Gundam SEED Fan Fiction / Vandread Fan Fiction ❯ GunDread SEED- The Second Stage ❯ Part 3- The Morpheous & The SwitchBlade ( Chapter 7 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

The Nirvana and the Landing party are now able to communicate with one another and Kyo makes a daring plan to escape the trap.

The Harvesters are not interested in allowing them all to escape and tighten the trap as they send new orders to the AI.

Max now recounts his months on this world to Barnette and how he changed his views on women.

Plus...two new Gundams arrive on the scene...and guess who will pilot them?

Anime/Manga: Gundam SEED Fan Fiction / Vandread Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Romance / Comedy / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 08.20.2005 | Updated On: 09.25.2005 | Pages: 45 | Words: 49.7K | Visits: 1.3K | Status: Completed

GunDread SEED The Second Stage

Disclaimer: All weapons, Mobile Suit designs, Dread schematics, belong to either Gundam SEED or VanDread, so don't ask me to help you design the stuff written here. I'm a writer, not an arms dealer!

< >: Thoughts

Chapter 5

Part 3

The Morpheous and the SwitchBlade

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

The next day…

The Nirvana's Conference Room…

“So you believe that if we can secure one of the Lancer Platforms, then we can escape, Kyo?” Magno asked the young Gundam pilot. They were happy to learn that Kyo and the others were still fine, and though they were shocked to hear that Duero's brother Max had nearly died, it relieved them that the younger sibling was going to recover well.

“That's the closest I can figure. The enemy will no doubt defend the Lancer Platforms very well. I think that there might still be a way we can win this battle. But until Barnette and the others get back here, we can't move just yet.”

BC nodded as she checked the latest tactical data sent to them by Kyo. “From what we can figure, the closest Lancer Platform is the one with the lower number of enemy forces, but has the highest defensive emplacements.” BC then displayed the data in front of both Kyo and the Captain.

“The best chance we have is to launch a coordinated air and land assault on the defensive forces and the defensive net that the platform has. But the problem is that many of the Nirvana's offensive capabilities are badly dented. The Dreads are useless as air support since they were never built for atmospheric combat. The Crusader Squadron has been able to be up to speed on land warfare tactics, but none of them have the battle-field experience and reaction time that the members in Kyo's landing Party have. And we can't risk losing any member of the Nirvana since we need everyone safe and alive to reach Talark and Megele. Bart's use of the Nirvana's cannons are our only effective offensive weapons at this point and it would be too much for Bart to be in a pitched battle as of now. According to Paiway, he's got enough strength, but he's not fully healed yet, we can't afford to lose him now.”

Magno looked at the plans and agreed with Buzam's assessment. “BC is right; our ability to strike seems to be severely limited right now. We're going top need some sort of ace in the hole to escape this one. What do you have in mind Kyo?”

Kyo nodded as he spoke to the Captain and the Commander.

“There just might by a way. As far as I can tell, the AI army is just as it is…machines all run via AI computers. That's the key flaw, since they operate just like a one brained organism; destroy the brain, and the body dies.”

BC and Magno were surprised at that. “You want to launch an attack on the AI command center itself? You realize that we don't have that kind of a standing force at the moment…”

“I'm not suggesting a thing like that BC.” Kyo countered, as he went on with his plan. “I believe that if I can manage to hack my way into the AI systems' memory schematics and database I can re-program all the units' combat computers. All I need is to get into a base and hack into their main data-archives and hotwire as many of the enemy units as I can.”

Magno nodded as she began to see what Kyo was driving at. “You mean you're going to sneak into a base, and hack into the base's memory cores, and hack into the OS of all the base's current standing forces, and re-program as many of them as you can, so they can fight for us.”

“Yes, that's precisely the plan I have in mind Grandmother. As far as I can figure, the AI data-drives of all the enemy forces have to be uploaded with new combat and response protocols from the main AI entity. From what I was able to salvage from the units I trashed with the others, this idea of hacking and re-programming them is very viable, as the bases in our sector and some of the outlying areas are interdependent systems. They are independent in achieving their combat objectives, but they are still dependent to the main system for advanced combat directives, objectives, and tactical updates. All I have to do is change the data streams being fed to the base's memory cores…”

“And when the base's military forces arrive to gain new tactical updates to their OS software, they'll gain the new programming as well. Along with the other bases as they will also download doctored data into their units.” BC nodded as she saw the plan in mind. “So instead of facing us as the enemy, you can update them to fight their own forces.”

“Yeah… this will also be a lot easier once it's done. In this fashion, we can avoid losing anybody and this can go even further with the right timing and programming. I'll need Parfet's help on this, and I have an idea on how to make our Crusader pilots fight here on this world.” Kyo said as he fed the data to the Nirvana.

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

Magno and BC nodded as they read the plan made by Kyo. This by far seemed more effective than potentially losing various pilots and valued crew-members in a pitched planetary battle…even more so if they can avoid the Harvester Fleet heading their way.

“This is the strongest plan we have to work with at this point. We'll need to move fast if this will work.”

`Roger…I'll get everything organized on my side and we can make it out of here. Once the others arrive, we'll begin to smoothen it all out.”

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

In the communications bunker…

Kyo sighed as he ran over his plan, once he cut communications with the Nirvana. He was happy that he was able to salvage more than enough data from the wrecks a few nights before and found the flaws of their enemy. This plan by far was very risky to many others, so he decided to run the plan once more as to make sure that he could at the least avoid great risks to those he cared about.

