Gall Force Fan Fiction ❯ "Gallforce: The Shoot Down Queen." ❯ Chapter 3 Eternal Story ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
"The Shoot Down Queen."
A Gallforce Prqeuel Story

By Makuhari-Fan01

"GALLFORCE" and all related characters are owned by Kenichi Sonoda, MOVIC, Sony VCIC, and in the US, Central Park Media, NOT me.

Based on characters and situations created by Kenichi Sonoda, especially his manga; "Kenichi Sonoda: Privates Live."

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The Eighth Solenoid Expeditionary Fleet, led by the Battleship Agoncaguya, is heavily engaged with a Paranoid fleet. Assigned to protect CHAOS, a planet In the 9th Solar System, the Eighth Fleet intercepted and engaged a Paranoid fleet attempting to approach that system.

Operating on the Eighth Fleets' left flank, the battle carrier Artemia and her escorts are busy chewing apart Paranoid fighter formations and small ship attack squadrons.

After destroying or driving off a large formation of Paranoids, the Attackers are returning to the Artemia to re-arm and re-fuel. Lufy and Mari, along with Sandy and Queen Anne, are flying cover while the rest of the Attackers line up to land. A few of the Attackers have landed, and the rest are lining up when a Paranoid cruiser warps in next to the Artemia.

Lufy can hardly believe her eyes. "Freya! All Attackers break away! Break away! Enemy cruiser in this airspace!"

The Attackers scatter away from the Artemia as she and the Paranoid open fire on each other. Both ships stagger, suffering tremendous damage from the heavy blows. Artemia and the Paranoid both begin launching fighters as they fire at each other again. Artemia's heavier weapons win the duel, but she is caught in the explosion of the Paranoid cruiser and left dead in space. Four Paranoid destroyers warp in near Artemia and move in to finish her off. Artemia's escorts rush forward to protect their crippled charge, imposing themselves between her and the enemy. Swarms of Paranoid drones begin sweeping through the area, hunting down the heavily outnumbered Solenoid fighters and their remote-controlled Bronz-D companions.

Despite making the Paranoids pay a heavy price, the Attackers, low on fuel and ammunition, are run down one by one and destroyed. The heavy ships continue to tear at one another with the savage ferocity of mortal enemies. One after another, the destroyers go down until only three ships remain. Moving in to finish off Artemia, the last Paranoid destroyer opens fire just as it is rammed by a crippled Solenoid destroyer. Both ships explode. Artemia, hit by the final Paranoid barrage, finally succumbs to her damage and blows apart.

Lufy can hardly believe the carnage she has just witnessed. Remaining silent until Mari pulls her fighter in next to her, Lufy finally recovers and begins calling the Eighth Fleet's flag ship.

"Agoncaguya, Agoncaguya, this is Combat Leader Lufy. Left flank down, all ships have been destroyed, all fighter squadrons are combat ineffective. Request permission to pull back with any survivors."

"Combat Leader Lufy. You are instructed to locate any survivors and pull back to the flag ship as soon as possible. The situation is such that the fleet could be forced to warp out at ant time."

"Understood, Lufy out."

"Lufy, what's going on?"

"Well Mari, it seems the fleet bit off more than it could chew. If we don't get back quick we'll be left behind."

Lufy adjusted her com set to a wide band. "This is Combat Leader Lufy to any station, report." Static is her only reply.

"We can't be all that's left Lufy, try again."

"This is Combat Leader Lufy to any Artemia station report!"

"Shut up Lufy, I hear you."

"Tenisha? Is that you?"

"Yea, I've got Queen Anne with me. Her fighter's all shot up, and my weapons are burned out."

"Have you found anyone else?"

"No, Anne and I have been combing the area, but we haven't even seen a single survival pod. I guess all the explosions destroyed any that managed to launch."

Mari broke in. "That's crazy! Over twelve-hundred crew in four ships and we're all that's left?"

Lufy gritted her teeth as she replied. "It appears so... We'd better hurry. Agoncaguya said they might leave at any time."

The four Solenoid fighters turned and moved off towards the Solenoid fleet.

The quartet of Solenoids has covered half the distance to the fleet when Lufy's scanners picked up a formation of six Paranoid drones closing from behind.

"Tenisha, you and Queen Anne go on ahead. Mari and I will take care of the Paranoids."

"Roger Lufy, good Luck."

Lufy and Mari wheel around and close with the Paranoids. Locking her last two missiles on to a pair of Paranoid drones, Mari fires first. The Paranoids evade and only one is destroyed. Closing on the remaining five, Lufy and Mari enter a swirling dogfight with four. The fifth evades and goes after the two retreating Solenoids.

Lufy shoots down one of her opponents and shouts a warning. "Tenisha! Watch out, there's a leaker headed your way!"

"Roger."

Lufy polishes off her last opponent, then helps Mari finish hers off. Turning toward the Agoncaguya once again, Lufy and Mari rush after the last Paranoid drone.

Without any missiles left for a long range attack, the two Solenoids can only watch helplessly as the Paranoid closes in on their friends. Tenisha does everything she can to distract the Paranoid, but it closes remorselessly on Queen Anne's crippled fighter and blows it apart. Turning on Tenisha's fighter, the Paranoid moves in to attack.

Unable to defend herself, Tenisha is forced to evade.

Sensing another helpless target, the Paranoid rapidly closes in and explodes Tenisha's fighter.

