note for later. "I'll see what I have stored back in the lab."

The ship shuddered as bolts of plasma impacted her shields, prompting a swift response from Kiyone and Mihoshi. Checking her screen, Washu saw the attacking drones get shredded by a combination of the patrol cruiser's point-defense guns and streams of violet energy from Ken-Ohki. Adjusting her display, Washu saw that the Yagami's shield strength was still holding quite strong at roughly 80%, and the fact that she was only taking sporadic fire meant the ship's generator had precious windows in which it could recharge the defensive barriers. So far, her defenses seemed to be considering the Galaxy Police craft as a lesser priority target when compared to the likes of Eve Squadron's fighters and Ryo-Ohki, who were currently blowing apart everything in their path as they plowed onwards to the repository.

"Where are your guards?" Washu asked after a moment.

"Waiting for us by the airlock," Ayeka answered, "They're ready for action."

Washu nodded as she appraised the princess. "Good. Are you?"

The look Ayeka gave her was one of firm resolve. "I did all the training I could during our voyage while still giving myself time to rest. My command over the Light Hawk Wings may not equal Lord Heero's, but I can still use them. I will not falter."

Washu smiled. "I know you won't."

Turning back to the screen, Washu took a deep breath as she watched Heero and his friends tear into yet another of her drone swarms. When the young man had discovered her stasis capsule on Earth, he could never have imagined it being a link in the chain of events that had brought him here. Neither Heero nor any of his friends had asked to be drawn into a struggle for the fate of the galaxy, yet they had all more than risen to the occasion.

To think that life on countless worlds could end up owing its continued survival to some young men from a galactic backwater, Washu mused, I would've ridiculed the notion myself once upon a time. Now, though, if all our fates must be anyone's hands…

…I'm glad those hands belong to you and your friends, Heero.

….

"Update from our advanced fighter element, Admiral!" the flagship's chief fighter controller announced, "232nd and several supporting wings have engaged squadrons believed to be escorting a vessel carrying Kagato himself."

"So, he's already left his dreadnought and is in the rings," Admiral Fukunaga murmured before raising her voice to properly respond, "What's Eve Squadron's status?"

"Still on course for the repository, Admiral," the fighter controller replied, "They're past the halfway point and proceeding on schedule."

Admiral Fukunaga nodded. "Alert me if that changes. You have my authorization to divert any fighter formation to reinforce Eve squadron as necessary."

"Admiral, we have a report from the scout ship Tori no Me!" the flagship's chief communication officer called out a moment later, "They've found a formation of warships identified as belonging to Kagato's ranks outside the system!"

Admiral Fukunaga's lips twitched as she suppressed a huntress's smile. "Show me."

The holographic star map before her flickered as it adjusted to show a cluster of red contact markers just beyond the system's outermost limits. Eyes narrowing as she studied the display, Fukunaga saw that the formation appeared to be roughly two hundred ships strong; the formation was battle group strength. She tapped her chin as she considered her possible responses.

Her first instinct was to dispatch two of her battle groups, one from the Fifth Fleet and one from the Eighth, to jump Kagato's isolated one before it could join the main engagement. However, Admiral Fukunaga had no way of knowing just how extensive Kagato's reserves were. She had the estimates from First Empress Funaho's spies, but even the Empress herself had taken considerable pains to stress the margin of error in those estimates. Admiral Fukunaga could just dispatch one battle group to keep the one her scout had found occupied and out of the main engagement, but that in turn invited Kagato to deploy one of his reserves to turn that fight against her.

Another option then floated up from the depths of her mind, and the Admiral smirked. It was bold to be sure, something of a gamble, but it would preserve the rest of her forces while hitting Kagato's isolated battle group with a formation that excelled at rapid and hard-hitting strikes right out of the gate. There was always the brief transit window where the reserve she'd found could jump in and join the main fight while the force she had in mind was still in FTL, but if that happened, she could then just deploy one of her reserve groups to counter it in the central engagement and have the other force standby in its new position.

"Have the Domain's Third Fleet jump that battle group," she ordered, "The battle groups from Seniwa's Fourth and Sixth Fleets will remain on standby to join the Third if hostile reinforcements enter that system."

Earlier than I planned on fielding them, Admiral Fukunaga thought as her subordinates rushed to carry out her commands, but it's better this way. Eliminate a target of opportunity quickly while keeping the rest of our reserves ready for assisting the main engagement… it's the right call.

Time for our Domain allies to show why Kagato made a big mistake in messing with them.

….

Aboard the fleet carrier Jōshō Suru Washi, Rear Admiral Shin Saito tapped his foot nervously. His raven hair had long ago shifted over to grey, and there were plenty of wrinkles in his face, but the aging officer's dark brown eyes were as sharp as ever, and they studied the holographic tactical display with equal parts concern and resolve. As the commander of one of Kagato's reserve battle groups, Shin could not hide his worry regarding the battle's current status, and he was anxiously awaiting his master's command to bring his force into the fray. Given just how fierce the contest had already become, it was almost maddening to him why Kagato wouldn't bring his full strength to bear. Yes, the enemy undoubtedly had additional reserves of their own standing by outside the system, but that was why Kagato's force should enter the system in full; to establish local superiority and array themselves to catch enemy reinforcements the moment they jumped into the system. Still, personal opinions on strategy aside, Shin was a professional; his master had ordered him to hold position until called for, and he was determined to follow the orders given to the letter.

"Any word from our scouts?" he asked.

"Not yet," one of the carrier's officers replied.

Shin grimaced in mounting frustration. When compared to the wider galaxy, a single star system seemed like a confined region of space, yet it and the immediate territory surrounding was still vast beyond comprehending, at least for any being who had spent most of their life confined to a planet. Relatively speaking, the space surrounding star system RP-X378529 was quite crowded, seeing how quickly both the Juraian Royal loyalists and Kagato's supporters were able to send their reinforcements into the central battlefield, so one might think that it wouldn't be hard for each side to find the other's reserves. Alas, for Shin's scouts and those of his allied battle groups, it was proving to be quite a difficult task.

The enemy has access to the latest long-range stealth scout vessels developed by the Intelligence Ministry, Shin reminded himself, First Empress Funaho would've seen to that. The Kiryūin shipyards produce remarkable craft, but there are some areas where they still can't match our enemy.

It was then that a panicked cry rang out from the carrier's chief sensor officer. "Admiral, we're picking up multiple close-range FTL reversions all around us!"

Shin's eyes widened in alarm as he saw those reversions both on the holographic tactical display and just outside the main bridge viewport. All around his battle group, a fleet of sleek and streamlined vessels ranging from destroyers up to battleships and carriers, all sharing the general hull design of a triangle with gracefully rounded edges, their silvery metallic surfaces gleaming from the distant starlight, were jumping into the system at what in naval terms was basically knife-fight range. There was only one force in the entire galaxy that Shin had heard of not just favoring such incredibly aggressive tactics, but being capable of executing them with incredible pinpoint precision.

Seniwa Domain's Third Fleet.

As slender T-shaped Sparrowhawk Interceptors and bulky ovoid Condor Bombers swiftly poured out of the Seniwan carriers, sheets of yellow energy beams ripped forth from the capital ships. While the Jōshō Suru Washi shuddered beneath Shin's feet, his alarm at the situation only intensified as he braced himself against the hologram projector and realized that the Seniwans had deployed their Third Fleet in three distinct battle groups above, below, and in front of his own. Not only did they have him caught in a crossfire, but their FTL reversion into these positions had been perfect. They had Shin's force outnumbered three-to-one, and the hasty scrambling of his battle group's fighters along with the frantic adjustment of the defensive screen did not change the fact that they were completely screwed.

Already, Seniwan flotillas centered on the Domain's famous battlecruisers were boldly plunging into his battle group's escort squadrons, tearing apart his destroyers and cruisers with incredibly ferocity. Backing them up, the Seniwan battleships concentrated their fire against their opposite equivalents, prioritizing the elimination of threats to the battlecruisers above other target considerations. As Seniwan Sparrowhawk interceptors clashed with Shin's Whirlwinds, the heavy Condor Bombers were already finding gaps in the battle group's fighter protection and anti-air screen, setting up for textbook torpedo runs. While Shin's hastily scrambled fighters were all but throwing themselves at the bombers in desperation to keep them at bay, momentum was firmly with the Seniwan forces, and they pressed on regardless of what kills Kagato's forces managed to score.

So it was that Shin saw, as his battle group died around him, two squadrons of bombers make it through the fighter screen defending his carrier. He heard his ship's Captain shout out to intensify the forward anti-air fire, but the Condors had already launched their torpedo salvos, one wave immediately following the other. The first wave all slammed into the bridge's shields, their powerful warheads bringing down the barriers. Then the second wave hit, and the bridge along with everyone on it was blown apart.

….

"We're coming up on the last major minefield between us and the repository," Eva announced as Heero picked off a pair of drones with his plasma cannons, "At current speed, we'll be inside it in seventy seconds."

"Eve Two, how many pulse missiles do you have left?" Heero asked.

"Down to my last pair," Duo replied while weaving through chunks of rock and ice as a cluster of drones hounded him, "Is that enough?"

"It'll have to be," Heero answered as he pulled back to target the drones tailing Duo, "Line up your shot. Everyone else, cover Eve Two!"

Eve Squadron's formation rapidly reconfigured, with Duo moving ahead while the others fanned out to provide overlapping fire. As Heero continued to blow apart any drone that got onto Duo's tail, Quatre and Wufei took their fighters above and below, respectively, swiftly intercepting any hostiles that came from either vector. Trowa had positioned himself behind and to Duo's right, his fighter's rotary guns and plasma cannons spewing out streams of slugs and energy that chewed up any foe in seconds. Meanwhile, Ryoko had taken Ryo-Ohki over to the left, with the living starship putting out so much fire that the entire side of the formation she had under her weapons appeared filled with crimson light. From the rear came supporting fire from Yagami and Ken-Ohki, the former putting out quick bursts of orange energy while the latter unleashed thick violet salvoes that rivaled the scarlet ones of Ryo-Ohki.

"Target locked," Duo announced a few seconds later, "Firing!"

The pair of missiles flew forth, and they were amidst the minefield in the blink of an eye. Two spheres of crackling blue-white energy appeared a moment later as the warheads detonated, and Heero saw scores of small crimson dots on his sensors flicker before disappearing altogether.

"We have our window," he declared as he gunned the throttle, "Book it before the field reconfigures."

Eve Squadron's formation surged forward, rapidly reforming around Heero as they zipped through the cluster of inert mines that Duo's missiles had left behind. Their window was tighter than Heero had anticipated; he could already see mines outside the ionic pulse detonation radius gravitating towards the gap, the tiny blue-white flares of their thrusters betraying their positions against the rings and void. So quickly were they moving that Ryo-Ohki and Ken-Ohki were forced to open fire on dozens of them before Eve Squadron had cleared the field, generating a trail of explosions as the team raced against the clock.

"We're through," Eva stated a few seconds later, "but don't relax yet. We've tripped the repository's inner ring of defenses; new platforms are powering up, and I'm reading energy spikes from the monolith's plasma canals"

"They'll be firing shortly, then," Heero remarked as he blew apart a nearby defense platform with his heavy cannons, "Can you project their firing arcs and relay that data to the team?"

"Already on it," Eva replied, "Projected paths for the first salvo should be showing on your HUD right about… now!"

Indeed, Heero's display suddenly had a series of red lines flashing in it, marking the paths that the soon-to-be released plasma would take. Several blue lines also appeared, and Heero realized that Eva was designating potential paths through the gaps.

"You're pulling out all the stops today," Heero noted as he set his course along one of those lines, "Good work."

Eva's pixy-like body appeared in the lower left corner, and she bowed in his direction. "You're too kind. Be wary, though; those paths I projected for you might get you through the plasma arcs, but the defense platforms and drones will still have clear shots at you. Not to mention you'll have those damn mines to deal with"

"I hadn't forgotten," Heero muttered, "This'll be tricky."

"They're nothing you haven't destroyed before," Eva pointed out, "You'll just have to be quicker on the draw than usual."

"Roger that," Heero said as he saw a series of glowing red lines on the monolith's surface suddenly brighten, "Eve Seven, hang back behind the ring debris until we can get in range to use the stand down codes. Eve Eight, keep them covered. Everyone else, keep to my six and watch out; first plasma waves incoming."

"Copy that!" Mihoshi acknowledged, and Heero could see the Yagami already breaking off to take cover behind a particularly large chunk of rock, with Ken-Ohki sticking below her.

Were it not for the fact that the rivers of plasma flowing along the repository's surface were designed with the intent to kill, Heero almost could have found them beautiful, even more so as they suddenly erupted outwards like a long line of volcanoes spewing forth lava simultaneously. The display was vaguely reminiscent of artistic renderings Heero had seen long ago of solar flares, but these were much brighter than those images had been, and they were weaponized. As Heero eliminated drones in his path with quick bursts from his plasma cannons while the rest of Eve Squadron provided supporting fire, the space around him rapidly became filled with giant crescent waves of scarlet energy, and it almost felt as though they were flying towards the surface of a sun as it ejected material rather than a space station.

"This is crazy," Heero whispered as he weaved through the lethal web of crimson light, "even for us."

Eva actually giggled at that. "And that's saying a lot, seeing what the good doctor's dossier has on you!"

Heero nearly smirked even as his shields were lit up by bolts of plasma from drones coming at him head on, which he in-turn quickly dispatched. "And you're laughing, so what's that say about you? You're stuck on this ride until it's over."

The holographic fairy flashed him a flirtatious smile. "Unfortunately for us both, I like crazy."

….

"Damn it, Washu," Ryoko grumbled as she ripped into a cluster of drones that were going for Heero's right flank while simultaneously dipping Ryo-Ohki beneath a massive wave of plasma, "Are you trying to get us all killed out here?"

Behind her, she heard Yosho chuckle. "What's the matter? I thought you enjoyed a challenge."

Ryoko scowled as her hands flew frantically across Ryo-Ohki's main console to keep her on course and in the relative 'safe' zone. "I'm all for the thrill of a good fight, but this is nuts!"

"It really does feel like overkill," Hilde remarked anxiously, "Not that Washu would ever know what that even looks like."

"I swear," Ryoko growled, "she is going to owe us all bigtime if we get through this mess alive."

Were she not so caught up with trying to keep herself, Heero, and her friends alive, Ryoko might have taken a moment to consider just how she sounded. In the past, she had thrown herself into battles without the slightest of cares, simply gunning for her prize and enjoying herself if the guards in her way gave her a challenge. Now, that hunger for a rush was nowhere to be found. The adrenaline was pumping, sure, but Ryoko was not enjoying any of it this time. Instead, she was simply using it to keep herself focused on the task at hand, all the while silently praying that she did not let everyone else down like she had back on Seniwa.