As far as he could recall, the plan may have some flaws. The one thing is that the AI entity may try to over-ride the data downloads, but the computer had some limits, and his growing mental abilities were, in his mind, more than enough for this task. Though it would be cutting it close as he didn't have the speed of a computer's rapid data updates, but it was the only way to avoid losing any member of the Nirvana's crew.

He sighed a bit as he left the communications room and went to the back of the bunker, but not before linking his communicator to the alert system of the communications equipment. He then typed in a pass-word to the other door of the bunker, and when the door opened. He found himself in a massive underground city-town. They had found the medium sized city early in the morning and it was apparently connected to the communications bunker, and both the girls were happy to see signs of civilization. He went to a nearby structure and saw Dita and Jura sighing as they took in the AC of the building which was a restaurant; it was already a well stocked place. And Dita was behind the counter, and cooking some food.

Dita smiled as she saw her object of affections, while wearing an apron.

“Hey Mr. Alien, you want to get something to eat?” Dita said as she was cooking food for her best friend and Kyo. Kyo had to admit one thing, Dita was a great cook and it made him smile to see the bubbly redhead cooking to her heart's content.

“Sure, don't mind if I do.”

Kyo sat down beside Jura as the blonde was taking in a dish filled with fresh vegetables, she sighed as took in her dish with bliss. The blonde apparently loved to eat low fat foods, and her hunger was being satiated by the fresh produce dish. And Kyo knew that it really helped maintain the blonde Dread pilot's figure.

Kyo sighed as he tried to avoid those thoughts. After what he went through in the tent over a day ago, he was in NO mood to be thinking about those things. The last thing he needed was to be reminded on how close he came to dropping his morals and just…

Kyo swore once more to himself mentally as he willed himself to calm down. He then took the meal Dita made for him, which was warm bread, butter and fruit slices. Kyo went at it and began to eat his meals well, and without rushing at all.

Jura then faced him and spoke. “Any chance we can check in on the others, Kyo?”

Dita perked up at the thought, she wanted to see how Barnette and the others were as well. “Yeah, can we check up on them Mr. Alien?”

Kyo nodded as the three of them decided to go back to the bunker and get into contact with Barnette and the others. Jura was getting worried over her best friend, and hoped that she was fine.

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

At the supply base…

Duero nodded as he began to check in with Kyo as the young Gundam pilot called in.

“Max is okay, and so is Barnette, he's healed all his wounds and Barnette's helping him recover from the battle. Aleck and I have done some salvaging and we've managed to gather what we need. Plus…”

“Plus what?” Kyo asked the young doctor.

“We've uncovered some older wrecks while out in the desert and we've gotten some new weapons with us. They appear to have belonged to a group of scientists that were lured here as well. And they appear to be Gundam types as well.”

Kyo looked surprised at that statement.

“Gundams?”

Duero nodded in agreement as he began to recount what had happened less than a few hours during dawn. He along with Aleck had done to retrieve the mecha using a pair of hover trucks, when they made the discovery of the downed weapons vessel…

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

“We'll need to move back soon to Barnette and the Max, as soon as we get the mecha units on the trucks, we'll need to move out as quickly as possible.” Aleck said as he ran a quick diagnostic on his mecha, and that of Max's Templar Gundam. The mecha along with Duero's own Vanguard had been hidden in the ridge with the nearby ridge using a number of the same photographic camouflage tarp Kyo had used before to hide his own Infinite-Freedom. They were happy that the Gundam pilot had brought along quite a few spares from his journeys long before being part of the Nirvana's crew.

“Understood. I'll need to get back and check on my brother's condition and see if the medical treatments have helped with is body's natural healing processes. I'll check the area and make sure that we don `t have company on us.” Duero replied as he climbed the ridge-line and used a pair of binoculars from a survival kit.

As far as he could see, there were no sign of enemy patrols, or surveillance units in the area, not much as far as he could…wait…

Duero focused his binoculars' field of vision using some dials to change the lens settings and increase the night vision mode. He didn't know why, but it seemed that there was something nearby, at least a few hours away in the eastern direction of their current location. It looked almost like a vessel. Fairly intact and appeared to be…

“Duero…hey…DUERO!”

Duero turned to face his companion who gave the young man a stern look.

“Just what is so interesting out there in the east that's got your attention so much? You do realize that we've got to get moving before we get ambushed?” Aleck asked with a bit of a scowl at his former student. Despite most of Duero's good points, the only flaw in the mind of his old combat instructor was he paid way too much attention to detail.

“Sorry Gunny, but there's some sort of vessel out there, near our direction.”

“Really? Any markings and insignia on the ship in question?” Aleck asked as he came to where Duero was. Once he was there he also took out his own pair of binoculars and looked at the vessel.

“None that looks familiar, but there's some old Earth characters…M-R&D. And the vessel's name is Gaia I. Looks like a military vessel.”

“R&D? That's the acronym from Research and Development! That must be some sort of weapons vessel! But how come it wasn't here before?”

Duero checked the area once more, and noted all the dunes had collapsed around the ship. “My guess is that too much sand gathered around it that the rest of the previous dunes must have given way to the weight, and the winds could also do just that as well. That must by how it stayed out of sight for so long.”

“You're right Duo. Just so you know, we've already gotten Max's Gundam, your Vanguard, and my GuAIZ unit loaded. So you think we should check it out?”