Mari screams in rage and bores in on the now retreating Paranoid. Lufy pulls in behind Mari to support her. Burning her small reserve of fuel at a prodigious rate, Mari closes on the Paranoid and chops it to bits with the last of her laser charge. Spent mentally and exhausted physically, she lets off the thrust handle and allows her fighter to simply coast.

Lufy pulls up next to Mari. "Ready to go Mari?"

" Yea..."

Turning back towards the fleet, the two Solenoids find their way blocked by two more Paranoid drones.

"Get behind me Mari, I'11 handle these two!"

Lufy moves out in front of Mari. Dodging through a hail of fire, ignoring the hits scored on her fighter, Lufy expends the last of her laser charge and scores a double kill.

"Mari, let's get out of here before any more Paranoids show up."

Receiving no reply, Lufy turns her fighter around and finds Mari's fighter holed by laser fire and venting air.

"MARI! "

"Lu...Lufy, keep away. They hit my fighter's engine, it might blow any time and I don't want you killed."

"What about you? I won't lose another wing-pilot!"

"I'm all shot up, it's too late for me.,."

"No! Hang on, I'11 get you back to Agoncaguya..."

"Lufy, don't blame yourself for this. Stay alive... stay alive so someone remembers the Attackers. Stay alive so you can remember me...goodbye Lufy."

Mari's fighter explodes. Leaving Lufy with nothing but her memories and her tears.

Turning away from the scene of her closest companions death, Lufy starts looking for a Solenoid ship to land her damaged fighter on.

After reaching the edge of the main Solonoid fleet, a panel in her cockpit shorts out and Lufy's controls go dead.

((Damn! Main controls out, better switch to secondaries.))

Lufy activates the fighter's escape systems. All the damaged sections of her fighter fall away, leaving Lufy in a mini escape plane. Continuing towards the Agoncaguya, she eventually locates a Starleaf class cruiser. Using up the last of the fuel in the little plane's short lived engines, Lufy lines up to land in the cruiser's recovery bay.

Unexpectedly, the plane's radio comes to life, and a high pitched voice comes through the static. "Starleaf to approaching plane. Don't land here. Our recovery bay is full."

Incredulous, Lufy shouts back. "Shut up! It's too far to go anywhere else!"

"No don't! There isn't any room!"

"Watch out! I'm coming in!"

"Aaiieeeee!"

Lufy dodges through several stray laser shots and bores in on the Starleaf's landing bay. After the little plane enters the Starleaf's landing bay, it bounces off the deck, caroms off of several parked fighters, and slides to a stop against the landing bay's forward bulkhead. Releasing her harness, Lufy disconnects her combat suit and raises the fighter's canopy. Looking back at the damage she'd caused, Lufy decided her landing had been a little too fast. Halon fire extinguishers, responding to the damage in the landing bay, begin spraying out thick clouds of fire suppressing gas.

Choking on the gas, Lufy staggers out of the bay. Stumbling down a hall outside the bay, Lufy stops when a monitor comes to life next to her.

"We told you not to land here. To what group do you belong?"

Lufy balled her up fists and shouted back at the red haired combat leader on the monitor.

"What does it matter to you? My ship was destroyed and the only place close enough to land was this slow moving cruiser!"

The red haired woman on the monitor turned away as someone off to her side spoke. "She's an elite. Looks like an Attacker." The red head turned back to Lufy, a look of surprise on her face.

"Hey! So what if I'm an Attacker? Have you got something against that?"

Before the red head could reply, her image on the monitor was replaced with hat of the Eighth Fleet's Commander on the Agoncaguya.

"Sister Solenoids. Up until now we have enjoyed success in all our battles with the Paranoids. Now, in order to continue our mission to protect Planet Chaos in the Ninth Solar System, we must withdrawal from this battle to permit our forces to regroup. This flag ship will launch a full scale attack to cover the withdrawal. All ships set a course for Planet Chaos, and prepare for light speed."

Knowing she had better be strapped in for the transition to light speed, Lufy turns and heads for the cruiser's bridge. On the way there, the high pitched voice Lufy had heard earlier came over the ship's intercom. "Attention all crew! Report to the first or second deck to prepare for transition to light speed. Light speed transition in ninety seconds."

Lufy starts running. Just as she reaches the bridge access hatch, Lufy hears someone say, "Just the six of us left on the whole ship?"

Lufy leaned against the hatchway jamb and crossed her arms. "I'm here, that's one more."

The six people and two robots present turned to watch as Lufy strode out onto the bridge.

"What's with this disorganized ship? You let the robots have a place to sit and not me?"

An orange haired woman sitting next to the red head Lufy had seen earlier pointed over at the com station. "You can sit over there."

Lufy recognized this voice. The orange haired woman cringed as Lufy walked up and leaned over her.

"Hey, didn't you say something rude about me a while ago? Have you got something against the Attackers?"

"Hurry up and sit down! We're going into light speed in thirty seconds!"

Lufy looked up at the irate red head and decided to press the point later. After giving the orange haired woman a predatory smile, she turned and walked over to the com station, threw herself into the seat and strapped in.

Eluza, the red haired combat leader in command of the Starleaf, issued the final orders. Space around the Starleaf twisted from the massive application of energy, and the ship vanished into light speed.


NEVER THE END
GALL FORCE: THE ETERNAL STORY