Fan Fiction / Zoids Fan Fiction / Vandread Fan Fiction ❯ ZoidDread ❯ Jura's Form ( Chapter 11 )

ZoidDread

 

Disclaimer: How many times have I done this? Never mind…Zoids is not mine, neither is VanDread.

 

Chapter 10

 

Jura's Form

 

< >: Thoughts

 

<<“ ”>>: Organoid language

 

*************

 

Out in space…

 

The Nirvana was now orbiting a nearby deep blue planet and it's crew currently looking at the latest oddity that they had just encountered. Recently they had encountered something a lot more interesting and it seemed that only the Reinhart siblings knew just what they had found previously.

 

*************

 

Flashback…

 

“What is that?!” Amarone commented as they looked at the thing that she and the rest of the bridge crew were seeing.

 

The thing looked like…a ship…but a ship that resembled a massive whale. They had never seen anything like it before and none of the records they had so far had any data that spoke of ships that size and design.

 

“It looks like a whale…what kind of ship is that?” Ezra asked with some worry at the sight she and the others were looking at.

 

Buzam and Magno knew that the other members of their crew were no doubt watching the whole thing. It had been some days after the whole Rabat incident and the crew were getting more used to the men and it seemed that for once the crew would work well together. The brothers were certainly not under attack at this time and it seemed that they were very much still doing their duties well.

 

She then had an idea on as to how they were going to solve the mystery of just what kind of ship they were looking at on the view-screen.

 

“Call Brandon and his siblings to the bridge BC, maybe this ship or whatever it is might be a Zoid, and the three of them are the resident Zoid experts.”

 

Buzam nodded at Magno's plan and quickly called in the brothers via comm. link.

 

As soon as the brothers arrived on the scene their faces told the elder woman that she was right in calling the three of them on the bridge.

 

“Any of you know what kind of ship that is?”

 

Brandon nodded. “That's a Whale King, back on our planet, we use them to move massive numbers of Zoids through areas where land or sea transportation is not very effective. The military back home use them as mobile command and strike bases since they can carry large numbers of units.”

 

“I see…Is there anything on the scanners?”

 

“There seem to be no life signs on the Whale King Captain, and the armor plating, plus the debris is somewhat hampering our scanners, but we can be sure that there are no signs of Harvester activity, no engine trails or any of their Cube Fighter debris. Judging by the lack of life signs and apparent abandonment, this Whale King was ditched. Probably due to power failure or another.” Buzam said as she and the bridge crew continued to work on the Whale King's profile.

 

Magno then looked at the three siblings who looked back and it didn't take long for the eldest of them to speak to her.

 

“Captain…if it's not too much trouble, my brothers and I would like permission to go out and do a salvage/retrieval operation. If there is anything left over in that Whale King, we'd like to go and retrieve them.”

 

Magno thought it over and agreed.

 

A few hours later, the brothers returned with several groups of Zoids, namely more Command Wolves, Lightning Saix, Saber Fangs, Blade Ligers, several Gunsnipers, another pair of Iron Kong Mk II, along with several Gojulas, and a large number of inactive Zoid Core replacement units. Along with just Zoids were stocks of munitions, supplies, personal weapons, and combat information. The general maintenance data were given to Parfet and her fellow engineers so they would be able to repair the Zoids more effectively…while more sensitive plans were security locked by the siblings. This included what appeared to new generation Zoid construction schematics, these were left to the brothers do decide if sharing them was a good idea.

 

This situation also saw the use of the Vanguards both as security units and amazingly enough as repair units. With Dylan and Duero acting as mentors, Parfet and her engineers used the Vanguards in space to help with salvage operations and also the engineers were now using the mecha to help them make any repairs that were too large for them to try and do with them only wearing space suits…Parfet then considered improving the internal and external shielding of the Vanguards to ensure that should it come to emergency repairs, the Vanguards could do just that in places where going out in space suits was a bad idea, that and the already existing heavy armor plating was an added bonus.

 

*************

 

End of Flashback…

 

Magno looked at the entire planet in the view screen in the Conference Room alongside Buzam and Gascogne. She looked at the planet once more as their scanners showed several map scans that were made and two important locations were pointed out.

 

“So what have you determined BC?”

 

The sub commander nodded and took out a laser pointer.

 

“The entire surface is covered in ocean Captain, the atmosphere, according to the scanners is composed of oxygen/nitrogen so therefore human life is capable of existing there. The scans have also located the remains of a Colony vessel underneath the ocean and that is a considerable distance from what appears to be the only island in the area. On the island appears to be a city, in fact…it is the only city around here.”

 

Gascogne chewed on the metallic tooth pick and was thinking deeply while looking at the image.

 

“Kind of odd to be living in only one island, even if that's the only landmass there. That would be a nice place to take a beach vacation, though. Still just what kind of people would live in a place like that?”

 

Magno was curious just who would be living in such an environment herself…mostly isolationist types would favor such a planet, or they would have had no choice…considering the fact that the vast portion of the planet was deep under the sea, the fact that there seemed to be no planet based long range comm. buildings on the image of the city made her even more curious. Regardless it seems that since this was the only human inhabited planet around, they might as well take a peek and see just who lived there.

 

She then turned to BC. “I think it's time we go and say hello BC, they just might have some more…”

 

The alarms of the ship suddenly sounded as the three senior officers were getting ready to move out.

 

Magno and Buzam wasted little time as they arrived in the bridge and Magno took a seat. The silver haired commander then quickly took charge of the situation and the bridge crew began to give their reports.

 

“Unknown ships appeared from the far side of the planet Captain, we've scanned them and they appear to be the Harvesters!” Belvedere reported as images began to filter in.

 

“What's their composition?” Buzam asked.

 

Ezra tallied the numbers and reported in what she was able to learn about their latest enemies to deal with.

 

“There appears to be around forty Cube Fighters…and one massive ship that does not match a Seed Ship's design and make…there seem to be no other Seed Ships in the area however.”

 

“That does not make sense…unless...” Buzam thought loudly, dreading just what she thought was going on.

 

“They came here to harvest these people…have all forces prepare for battle! We need to stop them before they harvest the people in the city!” Magno ordered as a full scale battle alert was sounded throughout the ship.

 

*************

 

The alarms went on, all over the Nirvana as Dread pilots went out to engage the enemy forces, Brandon and Lance were near the Launching Bay assigned for Zoids and were already out in Zarreke and Kail to face the enemy. Scott however was still in the Zoid Hanger, storing all the gathered data that they had taken from the Whale King Zoid a few days ago.

 

“Darn it! Can't those Harvesters find another time to go harvesting?!”

 

The middle sibling swore as he ran out of the Zoid Hanger and made his way to his Zoid. Since the Zoid Hanger had it's own Launching Bay, the Zoids, namely the three Ligers would be the first to be deployed and since his brothers and their Zoids had left, that only left him and Rikera to launch.

 

As he was about to round a corner…a nearby door opened and he was suddenly dragged into a darkened room…much to his surprise.

 

He grabbed whoever was holding him and pulled the person towards him as he tried to find the lights, planning to restrain and question the person until he hit the wall and that was when he felt that whoever it was that grabbed him…that person was very soft and supple…it was only when he picked up the scent of perfume that his sense were now on high alert. He was about to react when the lights came back on to suddenly reveal just who had caught him.

 

“Ooh, you really are forward Scott, I guess that mean we can combine now.

 

Scott could only yelp in surprise and embarrassment as he realized that he was holing Jura Basil Elden close to him in the most compromising fashion and she and her…<ahem> assets were on his chest, allowing the young man to feel the curves on her form.

 

<Oh great…that is just great!>.

 

Not trusting himself while he held the blonde bombshell he quickly released her and moved her backwards.

 

“What is it this time Jura?!”

 

Jura smiled slyly and traced a well manicured finger on Scott's cheek, making the middle sibling even more embarrassed as more blood entered two parts of him, one was his face as he blushed, the other was to a certain part of his male anatomy that began to discomfort him…even more so when Jura made a very alluring and sexy pose before him.

 

“Today is the day you can't run from…the day you're Liger combines with my Dread! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

 

The laughter that Jura let out was enough to make Scott sweat-drop and since the lights nearly blinded him, the blonde apparently had been scouting his own movement routes and planned the whole thing, and he knew for a fact that only one woman would be willing to be helping the blonde Dread pilot in this scheme, whether the person I question was reluctant or not was still up for debate.

 

Jura then turned to the lights and grinned mischievously.

 

“How did I do?”

 

Sure enough another figure appeared, carrying a camera…and to Scott's lack of surprise, the person helping Jura was none other than Barnette. The green haired girl smiled as she looked at her friend.

 

“Perfect!”

 

Scott slapped his forehead in exasperation…they were in the middle of a battle order and no doubt the rest of the Dreads were already out and in forces, plus his siblings were also out in the battle-zone and these two were trying to get him into some darn soap opera…his military training and practical side was rather insulted and he made that clear in his next batch of actions.

 

“Darn it you two! We do NOT have the time for this sort of thing! We've enemies to turn into scrap!”

 

With that in mind, the middle brother about faced and ran out the door. Jura gave a dark pout and shouted at his back as he moved out of the room.