Duero nodded as he let down his binoculars. “Seems like a good idea to me. But we'll have to make the search quick, there's only four hours before dawn.”

“Good, you drive the truck and tow the other one. I'll fly top cover.”

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

Later…

The ship's interior looked totally deserted as Duero and Aleck made their way in the derelict vessel. Most of the ship had been totally gutted and looked to have been the sight of one heck of a gun-fight.

Duero nodded with some disgust as he moved one of the bodies to the side, revealing one of the same medical drones that nearly turned the Landing party into spare parts for the Harvesters.

“These look like the same models that attacked us in the mesa three days ago.”

Aleck nodded as he looked at the humanoid machine. “Yeah, this one's the same as those models that ambushed the rest of the crew me and Max were in, along with the Megele crew. No matter how many times I try and tell myself they're merely drones, I shudder thinking about all the knowledge these things had on human anatomy turned into tools to butcher people. And used by machines meant to heal no less.”

“I know…still we can't waste too much time in this. Though we could say a prayer for all the dead that died in here.” The medic said as he pointed to patches of blood and bullet casings, showing where the crew of the vessel had made their last stands. The room was filled with broken rifles and spent cartridges. And there were some beam rifles…similar to what the pirates had used when they took over the Ikazuchi all those months ago.

“Yeah, I don't know who died here, male or female, and where they're from, but I guess they can be allowed to rest easier if they had a proper burial prayer.”

Both Aleck and Duero put aside their rifles and placed their hands to the front in a gesture like that of ancient Roman Catholic prayer gestures.

“The winds are blowing, the sands are flying”

“The rain comes, and so does the light”

“The bright sun rises, the rays fill the sky.”

“All is free and pure”

“The stars glow, and moons color the sky black”

“Night comes and covers the world.”

“Joy fades and sadness flows unchecked”

“A life ends in blackness and shadow”

“Life ends and death reigns”

“Yet another life rises and sees the dawn”

“Joy flows and hope is renewed”

“Life and death are one”

“And now so are you, to all that lived before and after you”

Duero and Aleck then opened their hands and cupped them towards their faces and blew into their hands. And with a solemn gesture they kneeled before the patches of dried blood and broken weapons.

“With our words and prayers, go to your ancestors and loved ones.”

“You are truly home at last.”

The two men nodded as they finished the burial prayer of their home-planet, and despite the effort and time wasted, the two men know that all people deserved burial rights to the next world, no matter what. Once they were done they checked the rest of the room, and one thing became apparent, the people they had prayed to had fought to defend this room very fiercely.

That was when they spotted an ID card near what appeared to be some sort of secret console. The two decided to check it out before they would have to move soon. They checked the room and spotted what appeared to be one heck of a high security room. The place was hidden behind what appeared to be a heavily shielded door, and from the scorch marks of the door, the AI army were very interested to get what was inside.

“I wager that these people died defending what was behind this door, and considering the way they fought to the death, they had no intention of the enemy ever having use of the weapons.” Aleck said with a solemn tone as more patches of blood and destroyed drone bodies littered the area.

“Then we'll do them a favor by finding the weapons and using them against the enemy that holds us prisoner and the ones that killed them.”

They went back and took the ID card, and once they checked it, they found that it could be inserted into the console. Once they did so, the computer began to come to life. In front of the two men came online a monitor that displayed a riddle and it appeared to be the key to opening the door.

“I am the beginning, but I am also the end.”

“I am the first and the last”

“I am where all begins…and where all ends…”

“What am I?”

Duero and Max thought it over as the puzzle didn't make sense at first. That was then that Duero realized that there is one place all things did come from…and where they will all go in the end. He then typed the password.

“Chaos.”

The ship's power core suddenly came back online, monitors and consoles began to flash back to life. The two men then spotted a series of codes, and apparently were the codes needed to open the door.

Both Duero and Aleck went to either side of the door as there were two consoles on either side, and once they were there, they each went in unison to input the codes, and the door opened with a powerful hiss as the de-pressurization went underway…

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

Once the two men were inside, they knew that they were in a massive combat hanger, filled with parts and weapons. But the two men were entranced with the two prominent weapon units that were in front of them… they two were Mobile Suits…

But not any Mobile Suit types… But Gundams!

The first resembled a type of Mobile Suit designed both for combat in space, land and aerial locations. It was sleek but hinted great power and speed. It's shoulder armor stored what appeared to be beam sabers, a shield attached to the left arm, a set of plasma cannons stored on the back which could be attached in front to fire in it's normal configuration, another set of high energy output beam cannons, and four pairs of heavy CIWS guns, a pair in the head and the arms, and lastly a beam rifle on the side.

It had collapsible wings on the back and it appeared to only activate when in flight mode, meaning that this Mobile Suit could be able to convert itself to a fighter, just like that of the Dreads.

The second Mobile Suit seemed to be similar to Kyo's Infinite-Freedom Gundam, lacking the advanced weapons systems of the fierce Paeksis-enhanced Gundam. It appeared to be only armed with head mounted CIWS guns, a general purpose anti-beam shield, and finally a beam rifle, but upon closer inspection by the two men, it had a storage system on its back for a pair of weapons.