No way in hell am I going down that easy ever again, she silently swore, not to Tokimi, and definitely not to Washu's stupid drones!

Eyes darting towards her sensor display, she hissed as she saw another swarm of drones coming at Heero from below. "Ryo-Ohki, swat those damn flies!"

"Meow!" her trusty cabbit joyfully cried out.

A conical spray of crimson beams shot out from the crystalline starship's underside, turning Washu's latest wave of drones into a string of fireworks. Ryo-Ohki's handiwork only shone briefly before it was swiftly overshadowed by a fresh series of plasma eruptions from the repository, along with a constant stream of drones pouring out of the monolith itself.

Ryoko gritted her teeth in mounting frustration. "How many of these stupid things do we have to blow up? This is nuts!"

Washu's voice came over the tactical channel. "Once you close withing thirty kilometers of the repository and issue the stand down codes, the drones will cease attacking you. You just have to survive until then."

"Great," Ryoko grumbled, "Should be a walk in the park…"

"We'll manage," Heero said as he blew apart one of the defense platforms with his heavy guns, "The real danger's the mines that are mixed in with these defense platforms."

"Yeah, sorry about that," Washu sheepishly replied, "They're quick little buggers, but also pretty sensitive. Even a glancing blow or blast wave from a nearby detonation can set them off. Use that."

"I still have some missiles left," Trowa said as burst of slugs and plasma from his fighter's extensive arsenal shredded any drone in his path, "I can send them out in a wide spread and clear out a path."

"Do it, Eve Three," Heero ordered, "Eve Six, work with Three; spray out as much fire as you can."

"Copy that," Trowa acknowledged.

"Leave it to me!" Ryoko declared.

A storm of missiles and crimson energy beams spewed forth from Trowa's fighter and Ryo-Ohki, with the two of them unleashing everything they had. Their efforts were rewarded by clusters of explosions popping off in a wide wedge, spreading like wildfire as the blasts and debris of the initially targeted mines caused chain reactions amongst the others. Scores of drones and anti-fighter defense platforms were caught up in the destruction, but while their loss gave Eve Squadron some breathing room, there were still plenty of emplacements and automatons left to fire at them, creating a blizzard of energy bolts.

As Eve Squadron wove their way through the storm of energy pouring out from both the repository and its outer defenses, the massive monolith steadily became more prominent in Ryo-Ohki's display. Intellectually, Ryoko might have known going into the mission that the target destination was huge, but only now upon seeing it in person could she truly begin to comprehend the sheer scale.

"How big is this damn thing again?" she inquired to no one in particular.

It was Washu that answered. "Forty kilometers high, forty across."

"Jesus tapdancing Christ," Duo quipped, "You really don't half-ass your work, Washu!"

Ryoko was slightly unnerved to hear Washu chuckle in response. "You think this is big? Just wait until we finally reach the Array's control center!"

"Oh, boy," Hilde muttered, "Now I don't know if I actually want to see it. I thought the colonies back home made me feel small, but this thing…"

"And we haven't even gotten inside it yet," Yosho noted, "I suspect we'll find ourselves humbled more than once by this creation before the day is done."

"I can't even begin to imagine the construction costs," Kiyone chimed in, "The mass readings I'm getting are incredible. The Galaxy Police could build an entire fleet from the amount of material you sunk into this place, Washu. That's not even getting into the damn defenses."

"Yeah, that's the nice thing about the Emperor funding your project and being convinced that it's crucial for ending a two-thousand-year-old war," Washu replied, her tone suggesting a bitter sense of amusement, "He wasn't at all concerned with the budget, which made it easy to sneak in some things that he wouldn't have signed off on if he knew what I was doing."

"Like hiding His Majesty's new toy from him after he used it and giving yourself a backdoor way to find it?" Wufei quipped as he sniped a pair of drones with his fighter's lower turret.

"And reseeding specimens on the worlds he believed were barren?" Yosho added.

"Amongst other things," Washu answered, and Ryoko could have sworn her mother was grinning.

"Cut the chatter," Heero interjected as another series of eruptions from the monolith's plasma canals filled the space around them with brilliant scarlet light, "We're entering our final approach vector. Cover me; I'll get in transmitting range."

"You got it," Ryoko acknowledged, "Come on, Ryo-Ohki, don't stop the party now!"

"Meow!" her living starship screeched as she let fly with so much scarlet energy it seemed to come out in sheets rather than separate beams.

The rest of Eve Squadron joined in, creating a cone of death that melted anything in their path. Drones were pulverized by the dozens, while multiple defense platforms were pounded into misshapen lumps of metal and rock. Recognizing that head-on attacks were accomplishing nothing, the reinforcing drone swarms spread out, curving around to come at Eve Squadron from the flanks and the rear.

Ryoko was not having any of it. "Ryo-Ohki, burn all those bastards!"

"Meow!" her faithful cabbit eagerly replied.

A brilliant rain of scarlet energy bright enough to rival even the waves of plasma from the repository burst forth from the crystalline starship, utterly melting the closest drones and causing those behind them to plow into their molten and misshapen debris. The drones further back swiftly adapted by spreading out up and down, so Ryo-Ohki responded in kind with follow-up volleys covering those vectors as well. As Eve Squadron cleared the last plasma wave, Ryoko saw Heero's fighter pour on the acceleration to clear that final stretch, and she anxiously tapped her foot.

"Come on, Heero," she whispered, "You got this…

She heard Heero's voice a moment later. "In range. Transmitting standdown codes now."

A second later, the monsoon of plasma bolts raining down upon Eve Squadron from what felt like every direction died off. At the same time, the brilliantly glowing plasma canals that lined the repository's surface began to dim, though not completely darken. Ryoko was worried for a moment, but there were no further eruptions, which indicated that the standdown codes had indeed done their job.

Heero gave confirmation a second later. "Codes accepted. Eve Seven, Eight; you're clear to advance."

"Copy that," Mihoshi acknowledged, "On our way now."

As the rest of Eve Squadron slowed up so Yagami and Ken-Ohki could catch up with them, Ryoko found herself quite unnerved by how quiet the battlefield had suddenly become. Well, 'quiet' perhaps wasn't the right word; audible sound wasn't a thing in outer space, after all. Rather, it was an unsettling sort of stillness as the drones simply hovered in place, their glowing optical sensors watching Eve squadron as a silent audience.

"This feels damn creepy," Ryoko muttered.

"Just be thankful that they're not shooting at you anymore," Nagi quipped.

Ryoko's brow twitched in irritation. "Hurry your ass up so we can get inside this damn place already!"

"Easy, Six," Heero gently admonished her, "Same team now, remember?"

Ryoko forced herself to take a deep breath. "Right… sorry."

"Don't worry about it," Heero reassured her, "Just keep it together."

"I'm trying," Ryoko grumbled.

"Meow…" Ryo-Ohki cooed.

Ryoko rubbed her hands along the console, the closest she could get to 'petting' Ryo-Ohki in this state. "Thanks, girl."

Ryoko took another deep breath Yagami and Ken-Ohki caught up with the rest of Eve Squadron, her gaze constantly shifting between the nearest drones and the monolith itself. The fighting so far had been incredibly fierce…

…and now they were going to enter the belly of the beast.

….

"Alright, Washu," Kiyone said as dark metal completely filled the main bridge display, "You have the key for this door, right?"

Washu nodded, already moving towards Mihoshi. "May I?"

Mihoshi nodded and stood up, allowing Washu to take her place. Sliding into the chair, her fingers raced across the console as she entered the clearance codes she had received from the second repository. A green light flashed on the console as the codes were transmitted, prompting Washu to stand back up.

"It's done," she said as Mihoshi took her seat back, "Just give it a minute."

"Not sure that we have a minute," Kiyone remarked as she jerked her thumb over her shoulder, "Got a lot of drones coming up on our rear."

"Eve Eight, Six, can you lay down covering fire behind us?" Mihoshi asked.

"Aren't they supposed to hold their fire now?" Nagi argued, "Their systems accepted Washu's codes, right?"

"I hope they did," Ryoko chimed in, "but let's discourage them just in case."

As the two living starships shifted behind the rest of Eve Squadron and sprayed out volleys of crimson and purple energy, Washu watched as a line of white light appeared in a section of the repository's equatorial surface, one that steadily grew thicker as two thick doors parted.

"Open sesame," Washu said with a smirk, "and the system accepted the stand down codes, too, so now none of the remaining surface defenses will target us during the landing approach."

"You're sure there's enough room, right?" Kiyone pressed as Eve Squadron cautiously advanced.

Washu smiled. "Plenty. The transports I designed for carrying the life samples out of here after the Array was fired dwarfed the Yagami by a considerable margin. There's space for our ship, the fighters, Ryo-Ohki, Ken-Ohki, and more."

"So, why can't we all just hole up inside while we wait for you to get the data?" Mihoshi asked.

"Because it means the drones can just gather outside and wait for us to exit," Kiyone answered, "and no, I don't care about the damn codes; what if something overrides them and they turn hostile again? The second we try to leave, they'd overwhelm us. Either that or Kagato positions fighters there and does the same. Better to get in, drop everyone off, then get out and hide in the rings until they're ready to exfiltrate. Ken-Ohki and Ryo-Ohki can punch a hole through any fighter or drone squadrons and clear out the hangar if needed, and we can give supporting fire to them. It's better this way, Mihoshi."

Mihoshi sighed in resignation. "Okay."

As the fighters and patrol cruiser entered the hangar, Washu felt herself swept up in a wave of proud nostalgia. While the Judgment Array as a whole brought her nothing but shame whenever she thought of it, now that more of her memories were restored thanks to the second repository's data, Washu could fondly recall all the work she'd put into this monolith and the wider Preservation Program that it was part of. Yes, the fact that the Preservation Program was needed in the first place thanks to the Array could not be ignored, but Washu had found putting her skills to use in the name of cataloguing and eventually reseeding life on the worlds her weapon had scoured to be one of the most fulfilling projects she'd ever undertaken.

It's all coming back now, she thought as she peered out the main bridge viewport, taking in the gleaming white interior of the cavernous hangar space, I lost track of how many days I spent organizing the specimens, researching their biomes, designing the transports and their seeding capsules…

She was shaken out of her reverie by Kiyone. "Washu, you'd better get to the airlock."

She took a deep breath and nodded before standing up and heading for the exit. "Right. Be careful, you two."

"Same goes for you," Mihoshi replied, looking over her shoulder and smiling, "As soon as you're ready, call us. We'll get you out no matter what!"

Washu smiled in return; the confident blonde before her had come a long way from the nervous and clumsy woman she'd once been. "I know you will."

….

"We have confirmed sightings of Yagami and her fighters entering the repository," the voice of the transport's copilot crackled over the speakers in the troop bay, "I repeat, Lord Kagato; the enemy's entered the repository."

Kagato nodded. "As to be expected. What's our status?"

"We've breached the enemy's delaying squadrons," the copilot answered, "There's pursuit, but our escorts are keeping them at bay. At our current pace, we'll be entering the repository in less than fifteen minutes."

"Good," Kagato said, "Inform me when we're on final approach."

"Copy that," the copilot replied.

Ragyō's brow furrowed. "Fifteen minutes… that's too much of a lead."

"They'll have to fight through the interior defenses, just like at the previous installations," Tokimi reminded her, "Knowing Washu, the ones here will likely be even more formidable than those encountered before. It will take time for her entourage to fight through them."

"Time that will work in our favor," Kagato added with a satisfied smile, "They'll burn valuable energy fighting through the drones, not to mention they'll be making our own path through the repository easier. Fifteen minutes is hardly an insurmountable lead."

Ragyō blew out a sigh. "If you say so, brother. I just hope you're not underestimating them."

Kagato inclined his head. "Trust me, dear sister; that is the last thing I would ever do, especially this late in the game."

….

Having entered the hangar first, Heero only had a moment to admire the vast internal space before bolts of orange energy began peppering his fighter from below. It only took a moment to find the source; scores of bipedal soldier drones of the same model that had been seen at the previous two repositories were already flooding into the hangar.

"The red carpet has teeth," Heero muttered as he sprayed down the hangar floor with his plasma cannons.

"Let me take over," Eva suggested, "You and the ground team need to get moving. I'll lay down covering fire."

"Got it," Heero said, immediately relinquishing control and standing up, "All yours."

The AI's pixy form floated up before him as the fighter laid down another barrage of plasma bolts. "Once I'm outside, I'll link up with Ken-Ohki. Sasami will be safe, Heero, so you just focus on doing what you do best."

Heero nodded. "Roger that… and thanks."

Eva smiled and bowed. "Anytime. I'll keep an eye out for Kagato's forces. I won't be able to stop them from entering the repository since I'll be escorting Ken-Ohki, but I can at least give you a heads up if I spot them before the Yagami does."

"Much appreciated," Heero said as he exited the cockpit, with the fighter's boarding ramp already lowering.

Drawing his rifle, he leapt clear of the craft and used his armor's thrusters to slow his descent. Activating three Light Hawk Wings and positioning them in front as shields, he aimed his rifle through the gaps and began picking off drones that Eva's bursts of plasma from his fighter's cannons had missed. His helmet's HUD was going crazy as its sensors picked up scores of contacts flooding into the hangar not just from the doorway at the far end, but from hatches that were opening in the ceiling. Basic bipedal soldier drones took up the positions that their fallen brethren had once held, while the small flying drones filtering in from the ceiling hatches began raining orange energy down on the craft entering the hangar.

"Give me a moment," Eva's voice crackled through the helmet speakers, "I'll get these pests cleared out."

Streams of blue bolts ripped forth from the fighter's plasma cannons, and they were not the only ones; as the rest of Heero's fellow former Gundam pilots descended from their fighters, the piloting programs that had kicked in added their firepower to the mix. Within a matter of seconds, the reinforcing soldier drones had been reduced to heaps of twisted and melted parts, while the flying ones found themselves under fire from the point-defense guns of the Yagami along with the formidable energy weapons of Ryo-Ohki and Ken-Ohki. Soon enough, Heero and his friends had the hangar to themselves.

"Secure the doorway," Heero ordered, already taking point as his friends raced to catch up.

"Don't go beyond it!" Washu shouted, "I have something you need, Heero, so hold position at the doorway until I can catch up."

Heero nodded, sighting down the doorway and waiting for targets to appear. "Make it quick."

The five former Gundam pilots were equipped with their usual weaponry, so while Heero and Quatre had their rifles aimed down the doorway and Duo was doing the same with his plasma shotgun, Trowa and Wufei had turned around and were aiming their weapons at the ceiling, watching for any signs of hostile reinforcements from above. The pulse grenade launchers that Washu had designed as anti-Tokimi countermeasures were distributed amongst members of the Imperial Marines aboard Ryo-Ohki, with Hilde also taking one of them.