 

“Hey!? Get back here! We're not done yet!!!” The blonde was steamed but calmed herself as she made another declaration.

 

“You're not getting away from me this time Scott! Time for Plan B! We're taking this show to the battle-zone!!!”

 

“All right then.” Barnette replied without much optimism as she packed up the recording gear. If there was one thing she knew for a fact, Jura was never going to stop until she combined her Dread with Scott's Liger, and as much as she didn't want to admit it, she hoped that the two would finally combine so this whole thing would be over with already.

 

*************

 

“What the heck have you been doing?" Brandon called out to his comrade as they now were deep in the fight with their Zoids. He had already totalled three Cube Fighters with Zarreke's Laser Claws and his guns…while Lance took out some that tried to ambush him hard with their own weaponry.

 

“Don't ask.” Scott replied as he commanded Rikera to wear the Schneider CAS Armor, after what he had just been through, being in close contact with the hot blonde Dread pilot and being embarrassed greatly by her actions, he was seriously interested blowing off some steam and he was happy that the Cube Fighters were more than numerous.

 

“Guys, I could use some help here!" Lance called out as he was deep in the mess of fighters.

 

The three Ligers continued their battle and took out some more Cube Fighters, but that was when the Cube Fighters pulled a few surprises of their own. The brothers were somewhat surprised when the Cube Fighters managed to evade some of their strikes and even managed to outpace their targeting systems a few times before they had made some adjustments to even up the mistakes. Apparently the Cube Fighters had undergone some upgrades since their last bout with the Harvesters.

 

< They've gotten better. > The three men thought.

 

One Cube Fighter managed to hit Rikera with a strafing shot, but as the Liger turned and began to lock in and fire it's ranged weaponry, the Cube Fighter was immediately destroyed a moment later from behind as well. Jura's Dread arrived swooping alongside Rikera as the blonde contacted the pilot as he shrugged off the shaking of his head from the hit, despite the Zoid's own Armor plating and that of the CAS.

 

“Well, are we going to combine now?" Jura said with a smug tone.

 

< Damn it Jura, not now! > Scott thought as he managed to catch and rip down a Cube Fighter that tried a suicidal ramming attack.

 

Lance watched the events but was more concerned as a Cube Fighter showed up trying to hit him at point-blank range. He was about to turn and try to evade a a strike to the cockpit of his Zoid, but he was rescued suddenly by a certain redhead.

 

“Mr. Alien! Watch out!"

 

Dita's fighter arrived and took down the alien attacker with several well-aimed shots before it could attack Lance.

 

The younger pilot flew alongside Lance as he got his bearings from the light of the flash that blinded him before.

 

“Mr. Alien, are you all right?"

 

“Uh… yeah, I'm fine. That's two I owe you Dita."

 

“Good, I was afraid those nasty bad aliens would hurt you." Dita replied and blew a kiss to him.

 

“Don't worry about it." Lance replied hoping not to blush at that little display of affection from Dita.

 

“Come on you two…no time to play around! Let's go!”

 

“Roger!"

 

All three Ligers led the attack and began to rip into the Cube Fighters, Rail-gun rounds, laser bolts, and solid projectile rounds ripped into the charging Cube Fighters. The three decided to try and do as much damage to the main ship as they could manage and the eldest of them sent a communiqué to the three Dreads that were following them.

 

“Meia! You, Dita, and Jura get ready combine with us once we hit that thing…if the ship has armor too thick for us to penetrate and can withstand the weapons of the Dreads, all our combined ZoidDreads might do the job and destroy it, or weaken it enough for the Dreads to finish it up alongside us.”

 

“Understood! Jura! Dita, form up! All Dreads on standby!”

 

The plan was very solid and both the redhead and the blonde were happy that they were all going to combine their respective machines with the Ligers, much to Jura's happiness…this was the best time to finally combine and with the order to combine coming from his elder brother, there was little chance that Scott would go against it.

 

But before they could make their combined strike, several reserved Cube Fighters appeared from the main ship and slammed into the three Zoids and they dived right towards the surface of the planet. Apparently the Cube Fighters knew that the best way to protect their mother-ship from attacks from the Zoids and to avoid the ZoidDreads from stopping their harvesting operation was to take them to the surface and keep them there.

 

“Mr. Alien!" Dita cried as she tried to reach Mr. Alien to assist him and the others out of this mess, but several fighters from the alien ship appeared and kept both her and Meia from coming to aid the three Zoid pilots. Only one Dread Fighter was able to pierce the defensive forces of the alien units and dove towards the falling Ultimate X Zoids, namely with Scott, as the middle brother and his Liger were in the rear of the three streaking messes.

 

Since Dreads were never intended for atmospheric flight, Jura knew that she was taking a risk that could kill her and her Dread would be ripped apart. She however showed no concern as she plunged deeper to her intended target in the hope combining into something elegant and to save Brandon and Scott as well.

 

“Barnette! Are you getting this on tape?" She asked as her Dread began to heat up due to atmospheric reentry.

 

“You're asking me at a time like this?!" Barnette remarked.

 

Further down in the planet's atmosphere, the armor of the three Zoids began to heat up and the brothers decided to boost full power to the heat shields they had placed in previously and they struggled with the Cube Fighters…managing to the free themselves as they began to right themselves as soon as they had made it into the atmosphere, but they could not stop themselves in time and they had to find some way to cool down their Zoids from the extreme heat of re-entry. Two of the Cube Fighters from the trios that each tackled them burst apart from the heat, while several more fighters followed, with their heat shields active, as they all streaked down like meteors.

 

Scott and his Zoid were the ones at the end of this ride, so it wasn't surprising when he spotted Jura's Dread fighter following him down to the atmosphere…having studied the Dread's design, the middle brother realized that what Jura was doing was akin to suicide, the Dread would be ripped apart by planetary descend and Jura would be killed!!!.

 

“What the HELL are you doing?! Get out of here NOW!" He shouted as soon as he got into contact with Jura.

 

Jura was totally oblivious to the situation, though she could hear the strains on her Dread Fighter, and she was quite aware of the danger she was in as she dived at such a high angle on the planet's atmosphere. The blonde pilot's gaze was fixed solely on Scott and his Liger as she flew closer.

 

“Now show me the Third Stage!"

 

“Damn it!” Scott shouted as he realized he had no choice and quickly rushed towards Jura's Dread, he hoped that whatever ZoidDread the two of them made with their respective machines would have the power and ability to save them all from winding up as melted junk.

 

Just as the three pilots and their Zoids and the Dread pilot were less than three miles from the surface of the planet, Scott's Liger and Jura's Dread were enveloped into a corona of blue light. They all hit the surface of the planet's ocean with tremendous impact, unleashing a massive geyser, along with some shockwaves…along with massive amounts of steam from the still heated forms that hit the ocean below. The newly arrived Cube Fighters hovered over the surface of the crash-site and waited for the two Ultimate-X Zoids to show and the two who merged into a new form.

 

High above the orbit of the planet, everyone else watched in apprehension.

 

*************

 

In the Nirvana…

 

“Pull back the Dreads in defensive formation! Try and re-establish contact with the Reinhart siblings and Jura ASAP!!!” Buzam commanded as she and the others watched in shock at the crash they had just bore witness to.

 

As they looked at the scene in apprehension, the women began to notice the static on the comm. channels being replaced instantly by roars and human voices…a few seconds later, they gave sighs of relief when Zarreke and Kail broke the surface of the water and seemed to shake themselves dry vigorously of the water, just like normal animals would when unintentionally soaked, the two brothers' voices then came on the line.

 

“Damn…we're lucky we got anti-gravity field generators…our Ligers were never built for underwater ops.” Lance said with strong certainty.

 

“True…Scott where are you? Is Jura all right?”

 

There still no response from Scott, or for that matter, even Jura…it was like they dropped completely out of comm.. range. However the scanners of the ship detected a massive power surge coming from where the two had crashed when they had supposedly fused into a new ZoidDread. In a few moments something came out of the water in where the two had crashed.

 

*************

 

Barnette recorded the whole thing and from her vantage point, she knew that Jura was going to be thrilled by the footage.

 

The ZoidDread that Jura and Scott made was in the same form of a Liger, but seemed far sleeker in armor design…in truth, the armor plating on Jura's Dread was more in the elegant lines, befitting the blonde's love for aesthetics, and now the armor plating had fused with the Schneider CAS armor and made the armor sleeker, almost along the lines of a Saber Fang's own armor, along with some blade like protrusions in some areas of the shoulders and legs. The armor had green panel blisters on several sections of the body, apparently in strategic locations as well. The armor on the head had two forward facing blades and the blades had glowing green edges on them, like laser emitters. The head armor also had several smaller green energy panels on the front, top and sides of the head and seemed to glow.

 

The two forward facing pincer like parts of Jura's Dread had separated and had combined with the boosters on the back and also with the blades on each booster seemingly making the blades merge with it flawlessly, two long metallic whip like tails were on the back and apparently housed energy weapons of some sort as they fused with the tail. The Strike Laser Claws were no longer yellow, but deep emerald green and seemed to be covered in plasma energy.

 

The new ZoidDread roared out and was ready for a fight.