Next to this particular Mobile Suit were a number of large storage containers, each with several names. The first was named the “Koenig Form Pack”, the second was the “Schneider Form Pack”, the third was the “Kaiser Form Pack”, the fourth was the “Aero Form Pack”, the fifth was the “Galahad Form Pack”, and the last one was named the “Raiha Form Pack”. It became clear that these must be the support weapons packs for the second Gundam type, meaning one thing, this Mobile Suit was a multi-role Mobile Suit unit designed to fight anywhere at all.

Both Duero and Aleck realized that they had found some serious firepower in which to effect their escape from this desert world. They then went to several consoles and began to download whatever data they could get, as they discovered that despite the still present barrier and various radiation emissions, the computers and systems in the crashed ship were still active. These weapons were going to come in real handy.

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

Later…

“We then were lucky to fond some hover trucks in storage and used them to haul the Gundams back here before dawn came. As far as we all were able to download from the data-archives of both machines. They happen to be highly powerful combat machines, and they seem to be based on two other Gundam types, ones we're not all that familiar with at this point. I'll download the data to you now.” Duero said as he began to load in the data disk.

“Go ahead; these new Gundam units might come in handy.” Kyo said as he decided to scan the data stream and the two Gundams' schematics. The first was the Gundam that could convert its form.

Design Number: `TPAGMF-X56.'

Code Name: `SwitchBlade Gundam'

Design Date: Oct 10 2349

Type: `Experimental All Environment transformable Mobile Suit'

Height Dimensions: 18.61 meters

Weight Dimensions: Total Gross weight 77.20 metric tons

Power-Plant: Ultra-compact Photon energy self re-charging power generator, MAX output, unknown.

Design specifications: Experimental Polaris Phase Shift Armor (PPS), Sensors-Max range 3000 meters, Reclaimer support power packs, improves charge time. Transformable frame and combat system.

Fixed Weapons: 2x MG-GAU-96 `Flaikai' 20mm CIWS guns, fire-linked; head-mounted; 2x `Kasier' Beam saber; stored in shoulder armor units, hand carried when used; MDS2-B aerodynamic all purpose shield, mounted on left armed; 2x `Gauku' collapsible plasma cannons, mounted on back, can fire in Mobile Armor and Mobile Suit mode; 75mm GAU `Fraula' machine guns, stored in arms; 2x `Super Kai' beam cannons.

Optional weapons: MA7BU-X `Shira Kias' Beam rifle, power rate unknown, can be used as high powered beam cannon in Mobile Armor mode.

The Gundam's Mobile Suit mode and Mobile Armor mode pictures flashed before Kyo. He had to admit this Mobile Suit was tough looking, plus, it was able to fight as a Dread in the secondary form, but with a big difference…it can fight in the atmosphere, unlike the Dreads which were designed only for cosmic combat in mind.

He then checked the schematics on the last Gundam.

Design Number: `TPAGMF-X62.'

Code Name: `Morpheous Gundam'

Design Date: Oct 10 2349

Type: `Experimental Multi-role All environment Mobile Suit'

Height Dimensions: 18.53 meters

Weight Dimensions: Total Gross weight 74.10 metric tons when not using any Form Packs

Power-Plant: Ultra-compact Photon energy self re-charging power generator, MAX output, unknown.

Design specifications: Experimental Polaris Phase Shift Armor (PPS), Sensors-Max range 3000 meters, Reclaimer support power packs, improves charge time and supports Form Power supply system.

Optional Weapons: MGH-MAU-09 Beam rifle, power rating unknown.

Kyo then accessed the optional modes of the Morpheous and he learned what this Gundam could become using its Form Packs.

Design Number: `TPAGMF-X62.'

Code Name: `Morpheous Gundam `Aero' Form'

Design Date: Oct 10 2349

Type: `Experimental Multi-role All environment Mobile Suit'

Height Dimensions: 18.53 meters

Weight Dimensions: Total Gross weight 76.15 metric tons using Aero Form Pack

Power-Plant: Ultra-compact Photon energy self re-charging power generator, MAX output, unknown.

Design specifications: Experimental Polaris Phase Shift Armor (PPS), Sensors-Max range 3000 meters, Reclaimer support power packs, improves charge time and supports Form Power supply system.

Optional Weapons: MGH-MAU-09 Beam rifle, power rating unknown.

*****

Design Number: `TPAGMF-X62.'

Code Name: `Morpheous Gundam `Kaiser' Form'

Design Date: Oct 10 2349

Type: `Experimental Multi-role All environment Mobile Suit'

Height Dimensions: 18.53 meters

Weight Dimensions: Total Gross weight 77.32 metric tons using Kaiser Form Pack

Power-Plant: Ultra-compact Photon energy self re-charging power generator, MAX output, unknown.

Design specifications: Experimental Polaris Phase Shift Armor (PPS), Sensors-Max range 3000 meters, Reclaimer support power packs, improves charge time and supports Form Power supply system.

Fixed Weapons: 2x MMGA-GAU 30mm CIWS, fire-linked, mounted in the shoulder, 2x M9AS-41 `Angrist' sonic resonance anti-armor short swords, stored in hip armor, hand carried when used; MMG-MXF-6 All purpose defensive shield. 2x M-20096 `Fafner' High energy long range Plasma Pulse cannons, mounted on Kaiser Form Pack; 2x M-0789 `Heirden' Long range rail cannons, stored in Kaiser Form Pack; mounted on shoulders; 2x `Diarken' quintuple missile launchers (K-90XC `Lancer' laser guided missiles, mounted on Kaiser Form Pack, locked to sides when used; 2x `Judgment' retractable Beam tipped anti armor Javelins, stored in Kaiser Form Pack, hand carried when in use.