If they have to use them, it means I screwed up, Heero reminded himself, I'll have to stand against Tokimi and Ragyō with my powers as they are now… but I won't be alone. With Ryoko and Nagi, I think we can hold our own long enough for Washu to get the repository's data.

I hope.

With no movement in the corridor, Heero chanced a look around the giant hangar space, only now truly appreciating the facility's scale. He was no stranger to massive landing areas; anyone who lived for any stretch of time on the space colonies would find such a setting quite familiar. Even so, the space that Heero and his friends occupied now utterly dwarfed anything they had seen back in the colonies. The gleaming white and grey cavern was not only fitting the five fighters, Yagami, Ryo-Ohki, and Ken-Ohki in their ship forms with plenty of room to spare, but it probably could have fit in several human shuttles or heavier transports quite comfortably. Heero could only imagine what the ships Washu had designed to land and depart from such a space might have looked like, and he was tempted to ask if she had any schematics or images to share of them. He shoved that query to the back of his mind; it was not strictly mission related and could wait until they were all clear of the combat zone.

There was a flash of red light as Ryo-Ohki teleported her passengers into the hangar. Ryoko immediately took flight as she raced to catch up with Heero, while Yosho, Hilde, and the Juraian Marines hurried behind her. Further back, Heero saw Ayeka, her Royal Guardians, and Washu rushing down the Yagami's boarding ramp, while a purple flash emanating from Ken-Ohki saw Nagi land on the hangar floor. The two living starships then raced out of the hangar to join the five fighters, with the Yagami carefully turning to follow.

Be careful out there, Heero thought as his gaze lingered on the crimson patrol cruiser, Mihoshi…

"Heero!" Washu called out, and he saw her waving a chip with a glowing blue light, "You'll need this from here on out."

Heero nodded and turned around so Washu could insert the chip in the designated armor slot, and then the familiar voice of AIDA came over his helmet speakers. "Testing, testing… you hear me, Heero?"

"Loud and clear," he answered, "Good to have you back."

"Good to be back," she replied, "Washu had me working on some stuff in the lab during the transit to this system, so that's why she didn't give me to you sooner."

"That's fine," Heero said before nodding in the direction of the doorway they'd gathered around, "You know where to go?"

"I do," she confirmed, "The corridor ahead runs for about a kilometer before it reaches one of the repository's tram line stations. That's our first objective. The tram won't take us all the way to the data center, but it'll get us close."

"I take it the tram station's guarded?" Heero assumed.

"Heavily," AIDA said, "Expect an assortment of drones, with the potential for models that we haven't seen previously. You know how Washu is with these facilities."

"Always an unpleasant surprise waiting for us," Heero deadpanned.

"Pretty much," AIDA acknowledged, "Don't worry; you've got this. The corridor to the tram station's a straight shot, and the tram line station's at the far end. Just as a head's up, the only cover you'll find in the corridor is the side doorways, and those aren't very roomy."

"Good thing I can make cover for all of us now," Heero remarked as he nodded at the three Light Hawk Wings floating in front of him.

"Yes, those will be quite handy," AIDA agreed, "Ready to get moving?"

"Just about," Heero said before turning his attention to the others, "Ryoko, Duo, Quatre, Trowa, Wufei, Nagi; you're all on point with me. Ayeka, get up here too so we can use your barriers. Marine Fire Team Alpha, provide supporting fire as needed. Fire Team Bravo hangs back as a reserve and to watch the rear. Yosho, Hilde, Azaka, Kamidake; stick with Washu in the middle. Move out."

….

Taking a series of deep breaths to steady herself, Ayeka spread her arms and concentrated as her signature floating wooden roods appeared in front of the group, the crackling energy between them forming the group's forward barrier. Heero and his friends were flanking her, with Heero's Light Hawk Wings out ahead of Ayeka's barrier so he and the others could slip out from her shield to fire at the enemy while still having forward cover before quickly dipping back inside the protection of the crown princess's energy wall.

It didn't take long at all for her powers to be put to good use. The instant that the team had set foot inside the corridor, a flood of orange plasma bolts had greeted them from bipedal soldier drones flooding the hallway floor along with the floating spherical ones filtering in from overhead hatches. While Ayeka maintained her barrier, Heero and the others began venturing out behind his Light Hawk Wings as planned, with Ryoko rushing forward to generate a smaller barrier of her own to provide additional protection.

"Waste these guys, Heero!" the pirate shouted.

"Working on it," Heero quipped as he began picking off targets with very well-placed rifle shots.

To his right, Trowa began laying down a stream of fire with his rotary plasma cannon, mowing down a slew of bipedal drones while forcing many of the others to take cover in the doorways flanking both sides of the hallway. Slinking along the left side, Duo poked his plasma shotgun into the closest doorway and fired off two blasts, with smoking parts of the drones he had taken out falling to the floor. Quatre and Wufei took steady potshots to pick off aerial drones, while Ayeka saw Nagi draw a sleek-looking pistol she had never seen the bounty hunter use before, from which flew out crackling blew bolts which shorted out any drone they hit and caused them to crumple to the floor.

"Arc disruptor," Nagi explained when she saw Ayeka looking at her new weapon in curiosity, "Good to have when a job requires taking out machines."

Despite her distaste for the bounty hunter, Ayeka would give credit where it was due. "You're well prepared."

"Always bring the right tool to the right job," Nagi replied as she fired off two more shots, which resulted in a pair of floating drones crashing to the floor, "and always invest in proper gear maintenance. That's how you survive in my line of work."

Ayeka could not argue with that logic. "Clearly."

As bolts of orange energy constantly splashed against Ayeka's shields, it was becoming difficult for her to see beyond them. She had to rely on signals from Heero, Quatre, and the others to determine how quickly she should advance. While it felt as though they were making steady progress, Ayeka was keenly aware that every second counted, and her concern about Kagato and his entourage eventually catching them from behind was steadily growing.

That concern was only amplified by a shout from Duo. "Got new models up ahead! Big bastards with shields!"

Narrowing her eyes as she struggled to see past the orange energy rippling across her barrier, it took several seconds before enough of a window opened for Ayeka to see what Duo had spotted. Arrayed in a line across the hallway up ahead were four hulking bipedal drones, each one at least twice the size of an average human. Their dark gray bodies possessed thick limbs and what looked like a well-armored torso, while two glowing dark red sensor eyes in their heads gave them a rather menacing appearance. Their right arms held heavy plasma rifles with barrels as wide as a human arm, but what really caught Ayeka's attention were the broad circular energy shields held in their left arms, each barrier glowing bright blue and possessing a small hemispherical cut-in on the right side through which the drones could point their weapons.

A salvo of thick orange beams ripped forth from them, with two hitting Heero's Light Hawk Wings, a third impacting Ayeka's shield, while a fourth caught Quatre in the torso. Ayeka's eyes widened in alarm as the young man was thrown back by the impact, but he recovered quickly and rolled behind the crown princess's shield. She saw blue and orange sparks arcing across Quatre's chest as his armor's shields dispersed the residual energy and attempted to recharge.

"Are you alright?" she asked, trying to keep her tone steady despite the scare she'd just been given.

"Yeah," Quatre grunted while climbing to his feet, "but that shot packed a real wallop. Dropped my shields down to less than ten percent."

"Speaking of shields, we have a problem," Wufei quipped as he fired off several volleys, "These guys are tanking everything I'm throwing at them. I can't shoot around the shields, either; they're moving them too quickly."

"They're tough," Trowa acknowledged as he sent a stream of fire from his rotary plasma cannon down the hallway before ducking back behind Ayeka's barrier, "They'll hold us up if we can't find a way around them quickly."

"We already have one," Heero said before nodding at Ryoko, "Do what you do best."

Ryoko responded with a sly grin. "You got it!"

Ayeka watched as Ryoko ducked to the right and phased through the closest wall. Keeping her shield up, Ayeka could only watch and wait for Ryoko to make her move. The splashes of orange energy against her shield became more pronounced as the shielded units bombarded her with their heavy rifles, and while Ayeka was confident that she could withstand the barrage, she was not eager to put her endurance to the test.

Hurry up, Ryoko, she silently urged, time is of the essence here!

A few seconds later, she saw Ryoko poke her head out of the right wall just behind the shield drones. Then her whole body flew out, and her double-ended Key ignited. Two of the shield-bearing drones were sliced in half from behind before they even knew what hit them, while the other two hulking machines cumbersomely attempted to turn towards this new threat. In doing so, they opened themselves up to concentrated fire from Heero and his friends, along with the Marines of Fire Team Alpha. Within seconds, all four of the shield-bearing drones were reduced to heaps of metal on the floor, and the bipedal soldier drones who had been using them as cover found themselves caught between Ryoko's spinning double-ended Key and the volleys of plasma coming from down the hallway.

"All clear!" Ryoko called out a few moments later as she blasted several floating drones out of the air with a volley of crimson energy spheres from her left hand.

The group rushed forward, with Ayeka praying that they had not lost too much time.

….

When AIDA had mentioned a tram station as their first objective, Heero had a vague image in his mind of something akin to the internal transit networks he'd seen throughout the Earth Sphere's space colonies. A central terminal and boarding area, separate dedicated passenger and cargo lines, signal lights, and other such features formed the mental picture, with modifications to fit the kind of architecture and technology that Heero had seen in Washu's repositories so far. Of course, Heero was prepared to have his assumptions thrown out the window upon arrival; it would not be the first time a creation of Washu's took him by surprise, after all.

Recalling AIDA's warning that the station would be heavily defended, Heero had the group stop just outside the door at the end of the hallway and turned to Ryoko. "Slip inside and get a good look at the opposition, then get back here immediately."

Ryoko nodded. "Got it."

Rather than phasing through the door, she went to the right and passed through the wall. Only a couple seconds passed before Heero and the others could hear the familiar sounds of weapons fire on the other side, and Ryoko phased back through the wall a moment later.

"It's nasty in there," she said, "Two turrets on the main approach, and two further back on the boarding platform. Lots of drones, too. Soldier and flying models mostly, but they have more of those shield-carrying bastards set up on the main walkway."

Heero nodded, already activating a fourth Light Hawk Wing. "Alright. Ayeka and I will tank their fire. Ryoko, circle around and take out the turrets, going back to front. Then meet us in the middle."

"Alright," Ryoko replied, already phasing back through the wall.

Heero took a second to check and make sure everyone else was ready before opening the door. It was a good thing that he and Ayeka were up front providing defense for everyone else, because a rain of orange energy bolts met them as soon as they stepped into the doorway. Ryoko had not been exaggerating in the least about it being 'nasty' in the tram station; all four of the turrets were clearly rapid-fire models, and that was not even getting into the drones themselves.

The tram station itself wound up being quite different from what Heero had been imagining. As he and Ayeka slowly pressed forward, tanking fire from the turrets and drones while they waited for Ryoko to take out the former, Heero took a moment to survey the area. The ground team had come out onto a wide walkway which stretched out towards a broad rectangular platform suspended in the middle of a vast spherical chamber. There were no rails of any sort, with the gleaming white, streamlined tram cars scattered about the chamber appearing to float in mid-air. Heero counted no less than twelve transit tunnels, arranged in a series of rings around the chamber with a lower, middle, and upper level. Only a few of the tram cars, like the one presently docked at the platform that Heero and his comrades needed to reach, appeared designed for passengers, as they had creature comforts such as windows and seats. The majority of the hovering stock Heero could see were either cylindrical or rectangular constructs that seemed built for various types of cargo.

Heero did not have much more than a second or two to take in his surroundings. Arrayed before him and the others on the walkway were more of the shield-bearing drones they had encountered before. They were split into three defensive lines of four drones each, while behind them were the standard bipedal soldier drones, their rifles poking around their mechanical brethren's glowing blue shields. Dozens of flying drones were scattered across the chamber, and they began rapidly converging on the ground team.

Taking a closer look, Heero saw that a new model of flying drone was interspersed with the spherical ones he had seen before. Roughly three times the size of the regular flying drones, these were much bulkier machines that appeared almost scarab beetle-like in their appearance. Like insects from Earth, they possessed six limbs, with the rear four being rather spindly ones that each held a plasma cannon, while the front two were larger and sported smaller versions of the blue shields wielded by their ground-based counterparts. However, these shields only covered the face and lower front half of the drones, leaving the rear and flanks vulnerable.

"Ayeka, defend the front," Heero ordered.

The crown princess nodded. "Understood."

Heero split up his Light Hawk Wings into two pairs. He deployed them above the ground team, one set to the right and one to the left. It was not a perfect defense by any means, but it would at least provide some protection up top until the aerial drones could be cleared out.

"Marines, you're on anti-air duty," Heero ordered, "Everyone else, wait for Ryoko to take out the turrets, then engage."

"Aim for those firing gaps in the big drones' shields!" Quatre called out, "We might be able to get some hits in that way."

"Just like Jackals in Halo," Duo quipped, "Really big Jackals…"

Ayeka raised an eyebrow. "What are Jackals, and what's Halo?"

Duo laughed. "Heero, you mean you didn't introduce the girls to one of the best shooter games ever? Some host you are!"

"Less references, more shooting," Heero ordered.

Matching his words with deeds, Heero poked his rifle out from Ayeka's barrier and snapped off a volley at the right-most shield-drone in the front line. As Quatre had suggested, Heero's aim was for the firing gap, and while a couple of his shots still splashed against the shield, at least one did make it through the small opening. He saw some sparks fly as the plasma bolt hit the drone's arm, but return fire from Heero's target suggested that any damage had been minimal.

Trowa, rather ironically given that his weapon was not designed for precision shooting, wound up having better luck. Through sheer volume of fire, he managed to get several plasma bolts down the gunbarrel poking out from behind the shield to the left of Heero's target. There was a satisfying blast as something important detonated, and the drone in question suddenly lurched to the left, disrupting the first defensive line, and creating an opening. Heero and the others wasted no time in exploiting it, sending everything they had downrange at the soldier drones who had been sheltering behind the first rank of shield-bearers, mowing down several before the remaining three shield-drones reformed into a new defensive line.

Far behind the drones, Heero saw twin flashes of crimson as Ryoko ignited the blades of her double-ended Key. She struck the right rear turret first, slicing clean through where the gunbarrel met the mounting. As a shower of sparks flew from her first target, Ryoko flew across the platform and was on top of the second rear turret before it could rotate to target her. Her Key whirled like a scarlet buzzsaw, and the second turret was cut in half.