 

<<“Hmmm…impressive, Rikera is the best in close combat, apparently this form brings that bear.”>> Zarreke said as it gazed at the sight of his long time comrade and the Liger.

 

The two brothers couldn't help but look in surprise and awe as another thought wormed it's way into their brains.

 

<Jura's definitely not going to let go of our brother now!>

 

The two of them however were actually looking forward to that

 

On the bridge, Magno could only smirk and whistle at the sight of the sleek and fearsome looking ZoidDread, having seen what Lance and Dita could do with their ZoidDread, along with the one Brandon and Meia used…she wondered just what this version was capable of. The thoughts of that went even further when she wondered just how all three ZoidDreads would do as one.

 

*************

 

In the ZoidDread's cockpit in question…

 

“SHE'S SO BEAUTIFUL!!!”

 

Jura cooed lovingly as she saw the image of her ZoidDread. She was also in awe of the cockpit they were in. The two were in what appeared to be a spherical cockpit that allowed them free movement, similar to the cockpits of fighter simulators, and it appeared to be deep in the Zoid. Their chairs seemed to be armed with antigravity systems that were contained in the cockpit, and were very much the same as Dreads and they were facing holographic control consoles and had visors that showed tactical data that were connected to their chairs, leaving their hands free.

 

Scott realized the implications of that statement, he knew that there was now, no way for him to pry Jura away from him now that this happened… and like before a part of his mind somewhat liked the idea, while another part of him told him to be careful. Right now she was rather close to him due to the fact that their chairs were close, due to the transformation.

 

“Happy now?” He asked.

 

Jura smiled slyly and impulsively glomped on the young man, further embarrassing the young man as she hugged him.

 

“Yes! I knew that this was meant to be!” Jura said happily and as soon as she released Scott, she still gleefully jumped up and down on her seat in joy at the beauty of her ZoidDread, and due to that, gave the middle sibling quite a bit of eye candy as her…'ahem', bosom moved with her.

 

Scott quickly placed those thoughts aside, before he did something totally dimwitted, one of which was to drool at the sight of the ecstatic blonde.

 

The situation however was not going to last as Cube Fighters began to appear on their screen, showing that some of the machines had survived like they did and were now in the process of attacking them. The two quickly studied the controls and began to figure out just how to use their combined machine in combat

 

*************

 

Brandon and Lance wondered just what the heck were Jura and Scott doing in their ZoidDread and were about to get into the act to help the two out, when the ZoidDread attacked it's attackers. The green Strike Laser Claws glowed and slashed down the Cube Fighters that tried to attack it and then the Liger turned and the enhanced tail fired several powerful blasts of plasma energy that reduced a few more as the ZoidDread moved with great skill and speed.

 

Seven more attackers came at the ZoidDread and suddenly the green panels glowed in unison with their attempts to fire their weapons at the ZoidDread, suddenly, several glowing orbs of pure energy that seemed to expand into shields that blocked…and absorbed the energy of the Cube Fighters' weaponry and shot it right back at the shooters…destroying them in a heartbeat.

 

The brothers could only comment using one word.

 

“Nice.”

 

*************

 

Jura was so happy as any person could be at the sheer power and grace of her ZoidDread and was hugging Scott once more…much to the embarrassment of the middle sibling…however, due to the fact that hey were close to the city in all the fighting, the ZoidDread crashed into the wall…but thankfully without damage to the wall and little done to the armor of the new ZoidDread.

 

However, the jar was enough to make Jura fall forward and accidentally give Scott a hot one on the lips…much to the surprise of both pilots.

 

The moment Jura kissed him, the blonde woman suddenly felt her body react in a very odd and strange way, she felt her body seemingly heat up and blood rushing to her face and ears. Not to mention her legs seemingly turned into soft wax under the sun…and the strange part about this was…she liked the feelings!

 

Scott on the other hand had an even greater reaction as his entire body was ignited, and certain parts of his body and brain began to react to both the kiss and the blonde's proximity to him, namely a certain part of his male anatomy began to react very strongly at the stimulation. He had kissed some girls before, back on Zi, but those were different circumstances….in this case…he was kissing a total stranger. He felt immediately embarrassed but couldn't seem to force himself to break the intimate contact.

 

Jura was in the same boat, but broke kiss slowly as if trying to digest just what exactly happened between the two of them. That was when the two heard a noise and turned to their communication system and spotted Brandon who apparently was trying not to smile at the sight of his brother and Jura doing Gods knew only what.

 

“If you two are fine, and I can tell that you are, hang tight, the captain and BC are heading to the surface in a few minutes, it seems we've just gotten into contact with the leader of this city we're near to. If you two can spare the time, care to join us?”

 

Jura nodded though she still was a little unnerved by what had happened…while Scott on the other hand was blushing profusely.

 

“I got it all on tape! Your magnificent form in action has now been captured for prosperity." Barnette said excitedly as she got into contact with the ZoidDread.

 

That was enough to get Jura out of her confusion at the kiss and she began to boast about saying that her form was the elegant of the three. This was also enough for Scott to calm himself down and try to manoeuvre the ZoidDread for the two of them to leave.

 

“Time to separate.”

 

“Do we really have to?!” Jura whined a bit at Scott, begging for them to stay in this ZoidDread.

 

As much as his hormones were telling him to ditch the idea and spend as much time as he could with the gorgeous blonde, Scott was too nice a guy to take advantage of anything, or anybody, he didn't trust himself after the kiss and he didn't want to do something that would hurt or possibly scare the woman.

 

“Yes we have to; there aren't any enemies to fight with anyway.”

 

Scott however made a point in is mind to speak to Jura about the whole kissing accident. He liked kissing girls, but only if he knew them well and if they were willing to do it…doing what he did to Jura might have some consequences that could spell trouble to the crew and his siblings…most of all to him.

 

*************

 

Later…

 

As the shuttle she was riding on came to the surface of the planet that she now knew as Anpathos. Magno could not shake the feeling that something was totally off about the whole situation they had just been able to get into.

 

The Dreads had no choice but to halt their attack since they had discovered that their weapons had little effect on the strange tulip like ship's armor, and thus they would just be wasting precious fire-power and ordinance, plus several new squadrons of Cube Fighters and Seed Ships were nearby and thus it was a stand off situation. However, the reason she decided to leave Bart in charge of the ship's operation was the fact that they had been able to speak to the leader of the planet, and she was in the mood to find out more on why it seemed the people on the island city were not too concerned on the presence of the Harvesters.

 

She recalled meeting the blonde woman who appeared to be the head of the city's government, and it seemed like it was that of a theocracy, and since the blonde angel like woman named Fanita was dressed like a high priestess with a white mask on her robe, she was the best choice for the older woman to gain answers. However, the whole exchange between her and Fanita was not very productive and somewhat worrying.

 

Flashback…

 

“Welcome to the most beautiful planet in the universe, Anpathos."

 

“Anpathos, eh?" Magno asked as she gazed at the city's leader.

 

“Yes. We have been patiently for so long for your arrival."

 

This got the attention and curiosity of Buzam. “For us?"

 

“You are Munya, are you not?" Fanita inquired.

 

Magno and BC looked at each other with puzzled and confused expressions, before Magno addressed the young woman again. “I'm sorry but we're not this Munya that you're talking about."

 

The leader of Anpathos gave a look of slight disappointment at this bit of news. “You're not?"

 

The pirate captain shook her head. “No, but there are some things that we all would like to discuss with you. Would you mind if we came down there?"

 

Fanita gave a nonchalant nod. “I'm afraid that since the Great Ritual is now underway, we won't be able to give you all a proper greeting."

 

“That's all right."

 

End of Flashback…

 

As soon as the ship landed on the nearby pad, the elder woman and her second in command saw the houses to be similar to old style Earth houses made from earth itself, along with other technological parts. This place certainly seemed to be in a festival situation and the eldest woman turned to spot Brandon, Scott, Lance and Jura walking towards them. She noted that the eldest brother was trying to hide what appeared to be a grin as he routinely checked the two behind him, Jura was looking curiously at the city while seemingly avoiding to look at the side Scott was on, while Scott appeared to be looking anywhere but at Jura…she didn't know what was going on, but she grinned as she noted something odd about Jura's face.

 

<Is it just my age…or does Jura look somewhat…flustered?>

 

She put those thoughts aside as she smiled at Brandon and his siblings.

 

“Nice to see you youngsters are all right.”

 

“Same to you Captain.” All three men replied back with their own smiles. As soon as they moved through the roads of the city, the brothers were suddenly contacted by their Ligers, via the psychic link that they had developed over the years working together…and the distant Zoidian heritage possessed by the brothers and their family line.

 

<<“Brandon?”>>

 

<Yeah? What's wrong Zarreke?>

 

<< “There's something wrong with the planet's gravity well…the gravity seems to be pulled upwards…and that only happens when the sun and moon move water currents…but this seems…artificial, it's subtle, but seems to grow somewhat in intensity.” >>

 

<Are you telling me that the planet's gravity is being altered?>

 

<< “Seems that way, we might need to scan the entire island to be sure so we can track the source of the sudden gravity well changes.”>>

 

Lance was in the conversation and spoke to his own Liger.