*****

Design Number: `TPAGMF-X62.'

Code Name: `Morpheous Gundam `Schneider' Form'

Design Date: Oct 10 2349

Type: `Experimental Multi-role All environment Mobile Suit'

Height Dimensions: 18.53 meters

Weight Dimensions: Total Gross weight 76.59 metric tons using Schneider Form Pack

Power-Plant: Ultra-compact Photon energy self re-charging power generator, MAX output, unknown.

Design specifications: Experimental Polaris Phase Shift Armor (PPS), Sensors-Max range 3000 meters, Reclaimer support power packs, improves charge time and supports Form Power supply system.

Fixed Weapons: 2x MMGA-GAU 30mm CIWS, fire-linked, mounted in the shoulder, 2x M9AS-41 `Angrist' sonic resonance anti-armor short swords, stored in hip armor, hand carried when used; MMG-MXF-6 All purpose defensive shield. 4x FG-56 `Edge Star' Beam boomerangs, stored in Schneider Form Pack, 2x `Shadow Dart' Anti armor, high explosive hyper dart launchers, stored in Schneider Form Pack, locked to forearms when in use, 2x MM074 `Requiem' beam edged anti-ship swords, stored in Schneider Form Pack, hand carried when in use, can be converted to MM089 `Storm Call' double anti ship sword system, blades on either side of one another.

*****

Design Number: `TPAGMF-X62.'

Code Name: `Morpheous Gundam `Raiha' Form'

Design Date: Oct 10 2349

Type: `Experimental Multi-role All environment Mobile Suit'

Height Dimensions: 18.53 meters

Weight Dimensions: Total Gross weight 76.89 metric tons using Raiha Form Pack

Power-Plant: Ultra-compact Photon energy self re-charging power generator, MAX output, unknown.

Design specifications: Experimental Polaris Phase Shift Armor (PPS), Sensors-Max range 3000 meters, Reclaimer support power packs, improves charge time and supports Form Power supply system.

Fixed Weapons: 2x MMGA-GAU 30mm CIWS, fire-linked, mounted in the shoulder, 2x M9AS-41 `Angrist' sonic resonance anti-armor short swords, stored in hip armor, hand carried when used; MMG-MXF-6 All purpose defensive shield. 2x MMG-78 `Thor' Hyper-Pulse EM Pulse Cannon, mounted on Raiha Form Pack, deployed near shoulders when used. 2x `Hell-Kai' High energy wave emitting spear launchers, fire-linked, attached to arms, used to deploy concerted EM jamming pulse or can deploy viruses into enemy OS.

*****

Design Number: `TPAGMF-X62.'

Code Name: `Morpheous Gundam `Koenig' Form'

Design Date: Oct 10 2349

Type: `Experimental Multi-Role All environment Mobile Suit'

Height Dimensions: 18.53 meters

Weight Dimensions: Total Gross weight 76.89 metric tons using Koenig Form Pack

Power-Plant: Ultra-compact Photon energy self re-charging power generator, MAX output, unknown.

Design specifications: Experimental Polaris Phase Shift Armor (PPS), Sensors-Max range 3000 meters, Reclaimer support power packs, improves charge time and supports Form Power supply system. `Illusionist' 360 degree holographic projector field system attachments; `Hawkeye' Tactical Range computer and target designator system.

Fixed Weapons: 2x MMGA-GAU 30mm CIWS, fire-linked, mounted in the shoulder, 2x M9AS-41 `Angrist' sonic resonance anti-armor short swords, stored in hip armor, hand carried when used; MMG-MXF-6 All purpose defensive shield. 1x GFX-8 `Shindai' anti-armor sonic resonance Spiegel blade, attached to elbow, extends to left arm and hand when active; 1x GHSR-78 `Ballistae' All purpose high energy anti-armor beam sniper rifle, stored in Koenig Form Pack, hand carried when in use: Range 7000 meters min range, 8100 meters max range, complete with `K-ZAT' close combat beam bayonet.

*****

Design Number: `TPAGMF-X62.'

Code Name: `Morpheous Gundam `Galahad' Form'

Design Date: Oct 10 2349

Type: `Experimental Multi-Role All environment Mobile Suit'

Height Dimensions: 18.53 meters

Weight Dimensions: Total Gross weight 79.32 metric tons using Galahad Form Pack

Power-Plant: Ultra-compact Photon energy self re-charging power generator, MAX output, unknown.

Design specifications: Experimental Polaris Phase Shift Armor (PPS), Sensors-Max range 3000 meters, Reclaimer support power packs, improves charge time and supports Form Power supply system. `Panzer' secondary armor system, with special interdependent `HALO' defensive energy shield emitters. (10 emitters) All attached to Galahad Form Pack, and deployed all over Mobile Suit when used.

Fixed Weapons: 2x MMGA-GAU 30mm CIWS, fire-linked, mounted in the shoulder, 2x M9AS-41 `Angrist' sonic resonance anti-armor short swords, stored in hip armor, hand carried when used; MMG-MXF-6 All purpose defensive shield. 1x MMAGS-90 `Zwei-hander' anti ship sword, stored in Galahad Form Pack; 2x MMAUG-12 `Arbalest' Beam cannons, stored in Galahad Form Pack, shoulder mounted when in use; 2x CQEW-X45 `Eagle Talon' collapsible beam katars, hidden in forearms, located on hand guards when in use; 1x MMUAG-09 `Blood Kiss' beam edged glaive, stored in Galahad Form Pack, hand carried when in use, upgraded beam boomerang.