That was enough for whatever programming guided the drones to recognize the threat to the rear and shift the deployment. As the front two turrets continued pouring fire at the main group, the rear section of drones turned around and began opening fire on Ryoko, while several of the flying drones likewise began targeting her. In response, Ryoko phased through the floor of the platform, with a storm of energy beams passing through the space she had occupied just a second before. While she was safe from the bipedal and shield drones, the flying ones began fanning out to the left and right as they sought to chase her beneath the platform. That proved to be a deadly mistake, as volleys of red energy balls flew out in both directions, sending charred husks of drones falling into the cavernous abyss below.

As the surviving floating drones pulled back, Heero saw Ryoko suddenly pop back up through the platform's floor. Her Key had been deactivated and clipped back to her belt, with Heero's Royal Guard instead aiming both of her open palms at the drones and letting fly with another flurry of crimson spheres. Generating a barrier with her left hand to block return fire, she then aimed her right at the forward turrets, blasting first the right one and then the left with concentrated blasts that turned them both into heaps of slag. She then dropped down to the platform and ignited both blades of her Key again, giving the surviving drones a predatory grin.

With more drones turning to face Ryoko now that all the turrets were destroyed, Heero and the others were emboldened. Concentrated fire from Heero, Quatre, and Wufei slipped through the firing gap in another one of the shields, which resulted in a spectacular detonation as something sensitive within the drone's weapon was hit. The remaining two shield-bearing drones were thrown off balance by the blast, fully opening the front line.

"Forward!" Heero called out.

The team advanced, with Heero and his friends laying down withering fire that tore apart the drones which had been hiding behind the shield-bearing ones. It did not take long to completely eradicate the front line, with Duo rushing forward to finish off both shield-bearing drones with two blasts from his plasma shotgun while Heero and the others provided covering fire. Beyond them, mechanical limbs and heads were flying about as Ryoko tore into the automatons with wild abandon, the crimson blades of her Key carving a trail of destruction through their ranks.

Nagi chuckled as she switched the disruptor pistol over to her left hand before drawing and igniting her violet saber, immediately switching it to its whip form. "Not bad, Ryoko, but I can't let you show me up here."

The bounty hunter leapt forward, and the long strand of violet energy lashed out in a wide swing. Entangling one of the shield-bearing drones from the second line, Nagi dragged the hulking machine into one of its automaton comrades, collapsing the entire left half of the line. Heero and the others were quick to take advantage, mowing down the soldier drones who had been taking cover behind the now-fallen shield-bearing ones before the remaining two shield drones could regroup. Meanwhile, the two Marine fire teams were filling the air above the group with plasma as they mowed down the flying drones with professional efficiency. The ground team's momentum was now unstoppable, with the remaining drones caught between Heero and the main force in the front and a rampaging Ryoko from the rear.

A minute or so later, all that remained of the opposition were heaps of metal debris, prompting Heero to deactivate his Light Hawk Wings. The infiltration team had no time to rest on their laurels, with Heero leading them onto the main platform.

"Go to that console in the middle," AIDA ordered, "Place your right hand in the center and leave the rest to me."

Heero did as he was ordered, and a blue light flashed a second later. The door along the left side of the tram car at the platform slid open, with Heero and the others racing to get aboard.

"I've implanted a virus in the station's transit control network," AIDA explained as Heero went to the front of the tram car while everyone else either took seats or standing positions, "Once our car departs, the rest will be locked in place."

"Then Kagato will be stuck," Heero remarked, "Good work."

"It won't stall him for long," AIDA pushed back as she got the tram car floated away from, "I fully expect him to neutralize it once he realizes what he's dealing with. At best, I've bought you just a few extra minutes."

"I'll take every second we can get," Heero said as the tram car hovered towards the tunnel entrance on the far side of the chamber, "This is the most direct route?"

"Affirmative," AIDA replied, "I have us set for the very last stop, which will drop us roughly off at roughly a kilometer and a half away from the data center. "

"Not much ground to cover afterwards, then," Heero noted, "That's good."

"Don't get too excited," AIDA chided as the tram car entered the tunnel and rapidly picked up speed, "That kilometer and a half is going to be packed to the brim with defenses. It won't be a walk in the park."

"I wasn't expecting one," Heero said as he took a moment to catch his breath.

AIDA's voice then softened. "It'll be a few minutes before we arrive. Sit down and get a bit of rest while you can."

Heero closed his eyes for a moment before stepping away from the console, going to closest passenger bench. "Right."

He could not even feel the tram car's acceleration, which Heero put down to Washu having probably installed some form of anti-gravity technology meant to compensate for the force of inertia. Looking out the windows on both sides, he saw the gleaming white and metallic grey surface of the transit corridor passing by in a blur, periodically interrupted by blinking blue lights. There was something comforting about it, like Heero and the others were not in a space station racing against the enemy to seize its valuable contents, but instead just riding a subway to work in Brussels or using a space colony's transit line.

"I have an incoming transmission from your fighter," AIDA announced a few seconds later, "According to Eva, Kagato's ship is on landing approach now. It'll be touching down shortly."

"And we cleared the way for him," Heero murmured.

"Only for the last line of external defenses," AIDA argued, "This station houses significant drone reserves. My infiltration of the defense system shows that new formations are being deployed to the hangar as we speak. They'll slow Kagato down a little bit."

Heero nodded. "I hope so. What's the status of Yagami and the others?"

"Yagami and Ken-Ohki have taken shelter in a cluster of ring debris below the repository's orbital plane," AIDA answered, "Ryo-Ohki and your fighters are flying combat air patrol. None of Kagato's forces have ventured that way, and the repository's outer defenses aren't considering it a priority target. They're as safe as they can be in a place like this, Heero. Don't worry about them; just focus on what's ahead."

"Right," Heero sighed, trying to banish those concerns to the back of his mind.

….

"Enjoying a trip down memory lane?" Yosho prodded from the seat next to Washu.

The red-headed scientist blinked several times, the old prince's words pulling her out of reverie and back to the present. "Yeah… I guess so."

Yosho chuckled. "Well, we oldsters have earned that right, if nothing else."

Washu smiled wearily. "I suppose. Can't really tell if getting lost in memories of the old days is a blessing or curse. For all the horror that the Array caused… I actually get a bit sentimental thinking of the time I spent building it. Messed up, right?"

"To most, perhaps," Yosho admitted as he appraised her, "However… I might be able to relate. Thinking back on all the time I spent training with Kagato… with the benefit of hindsight, it's clear to me now that I was helping develop the skills of a man whose ambitions threatened the entire galaxy. It's a period I should feel shameful of, and yet… I look back on those days fondly."

Washu nodded as she let loose a long sigh. "The excitement of challenges, of pushing all our knowledge and skills to new heights, seeing just how far we can go… even if its ultimately to horrifying ends, that sensation remains intoxicating."

"And yet, here we are," Yosho replied, "determined now to destroy what brought us such thrills. We've grown."

"I'd like to think so," Washu concurred as her gaze drifted towards Heero and Ryoko, who were occupying the frontmost bench in the tram car, "We live and learn for our own sake, and for who we love. Kagato, though… he's never moved past the Imperial Civil War. He sees our collaboration back then as a golden period of time, despite the horrific backdrop… and I think I'm to blame for that. When I tampered with his memories, I may have been acting to keep the Array secure from him, but I fear there were unintended side effects. In messing with his past, I may have precluded him from seeking a future beyond our nightmarish masterpiece. This whole mess might just be a giant self-fulfilling prophecy… and our children now suffer for it."

Yosho shook his head. "I don't think you're being fair to yourself or Kagato. You recognized your mistake and did what you thought was right to atone for it. Had Kagato been capable of similar reflection, of recognizing that you two had gone too far, tampering with his memories would not have been necessary. Regardless of side effects, you still left him with more than enough knowledge of his life to move forward. He fell down this current path of his own accord."

"Not quite," Washu pushed back, "Tokimi gave him quite the nudge. He never would've begun seeking out past knowledge of the Array without her involvement."

"He was still more than capable of resisting," Yosho argued, "If not the temptation of power itself, then that of the Array specifically. His brilliant mind could've easily devised other machinations for the throne. Tokimi simply presented him with the most direct avenue towards that goal; Kagato's the one who decided to walk it."

Washu paused for a moment before inclining her head. "I guess you're right. We made our choices, and he made his. Nothing left for it now but to see those choices through to the end."

"Whatever end that might be," Yosho remarked.

Washu eyed him in concern, noting the tension in his frame. "You feeling up for this?"

Yosho gave her a somewhat forced smile. "Compared to the youngsters, I haven't put in any real work so far in this battle. I have more than sufficient strength at my disposal."

Washu frowned, her brow wrinkling in disapproval. "Spare me the bravado. Old age has taken far more of a toll on you than me; don't pretend otherwise. Even if the only exertion you've had so far in this battle has been running and playing defense, you only have so much energy to spare. Certainly not as much as you did back then."

"I have what I need," Yosho firmly replied, "It will have to be enough."

Washu sighed. "Stubborn old fool…"

Yosho chuckled. "I've been called worse."

Washu ultimately relented, though the smile she gave her old friend was tinged with worry. "Well, you and I both knew what we were getting into when this whole mess started. Too late to back out now. Still… don't take any foolish risks, okay?"

"I intend not to," Yosho reassured her before his gaze darkened, "When the time comes to face Kagato, though… I can make no promises."

Washu nodded in resignation before meeting his gaze. "I know. Just remember that your life doesn't belong to you alone anymore; your grandson needs you."

Yosho smiled again, this time in somewhat bittersweet manner as he looked once more towards the front of the tram car. "He spread his wings and flew long before we met. Still, I take your meaning."

Washu then nudged him with her elbow. "And I still need your help herding this crazy group of cats your grandson's gathered around him. Don't even think of leaving me to deal with their chaos all by myself."

She was relieved see Yosho laugh. "Oh, that's what you're really worried about? Well, then I guess I have no choice, then!"

Damn right, you don't, Washu thought, Yosho, I know how that mind of yours works, but you don't get to make some grand self-sacrifice today. Not if the rest of us have anything to say about it.

….

"How much further until our stop? Heero asked.

"Just a few more kilometers," AIDA answered, "We'll clear those quite quickly, so I suggest getting ready now."

Heero immediately stood up, and the others followed suit. Heading for the door, he took up position at the head of the group, with Ryoko and Ayeka flanking him, the latter already building up energy for generating another barrier.

"Got a plan?" Ryoko asked.

"Hang on," Heero said before addressing the artificial intelligence sharing his armor, "What can we expect for opposition?"

"Besides the usual drones?" AIDA replied, "From what I've gathered browsing the repository's security system, at least two more turret pairs. They'll be laying down fire as soon as the tram door opens."

Heero nodded before turning to Ryoko. "When we get to the platform, Ayeka and I will tank fire. I want you to go to the front of the tram car and phase through it, then go around and hit the turrets."

"Right," Ryoko said, meeting Heero's gaze before turning around and moving into position.

"Do you have anything on Kagato's progress?" Heero inquired.

"Making mincemeat of the reinforcement drones," AIDA grimly answered, "He's almost to the transit station we departed from."

"Good thing you left that virus back there for him," Heero remarked.

"Yes, but don't forget that it won't delay him for long," AIDA pointed out, "Best to hit the ground running here."

Heero looked around at the rest of the ground team while preparing himself for activating his Light Hawk Wings again. "Listen up; Ayeka and I will go first and get us a toehold on the platform. Get out of the tram car as quickly as possible, then hold position behind our barriers until Ryoko can eliminate the turrets. Guard the flanks and watch the air."

Washu cleared her throat. "Heero, have AIDA access the transit grid. There should be some tram cars floating in the next station."

"Are there?" Heero asked the artificial intelligence.

"Three empty fauna transport cars sitting idle," AIDA confirmed, "along with one passenger car. I fail to see of what use they'll be, though."

When Heero relayed that to Washu, the scientist gave a devious smile. "Have her override their safety protocols and assign subroutines to control them."

"Wait, why the safety… ooh," AIDA said before comprehension clicked, "I see what she's got in mind!"

Heero very much did not. "And what's that?"

AIDA chuckled. "Oh, just watch and wait! Have Ryoko stay in the tram car until it's done. Trust me, you'll know what 'it' is soon enough."

Heero did not appreciate being kept in the dark, but seeing as they were coming up on their destination, there was no time to argue. He signaled Ryoko to stand by before readying his rifle.

A few seconds later, the tram car cleared the transit tunnel and came out into another vast spherical chamber, much like the previous station. Sure enough, Heero saw that the platform the car was headed towards had quite the welcoming party waiting; three lines of four shield-bearing drones each, along with scores of soldier drones taking cover behind them and even more floating drones, small and large, overhead.

"AIDA?" Heero prodded.

"Here we go," AIDA whispered mischievously, "Heero, have you ever been to a demolition derby?"

Heero blinked; that was hardly a question he had expected from her today. "No, why?"

"Because you're about to have front row seats to something even better," she answered.

His gaze still focused on the platform, Heero's eyes widened in shock as a rectangular transit car suddenly flew from its idle position in the middle of the chamber and plowed headlong into the first rank of shield-bearing drones. While the automatons' barriers had proven quite durable under fire, the impact of a multi-ton tram car travelling at high speed was something else entirely. The shield drones and many of the soldier models behind them were scattered like bowling pins, with most falling to the spherical chamber's floor far below. As the first cargo car eventually came to a screeching halt, a second one flew in from the right, running over the rear section of the platform where it met the walkway and sending the second line of shield drones and many of their smaller compatriots flying over the edge. A third car followed, this time coming from the left and scraping over the walkway section that the final shield drone line occupied, sending the automatons soaring off into the distance.

"Not bad, eh?" AIDA remarked smugly.

Heero could not suppress a small smirk as he surveyed the chaos. "Not bad at all."

Duo cackled in delight. "They didn't see that coming!"

"To be fair, neither did we," Quatre pointed out.

"That's one way to clear out the opposition," Wufei quipped.

"We still have those turrets and the stragglers to deal with," Trowa chimed in.

Heero turned to Ayeka, who nodded as the tram car pulled up to the platform. "I'm ready."

Taking a step back from the tram car door, the two Juraian Royals activated their respective defenses in preparation for the coming deluge of fire. Sure enough, as soon as the door slid open, the four turrets began spewing out streams of orange bolts with such intensity that it was almost impossible to see past their impacts on the shield. As the team began cautiously filing out of the tram car while making sure to remain behind Ayeka's barrier, Heero once again repositioned his four Light Hawk Wings to provide cover against the flying drones, whose numbers had unfortunately been unaffected by AIDA's earlier mayhem with the tram cars.

"Ryoko, go!" Heero ordered as he aimed his rifle up and began picking off some of the smaller drones with quick bursts of fire, "Everyone else, defend this position."

As the air filled with plasma bolts zipping back and forth between the ground team and the drones, Ryoko phased through the front of the tram car and flew in a wide arc around the right side of the platform. The right-side turrets of each pair immediately shifted their tracking towards her, forcing Ryoko to generate a barrier of her own before she was able to dive beneath their traverse. She was soon underneath the platform and out of sight altogether, and Heero had a good idea as to how she would make her attack.