 

<You've got the best sensors Kail, can you find it?>

 

<< “It'll take me a bit of time, but I can find it. Once I've tracked it down, I can alert you all.”>>

 

Scott however didn't take part in the conversation, and his Liger had a suspicion as to why the middle brother did not speak, normally, he would be placing his own input at junctures such as this one when discussion between them and their fellow allies were concerned.

 

<<“You all right Scott?”>>

 

<Uh…yeah, just trying to figure out just what to say to Jura about the whole….kissing incident.>

 

<< “I see…well, you might as well be honest about it, you didn't intend for that to happen, and it might have been misunderstood by her, you' better remedy the whole thing, though it was kind of funny seeing you do what, even if it was unintentional.”>>

 

Scott could have sworn his Organoid partner was chuckling at him, in the way an Organoid would laugh, and he couldn't help but sigh in exasperation. But his partner did have a point on him dealing with the issue before it got out of hand.

 

As soon as he was able to be a fair distance from the others, he turned and called Jura's attention.

 

“Jura?”

 

The blonde was busy looking at all the decorations and whatnot for this seeming ritual that the people of Anpathos were preparing for that Scott had to call her again, and when that didn't work he decided to grab her attention the old fashioned way, he reached out and held her shoulder, this was enough for the blonde to turn around and look at the middle sibling.

 

“Yes?”

 

“I was trying to call you're attention earlier, we need to talk about something important.”

 

Jura looked somewhat confused at first… that is until she recalled the kissing bit.

 

“You mean, about that part when you?”

 

“Kissed you? Yeah, about that, that was an accident and I apologize for it.”

 

“What do you mean?” Jura looked slightly insulted, though why she felt slightly insulted by Scott saying that his kissing her was an accident, was one thing she didn't know about.

 

“I don't mean that in a bad or insulting way Jura, it was an accident in my eyes since I…uh, did that without having you're consent. I want you to know that I would not do that unless I was allowed to do that, and even then, I won't do that to someone I don't fully know.”

 

“We've been working together for the past few months…how can you possibly not know me?” Jura asked, somewhat confused by the way Scott was going on with the whole thing. Naturally since she had grown up not knowing just exactly what Scott was driving at.

 

Scott apparently realized the same thing. He now understood that since she had been raised in an all female world, and naturally had no contact with men all her life until the whole Ikazuchi incident, Jura would not understand his situation, but if he said things the wrong way, this just might make things even worse if she misunderstood him, then the whole situation would spiral into a disaster.

 

“I mean that I don't know that much about you on a personal level, not on a professional level, and I just what to say that it was a bit of an unintentional move on my part.”

 

“Are you suggesting that you didn't like kissing me?” Jura said in a slightly higher tone, showing that she felt she had been insulted once more, though why she still didn't understand. “Am I ugly to you or something?” She once more asked with a slightly angry look at the middle brother.

 

“I didn't say that!!!” Scott said honestly, he then took his breath and replied as diplomatically as possible.

 

“And I certainly didn't say you were ugly either…in fact, I can tell you with absolute certainty that you are the most beautiful woman I have met. And the fact is…despite not really meaning to do that, I did like kissing you, a great deal too if I might add.”

 

Jura was stunned at that bit and couldn't help but wonder if Scott was pulling her leg.

 

“R-Really?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Jura then recalled that he called her beautiful. Now she had been called beautiful before, by Barnette, and others…but this was the first time that she had been called beautiful by a stranger, and even more so since the stranger was a man. In net effect…she was at a lose for words at the moment, and when she got her voice back she spoke calmly as she could.

 

“You mean every word of it?”

 

“Every word and letter Jura, and I'll tell you this much, if you and Barnette were to have set foot on my home-planet of Zi, and uh, dressed the way you both are now, the guys on my world would probably drool like idiots in…ah, awe at the sight of you.”

 

“Really? The men on you're world would find me…attractive?” Jura asked in surprise.

 

“Of course they would, I should know…I did say that I consider you beautiful didn't I?”

 

Jura couldn't help but wonder if that was true, and it might be since Scott was from the planet of Z and according to what she heard, they had females on their world too. The blonde considered all she heard from the middle sibling and she could tell that Scott was not lying about what he said. She then gave him a smile and replied.

 

“I guess I accept that apology.”

 

Scott sighed mentally at that and was happy that things were a lot smoother now. However he was not prepared for what Jura was about to say as she walked up to him and whispered in a near conspirator-like tone to his ear.

 

“By the way, I kind of liked the way you kissed me, even if it was by accident…you kiss nicely for a man.”

 

Jura couldn't help but smile mischievously, complete with fox ears as Scott looked so flustered and embarrassed, that for some reason...he seemed so…cute.

 

Scott was really shocked at the turn of events that it took a shout from his elder sibling Brandon to shake him loose from his stupor. As soon as he joined the others, the only thing that was on his mind was one phrase.

 

<What the heck have I gotten myself into?!>

 

*************

 

In the Nirvana's Hanger deck…

 

“Mr. Alien, his brothers and Jura… they're all alone down there together!" Dita was pacing the floor of the hanger back and forth as she began to imagine what could be happening down at the planet's surface, and what was happening to Mr. Alien in particular. The idea of her being unable to be close to Lance and being able to help him should he get into danger was a very unsettling feeling in the redhead and she didn't like the feeling in the very least

 

“Calm down Dita." Meia said as she watched her young apprentice pace back and forth. “I'm sure that everything's fine. The captain and the commander are there as well remember?"

 

“I know, but still…" Dita directed her attention to a nearby porthole and looked towards the surface of the planet below them. “Mr. Alien…"

 

Meia never told anyone this, but she also felt unsure of what had happened down there, and she didn't know just what kind of people were down there. She also wondered about Brandon and his siblings, despite her self assurance that the three could handle themselves just fine, she still had a small voice in the back of her mind wondering about their welfare, namely the eldest of the three…

 

She shook her head and sighed, trying to banish those strange thoughts concerning the men, Brandon in particular, though she decided to someday find out just what was it that made seem to focus only on him. She was also looking forward to finally beating him in a fight, not due to the fact that he was a man and she was a woman…but because he was a formidable pilot.

 

As soon as the call from Bart came in, she managed to convince Dita to come with her on patrol to keep a serious check on Harvester alien forces and make sure they didn't do anything that would endanger the others on the surface of Anpathos.

 

*************

 

Back on the city…

 

As soon as they arrived in what appeared to the central area of the city, Magno, Buzam, and the others had a rather suspicious feeling about the place they had just entered. The room appeared to have a massive column with a spiraling staircase on it's sides and to the top itself…in front of them all was a plaque depicting a human being kneeling before a pillar of light and what appeared to be a tail of some sort was from the small of his back.

 

For some reason, the pirates and the Zoids pilots felt a slight shiver of apprehension at the sight.

 

Magno however put those thoughts aside as she faced Fanita. Until she got answers as to what was going on, she was rather uneasy about the whole situation that they were all currently in.

 

“Who are the Munya you and you're people seem to be waiting for?”

 

“The Munya are the ones who brought our ancestors here to this planet." Fanita explained. “We are so grateful to them all that we have been patiently waiting for their return."

 

This lack of proper details and the shady description left Magno and her companions with more questions than answers. “Exactly who are the Munya? Why are they coming here?"

 

“They are in need of the Spiral Code from us." The leader of Anpathos replied with simple passion and joy….that still somehow felt unnerving to the group that was before her.

 

<Spiral Code? What's that supposed to be? What kind of Code would require them to be doing all this…?> Brandon asked himself, but his eyes widened as his gaze went back to the plaque in front of them. That was also the same thought in his brothers as they too understood what that meant.

 

BC's gaze also went to the plaque and also understood the meaning of the picture. “They're after the Spinal Cord!"

 

“They CAN'T be serious about this!?" Scott shouted in horror as he gazed out at the assembling numbers of people, young and old, men and women, putting on masks, and acting as if this act of…mass suicide was just as simple as taking a walk, many of the participants also included children…some barely out of their own stages puberty.

 

The others, including Magno then realized the full extend of what they had just entered. The people of Anpathos must have been influenced by the Harvesters into thinking that they were Gods, namely the Munya, and by doing so, the people would be complacent and loyal to them like blind sheep…blind sheep to the slaughter as it appeared that the Harvesters had now determined that this planet was ripe for harvesting.

 

They just had to stop this!!!

 

*************

 

In the Navigation Well of the Nirvana…

 

“Don't flake out on the job!” Paiway said in disapproval at Bart as the young man was looking like he had been the victim of a nervous break-down…which in a sense he was.

 

As soon as he placed away the communiqué of the young nurse, Bart groaned loudly as he recalled just what happened when the Captain and the Commander had left the ship to establish contact with the people of the planet below. After he had been left in charge of the ship, he had been having only a few minutes of silence when the first message from one of the pirates came to him.

 

“What is it?

 

“When can we get new supplies?”

 

Bart was about to answer the question, but little did he realize that it was just going to be the first of many messages heading his way.

 

“Do you think this dress is the right shade?”

 

“Uh…”

 

“Can we have new décor for the rooms of A Squadron?”