*****

Kyo whistled as he read all the data concerning the weapons Duero and Aleck had uncovered. They had just found themselves some very interesting hardware. But the one thing missing…or in this case two things missing with the systems and new Gundams…

Pilots…

Plus the TPA sounded familiar to him…That's it! That was the acronym for the Taisia Planetary Alliance. This Alliance was among the worlds he had encountered in his travels. But last he heard of them, they had to flee their home system for unknown reasons, and had established traveling moon-bases. This must have been one of their weapons projects since the Taisian people were experts of weapon engineering and design.

“Hmmm… I think I know who developed those Gundams.”

Duero then asked Kyo exactly where he had heard of these Gundam units. The doctor knew that Kyo, by most standards, knew more about Gundam types than he did.

“The Taisia Planetary Alliance was among the human systems I visited before I came to Talark. As far as I can recall, they're a culture that's pretty solid in some fields of society. But the last time I heard of them, they were forced to flee from their home system. The ship you and Aleck found must have been one of their mobile weapon storage and development labs, though as far as I can remember from my meetings with them, they were not all that keen into developing Mobile Suits, let alone Gundam types…”

“Oh yeah, before I forget…” Kyo then called Jura. “Jura, Duero's here on the line, you wanted to ask him about how Barnette is.”

The blonde nodded as she came forward to speak to the young doctor. “Hey Duero, how's Barnette right now? Is she all right?”

Duero nodded with a smile as she spoke to the blonde. “Barnette's all right, but the reason she's not here is that she's taking care Max right now. They're at the cafeteria since I last looked, and it seemed that she's…cooking food for him.”

Jura raised her eye-brow as she heard this, the reason is that despite her best friend's acceptance of Kyo's forgiveness for that mutiny she instigated over a few months ago, Barnette would not try to be near men all that much, as she still didn't trust them at all. Apparently that changed in this mission, it seemed that Barnette DID have an attraction to the men, and it seemed that her friend had a deep change of heart about men. She couldn't help but giggle a bit about this turn of events.

Both Kyo and Duero looked a bit confused by Jura's laughter as they gazed at the blonde woman.

“Is there something you want to share with us Jura Basil Elden?” Kyo asked with a raised eye-brow.

Jura grinned a bit, and shook her head. “I want you to tell Barnette I want to speak to her about it when she gets here, okay Duero?”

Duero nodded with a bit of a curious expression. “All right, I'll tell her that. By the way…The enemy knows we're here, so we have to set up a trap, and that means that we'll need to move as soon as we're able. But we can't win the whole battle on our own.”

“I've got an idea Duero, I want you to hot-link me to those Gundams you have with you. Connect me to them, and then I'll customize the OS of both Gundams and make them work for you guys over there.” Kyo said as he began to feed instructions to Duero. He knew that they needed all the help and fire-power they could get.

Duero nodded at the logic of the idea. Should his Vanguard be badly damaged, he will need to fight quickly and to move as fast as he could, and those Gundams were the best choice.

“All right Kyo, I'll begin to connect you to the Gundams, there is a computer terminal in the hanger where the Gundams were stored. I'll up-link you using some connection cables. But are you sure that you can do that? Make a customized OS for the Gundams we have here?”

“No problem. But this will only be a temporary measure, until I can really get into the Gundam cockpit. I can create a customized OS access program where you can anyone else there can use those Gundams to the best of your abilities. All you have to do is insert the program disk into the support data drive, and initiate the download, once it's done, you guys can use the Gundams.”

Kyo then turned to face Jura. “I'm going to be a bit busy, so I guess you and Dita can explore the city for a while. Don't wander too far and try not to leave the area.” The city had some strong defensive walls to make sure the city was safe, and to ensure that the people wouldn't lose the memory of the sights of the sun, they city's upper dome had advanced holographic projectors. So it felt very much at home here for the girls…minus the fact that they were under the desert.

Jura nodded as she went to get Dita…it was high time to explore this city and get used to it soon, until they could escape… besides, who knows what they could find here, namely some things to help her with her plan to snare Kyo.

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

Duero was right about Barnette taking care of Max…

After his brother had told him that he could be strong enough to move out of the medical bay, Barnette volunteered to help Max while Duero and Aleck went out to retrieve their mecha. They were in the living quarters as Max was busy taking a bath, unfortunately he wasn't allowed to wet his body in a shower, so Barnette had decided to at the least use a wet cloth on him.

Barnette had to admit one thing to herself, men from Talark were strong. When she had done washing Max's back, while avoiding the other end of his wound near the left shoulder-blade, she had been able to feel the muscles located on Max. The young man was well built all right, but Barnette noticed that his back had firm and hardened muscles, though his skin was rougher, she had to admit that it was warm and tanned. She kept in mind that Max and his fellow men had lived in a normally hostile world for almost all of their lives, and had to be strong and enduring to deal with the rigorous demands of their barren homeland, which explained their ability to work until the fall of the suns in this world. And she had to admit one more thing to herself…she was starting to like the feel of it too.

After that, she decided to help Max get into the cafeteria and get something to eat. Though Max had some of his planet's nutrition pills with him, the Dread pilot insisted that she cook for him. The cafeteria had the normal selection of food groups, but due to the lack of fresh supplies, they base's larder had not been replenished with fresh stock. But the ones still in storage were kept fresh and well preserved.