Sure enough, as he and the others continued to trade fire with the aerial drones while Ayeka guarded them from all forward attacks, Ryoko phased through the floor of the walkway behind the second turret pair. Aiming her palms at both weapons, she swiftly reduced them to molten slag with rapid-fire volleys of crimson energy balls. Shifting targets, she then did the same to the forward pair before gaining altitude and turning her ire on the aerial drones.

"Advance!" Heero said, shifting his aim to the scattered soldier drones who had survived the tram car attacks and poking the barrel of his rifle through Ayeka's shield to squeeze off a few volleys.

Wufei and Trowa joined Heero in picking off the soldier drones, who were hastily trying to reassemble into something approaching a coherent defensive line. Eager to prevent their regrouping, Nagi barreled through Ayeka's shield, her disruptor pistol in her left hand and energy whip in her right. A wide swing from the latter tangled up three of the soldier drones, sending violet sparks coursing through their bodies before they crumpled to the ground, while two blue bolts from the former nailed the bounty hunter's targets square in the head. Meanwhile, Duo was pumping out blasts from his plasma shotgun at the heavier scarab-shaped drones, blowing chunks out of their vulnerable rear undersides, with Quatre and several of the Marines giving him openings by distracting the larger automatons with potshots. Between their efforts and those of Ryoko, the airborne threat was dealt with quickly, and the surviving soldier drones were mopped up mere seconds later.

"Get to the exit quickly," said AIDA, "There's something I want to try once we're all out of this room."

"In a second," Heero replied as he turned to Ryoko, "Recon the other side. Don't go far; we just need to know if the area right past the door is safe."

Ryoko nodded before flying forward and phasing through the wall to the right of the door. A few seconds later, she returned.

"Just a hallway," she reported, "Nothing there yet, but I don't know how long that'll last."

"It'll be enough," AIDA remarked.

Heero motioned for everyone to advance, and they quickly filed through the doorway. Once they were all on the other side and the door had shut behind them, Heero heard a series of screeching and crashing sounds coming from where they had previously been, including a notable tremor as something heavy impacted the wall behind him.

"What did you do?" Heero asked.

"I had the tram cars pile up at the exit," AIDA explained, "That'll slow Kagato down a bit."

"And block our escape route," Heero argued, "Not exactly ideal."

"Kagato will have to remove them himself if he wants to reach the data center," AIDA countered, "He'll be clearing his own escape route and ours in the process. Besides, if all else fails, the tram cars are still in operating order; they're quite durable. I can clear them myself should the need arise."

"If you say so," Heero muttered before turning his attention ahead.

Just as Ryoko had said, the team found themselves in a rather plain hallway. The surfaces were all gleaming white, with several doors lining both sides. It was not a particularly long one, either; Heero could see a doorway at the end, probably no more than fifty to sixty meters away from where the team was now.

"What lies beyond?" Heero inquired.

"The doors to the sides lead to DNA archives, testing facilities, and habitats," AIDA answered, "As for the one up ahead, beyond it is quite the gauntlet. Drones and turrets in abundance, and you'd be wise to anticipate new models. I can't account for everything; my system intrusion's run into some very formidable firewalls."

"Expect the unexpected, then," Heero commented, "Some things never change."

"No matter what's waiting for us, just remember that we're all behind you," AIDA reassured him, "We've got this, Heero."

Heero nodded, once again raising his rifle. "Forward, then."

….

Double-checking the calibration of his rifle scope as they ran down the hallway, Quatre could not help but wish that a few more Preventer members had joined them for their mission to save the galaxy. While Noin and Zechs had left to help with the Mars colonization efforts following the Mariemaia Rebellion's conclusion, it would not have been too much trouble for Yagami to swing by the red planet and pick them up. Their combat experience and talents would've proven invaluable, not to mention Quatre would have very much enjoyed seeing the looks on their faces when they learned that Heero had been made responsible for taking care of so many alien women, not to mention the fact that Zech's former rival was actually galactic royalty.

Even if Noin and Zechs couldn't leave their work on Mars to join us, Quatre thought, I wouldn't have minded if Sally at least joined us. She has ground combat experience, which would be useful here. Well, guess she's too important for Preventer leadership to go on field missions now. Too late to worry about all that now, I guess.

Glancing at Ayeka, Quatre could see the Juraian princess breathing hard, sweat dripping down her brow. "You okay?"

Ayeka smiled confidently while wiping her forehead with the sleeve of her robe. "No need to worry about me, Quatre, though the concern is appreciated."

Her words seemed sincere rather than bravado, which helped put Quatre's mind at ease. "Guess you're a bit more used to workouts like this now than you were before."

"Yes," Ayeka confirmed, "Who knew that taking part of an undeclared war would be a great way to get in shape."

Quatre chuckled. "Have to find the silver linings where you can, I suppose."

"This makes all the old Preventer missions I went on feel like training exercises," Wufei chimed in, "Eliminating terrorist cells and wannabe insurrectionists were cakewalks compared to what this mission's been."

"On the bright side, at least we have government support compared to our old war," Trowa pointed out.

"Yeah, it's nice when an empire and their war machine's on your side instead of against you," Duo concurred, "Lots of friendly firepower backing us up out there is a great change of pace. Shame it can't all fit inside here with us now."

"You have two Imperial Marine fire teams backing you up," Hilde reminded him, "and they're right here, so I doubt they appreciate you forgetting them."

Duo chuckled sheepishly as he glanced over his shoulder. "Right… sorry, guys."

A handful of short laughs came from a few of the Marines, along with some of them flashing thumbs up gestures. While Quatre and his friends might not have had the time to develop a real rapport with the Juraian soldiers, they definitely appreciated the Marines' professional conduct and the supporting fire they'd given throughout the mission so far. More importantly, Quatre was pleased to see that both fire teams were still operating with every member; their armor had proven quite capable of weathering fire from Washu's drones, though the cover provided by Ayeka's barriers and Heero's Light Hawk Wings certainly helped improve their survivability odds.

When they reached the doorway, Quatre saw Heero nod at Ryoko. The pirate once more went to the right before phasing through the wall next to the door, and everyone waited anxiously for her return. There was a moment of silence before a series of sounds came from the other side; what seemed to be a mixture of strange electrical signals combined with the now very-familiar reports of plasma weapons discharging.

Ryoko came back through the wall a few seconds later. "Well, it's messy over there. Very big room, and crowded. I counted at least six turrets, and there could be more further back."

"What about the drones?" Heero asked.

"Lots of them, and I saw some new types," Ryoko answered as her brow furrowed, "Front line of those big shield buggers, lots of soldier models and the smaller flying units. The new ones… they were weird."

"How so?" Quatre pressed.

"They're about the same size as the soldier models," Ryoko explained, "but they're really fast. Jumpy little bastards, and they can stick to the walls."

"What kind of heat they packing?" Duo inquired.

"They're mixing it up," Ryoko replied, "Saw some using basic rifles like the soldier models, but others have longer ones. They're sticking towards the back; definitely snipers. Gotta watch out for them, they're shots pack a real wallop. Tanked a few on my barriers, but I still felt it. Probably could take your guys' shields down with one shot."

"We'll need to prioritize them and the turrets," Wufei suggested.

Heero concurred. "Agreed. Is there any cover?"

"We'll be exposed when entering the room," Ryoko said, "but there are good spots along both sides where you can shelter. Lot of obstacles once you get towards the middle, too. Problem is the new sniper drones; they can reposition and hit you from a different angle quick."

"Best if we split up, then," Quatre suggested, "Half of us go up the right, the other the left. Work our way forward from cover to cover, focus down the sniper drones."

Heero nodded before turning to the Marine fire teams. "Have your designated marksmen concentrate on the sniper drones. Everyone else will provide cover until we've confirmed they're all eliminated."

"Who's taking which side?" Trowa asked.

Quatre and the others waited a moment as Heero considered it. "I'll take Ryoko, Nagi, Wufei, and Fire Team Alpha along the right. Quatre, you'll take Duo, Trowa, Ayeka, Fire Team Bravo, and Washu's group along the left. Ryoko, you and I will be up front; your barriers and my Light Hawk Wings can keep our team protected until we're in cover. Once we're in a good position, I want you to start taking out any turrets in there. The rest of us will focus on the snipers, then work our way through the rest of the drones."

Ryoko nodded. "You got it."

Activating four Light Hawk Wings as Ayeka brought her barriers back to life, Heero took up position in front as Quatre and the others readied themselves. They moved forward a moment later, triggering the door's sensors. The door slid open, and before Quatre's view became filled with plasma bolts hitting Ayeka's shield, he had a brief moment to take in the room. While its surfaces were the same gleaming white and metallic grey material that they'd seen throughout the repository so far, the chamber's design actually struck Quatre as having perhaps more in common with a cathedral than a high-tech space station. The cavernously-huge room had high vaulted ceilings, with supporting columns and arches lining both sides and reminding Quatre of some ancient churches he'd visited during a family vacation in Europe. At the far end of the chamber, three sets of stairs climbed a series of terraces that ended with a tall, dark metal door which Quatre assumed led to the data center. The middle of the chamber had a mishmash of rectangular and hexagonal cargo containers scattered about, providing cover up to roughly shoulder-height of the average human. Quatre saw that the alcoves behind the arches on both sides of the room had very wide doors set in their walls, and he wondered if this room was perhaps meant for organizing cargo before it was then moved to the tram station.

Quatre could only ponder that for a second, though, before a hailstorm of plasma bolts slammed into Ayeka's shield. He was able to spot at least six turrets through the deadly lightshow, arranged in pairs set on the terraces at the far end of the room, though there could very well be more he wasn't spotting yet. Discerning other targets would have to wait until he and his friends were in cover and could properly survey their surroundings.

Glancing at Heero, Quatre saw him gesture left and right, and the group split up into their designated teams. As Quatre and his team bunched up behind Ayeka's barrier, he saw Heero arrange his four Light Hawk Wings into two angled pairs while Ryoko moved between those pairs and tanked fire on her personal barrier. Both groups sprinted to the nearest alcoves on each side of the room, with Quatre sidling up along one of the columns and peering outwards once they had reached cover.

"Ryoko wasn't exaggerating when she said it was messy," he murmured.

"Good thing you have me to hide behind!" Ayeka quipped with a smile as she moved out to extend her barrier past the column so the rest of the fire team would have more cover to shoot from.

Quatre chuckled. "Hiding behind a princess… my sisters would never let me hear the end of it."

Poking his head out briefly to assess the situation, Duo then immediately pulled it back in as an orange beam zipped overhead with bare centimeters to spare, groaning in frustration. "Oh, god fucking damn it! It's Halo 2's sniper alley all over again…"

"Be thankful we're not dealing with Jackals on Legendary," Trowa deadpanned.

"No, just killer robots instead," Duo grumbled, "because that's so much better…"

Crouching low, Quatre edged out from behind the column while keeping to the cover provided by Ayeka's barrier. Peering down the scope, he sighted in on one of the sniper drones to get a good look at what they were up against. At first glance, they did not look like much. Like Ryoko had reported, they were roughly the same size as the basic soldier models. In fact, from what Quatre could tell, they might've been a little bit smaller, with their design having a more streamlined appearance with slender arms, though the legs looked reinforced. If Quatre had to guess, he'd bet on them having either enhanced hydraulics and shock absorption or some kind of anti-gravity technology to provide the augmented mobility. Their heads were smaller than those found on the basic soldier drones as well, and possessed a single crimson optical sensor. A long and sleek rifle was cradled in its hands, with slanted cuts in both sides that began glowing bright orange as the weapon was aimed at Quatre. He saw the drone pull the trigger, and a thin beam flashed across the chamber, splashing against Ayeka's barrier. Were it not for the shield, that shot would have gone straight through Quatre's head. Immediately after taking the shot, the drone leapt from its position and stuck itself to the ceiling. Now it had a firing angle that could shoot over Ayeka's barrier, prompting Quatre to duck back into the alcove.

"Ryoko wasn't exaggerating," he said, "Those snipers are going to be a problem."

"Quick little bastards," Duo muttered.

Quatre considered their options. "How many of their shots do you think our shields can take?"

"Maybe one," Ayeka answered nervously, "based on the power I sensed when it hit my barrier. It would definitely take your shields down, and if it's a headshot… well, I don't like your odds at surviving that."

"But anywhere else would be fine?" Quatre pressed.

"You'd be pushing your luck," Washu chimed in, "but hypothetically, yes."

Quatre nodded. "We can work with that."

Duo sighed. "You're scheming something crazy, aren't you?"

"Not too crazy," Quatre pushed back.

"Let's hear it," said Trowa.

Quatre gestured to Trowa, Duo, and then himself. "Our armor and shields are tougher than what the Marines have. The three of us can use ourselves as bait; the snipers will fire on us and reveal their positions. Once they do that, the Marines can concentrate fire and take them out."

"I knew it'd be something crazy," Duo grumbled, "I swear, we all belong in a nuthouse…"

"It can work," Trowa said, "but there's a problem; the turrets. They're just as much a threat as the snipers. Even if we can avoid the other drones, those turrets will weaken our shields enough that the snipers can take us out with one shot."

"Ryoko's taking care of the turrets now," Quatre countered as he peeked out of the alcove again before nodding at his companions, "See for yourself."

As the other two cautiously peered out, they saw what Quatre did; Ryoko phasing out of the right wall at the far end of the chamber. Her double-ended Key ignited immediately, and she swiftly sliced the closest turret in half before its programming had even been aware of her presence. The second turret in that pair began rotating to target her, but Heero's Royal Guard already had her barrier up, and the stream of orange bolts bounced harmlessly off the shield as Ryoko closed the distance. A few seconds later, and that turret was carved up into superheated chunks.

"She works fast," Duo remarked.

"And the other turrets are moving to target her," Trowa noted, "We have an opening."

Beneath his helmet, Quatre smiled. "Let's use it."

….

As Heero leaned out of cover just long enough to pick off a pair of flying drones, he heard Wufei murmur over the tactical channel. "What the hell are those idiots doing?"

Ducking back into the alcove, Heero turned to see Wufei staring towards the opposite side of the chamber. Looking in that direction, Heero saw Duo, Quatre, and Trowa doing something utterly inexplicable; placing themselves out of cover, in full view of the sniper drones which were crawling along the walls and ceiling.

Had they lost their minds?

Heero was about to berate them when he saw the trio jump back into cover almost as rapidly as they'd emerged, and not a moment too soon; several slender orange beams ripped forth from the sniper drones that could draw a bead on them, with one hitting Quatre in the shoulder and Trowa in the leg, while Duo miraculously escaped taking any hit by sheer luck. Alarm spiked through Heero's mind as he saw Quatre and Trowa's shields drop. Just what the hell had they hoped to accomplish with such a suicidal stunt?