 

“Well…”

 

“How soon can we leave?”

 

“I…”

 

“Is the enemy gone?”

 

“N…”

 

“I wonder if these high heels look nice, do you think they look nice enough?

 

“I'm not…”

 

“Excuse me…but I asked Register to have me a new locker number, but why haven't they changed it?”

 

“Why don't…”

 

“When can we get some more cosmetics here? We're running out for the Bathing Area already.”

 

“Can you…”

 

“Do you think I gained or lost weight?”

 

“Ah…”

 

“I was planning to have some new lip gloss with me, do you think that's a good idea?”

 

The messages kept on coming and Bart was about to break down…he couldn't believe that the women were hailing him constantly on very trivial matters!!! The numbers of messages, requests, and questions kept coming and coming until it became a massive ocean of unintelligible garbage that the man wondered if he was about to have a serious migraine that no amount of painkillers could remove.

 

He had just about enough of it all and shouted out in anger.

 

“WILL YOU ALL JUST SHUT UP?!?!?!”

 

He then cut off all communications links to the navigation well, and naturally when he thought that he was about to have some peace and quiet, Paiway came on the line and delivered that comment.

 

Bart sighed once more as he only thought of one thing to surmise his situation.

 

“Women are weird.”

 

*************

 

Back on Anpathos…

 

Magno was not in the best of moods, the people of Anpathos were so blinded by their belief in the so-called Munya, and they were uncaring of the fact that they were offering themselves to be slaughtered. And worst of all, they were using `tradition' and `belief' as the means to justify this mass genocide!

 

To the elder woman, such nonsense was not to be accepted, but she could tell that the people of Anpathos would never attempt to resist the Harvesters, or as they so foolishly termed the alien butchers as the Munya, they were apparently conditioned by the agents of the aliens to be unable to make their own decisions and this was making her even more disgusted, but since they were in a sense merely blinded human beings, she decided to try harder in her efforts to stop them from dying needlessly and like butchered cattle.

 

“What do you know of the universe? You claim that you're world is the most beautiful in all the universe, how many planets have you used to compare with? How many other civilizations have you spoken with? Have you even explored you're world's boundaries?”

 

“Our beliefs and traditions were shaped by the Munya, and we obey their word.” Fanita replied simply with complete focus on her tasks.

 

Brandon and his siblings then noted something odd near the shoreline and were shocked to suddenly see water flooding over the entire city at an increasing pace…they were naturally shocked by what was happening until Their Zoids contacted them.

 

<<“Brandon! There are gravity well transmitters on the top of that tower you are in and they are no online! They seem to be increasing the water level to cover the city!”>> Zarreke reported in.

 

< You sure of that?>

 

<< “Positive, the towers came online for some reason, and the whole ocean seems to the consuming the lower tiers of the city, at first we tried to scan the island for any possibility that this is normal, but Kail tracked the towers down and there seems to be some sort of signal that activated them from space. We've determined that only you're current location will be high enough to house people away from this flood. ”>>

 

<Not good…>

 

Scott and lance were also informed of the same information by their own Zoids to the findings and they realized that this meant that the Harvesters were now on the move.

 

Magno retorted once more and showed her contempt for this whole charade. Despite her best intentions to save them, it became apparent to her that

 

“Again you defer to the `Munya….Humph, you probably can't even make the most basic and simple of decisions without consulting their Munya over it…you all are so pathetic, nothing but blinded idiots.”

 

*************

 

Bart was busy keeping an eye on the whole proceedings, until he was warned by the ship's sensors of an incoming transponder signal to the location of the Harvesters and their forces over the planet of Anpathos. The navigator then found the focusing controls and looked to where the signal was coming from.

 

Whatever it was…it was certainly big!

 

*************

 

On Anpathos…

 

Buzam looked at the whole situation and when informed by Brandon on what their Zoids had told them of the suddenly flooding of the city, and seeing it herself as she looked at the back, along with Jura…she quickly understood just what the central building complex they and the people of Anpathos were in.

 

“They've planned this all out rather well." BC commented as she saw hundreds of people converge on the shrine. Each one of them now wore their ritual masks, which reminded her of condemned people heading towards their executioner, but in this case, they were blindly willing to go. All three brothers nodded grimly in agreement as they too understood just what was happening.

 

“What the heck does this mean?" Jura asked, as she was still somewhat unsure of what was happening.

 

“It means that in this way, all the people are assembled in one spot. And there's no other place to go." The first officer replied.

 

Jura put two and two together and looked somewhat sick at the thought and she nearly tripped hadn't it been for Scott catching her and helping her back to her feet, the blonde was grateful and couldn't help but look in disgust at Fanita and her fellow citizens. In her mind, Fanita was acting like the kind of woman many people could call a dumb blonde, and there was one thing Jura despised, and that was to be considered stupid.

 

It was at that point that they were informed by Bart on what was the situation upstairs in space.

 

“The enemy is back!” The blonde said in a panicky voice as he appeared to be trying to resist the urge to run and remain to make sure to support the pirates.

 

“How many this time?" Buzam asked.

 

“There seems to be only one this time… But it's a massive one, and it's shaped like some sort of container….it's large enough to carry enough people to dwarf even a battleship from our world in personnel!"

 

The first officer nodded as she turned to her superior. “Captain!"

 

Magno nodded in agreement as she returned her attention to Fanita. “Well now, it seems to me that your 'precious' Munya have now arrived."

 

“Really?" Fanita became extremely pleased at the news. “Finally! The prophecies have come true!"

 

With that, the woman put on her mask and the rest of her people followed suit and ascended the stairs, just as the water now covered the roofs of the building as filled the floor of the tower, not high enough to drown the pirates and the Zoid pilots, but was enough to make the people continue to move towards the top of the tower.

 

*************

 

Bart could do nothing but watch and wait, along with chanting his mantra of not running as well. He followed Meia's advice of getting the Dread pilots ready for combat and act as a defensive line to the ship and the planet below, and although he entertained the idea of having the Reinhart siblings' own Zoid Squadron into the mission, he knew that the brothers would not take kindly into his interference with their teams and chose not to. The alien forces were now augmented in numbers by reinforcements from both the tulip shaped ship and from the massive container like ship itself.

 

*************

 

Back at Anpathos…

 

“You can never go against destiny and fate. Nor can you change them.” Fanita said calmly, though the others could tell that the young woman was getting somewhat annoyed at Magno and the rest of her fellow pirates.

 

Brandon and the others waited and hoped that even if things looked very grim, Magno might be able to stop this massive mistake before it exploded to into something that would result in so many lost lives.

 

Magno snorted and showed her disgust with Fanita once more, through her retort.

 

“Destiny and fate you say? Words of convenience…those are the kinds of words and rhetoric that people who can't even make the most basic decisions for themselves to say. You say that this is fate and the right thing to do? You are more blind to the truth than I thought.”

 

“This IS the right thing to do!” Apparently a large portion of Fanita's calm and patience had finally broken away from her and she was about to show just how much she disliked, or rather despised Magno's barbs at her and her people's beliefs, along with anger at what she perceived as mockery to their way of life.

 

“Tradition is tradition! It is YOU who are wrong! You're strangers to our world and now you insult our God? How can you so rude?"

 

However, a certain band of individuals had just about enough of this farce.

 

“WHAT HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”

 

Magno, Buzam, Jura, Fanita, and some of her people turned to see the undisguised looks of disgust, contempt and hatred the brothers were now showing towards the people of Anpathos. Magno, Buzam, and Jura had not seen the siblings this angry before, not even when Brandon and Meia locked proverbial horns with one another in their rivalry, and they wondered just what the brothers were going to do.

 

Brandon was the one to speak first.

 

“You think you're path is the right one?! Do you realize that those so called Munya you so revere are nothing more than a collection of heartless and soulless alien bastards who want nothing more than to harvest you're bodies and spines like you were cattle?! You're living, breathing human beings with every right to make your own way in this universe, and you worship beings who consider you as nothing more than spare organs and parts?! You're actually willing to lead your own people, you're fellow men and women, young and old, child and adult to be slaughtered, and not even fight back for you're right to exist in this world…all because of a flawed faith?!”

 

“HOW DARE YOU SAY SUCH HERESY?!” Fanita shouted in anger.

 

“He does, because what you're doing is nothing pure insanity!!!” Lance retorted as he too glared at Fanita.

 

“HOW CAN YOU…?!”

 

“What? Tell you the truth?! Listen lady! What you're doing is condemning your people, ALL of them to death, there is no great paradise waiting for you up there in the clouds with the Munya! The only thing that's waiting for them if you go through with this is mass suicide!!!”

 

Scott then spoke as vehemently as his brothers did, looking at the hidden faces of the children who were among those that were in the building.

 

“Do you REALLY plan on dying? You are living, breath, rational beings for crying out loud! What makes you think dying for you're so-called Munya is the right thing?! If there is one thing my siblings and I can be sure of, if there is a divine being in this universe, the last thing it would want to is to send people to an early grave!!! Are you actually willing to sacrifice even the bearers of you're future, all because of the whims of beings you hardly know anything about?!”