Max sighed as Barnette arrived from the kitchen no less than an hour and a half with some cooked meat, soup, and vegetables. The young man nodded as he began to eat his meal.

“I'm sorry that it's not all the best I can make right now.” Barnette said with an apologetic tone. She knew that she could whip up more delicious food, but she wanted to talk to the younger brother of Duero some more. Besides that, the food she had made was enough for a person who was still recovering from battle, the dish wasn't fancy or very delicious, but it was nourishing to those who needed it.

“No need to worry about that part Barnette, Considering that I had rations for a long time now, this stuff tastes divine to me. You're a great cook and I hope that I can try some of your more delicious meals.” Max said with a bit of a silly smile as he ate the meal patiently, savoring the tastes.

Barnette felt a bit embarrassed and flushed a bit. She didn't mind compliments, but this was absolute first she got them from a man. She looked at Max and saw a lot written in his face, all the things he had endured while in this world were there. And like any woman, this perked up her curiosity.

Tell me about yourself, Max.”

“Hmmm?”

“I want to know more about you.”

“You've never… asked me about my life before, and this is only the first time we've ever met.”

“Well I'm asking now. Do you realize that I've only known you for just four days, and you saved my life in more than one occasion?”

“The incident with that Desert Fang, and that mess with those mechanical monsters, right? Maybe I should thank you too, without your help; I would have bled to death.”

Barnette nodded with some shame and embarrassment. “I mean…all I know about you is that you and Duero are siblings, you're a great doctor as well, a great pilot with that Gundam you found. You're tough, and…well…” She didn't want to sound like a smart mouth, so she tried to phrase her last word carefully.

“A man?”

She nodded. “Where did you learn how to be a great pilot, a medic and a hell of a survival expert in the desert? What changed you while you were here and made you treat women almost like Kyo? You can be very hard-cased at times but you treat everyone with such respect, including me? A woman who nearly got you killed? Just…who are you, Max McFile?”

Max nodded as he decided to spin his tale…

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

(Author's notes… These next few page sections are totally dedicated to Max and Aleck's struggle in this world, along with his experiences with the women of Megele when they were all trapped here in the planet. We'll learn some history about Talark and its customs…and if possible, we can discuss the woman that changed Max's outlook on women, and made him feel things that seemed to defy what a man of his cultural upbringing is used to.)

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

The Nirvana…

The ship still continued on its automated course, and for all the crew…it was a constant struggle to try and remain calm. The circumstances they were in made that a hard thing to do. The whole planet was hostile to them, the army of the planet was after them, and the Harvesters were well on their way here to take them out.

As anybody would expect, the strain of the circumstances was bleeding into the systems of the crew members, but they were professionals and maintained a sense of concentration and calm that was very much the result of patience and hard-work. Though there were some that thought deeply about the situation.

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

The Vanguard Training Room…

“How are the others Mai?” Sara Elsman asked her fellow co-leader of the Crusaders, Mai Miazaki as they both watched the members of the only all female Vanguard squadron practice in ground warfare simulations. The two of them were very worried about Kyo and the others, along with their current situation on this desert world. They knew that the enemy would be here soon in a week, and they had to train non-stop to fight in an operation, that they however were not experienced for in the least… desert warfare.

“Team Alpha is getting more and more proficient, along with the other teams, though Team Charlie and Team Omega still have some holes in the training. I just wish we could really do some training outside!” The young Miazaki said as she sighed. “No matter how many hours the others are in the simulations, nothing's going to be worth it if we don't fight in the real thing.”

Sara nodded at Mai's logic, but she knew that there was a reason for the lack of authorization for the Vanguard pilots of fight outside for practical experience.

“You can't blame the Commander and the Captain for the order not to let anybody out of the ship, even if it's needed for training. The whole world's very hostile and the whole world's inhabitants want us dead.”

Sara shuddered as she recalled seeing the same serpentine organic robots attempt to attack one of the nearby explorer teams. The creatures had damaged the Landing Shuttle's underside, and thankfully they got away. None of the landing team were harmed, but the sight of one of the cyborg alien serpent and the gory display after they destroyed it with weapons fire was enough to make the normally tough Elsman woman nearly puke. After the attack, Magno totally forbade any member of the crew to go on foot, and even more so for the Vanguard pilots, as they could ill-afford to lose anybody at all.

Mai nodded as she too thought about that cybernetic horror they had managed to kill.

Both girls hoped and prayed that they could meet up with the rest of the Landing Party, namely with a certain brown-haired, and amelyst/ sapphire eyed Gundam pilot. They had grown to admire and respect the young man for all he had done for them, and both hoped that someday they could show their appreciation for him.

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

The Living Quarters…

Meia gave a sigh of frustration as she paced her room; it had been nearly a week since she had last heard from Kyo and the others. She may not admit it, but it was hard for her to retain her hard earned discipline when it involved people that she had grown close to. And Kyo was exactly one of those people.

Ever since she had been an orphan and being ridiculed by others, she had learned to face the world alone. And despite her anger towards her life after the accident that took both her Fahma and Ohma from her, Meia was proud that she survived it all, until she joined the pirates. She didn't plan on socializing with others since being in the pirates, because she was afraid of ever having to go through what she had endured, seeing the dark side of her world. Fighting and surviving were the only things in Meia's mind, and she only spoke to others if she was giving orders, or when she had an opinion to give. She wanted nothing but to live no matter what, and though she wanted to die, she at least had a chance to die for something.