Heero got his answer a second later when he saw several of Fire Team Bravo's members suddenly come out from the alcove, protected now only by Ayeka's barrier, and pour fire towards two of the sniper drones. With Bravo's two designated marksmen leading, the Marines dumped brutal barrages atop the pair of sniper drones before the nimble machines could reposition, causing them to collapse to the floor in a heap of smoking and sparking parts.

"Now I see what they had in mind," Heero remarked as the Marines pulled back into the alcove.

Wufei shook his head while plugging several plasma bolts into a soldier drone's chest. "Reckless…"

"That's what we do best," Heero reminded him as he picked off another aerial target.

Wufei chuckled. "Good point. Want to take a shot at it ourselves?"

Peering out from the alcove, Heero first wanted to check on Ryoko's progress. His Royal Guard had vanished shortly after destroying the rearmost pair of turrets and drawing fire from the rest, but it didn't take long for Heero to find her again. He spotted her long and wild turquoise hair poking out from the ceiling, and the rest of her head and body emerged a moment later. Descending rapidly, she fell upon the right turret on the next terrace and carved into it with a wide and circular slash from her double-ended Key. The remaining turrets swiftly rotated to target her, prompting Ryoko to shift her Key to just her right hand while projecting a barrier with her left.

As his Royal Guard charged the second turret on that terrace, Heero knew that he and the Wufei needed to act immediately. Gesturing to the L5 native, he then briefly informed the Marines of what he had in mind. Repositioning his four Light Hawk Wings to provide wide coverage while still leaving tempting gaps for the snipers, Heero led Wufei out into the middle of the room, with the pair rapidly snapping off rifle volleys that knocked out a pair of solider drones while instantly drawing attention from their real targets. He saw bright glows coming from multiple points along the ceiling, prompting Heero and Wufei to both immediately dive back towards cover.

Sure enough, the snipers reacted swiftly. Slender orange beams rained down from overhead, with one nailing Heero in the right side as he dived while another hit Wufei's left leg. Both of their shields instantly dropped, while other bolts zipped past them by scant millimeters and peppered the ground. Slamming themselves back against the column as they waited anxiously for their shields to recharge, Heero and Wufei could only watch the Marines of Fire Team Alpha boldly exit cover, listening to the reports of their weapons filling the air with plasma. He heard several crashing sounds a second later, along with curses from the Marines as they rushed back into cover. Two had been hit, one in his left shoulder and the other on her right hip, the enemy's bolts having pierced their shields. Both were immediately seen to by their comrades; although Jurai's Marines always had a designated medic as part of their teams, Imperial doctrine still demanded that every soldier had basic first aid training, and the Empire's field medicine was amongst the finest in the galaxy. Heero watched as the two Marines quickly had the holes in their armor and the wounds beneath injected by what he vaguely understood to be a foam-like substance that acted to rapidly seal injuries, a short-term fix meant to keep soldiers in the fight if possible or at least somewhat on their feet until they could be seen by proper doctors after the mission. A similar nano-paste would then be applied to the armor itself, sealing the Marines' suits so they'd be safe in vacuum even if the defensive properties in that spot were still compromised.

Having stayed in cover the whole time, only poking her head out briefly to pick off aerial targets with her arc disruptor pistol, Nagi shook her head at Heero. "You know I can't protect you from yourself, right? Do you have to take such risks?"

"It worked," Heero replied, "Just keep up the covering fire."

Nagi rolled her eyes, but then nodded. "You're the boss."

Peering out of cover, Heero was relieved to see that the results of the Marines' work were worth the risks they'd taken. He saw the husks of three sniper drones twitching on the ground as sparks and smoke showered from multiple breaches in their frames. On the other side of the chamber, Quatre, Duo, and Trowa were once again pulling their baiting stunt for the surviving sniper drones, quickly diving back behind Ayeka's shield once they had successfully goaded their targets and taken shield-dropping hits in the process. Another pair of sniper drones were reduced to sparking wrecks a moment later as the Marines of Fire Team Beta took them out with overwhelming concentrated fire, though one of the Marines did pay for the effort with an energy bolt to his left leg.

Looking towards the end of the chamber, Heero could see Ryoko destroying a fifth turret with a broad swing of her double-ended Key before moving on to the sixth, all the while a rain of orange bolts splashed against her personal barrier. With the snipers thinned out considerably while the turrets were on their last legs, the remaining drone forces were redeploying. Heero could see the shield-bearing units pulling back to concentrate their defensive lines at the first and second terraces, while the soldier drones spread out on the levels above and behind them to cover the chamber in wide arcs of fire. New aerial drones, mostly the smaller models but with a few of the larger scarab-like units thrown in for good measure, were filtering in courtesy of concealed hatches opening on the ceiling.

Heero moved his four Light Hawk Wings forward to the edge of the next alcove before looking over his shoulders. "We can't stay here. I'll take point; let's advance to our next cover."

Aiming his rifle between the gaps in his Light Hawk Wings to shoot down two more aerial drones, Heero led Wufei, Nagi, and Fire Team Alpha up the right side of the room and into the next alcove. Across the chamber, Quatre and the others mirrored their actions, with Ayeka stretching her barrier out so wide that it nearly reached the middle of the room, only retracting it to a more manageable length once they reached cover. Heero could see the sweat dripping down her face, but the crown princess remained composed and resolute.

"We need to pick up the pace," Wufei remarked as he and Heero concentrated their fire on one of the large scarab-like drones, the former hitting the drone's front to keep its shields angled towards him while Heero edged out under his Light Hawk Wings just far enough to shoot the automaton from a different angle and hit its vulnerable rear underbelly, "Kagato's going to catch up at this rate!"

Heero knew he was right. "Ryoko's got most of the turrets cleared out, and the snipers have been whittled down. Between my Light Hawk Wings and Ayeka's barrier, the two of us can cover the rest of you if we advance down the middle and use those cargo containers for cover."

Wufei nodded. "Sounds good to me. Quatre, you copy that?"

"Affirmative," Quatre acknowledged, "Ayeka says she's ready to go."

Heero looked back at Nagi and the Marines, who nodded or flashed thumbs-up at him. Taking a deep breath, Heero brought his four Light Hawk Wings down and closer together, forming a wall with only narrow firing gaps. With him, Wufei, and Nagi taking point, they led the others out of cover as Ayeka did the same with her group on the other side. While the Marines filled the air with fire to clear out the constantly-replenishing flying drones, Heero saw the shield-bearing drones and the soldier models beyond, along with the surviving sniper units, begin pumping fire towards the combined group. Only the defenses of the Juraian Royals combined with the scattered cover provided by the cargo containers made the middle advance viable, and Heero was worried that it would still take too long.

Ryoko will have the last turret down soon, Heero thought as he searched behind the defenses and incoming fire to find his Royal Guard, and once she does, the drones on the ground will have a much more immediate threat than us to worry about.

….

Plowing headlong into the stream of bolts that the final turret was throwing her way, every shot reflecting off her barrier, Ryoko closed the remaining distance before going low and making a broad swing with her Key. The two opposing crimson blades spun through the turret mounting, sheering the weapon at the base and leaving a circle of superheated metal on the floor, the gun itself having toppled over.

That's it for those, Ryoko thought as she gained altitude while deactivating her Key, I should do something about all these pesky reinforcements flying in.

Briefly scanning the ceiling and walls, she watched to see which openings were being used most frequently by the constantly-arriving aerial drones before making her move. Taking aim with both open palms, Ryoko unleashed a flurry of scarlet spheres. Smoke and fire began belching from the drone accessways, and Ryoko was determined to render them all completely inoperable. Weaving through the air, she flew from one opening to the other, entering each to make sure that her kills piled up instead of simply falling out of the accessways and leaving clearance for others to get through. While she did her work, Ryoko was keenly aware of the firefight still raging down on the ground, and she wanted to get down to it as quickly as possible.

Phasing back through the ceiling after the last accessway was wrecked, Ryoko took a moment to assess the situation. Between Ayeka's barrier, Heero's four Light Hawk Wings, and the assortment of cargo containers that they were moving between, the ground team had plenty of cover to work with. The real problem was that the remaining drones were occupying the terraces at the end of the room and thus could take advantage of the high ground. Heero was somewhat countering that by having his Light Hawk Wings positioned above the ground team while Ayeka focused on defending the front, but there were still gaps in the coverage. Most of the sniper drones had been dealt with, but Ryoko spotted four still lurking along the walls and ceiling, angling for that perfect shot.

Them first, Ryoko thought, then the big guys on the ground.

Turning thought to action, Ryoko took flight. She reactivated her double-ended Key, holding it in her right hand while projecting a barrier with her left. Soaring to the back of the room, Ryoko paid no heed towards the drones on the ground that were taking potshots at her, instead zeroing in on the closest sniper drone. Her target had anchored itself to the ceiling, and she saw a thin orange beam from its rifle hit the very edge of one of Heero's Light Hawk Wings. The sniper was already adjusting its aim; the next shot would almost certainly go through the gaps.

Ryoko would not give it a chance to fire again. She poured on the speed, and was in the sniper's face before it could even react. One swing of her Key later, and the drone fell to the floor in two pieces. The remaining snipers immediately shifted their aim away from the ground team, with two of them leaping towards opposite walls while the third went to the floor and took cover amongst the shield-bearing drones. All three had their rifles trained on her, and Ryoko knew she needed to act quickly.

She started with the one on the ground, diving onto it and plunging her Key straight into its head, the slender orange beam from its rifle zipping past her head. Several soldier drones rounded on her in response, prompting Ryoko to whirl her weapon around in a broad arc. The Key's twin scarlet blades did their best impression of a buzzsaw, mowing down half a dozen of the soldier drones in a single swing. Before more could dogpile her, Ryoko swiftly took to the air once more, racing back across the chamber as she hunted down another sniper drone.

She went first for the one that had gone to the right wall, perching itself at roughly the halfway point of the chamber. Both it and the one on the left side opened fire together, and Ryoko grimaced as their beams impacted her barrier. The incredibly thin lances of plasma belied the power behind each shot, to the point that they strained her defenses despite having the second gem's power to call upon. Hastening to take down the target, Ryoko's first swing was sloppy, only taking off the drone's left arm. A human would have needed both limbs to use the rifle, but the arms of Washu's sniper drones were quite strong despite their slender appearance. The drone jumped away, turning around in mid-air to take aim, prompting Ryoko to dive. The evasive maneuver came not a moment too soon, for not one but two beams lanced through the airspace she had just occupied as both her current target and the other surviving sniper drone tried to take her down.

"That's it," Ryoko snarled as she cornered her target, "Your ass is grass!"

Her second strike was clean, a thrust that pierced straight through the drone's chest. Ryoko did not even wait for the machine to crumple, instead immediately pulling out her blade and taking flight once more. The final sniper drone had changed positions again, now occupying a spot on the ceiling overlooking the chamber's entrance. Much to Ryoko's horror, she realized that the new position gave the sniper drone a clear line of fire at the back of the ground team, which neither Heero or Ayeka could cover.

"Not a damn chance!" she hissed as she placed herself along the rifle's line of fire and charged, counting on her barrier to tank the inevitable shot.

Sure enough, a slender orange beam zipped forth from the rifle a second later, and were it not for Ryoko's shield the beam would have hit her right in the head. As it was, her barrier flickered, and Ryoko had to consciously draw upon energy from both gems to reinforce it. Determined to end the sniper threat now, she quickly judged the distance between her and the target before throwing her weapon. The double-ended Key spun through the air, slicing the sniper drone in half before embedding itself in the wall behind.

Ryoko let out a sigh of relief as she retrieved the weapon while the wrecked drone fell to the floor. "That was too close…"

With the sniper threat now eliminated, Ryoko turned her attention back to the ground team. They had reached an impasse, firmly covered thanks to the cargo containers, Heero's Light Hawk Wings, and Ayeka's barrier, yet unable to advance up the terraces beyond thanks to the shield-bearing drones blocking the way. Their defensive line would have to be disrupted, and Ryoko knew she was the one Heero needed to do that.

Deactivating her Key, she clipped it to her belt before flying up and phasing through the ceiling. Entering one of the drone accessways she'd successfully clogged early, Ryoko passed through the heaps of debris and then the wall beyond, periodically poking her head downwards out of the passage and through the ceiling to check her progress. Once she had confirmed that she was above and behind the first defensive line, she phased back through the ceiling and aimed both palms at the drones below.

Before the enemy knew what was happening, Ryoko unleashed a barrage of scarlet energy balls from her hands. The rapid-fire spheres hit the first line of shield-bearing drones on their heads and backs, causing the machines to keel over as smoke and sparks flew from their charred shells. In response, the units set on the second and third terraces shifted their fire from the ground team towards Ryoko, prompting her to phase back through the ceiling and into another drone accessway.

"I do love me a good game of hide and seek," she quipped with a mischievous smirk.

As the reports of plasma fire sounded from below, Ryoko took herself further back, this time positioning herself behind the final defensive line. Once more, she phased back through the ceiling and unleashed another round of crimson hell. As the back line erupted in scorched drone parts while the middle line once again shifted to track her, Heero and the rest of the ground team charged forward.

Heero and his old friends formed the tip of the deadly wedge piercing into the drone formation, with the Juraian Prince, Quatre, and Wufei snapping off quick volleys with their rifles while Duo blasted targets left and right with his shotgun. Trowa laid down suppressive fire with his rotary plasma cannon, turning several soldier drones into perforated husks. While Ayeka maintained the forward barrier and Heero shielded the team overhead with his Light Hawk Wings, Ryoko saw Nagi dart forward, the violet strand of her energy whip swinging back and forth across the terrace ahead, sweeping drones off their feat and causing them to collapse in spasming heaps. This in turn provided an opening for the two Marine fire teams, who shifted their aim to the defensive line on the second terrace while Heero and the others swept the first one clean.

Eager to help, Ryoko fired off another barrage of red energy balls. This time, her ire was aimed at the second terrace, blasting several shield-bearing drones to bits from above, exploiting the fact that their attention had once again been drawn towards the ground team. With a sizeable breach now in the second line, Ryoko then shifted fire to the survivors of her earlier attack on the third line, moving her arms back and forth as she sent lines of scarlet spheres along the final terrace. Scattered plasma fire was the enemy's reply, but the drone defenders had now thoroughly lost their broader unit cohesion. There was no concentrated fire on one threat or another, but shots flying everywhere as their limited tactical programming became overwhelmed by the combined ground and air assault.

About a minute later, the last of the defenders had fallen, with Ryoko silently floating down to join her friends. This chamber was cleared.

Now they just had to survive whatever Washu had waiting for them beyond it.