 

“THAT IS ENOUGH!!! YOU ARE NOT PART OF MY PEOPLE, AND NONE OF YOU HAVE GROWN UP HERE IN ANPATHOS, YOU ARE STRANGERS HERE AND YET YIOU HAVE THE AUDACITY TO QUESTION US?! LEAVE NOW!!!”

 

The brothers however were not going to be swayed by Fanita's threats or her angry words, they were not going to stand by and watch these people, misguided and blinded as they are, give their lives away for a false faith and let themselves be subjected to Harvest and to the aliens that ordered this senseless and merciless treatment of human life.

 

Magno however then called the attention of all three siblings with a sigh and a look of slight resignation.

 

“Forget it you three…there seems to be no way we can convince these people otherwise, we're not going to get much done if we stay here, we have other matters to deal with out there in space.”

 

However, the elder woman was not going to go anywhere, for as she turned to walk away, a bolt of pain shot through her body and her legs gave out, she cried and fell to her knees.

 

“CAPTAIN!!!”

 

Buzam, Jura, Brandon, Scott and Lance rushed to her side and checked to see what was the problem, the old woman held her cane tightly and grimaced as she tried to stand, but the pain in her body was too strong and therefore, she had to stay where she was until the pain subsided.

 

“Of all the times for my back to give out!” Magno said in pain as she had to sit down in order to alleviate some of her current pain.

 

Brandon wasted no time and quickly reached into a nearby pouch and took out a small pack of medicine and handed it to Magno, as the old woman looked at him in surprise and curiosity, he merely shrugged and explained.

 

“Old fashioned pain killers, never know when you might need them.”

 

Magno smiled and took one of the pills, the medicine was very effective as the pain subsided a few moments later, but she was not going to leave and aggravate the pain, plus the water that flooded the city denied her any chance of getting to the shuttle in the first place.

 

“Thank you Brandon, but it looks like you and you're siblings need to deal with this mess, get up there and stop the Harvesters before they commit this atrocity before our eyes, the last thing my old eyes need to see is the massacre of so many people…even if they are too blinded to see what the truth is. Not to mention I have no intention of dying alongside them.”

 

Brandon and his siblings, along with Jura looked at the people and sighed that they had to save the posteriors of such hard headed people. But they knew what had to be done.

 

“Don't worry…by the time we're done with them, they'll wish they never fought us.” Scott assured Magno, along with Brandon and Lance, Jura also agreed with them as she too got ready to leave.

 

As they left Fanita sent her last comments to the back of the men.

 

“You are only delaying the inevitable…there is nothing you can do to stop the Munya, do you really believe that you all can change fate and destiny?”

 

The brothers stopped and faced Fanita and her followers and with grim and defiant expressions that were somewhat unnerving to the unaccustomed. And all three spoke with conviction and grim determination.

 

“Watch us.”

 

As the brothers and Jura left the building and made their way to their machines, Magno merely smiled and looked back at Fanita with a smirk as she moved a bit to make herself a bit more comfortable. She smiled even more at the way the brothers had acted before they had left, in her mind, if the men of Tarak had the nerve of the brothers in their soldiers when they were still in the Ikazuchi, then she and her pirates would have had an even harder time in doing their raid on the Ikazuchi. As soon as she was comfortable, she faced Fanita and spoke.

 

“Looks like we have some more time to talk, and to answer you're question on whether they can change fate or destiny….my answer to that is yes, yes they can.”

 

*************

 

As they rushed to their machines, Brandon quickly thought up of the possible attacks they could try, since they were brought down here before Lance and his Liger could merge with Dita's Dread, they didn't know if ZoidDread Dita had the needed punch to damage the ship effectively, nor were they able to tell of the ZoidDread he and Meia formed would have the power needed to punch through, and even Scott and Jura's new ZoidDread had yet to be tested on such a massive foe. This meant that it would have to be a concerted attack on the machine, they had gotten in contact with the Nirvana as they moved to their objective, and they knew that they also had to find a way to stop the blasted monster ship from harvesting the people.

 

That was when Scott had a plan. He knew that it would have to be a close one, but if it could be done, they would have a very good chance of stopping the damn thing cold. Plus it would certainly give him and Jura a chance to see just what else their ZoidDread was capable of doing.

 

*************

 

Back in space…

 

The battle was well underway and the Pirates found themselves facing a tough situation, even if they were able to defeat the Cube Fighters and reduce their numbers, they realized that their fire-power was not enough to even make a dent into the massive armor plating of the ship, even more so that the blasted container had it's own band of reinforcements.

 

As the Dreads continued to bring on the pain to the Cube Fighters, the only good news that they had was the Harvesters didn't bother to send and Seed Ships, making it clear that the Cube Fighters were not going to be heavily reinforced anytime soon, and that was a boon to them, no matter how small that was in hindsight, not to mention the blessed lack of fatal injuries to their forces. However, it certainly didn't mean the fight was any easier as the beam bolts, and missile trails were all over the place.

 

Inside the Navigation Well, Bart was repeating his mantra over and over again, hoping to keep his place in the battle.

 

“I won't run! I won't run! I won't run! I won't run!”

 

However, that mantra was broken along with whatever courage he had left in him as several Cube Fighters broke through the ranks of the Dreads and peppered the Nirvana with several shots from their laser weapons, the moment that happened, Bart was once more in panic mode.

 

“I can't handle anymore of this!”

 

“Quit whining like a baby and hold you're position!”

 

Magno spoke through Buzam's communicator and spoke directly to Bart, along with anyone within comm. distance.

 

“I've lived for a very long time in this universe and I've seen many people die and I could do nothing to help them survive. However the one thing I knew to be true about those people who died, they died fighting to live, why? Because they had hopes, dreams, plans, friends, and family and most of all, they dreamed of the future, and they were ready to give their lives to protect the future. They could have just stood aside and not give their lives away, but they didn't… they fought with every fiber of their being, and do you know why? Because they decided to live, they decided for themselves to fight for their right to exist in this universe, even if they knew that they would have to give up a lot of things, and most of all, their lives! They made that decision for themselves and not because they were told by others to do it. And the one thing I can never abide or tolerate is people who do nothing and let others decide their fate…to me, they are the worst example of human beings!”

 

The words were enough for Bart to get his act together and the young man was now ready to stand and fight, even if the Nirvana had no weapons as of yet to speak of.

 

. “I'm not moving an inch!"

 

Then another voice broke through. “You're blocking our paths! Move out of the way!"

 

Upon hearing Brandon's commanding voice, Bart immediately moved the Nirvana out of orbit over Anpathos as the Ligers appeared running into the battle and ZoidDread Jura shot up from the planet's surface.

 

*************

 

In the ZoidDread…

 

Scott ran through his calculations one more time and determined that this was the most effective option they had, unless the Harvesters were going to try something totally fresh on them. If this worked, they would be able to win this battle altogether.

 

“Are you sure that plan will work?” Jura asked as she too manipulated the controls on the ZoidDread on her side.

 

“Honestly…no, but I don't have much in options right now. This has to be done just right too, one single miss and we're done for. You sure you can handle that part of the plan?”

 

Jura frowned a bit and replied.

 

“I can try, I haven't done this kind of thing before you know.”

 

“Don't worry, just follow through and I'll handle the rest, we'll make it out of this, that I promise.”

 

“Good, I'll hold you on that one.” The blonde replied as she went back to work on her side of the cockpit.

 

Scott went to work and ran his plan through his mind once more, and it was a serious gamble, as far as he could tell, from the data he gathered, the tulip shaped ship must have an anti-gravity field system to lift the people of Anpathos once it went to work. The only chance they had was to somehow repel the massive ship from the planet and stop it's attempt to harvest the people of Anpathos, and they were going to have to use two things, a certain band of frequencies, one of which, they needed from the tulip shaped ship itself and from the gravity generator towers on the surface. The other was to find something powerful enough to be used to force the ship back from the planet and damage it enough for him and his comrades to finish the thing off for good.

 

As soon as Scott was done, they decided to wait for the first move of the Harvesters, as the ZoidDread got into position.

 

*************

 

Dita gave a cry of joy as she spotted the object of her affections. “MR. ALIEN!" She got closer to Kail and smiled as she saw that he was not too badly hurt. “Are you okay?"

 

Lance smiled slightly as he gazed at the image of the redhead. “I'm fine, but I think that we shouldn't combine just yet."

 

“Why?"

 

“Because it's Jura and Scott's turn."

 

“Are you sure about that?" Meia asked as she also flew alongside the others as Brandon and Lance, along with their Zoids let the newly formed ZoidDread move into the point position.

 

“Don't worry Meia; Scott and Jura are going to be fine." Brandon answered Meia's question. “Our concern is to defend the Nirvana right now along with them as they get the plan on the move, so let's get to it.”

 

Both women agreed as they formed their respective ZoidDreads and went on to face the incoming force of Cube Fighters, Brandon knew that as soon as Scott's plan worked, it would be enough for them to take out the giant ship as one, the brothers decided to attack as one in order to effectively locate a weakness in the ship, for now, they had to make sure also that the two would not be easily taken out by the incoming Cube Fighters.

 

Meia then gave orders for the Dreads to fight off the attackers and allow Jura, and Scott to initiate their plan, and she was hoping to finally take the fight to the Harvesters once Anpathos was protected.