….

"Nicely done," Heero said as Ryoko touched down beside him.

His Royal Guard flashed a confident smirk. "You know me; I love putting on a show!"

Heero nodded before turning to the rest of the team. "What's our status?"

"Five walking wounded," Wufei remarked, "Three in Fire Team Alpha, two in Bravo."

AIDA lit up the five Marines in question on Heero's HUD, prompting him to give new orders. "The wounded are to hang back with Washu. If you have heavy weapons, swap with a comrade for something lighter. You're on protection duty for the rest of the mission."

As the wounded Marines formed up around Washu, Heero lowered his voice to address AIDA alone. "How much further until the data center?"

"I just finished breaking through the next firewall," AIDA answered, "There's a very large circular chamber after this one. The data center's on the far side of it."

"Show me," Heero said.

There was a flurry of blue light on his HUD which quickly resolved itself into an image of the room. It was quite large; Heero guessed that several soccer fields could fit comfortably inside with room to spare. The room itself appeared quite plain, almost completely empty save for a series of barriers jutting up from the floor forming a rough perimeter around the open middle.

"At least it has some cover," Heero remarked, "but why design it like this in the first place? It almost looks like an arena."

"I can only guess at the good doctor's motivations," AIDA replied, "You can ask her, if you wish."

"Another time," Heero said as he studied the image, "Opposition?"

"None that I can see with my current system access," AIDA confessed, "However, you should know that I've hit another set of system firewalls, and they're nothing to sneeze at. It's entirely possible that data on this room's defenses is hidden behind them. I'm trying to break through now, but my progress has been negligible thus far."

"Keep at it," Heero ordered before turning to his Royal Guard, "Take a peek on the other side. Don't engage; just get a good look at what's waiting for us and report back immediately."

Ryoko nodded. "Right."

She moved to the left and phased through the wall next to the door. Clutching their weapons anxiously, Heero and the others awaited her return while sweeping their sights over the current room to make sure that they had not missed any drones. A few seconds later, Ryoko returned, looking quite confused.

"It's completely empty," she explained, "No turrets, no drones, nothing. Straight shot to the door at the other end."

"I don't like it," Duo grumbled, "Something about this stinks."

"Last room before the data center and absolutely no defenses?" Quatre chimed in, "Has to be a trap."

Trowa nodded. "Most likely."

"How far in did you go?" Wufei asked.

Ryoko's brow furrowed. "About a quarter of the way, probably. Didn't want to risk tripping anything. There was one big section of the ceiling in the middle that didn't quite match the rest. Could be hiding drones or something."

"Reasonable guess," Heero concurred, "Did you see anything else?"

Ryoko shook her head. "Nothing… which doesn't sit right. I have a bad feeling about this one, Heero."

"That makes two of us," Nagi muttered.

Ryoko raised an eyebrow. "You're actually agreeing with me?"

"Don't get used to it," the bounty hunter quipped.

Ryoko scowled and folded her arms before petulantly sticking out her tongue. "Fine, be that way!"

"What's the game plan, Heero?" Duo asked.

Heero considered it for a moment. "We go in slow. Ryoko, Nagi, and I will move ahead of the main group. If there's a trap, the three of us will bait it. The rest of you will hang back. Ayeka, you'll be at the front of the main group, and I want your barrier up; I'm anticipating the need for cover."

Ayeka nodded, though she looked rather concerned. "I understand, Lord Heero. That being said, must you employ yourself as bait?"

"It's a risk I can take," Heero countered, "I have the Light Hawk Wings to cover a retreat if needed."

Ayeka blew out a resigned sigh. "I know, but still… please be careful."

"I will," Heero reassured her.

Duo chuckled. "Buddy, I've seen how you define 'careful.'"

"You're one to talk," Trowa quipped.

"Enough chatter," Heero interjected as he stepped into the door's sensor range, "Let's go."

The door slid open, revealing the broad circular chamber that AIDA had shown him. Like much of the repository, its walls were gleaming a finely-polished metallic grey. It was brightly lit, but the emptiness of the spacious room was quite unnerving. As the others entered the room behind him, Heero swept over the chamber with his rifle, eventually fixing his sights on a circular patch of ceiling in the center of the room. Just as Ryoko had reported, it was slightly off-color compared to the rest of the room, a subtly darker shade of grey. Heero was willing to bet that Ryoko's guess about it hiding drones was probably right on the money. Scanning the perimeter, he saw the upraised sections from the earlier display, vaguely reminiscent of concrete parking or highway barriers. Gaps wide enough for a few people to walk through shoulder-to-shoulder were spaced between them.

"You picking up anything?" Heero asked as he gave the room another look-over.

"Nothing that you haven't already confirmed visually so far," AIDA replied with a note of chagrin, "and it's still slow going with this latest firewall. Sorry."

"It's alright," Heero reassured her, "Just keep at it and let me know when you break through."

"Roger that," AIDA said.

While the rest of the ground team fanned out behind Ayeka's barrier, Heero took point as he, Ryoko, and Nagi cautiously stepped out into the wide circle, the former to his right and latter on his left. The trio were constantly shifting their gazes from side-to-side and up, alert for the slightest disturbance that would indicate the trap they were undoubtedly walking into. Heero had his four Light Hawk Wings set in two pairs, one forward and one overhead, while Ryoko had already ignited both blades of her Key and was projecting a barrier with her left hand. Meanwhile, Nagi had her disruptor pistol in her right hand and saber in her left, ready to pounce at a moment's notice.

"It's quiet…" Ryoko muttered.

"Too quiet," Nagi finished for her.

Ryoko shot the bounty hunter a glare. "Don't do that."

Nagi shrugged. "Too late. You started it."

"Lock it down, both of you," Heero curtly interjected.

When they were roughly a third of the way into the chamber, AIDA suddenly spoke up in alarm. "Energy spike overhead! Get back, now!"

The trio did not need to be told twice, immediately springing back towards the entrance. Spreading out his Light Hawk Wings, Heero trained his sights on the dark grey bit of ceiling he had spotted earlier. Sure enough, it was sliding away, and a red glow was coming from beyond. A wave of scarlet energy suddenly surged down, splashing against the floor Heero and his escorts had occupied mere seconds ago, and his mind flashed back to what he had seen outside the repository.

That looked like the plasma coming out of those canals, he realized, Washu… just what did you cook up this time?

He got his answer a moment later when a large humanoid figure descended from the shaft to hover in the middle of the chamber. It was a drone, roughly three times the size of an average human, yet with a surprisingly graceful frame despite its bulk, one gleaming with a silvery-white metallic sheen. Possessing two relatively slender legs, it had a curved and rounded torso, with a sleek and streamlined head which had two glowing red slits for optical sensors. Projecting from its shoulders above the arms were a pair of wings shaped almost like sunflower seeds with the tips filed down to points. Its right arm held a rather large and formidable-looking rifle, and Heero was disturbed to find it vaguely reminiscent of Wing Gundam's Buster Rifle. Meanwhile, its left arm had a strange crescent-like device curving outward from just behind the wrist, and the outer curved edge was glowing with the same crimson energy that had heralded the drone's entrance.

"AIDA?" Heero pressed.

"Got nothing on this unit," the artificial intelligence replied, "Digging, but I'm up against one hell of a barrier here."

The drone then aimed its rifle square at Heero. Acting instinctively, Heero pulled all four Light Hawk Wings in front of him, Ryoko, and Nagi in a seamless barrier. The move came not a moment too soon, for there was brilliant flash of crimson light from beyond the Light Hawk Wings, followed by a hellish shrieking noise. Scarlet energy splashed everywhere as a thick beam hit the Light Hawk Wings, and Heero could feel the heat of the blast even through his armor.

"That's going to be a problem," Heero muttered.

When the glare faded, Heero parted his Light Hawk Wings just enough to get eyes on the drone again. The barrel of its rifle had a residual crimson glow that was gradually fading, but Hero was ready to reform the barrier should the weapon begin charging again. He watched as the drone stood motionless for a moment before it flexed its two wings. Four small pods, each one a little larger than a human head and shaped like seeds, dropped from the underside of each wing, and floated in the air around the drone. The purpose of these eight pods became clear a moment later when their surfaces suddenly opened, turning each 'seed' into a four-petaled flower-shaped device with a slender barrel jutting up from the 'blossom.'

"That doesn't look good," Nagi quipped as the blossoms began spreading out.

Forming up into two crescents hovering above and flanking the drone, the barrel tips pointing out from the blossoms began glowing with red energy.

"Definitely not good!" Ryoko concurred with alarm.

Then all the blossoms opened fire, filling the room with a storm of crimson light.

….

From the safety of Azaka and Kamidake's barrier, Washu could only look on in dread as the third repository's final line of defense unloaded on Heero, Ryoko, and Nagi. Remaining at the chambers entrance along with Yosho, Hilde, and the five wounded Marines, Washu hated that she had no role in this fight. This final drone was one of those pesky details that had not been in data she'd received from the second repository; she was just as in the dark about it as Heero and the others were. All the same, it was still one of her creations that was putting her friends' lives at risk, and she could only watch as they struggled against it.

Her initial worries receded somewhat as the blinding light of the drone's opening salvo faded, revealing that Heero, Ryoko, and Nagi were all still very much alive. The trio had fallen back under the cover of Heero's four Light Hawk Wings and Ryoko's barrier, ceding the center of the chamber to this new enemy in favor of regrouping with the rest of the ground team. Now, the ground team was fanning out along the lower half of the chamber, using a combination of Heero's Light Hawk Wings, Ayeka's barrier, and the upraised sections between the walls and the rooms open central space to take cover before counterattacking.

"Great," Duo groaned as a volley of beams zipped over his head and blackened the wall behind him, "First Halo, now Armored Core. Fuck you, Ibis!"

Washu blinked in confusion. "What?"

"Ignore him," Hilde grumbled, "Duo, more fighting, less references!"

Reference that she did not understand aside, Washu could most certainly sympathize with Duo's frustration. The foe that stood in their way was well beyond the drones that had been encountered so far, at this repository and the others. As it filled the air with slender crimson beams from its smaller gun drones and thick ones from its rifle, the automaton danced through the ground team's return fire courtesy of the powerful thrusters that had been installed on its back and under the wings. At the same time, the crescent protruding from its left arm began glowing with greater intensity, and Washu found out why a moment later when it made a broad swinging motion, sending an arc of scarlet plasma flying across the room to splash against Ayeka's barrier. Washu saw the crown princess recoil before the blow, her barrier still standing but clearly under strain.

Crouching behind the shield generated by Azaka and Kamidake, Washu pulled out a small scanning device and aimed it at the drone. Her eyes widened as she saw the energy readings; just what kind of generator had she installed in this beast? Its output could easily power the custom fighter she had built for Heero, including its twin heavy guns. All that power concentrated in such a small platform was an utter nightmare, and now her friends had to deal with it.

Washu's face paled in horror as she saw the drone aim its rifle at the upraised metal barrier several Marines were hiding behind, the glow coming from the barrel rapidly intensifying. "Move, now!"

Her warning nearly came too late, with the drone firing as the Marines scrambled. Washu's worst fears were confirmed when the thick red beam blasted clean through the barrier that the Marines had sheltered behind. For a moment, she thought that all of them had gotten clear, but upon closer inspection, Washu realized that one was missing. Looking where the drone had fired, her heart sank as she saw a smoldering pair of armored boots…

…and nothing above them.

The ground team did not take the loss lying down, pouring everything they had into the target. Unfortunately for them, Washu had done her job too well; the drone's frame was proving to be incredibly resilient to plasma fire. Most of the bolts simply glanced off its armored plating, which was deceptively tough despite the drone's graceful appearance. A few shots left blackened marks on the frame, but no meaningful damage was done.

"Not good," Trowa muttered as he sent a stream of plasma bolts at the target with his rotary gun, only for the drone to completely shrug them off.

"This thing's got to have some weak points," Wufei remarked as he took potshots at the drone's limbs and head.

"If anyone knows what those are, I'm all ears!" Duo yelped as he frantically dove behind Ayeka's shield after venturing out to risk a blast with his plasma shotgun that had accomplished nothing beyond peppering the drone's chest and eliciting a salvo of thin red beams from the sub-drones in response.

Quatre fired off a volley at the drone's head, likely aiming for the optical sensors but only succeeding in leaving a couple of scorch marks above them. "I'd say the eyes, but those won't be easy to hit."

Washu shook her head. "That won't stop it; I would've installed redundant sensors. At best, you might reduce its accuracy a bit."

"Damn it!" Hilde hissed as she looked on from Washu's side.

She saw Yosho scratch his chin in thought. "The sub-drones, perhaps?"

Washu nodded. "Good place to start. I'll see if I can figure out something beyond that."

Yosho stepped forward, Tenchi-ken's blade igniting once he passed through Azaka and Kamidake's barrier. "Then I'll help the others while you do that."

Washu wanted to protest, to argue that Yosho should save his strength for what was to come, but the look of grim determination in his eyes was all she needed to know that such words would mean nothing to him now. Instead, she simply signed in resignation and nodded as her old friend plunged into the fray, praying he was not about to do something incredibly stupid.

….

Heero's first instincts upon being faced with this new foe were to fight it as a soldier. When he, Ryoko, and Nagi had initially fallen back, Heero had used his four Light Hawk Wings to create cover for them to fire from behind, while the rest of the ground team had taken shelter either behind Ayeka's barrier or the metal ones jutting up from the floor along the outer edge of the chamber. Everyone had fanned out, attempting to concentrate overwhelming firepower against the target.

Unfortunately, that was not working. Not only was the drone shrugging off everything being thrown at it so far, but its return fire was punishing in the extreme. While Heero's Light Hawk Wings and Ayeka and Ryoko's barriers had held up so far, the metal walls rimming the arena were not nearly as sturdy. While they could take fire from the sub-drones well enough, the first fatality among the Marines had come due to the drone's large rifle, which had melted through that cover like tissue paper. Subsequent shots had demonstrated the same level of effectiveness, and another Marine had already been reduced to ashes. If something was not done to change up the battle's dynamic, casualties would continue mounting with nothing to show for it, and Kagato would inevitably catch up to attack them from behind.

Heero had an inkling as to how he'd switch things up, but it was his grandfather suddenly charging into the fray, Tenchi-ken blazing and three Light Hawk Wings arrayed around him, that crystalized the approach he needed to take. As Yosho swung at the drone with his Master Key while deflecting beams from the sub-drones with his Light Hawk Wings, Heero slung his rifle over his shoulder and ignited Achika's sapphire blade. With Yosho striking at the drone from the left, Heero opted to take the machine head-on, trusting Ryoko and Nagi to support him. Sure enough, Ryoko immediately went to the right, while the bounty hunter began circling around to get behind the target.

"You're supposed to be guarding Washu," Heero noted as he slashed at the drone's rifle, only for the automaton to raise the weapon just beyond his blade's reach.

Yosho chuckled as he was forced to fall back under a powerful swing from the drone's crescent scarlet energy blade. "Well, I was getting bored."

"Don't expect us to babysit you, old man!" Ryoko snapped as she tanked fire from three of the sub-drones on her barrier as she tried to slash at the drone's legs, with the machine ascending just enough so that the crimson blades of her double-ended Key passed beneath by centimeters.

"We've got enough on our plates already," Nagi grumbled as she attempted to entangle the drone in her violet whip, with the automaton gaining altitude to evade.

Yosho raised an eyebrow as he glanced at Heero. "You don't think so little of me, do you?"

"My opinion's not important right now," Heero quipped, a rough idea forming as he watched the drone flit through the air like a dragonfly, just out of reach, "I'm going to bring that thing back down to us. Be ready."

Keeping two of his Light Hawk Wings close to bock incoming fire, Heero sent the other two up. Taking long arcing paths around the drone, the twin sheets of white energy eventually moved above and behind the target. As the sub-drones and rifle rained down crimson beams that sent the ground team scurrying for new cover, Heero braced himself before directing the two Light Hawk Wings behind the target to come forward. While they made no sound as they moved, the drone was still aware of them just the same, so it simply dived to avoid getting cut in half by the energy sheets. That was fine with Heero; he had not been banking on taking the target down with that move. The drone was now back down on his level, and that was just where he wanted it.

Leaping with assistance from his armor's thrusters, Heero thrust out his Master Key. He was aiming for where the left wing met the drone's shoulders, hoping to destabilize the automaton, but his mechanical foe shifted their crescent blade up to redirect the attack. Undaunted, Heero made his follow-up strike, bringing the two Light Hawk Wings that were behind the drone around to attack the sub-drones. Most of the little blossom-like remote weapons maneuvered out of the way, but one on each side of the drone was destroyed, leaving six to fill the air with slender scarlet beams in response.

"You, Ryoko, and I will stay in its face," Heero said, gesturing at Yosho, "Everyone else, focus on the sub-drones. I'll keep the rifle contained."

"Gutsy of you," Nagi commented as she fired off blue bolts with her disruptor pistol, causing several of the sub-drones to flit about wildly to evade.

"Hope you know what you're doing, Heero!" Ryoko called out as she sliced at the drone's legs, with the crimson blades of her Key leaving blacked furrows along their plating.

That makes two of us, Heero thought while regrouping his four Light Hawk Wings as the drone's rifle barrel began glowing red hot once more, because if I screw this up, I won't live long enough to regret it.

….

Damn it, Heero, Ryoko silently fumed as she peppered the drone with a volley of scarlet spheres, how am I supposed to protect you when you insist on using yourself as bait? You're not making my job easy here!

Of course, making his Royal Guard's job difficult was nothing new for Heero; Ryoko had grown well-accustomed to it over her admittedly brief time in the role so far. While his bravery was one of the many qualities that Ryoko loved about him, Heero's insistence on taking on the most dangerous tasks himself was not doing her nerves any favor. Ryoko would not be surprised in the least if she found herself with some grey hairs once the mission was done, and she wasn't even sure if Washu had made her capable of greying like that in the first place.

For all her gripes about Heero's recklessness, though, Ryoko could not deny that his plan was already paying dividends. While keeping two of his Light Hawk Wings in a basic defensive formation to provide his friends with some coverage from the sub-drones, Heero had deployed the remaining two energy sheets in a V-shape that was constantly following the path of the drone's rifle. While a single Light Hawk Wing might be sufficient to block the rifle's powerful beam, there was always the chance of a deflection sending that beam towards one of Heero's allies. The V-shape he had set the two Light Hawk Wings up in was undoubtedly harder for Heero to maintain, but Ryoko had already seen it perfectly contain a blast from the drone's rifle, with only a few errand arcs of crimson energy spilling out before rapidly dissipating.

Clever trick, Ryoko thought with no small amount of pride despite feeling on the verge of a heart attack, I wouldn't expect anything less from you, Heero. I just wish you'd use that clever head of yours to fight safer instead of pulling this crap…

…but I guess you wouldn't be the man I love if you played it safe.

As she deflected beams from the sub-drones on her barrier, Ryoko caught sight of Nagi rolling her eyes as she ducked behind one of Heero's remaining Light Hawk Wings for cover before poking back out to pop off a couple shots with her disruptor pistol. "Way to make my job a pain in the ass, Your Highness."

"He's good at that," Ryoko grumbled.

Nagi took a swing with her violet whip, entangling one of the sub-drones. Taking advantage, Ryoko aimed her left palm at the paralyzed target and fired of a burst of crimson spheres, reducing the sub-drone to bits of smoking metal.

Three down, Ryoko thought as she zigzagged through the air to avoid return-fire from the surviving sub-drones, and five to go.

Seeing the main drone pushing Yosho and Heero back with a series of wide swings from its crescent blade, unleashing wide arcs of plasma each time, Ryoko dived back in to rejoin the melee. With Heero's Light Hawk Wings split between the rifle and general defense, Yosho had his trio of Light Hawk Wings orbiting close to him so he could defend against the drone's blade. After the drone made the final swing in its sequence, both grandfather and grandson moved in together. While Heero stabbed at the drone's neck, only for his blade to carve a furrow along the machine's upper torso armor instead, Yosho went low, his sword stabbing at the automaton's right hip. He was undoubtedly aiming to sever the leg at the joint, but the drone shifted at the last second, and the old man's blade grazed along the upper left leg armor instead. The drone wasted no time in bringing its crescent blade down towards Yosho, but Ryoko had already interposed herself between them, her Key raised to block the strike.

Yosho inclined his head in gratitude as he circled around behind Ryoko, coming at the drone from the right flank. With Ryoko keeping the crescent blade occupied, Yosho made a series of swift thrusts with his Master Key, but the azure blade simply grazed along the torso armor much as it had in other strikes. However, Yosho then followed up those attacks by sending two of his Light Hawk Wings forward, and those cut deep into the machine before it managed to extricate itself, resulting in small fountains of sparks bursting from the two points of impact.

Ryoko saw the old man smile smugly as he pulled back the two Light Hawk Wings to reform his defenses. "I thought as much. No matter how formidable an alloy is, the only thing that can stop a Light Hawk Wing is another one."

Ryoko grinned even as she was forced to block a shower of scarlet beams from the sub-drones on her barrier. "That's how we beat this thing, then!"

Yosho nodded. "Precisely."

"Then let's get the rest of those sub-drones first," Nagi suggested as she fired off several shots with her arc disruptor before making another swing with her whip, tying up one of the aforementioned sub-drones which was in turn swiftly destroyed courtesy of precise rifle fire from Quatre.

"Agreed," Heero said as Ryoko saw him tank another blast from the drone's rifle with the two V-arrayed Light Hawk Wings while blocking fire from the four remaining sub-drones on the other two, "Yosho and I will keep the main drone occupied. Everyone else, concentrate everything you have on the sub-drones."

The rest of the ground team had already been doing that, but they had to be very circumspect with their fire to avoid hitting those fighting the drone up close. Now that the drone recognized it could take real damage from the Light Hawk Wings, it kept itself at a wary distance from them and their wielders. Taking advantage of this, Heero and Yosho pressed forward, determined to drive the drone back against the chamber's wall. With seven Light Hawk Wings between them, they could maintain a mutually-supportive defense while at the same time continuing to threaten the target and convince it to concentrate its efforts against them. As the drone was now keeping to a higher altitude, it was much easier for the rest of the ground team to fire without the chance of hitting their comrades.

As orange plasma bolts from Heero's friends and the Marines filled the air, Ryoko found herself floating near Nagi, and she begrudgingly realized that her rival was now the perfect partner in this situation. "Hey, use your whip again. Stun those things, and I'll blast them."

Nagi arched an eyebrow. "You seriously giving me orders?"

Ryoko gritted her teeth together. "I'm just suggesting a strategy here!"

There was a moment's pause before Nagi chuckled. "You're actually thinking things through… never thought I'd see the day. Alright, then; I'll play along."

She would never admit it openly, but Ryoko privately admired the deftness and grace Nagi demonstrated with her energy whip. The strand of purple light slithered through the air with the elegance and speed of a mamba racing along a flat surface, catching its target within moments. The instant the violet whip wound around the sub-drone and delivered its shock, Ryoko let loose with a quick burst of red energy spheres, blasting the weapon apart.

There were only three sub-drones left now, and they were on borrowed time. A constant stream of fire from Trowa's rotary plasma cannon filled the air above them, forcing the sub-drones to limit their altitude. The surviving Marines further hemmed them in, aiming bursts of fire to the sides and restraining their lateral maneuverability. With their targets thus hampered, Heero's friends now had little difficulty in finishing them off. Combined fire from Quatre and Wufei's rifles perforated one of the sub-drones, while Duo boldly darted out of cover to blast another with his plasma shotgun. The sole surviving sub-drone flitted about wildly as it became the sole target of the Marines, Heero's friends, Ryoko, and Nagi, eventually catching a bolt from the bounty hunter's disruptor pistol before the former pirate finished it off with another burst of energy balls.

"Alright," Ryoko purred as she and the others now moved to help Heero and Yosho with their target, "Let's end this!"

"Surround it!" Quatre ordered the Marines, "Concentrate fire on the flanks and back. Drive it to Heero and Yosho!"

"Don't have to tell me twice!" Duo cackled as he ran around and behind the drone, already pumping bursts of plasma into the target.

As the rest of the ground team moved to encircle the target and pour fire into it, Ryoko flew above the drone while Nagi joined Heero and Yosho in front of it. With another blast from the drone's rifle being caught and contained by Heero's Light Hawk Wings, the automaton seemed to intuit that its end was drawing near. It made a series of wild slashes with its crescent blade, sending scarlet arcs of plasma flying all over the chamber. While Yosho and Heero tanked the bulk of them on their combined Light Hawk Wings, several waves of red energy flashed over the heads of the ground team, forcing them to take cover once more. When the drone attempted another swing, it found its left arm suddenly entangled by the violet strand of Nagi's whip, and Ryoko knew it was time to strike. She dived in, spinning her double-ended Key as she swung it at the drone's right arm. The two red blades sheered the rifle in half, with most of the weapon's barrel falling to the ground with a clang.

Blade arm restrained and rifle destroyed, the drone was now completely defenseless. The Light Hawk Wings that Heero and Yosho had previously dedicated to defense now all surged forward in unison, cutting through the machine's torso armor with what seemed like zero resistance. Ryoko saw the drone's red optical sensors glow with increasing intensity, and she sensed a sudden spike in power as showers of sparks fountained forth from the impact points.

"Get back, it's gonna blow!" she screamed.

Her friends reacted immediately, with Nagi deactivating her whip while Heero and Yosho rapidly repositioned their combined seven Light Hawk Wings around the drone to contain the impending detonation. A second later, there was a blinding explosion of crimson energy accompanied by a hellish shrieking sound. That energy was funneled upwards by the Light Hawk Wings, becoming a scarlet column that splashed against the ceiling before rippling outwards along the upper surface and gradually dissipating. When it was all over and the Light Hawk Wings removed, all Ryoko could see of the drone was scraps of metal scattered across the floor.

Ryoko's shoulders slumped with relief as she deactivated her Key and landed beside Heero. "Glad that's over."

"Agreed," said Heero, and Ryoko saw him gesture towards Washu and Hilde, "Get into the data center and start the download. The rest of us will hold here."

Washu and Hilde nodded before sprinting across the chamber, disappearing into the room beyond a moment later. The ground team wasted no time in redeploying, with Ayeka positioning herself and her Royal Guardians directly before the data center door to cover it with their shields while everyone else fanned out into a broad crescent formation.

"I don't suppose we have time for a quick break, do we?" she asked between labored breaths.

"I wish," Heero replied grimly, and Ryoko belatedly realized that he still had Achika activated, "but we're not that lucky."

Closing her eyes for a moment, Ryoko concentrated on the way they had came from. Sure enough, she could detect several familiar and powerful energy signatures approaching rapidly.

"Well, shit," she grumbled, "No rest for the wicked, right?"

"Never," Heero grimly concurred, "You ready for this?"

Ryoko flashed him a confident grin. "Bring it on!"

Preview for next time!

Duo: Oh yay, Kagato brought Marines, too. This is going to suck.

Trowa: Less complaining, more shooting.

Wufei: Lots of shooting!

Quatre: Keep their fire focused on us and away from Heero. Ayeka, the door!

Ayeka: None shall get past me!

Ragyō: Ah, we meet again, young man. Shall we make up for lost time?

Tokimi: Your next test is overdue.

Ryoko: Bitch, you're not fighting just him!

Nagi: Or her, for that matter. The three of us are a package deal, now.

Heero: Stay focused, you two.

Washu: Deal with them fast, Yosho needs help!

Kagato: And so, we come to it at last, old friend. One final dance before your curtain falls.

Yosho: Perhaps… but I have one final lesson to teach you first.

Tsunami: Next time, in Chapter Thirty-Four: No Need For Divine Contact! Heero… it's time. Let my consciousness join yours… and let me open your eyes to the power that you truly hold.

Tokimi: Boy… what are you?

Author's Notes: So, I have some video game traumas, from the distant and not-so-distant pass, and I felt the need to share them with you here in the form of this chapter's references. The first one is by far the worst. Allow me to elaborate. Halo 2 came out for Xbox way back in the halcyon days of 2004. Seeing as I'd already beaten the first game on Legendary with my step-brother, naturally we both had to tackle the sequel on the highest difficulty after initially clearing the story. Now, this was twenty years ago. Twenty years, and to this day, I still have every damn one of the Jackal Sniper spawn points memorized! That's how deep my Halo 2 Legendary PTSD goes. I love my old-school Bungie Halo games, I really do. That being said, I will never subject myself to the absolute hell that is Halo 2's Legendary difficulty again. You could offer me all the money in the world to try, and my response would be to flip you off and walk away.

By comparison, the second reference and associated trauma isn't nearly as severe. I got Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon at the start of this year, and have been enjoying it immensely. That being said, the Chapter 4 boss was pain. Not anywhere near as bad as Halo 2's Legendary campaign; I did manage to beat Ibis over the course of a few hours, but those hours were rough. Definitely made me work for that win. From Software never goes easy with the bosses, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Still, to quote Duo from this chapter, fuck you, Ibis. Fuck you so damn much!

There, you now have a taste of my recent and childhood video game suffering. I am at peace. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to Rubicon to reunite with my favorite sparring partner, Balteus. No, get out of the damn way, Sulla, you're not the one my lightweight build wants to dance with!

Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Feel free to review, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time!