 

*************

 

Scott ran through his plan and began to make the changes alongside Jura, they then watched as the tulip shaped ship open it's forward section and sure enough, it began to use powerful gravity generators to create what appeared to be a massive vacuum like attack on the planet…aiming directly at the main structure where the others were. The Zoid pilot then guided the ZoidDread right in front of the mouth and they could only watch as several Cube Fighters, unlucky enough to be in the area be sucked into the maw. The ZoidDread began to shake and shudder, however, the combined armor held quite nicely.

 

“Are you ready Jura?”

 

The blonde nodded. “As I'll ever be…you'd better be right about this, I don't want this beauty and us broken!”

 

Scott nodded and then started the program. In an instant, the same energy globes that had blocked the shots from the Cube Fighters on the first time the ZoidDread had revealed itself, the shields then flew towards several strategic areas of the planet's atmosphere and the shields expanded to cover the entire planetary surface. Jura then typed in a signal frequency into the shields and sure enough, the shields glowed and made their effects known to the planet's surface. The shields were able to disrupt both the gravity generators on the surface…along with interfering and blocking the powerful vacuum of the Harvester ship.

 

Scott grinned, phase one as of now was over, now it was time to pay back the enemy.

 

The Harvester ship was playing right into Scott's estimates as it increased it's attempt to rip the ZoidDread out of the way and get to it's chosen quarry.

 

*************

 

Anpathos

 

On the planet's surface below, water began to return to it's normal level, startling the people of Anpathos and throwing them into chaos. Fanita was the most affected as she glared at Magno and Buzam and took off her mask, showing her fury and disbelief at them.

 

“What have you done?!”

 

Magno could only smile at Fanita and replied.

 

“You once told those three boys that they could not change destiny and fate remember? They have just proven you wrong.”

 

*************

 

In space…

 

“Not too shabby.” Brandon commented as he and Meia looked at the ZoidDread of Jura and Scott as it maintained it's defensive posture over Anpathos and shielded the planet and it's still blinded populace from harm. The ZoidDread they themselves piloted had just ripped apart several Cube Fighters and was currently ripping out the innards of one that it had pinned right now with it's teeth, Zarreke was in command as the two gazed at the ZoidDread Brandon's middle sibling and the blonde pilot were using.

 

“I agree…but we still have to deal with the Harvester's main ship…how can we stop it? Not to mention we have to make sure it's completely destroyed so to avoid any debris from crushing the city below.”

 

“I know…but if I know my brother, and I seriously do…I think he has a contingency plan for that in mind.”

 

Sure enough, Scott did have a plan, as soon as he looked at the situation on Anpathos and was happy to note that nothing had happened to the city below, he began to run the data he had gained to determine if his plan would work in driving away the Harvester ship.

 

Jura was in a bit of a panic as the ZoidDread began to shake, despite holding it's position admirably, the blonde worried that if the Harvester unit continued to increase the sheer power of it's vacuum, then the ZoidDread would be consumed into it's maw and they were done for.

 

“What are we going to do now?!”

 

“We're about to give that thing two things…a bath, and a serious case of indigestion.”

 

“This is no time for jokes Scott!!!” Jura replied as she studied the readouts on the armor and structural integrity of the ZoidDread.

 

“I'm not joking, get ready to drop this shield on my mark…NOW!”

 

Jura took a moment to determine which of the energy shields Scott had in mind, her body reacting with hopped up adrenaline in her blood, but she did the right moves and followed Scott's following commands. The shield she dropped, was over the ocean of Anpathos and the water rushed outwards like a massive pillar into the sky, the sight from the ground was enough to jar Fanita and her people into shock.

 

Scott then watched as the massive pillar of water slammed hard into the maw of the Harvester ship, no doubt influenced by the vacuum. As soon as that happened, massive bulges appeared all over the ship as it was unable to prepare itself for the massive pillar of water that entered it instead of it's intended human victims.

 

“I hope you like the drink, you alien machine!!!”

 

The ZoidDread began to shake violently and that made Jura afraid once more…however Scott was not frightened and he decided to console his companion.

 

“Don't worry, the armor will hold and my Liger will no doubt not want to die just yet.”

 

“Are you sure about that?!” Jura asked, her hands tight on Scott's shoulder.

 

“I am sure…you're going to hold on, right Rikera?”

 

The ZoidDread roared out in affirmation and held it's ground. Jura didn't know why, but she felt a bit more confident for some reason, she may not have understood the roar the Liger had given out, nor the message the sentient machine had given in response to it's master's inquiry, but she could feel that the message was a positive one.

 

The two watched, along with the other pirates as the ship continued to bulge out, and it seemed that it was done for. However it suddenly turned off it's vacuum, though the process itself was rather slow, it was enough to minimize the damage it was receiving from the water inside of it. In that moment, the water that was still in space began to slowly freeze up and become solid ice, and the ship of the Harvesters was still listing to the side…unable to hold it's orbit for a few moments. The water that was still in the planet's atmosphere fell back like a massive tidal wave and it seemed to nearly take back areas of the city that had been flooded.

 

That however didn't mean that Scott's plan was a failure…he had gathered enough data on how to manipulate his energy shields in the proper fashion for his next step. As soon as he was done, he converted the shields to form holes in the middle, almost making it seem like the ZoidDread's shields could not handle the strain.

 

That was a mistaken assumption as the ocean that covered all of Anpathos suddenly fired out massive pillars of water up towards the surface and right through the holes in the shields. This was due to the fact that Scott had been able to determine the power level used by the Harvester ship to create a vacuum effect and now had made the energy shields of the ZoidDread into vacuums themselves. The vacuums then directed the rapid columns of water to aim directly at the Harvester ship and due to the fact that it was close enough to be hit, all the pillars, numbering ten slammed hard into the ship, forcing it to be covering in water that quickly became ice that was hard as diamond itself due to the extreme cold in space, the rapidly expanding water that became solid forced back the machine and also gouged deep trenches past it's armor. The ship had no choice but to back away as more water was shot towards it. On the surface, the ocean that covered Anpathos had been quickly reduced, showing more land and also revealed the still salvageable wreckage of the colony ship that brought the ancestors of the people of Anpathos to their world.

 

As soon as the ship was able to pull back, badly damaged the pirates knew that it was their time to strike.

 

Jura was ecstatic and once more hugged Scott in jubilation.

 

“WE DID IT!!!”

 

Scott nodded and smiled at Jura as they saw the ship move back further.

 

“True…however we only forced it back and damaged it…now we have to finish the job…care to go in and show the Harvesters what you're ZoidDread can do?”

 

Jura smiled seductively as she began to manipulate the controls.

 

“Of course I am.”

 

“Wow! Mr. Alien 2 and Jura were amazing…I'm kind of envious too.” Dita said as she and Lance watched the whole situation, they were surprised and impressed at what the two had done with their ZoidDread.

 

“Don't be Dita…we'd better go in and see if we can help them.”

 

With that, the ZoidDread formed by Lance Dita roared and charged into the fight, Kail was interested to draw the curtain overt his foe that they faced.

 

Brandon and Meia needed no words to show their own interest as they powered up their ZoidDread and charged right towards the stricken and barely recovering Harvester ship. All three ZoidDreads charged right at the ship of the Harvesters.

 

As it was barely recovering, it only had enough time to release several more squadrons of Cube Fighters that were intact to slow the ZoidDreads down…long enough to initiate a secondary combat mode and if possible…effect repairs before it was destroyed. The ship retained it's massive tulip sized form, but suddenly released several massive and long tentacles, numbering to be around twenty, each head of the tentacle was armed with grappler claws and ranged weapons, all designed for war, apparently it had this option should the first mode would fail. It kept the container but then reversed the flow of it's vacuum system and fired out massive gouts of water like a geyser, and with the water freezing quickly in cold space, the water were now like massive globes of ice with diamond hard spikes on them, along with massive amounts of wrecked equipment and shrapnel. This, along with the weapons the tentacles had made the once ugly tulip like ship into an even uglier form of a sea anemone.

 

The pirates were disgusted at the sight, and were now on the move with their Dread squadrons behind the ZoidDreads to take out the Harvester ship once and for all.

 

Brandon scanned the ship while he and Meia guided Zarreke to avoid both the weapons fire and the ice projectiles the ship was firing out at them and his siblings, and their comrades. The massive globes of ice were flying all over the place like meteorites. Making it hard for them somewhat to get a good bead in their massive foe.

 

“We've got to take that thing out before it starts repairing itself!” Meia replied as she was on the controls.

 

“I know…first we've got to do is take out it's tentacles…Scott! You and Jura take your ZoidDread and attack alongside us. Lance! You and Dita focus on firing you're ZoidDread's weapons on the ship while we keep it occupied, if you can hit anything vital, then don't stop. We'll need the Dreads to move in once the tentacles are out of the way! Once we rip those tentacles out of the way and bust through the armor, we're home free.”

 

“Got it!”

 

All three ZoidDreads roared out as they activated their boosters and charged, the energy barrier created by Jura and Scott's ZoidDread remained there to ensure that the planet below was unharmed. The ship that they were about to fight with decided to sprout massive teeth on the inner sections of the tulip like lips…making it look even more monstrous than it already needed to be. That however did not deter the three ZoidDreads, nor their co-gender pilots as they attacked the creature as they moved past the first barrage of ice globes and as soon as they passed them and avoided the second barrage of ice globes, the battle began.

 

ZoidDread Meia activated it's boosters, and led the charge, while ZoidDread Jura activated it's own boosters and both ZoidDreads led the charge as they were designed for close range combat, while ZoidDread Dita provided long range support fire. Three tentacles with their ranged cannons fired barrages of laser bolts at the ZoidDreads, those were dodged quickly as the two in the lead suddenly parted and that was when The third ZoidDread struck out.

 

“NOVA STORM!!!”

 

ZoidDread Dita unleashed a massive barrage from all of it's weapons as the Harvester ship barely had enough time to erect it's own shields, due to the massive internal damage of the water that filled it, plus the gouging damage from the rapidly freezing water that slammed into it, the Harvester ship barely had enough power to dedicate to shields and with it's armor still somewhat purged and shredded, the effects were explosive indeed...several tentacles were easily destroyed and massive explosions all over the ship's body appeared and blossomed, spewing out chucks of the ship, some of the weapons fire even slammed into the mouth and caused merry hell on the rest of the ship.

 

“BLITZ BARRAGE!!!”

 

The ZoidDread piloted by Brandon and Meia took to the strike after plastering the enemy ship with hundreds of modified Vulcan ammunition, the bullets might not do much damage to the ship overall…but it made a heck of a killing on the massive ranged weapons as they were badly damaged, but the real attacks were aimed at the tentacles themselves, the Strike Laser Claws glowed in mere milliseconds and then massive gashes appeared on the tentacles, those that had their ranged weapons destroyed used their grappler claws to try and catch the high speed Zoid/Dread fusion, but the ZoidDread, with it's unparalleled acceleration and handling was easily slipping though their grasps and sliced off several of the tentacles as the ZoidDread streaked past them.

 

Jura and Scott took the center stage as they began to use their ZoidDread to end the fight. The ZoidDread activated it's energy blade emitters and all the blades were now in combat formation and with one purpose…to cut the now severely damaged ship into nothing but confetti. The Liger's beam blades were glowing in deep emerald green, as two were on the side and two were facing forward, similar to the configuration that Scott's own Liger in it's Schneider CAS< but the long tail suddenly went back to the old tendril configuration and then moved to the back, the tendrils compressing and forming into a double emitter, that released four more beam blades, two facing in a forward diagonal pattern, while the blades in the rear were upwards, facing backwards in an arc…this, plus the fact that three more energy blades had been unleashed from the blade emitters on the head of the heavily armored ZoidDread made the fused machine look like a massive war beast covered in blades. Jura cooed lovingly at the sheer lethal and sleek look of her fused ZoidDread, and Scott could only wonder just what else would happen, the two then attacked with their machine and powerful energy boosters appeared from the rear, suddenly accelerating it t the point it was similar to how fast Zarreke would move had Brandon and his Zoid been on the surface.

 

The ZoidDread nearly faded out of sight and just like when Meia and Brandon had charged using their ZoidDread in the first encounter with the Urchin vessel, the crimson Zoid smashed into the front of the massive ship…it's blades slicing through the tentacles that were sent there to try and stop it, the appendages sliced off cleanly as if they were cut by a fine laser scalpel, and in this case, they were…the machine then created a powerful shield around itself as it slammed dead center in the maw of the ship…cutting through the teeth with ease.

 

As soon as that happened, the ZoidDread vanished as it entered the maw of the ship, making the others, including Meia, Brandon, Lance, and Dita stop and take notice, each of them hoping that their comrades were not lost, the same sentiment was in the faces of the pirates in both the Nirvana and the Dreads, but they all spotted massive bulges coming from the ship as it began to once more convulse and shake, as if it was being wounded from the inside out. The show continued as more explosions occurred, until a massive explosion appeared at the rear of the container section and out came debris of exploding equipment, and water…from the massive geyser came a glowing form…with beam blades.

 

ZoidDread Jura rushed away a good distance and turned to face the ship as it's shield was still online, and the Harvester vessel finally exploded violently, unleashing massive debris and water all over the place, in the midst of the whole mess was the ZoidDread crouching as it's shield went down and then roaring defiantly as the fires of it's slain opponent brightened the area briefly until the explosions died and all that was left of the Harvester ship was a massive wreck and a massive amount of now frozen water that floated all over space in chunks. The ZoidDread then deactivated it's beam blades and looked at the result of the fight.

 

Jura was very happy and to prove it, she hugged Scott, once more embarrassing the young man, along with, ah, getting a rise out of his body due to her close proximity to him, along with her very voluptuous form and manner of dress. Scott could do nothing but stay there, trying to put away his embarrassment, and keep his male instincts from getting the better of him.

 

Jura looked at him while loosening her grip but not releasing him and smiled seductively.

 

“I knew that combining with you was the right move to make…now, promise you won't try to combine with Meia or Dita, but only with me, okay?”

 

At this point, Scott's face was in a shade of red that matched the color of both Jura's Dread and his Liger's Schneider Armor perfectly and all he could do was gulp and nod…making Jura smile even more triumphantly.

 

*************

 

Back on Anpathos…

 

The planet's surface was now stable and large bodies of water were now present, but the land had changed, and now there was more to explore on the surface of the once water covered planet. Magno smiled at the sight and turned to the sound of gasping breath and weeping to see Fanita on her knees, her mask no longer on her face. As soon as Buzam helped her up to her feet, she was happy her back pain was gone and planned to thank Brandon for the medicine.

 

Fanita looked up with tears of rage and disbelief in her eyes as she looked at Magno.

 

“HOW COULD YOU…WHAT HAVE…WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO US?!”

 

Magno merely sighed and replied.

 

“My crew and I gave you something, a gift if you will.”

 

“GIFT?! WHAT KIND OF GIFT COULD BE BETTER FOR US THAN TO BE ONE WITH THE MUNYA?!”

 

“Apart from you're lives? There is only one word to tell you what that gift is.” Before she turned to leave the disbelieving people of Anpathos to return to her ship, the old woman told them what that gift was.

 

“Freedom.”

 

*************

 

Later…

 

As the ship left the system Magno was happy to be back in her command chair and knowing that the ship was once more heading off to Tarak and Megele, leaving the now alive and free…but naturally ungrateful people of Anpathos to their own devices. She chuckled somewhat at the very loud lecture she got from Bart, as the young man complained at what had happened when she had left him in command of the Nirvana in her absence.

 

In the Hanger Bay, Jura was ecstatic and pleased as she watched the video of her ZoidDread and bragged to the other pirates on how cool her ZoidDread was, and considering what they had seen, the pirates had to admit that in this case, there was enough evidence to back up Jura's boisterous claims.

 

Scott however was busy trying to calm himself after that last episode with Jura, and he groaned once more as his brothers arrived, both of them having smug grins on their faces.

 

Brandon looked at his brother and spoke in a hushed and sly tone.

 

“So…how did it go with Jura?”

 

Scott gave the two brothers a glare and replied.

 

“Don't ask.”

 

The brothers however read enough on the actions of their sibling and were laughing, looks like Scott had just snared himself a really hot lady for a wingman, or in this case…a wing-woman.

 

*************

 

To be continued…

 

*************

 

Author's Notes:

 

What will be Jura's ZoidDread form? As you can recall…since this IS a cross over with Zoids and VanDread, you can bet all your dollars that you will not see the same VanDread Jura uses when she combined with Hibiki in the original series. After all, the ZoidDread Dita and Lance have is NOT humanoid nor was the ZoidDread Brandon and Meia piloted a Dragon.

 

Sorry I am late with updates…had some family matters to deal with. Plus I need to leave soon, so I hope these updates will be enough for now, until I have the chance to go back, full-time.

 

As you can see….Jura was not in a dejected mood as she was in the original VanDread series…and unlike Hibiki Tokai who grew up not knowing the old relationships with women and men, Scott if VERY aware on how attractive Jura really is…not to mention the kiss…what will be the results of this one I wonder? (^_^)

 

*************

 

Hi, Lance here…we're finally getting some down time and we can really take a break, so what do we do today guys?

 

Another boy's night out?

 

Not a bad idea Scott, but I think that now would be better to just relax and listen to some music.

 

I agree…hold it, looks like we've got some gear in this room…hmm, what do you say guys…in the mood for a bit of a song?

 

Hell yeah!

 

Next on ZoidDread - Downtime! See you there!

 

*************

 

Figured a bit of music to let the boys hang loose is in order, this will be a breather before we move on to the next chapter! I have some more matters to tend to so for now this will be my current update and only chapter.

 

P.S.

 

I do have to be in the real world once in a while, with all the hustle and bustle to go with it after all. Plus, I have other projects to finish, namely making some long overdue things for my college and also to come up with new ideas for the other projects I have started here in this site.

 

I shall return and more chapters will be made. In the meantime…give comments and reviews, I welcome them, ideas and constructive critiques are welcome also…but flames will be tossed out the nearest airlock.

 

Bye!