Meia never let anybody into her own world, none of her fellow pirates, or anyone else…But now, one person had broken that wall she built around herself.

Kyo…

She never thought that in her entire life, after her days in the streets, she'd allow anybody into her heart, even more so if it was a man. But Kyo did just that, as they had been working together, he had began to break down the wall that she had built, and in many ways…Meia was happy for that. She found reserves of strength with the others she never knew were there, her relationships with the other pirates grew, and in time she felt that she was becoming once again the young carefree girl she once was, but now she was more mature and stronger. Kyo had opened many doors for her, even if at times she didn't want to open them. But the one thing she knew for herself, it was that for all that he had done, Kyo never let anyone open the doors into his own life.

But he didn't seem to have one at all. Ever since seeing him die all those months ago, and his confession before his death, made Meia realize that she was far luckier than Kyo ever was. She at least had memories of her past and though most were bad and vile after the incident that made her an orphan and outcast, there were memories of happiness and joy there as well.

Kyo didn't have any of that…like he said all he had were broken shards and shadows as memories. He didn't recall if he had a family, or if they were waiting for him, or even if they were alive. He knew nothing of his childhood and growing up years and where he grew up, if he had siblings, or any friends, long before meeting her and the pirates, he didn't recall all the good or even bad memories. He was an empty shell of a man. And despite the fact that he acted normally, Meia felt that it really made Kyo angry that he couldn't even recall all the things that even she takes for granted.

< It must be really hard for him…no past at all. I wish…>

Meia then stopped as she thought to herself. She became aware that she was beginning to want to get to know whatever she could about Kyo, and to at the least try and help him feel that he wasn't alone and he will have a good life. In a way…they were alike…

< Why am I thinking these things?! I feel like I want to be more than a friend to Kyo! This isn't right! It…It…AAAARRRGGGHHH!!>

Meia sighed as she tried to remain calm; she then turned to her room's table and saw the ring Kyo had given her during Christmas. She took it into her hands and held it tight. No matter what she will hope the Kyo will make it back alive.

As she sat there on her bed…for once in her life, Meia Gisborn wished that her parents were with her to tell her what to do.

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

Engineering Bay…

Parfet was wide awake and despite the fact that she didn't sleep well, she was still going at it in trying to find a solution for their current dilemma, and most of all she was hoping to speak to Duero.

It had been a tough time for the spunky engineer, but she wasn't going to give up until everyone was safe, namely Duero.

The Megele girl had to admit that over the past few months her affections for the young doctor were growing, and though she tried to hide it, there were times she had to stop herself from doing something that would embarrass her in front of the object of her growing affections. But it seems that she would have to change her mind about what she should do when Duero was once again back on the Nirvana.

She sighed as her weariness beat at her, but she forced it back with some tea and went back to work on solving the problem at hand. Besides, according to the Captain, once the Landing Party were reunited, they would plan an attack soon for their escape. And Parfet had every intention to do her part as well.

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

Back at the supply base…

“I'm not all that sure about talking about my life. Are you sure you want to know about me.” Max asked as he faced Barnette who was waiting for him to tell her about his life on Talark, and here on this world…

Barnette gave the soldier/healer a smile and nodded. “It's… not like we have anything else to do while your brother and Aleck plan things and…well, I'd like to know more about the man who saved my life."

“Well, if you truly want to know who I am, then I guess I should start at the Cronus Center.”

“Cronus Center?”

“The place where I was born, along with Duero and the other men of my home planet. In simple terms, it was one of the birthing factories. All Talark men such as myself were educated that all our fellow men were born in those factories.”

“Birthing factories?”

The younger McFile nodded as he continued. “Yes, you see, unlike the women of Megele, the men of Talark reproduce by more artificial means. When two fathers consent to have a child, they donate their genetic material or `seeds' to be spliced together in special facilities called birthing factories. The Cronus Center was the First birthing factory ever built on Talark when the world was founded. The genetic material from couples were gestated in artificial matrices and grown to term. Once properly formed, the babies were then given to one of the fathers or both to be raised.”

“You mean…you were…assembled…like a machine?” Barnette was a bit unnerved to hear this. Though she strived in her life to be tough and independent, she didn't like the idea of being born without the warmth of a mother's arms.

Max shrugged his shoulders. “I suppose you could put it that way, though neither my brother nor I have absolutely no memory of being born ourselves. Since men are not…uh, anatomically suited to have children the way you women do, this process of modified cloning was our best bet in propagating our people.”

“I see.” Barnette said as she changed the subject. “So what about your Fahma and Ohma? What were they like to you and Duero?”

“Heh, well, our Alpha and Omega were…somewhat, how should I say this…unusual.”

“Excuse me? What's an Alpha and an Omega?”

“In your world's terms Barnette, they were our ohma and fahma, respectively. The Alpha is the first father, in which both Duero and I would take his family name. He was considered to be the head of the household and the one who made all the important decisions. It was he who was totally responsible for raising me and teaching me all that I needed to know, hence the word `Alpha'. The Omega is simply our second father, and he could also take part in raising both me and Duero. Although Omegas do have the option to share their seeds with others.”

“Huh?”

“We are a very open society when it comes to…choosing… mates. Like in Megele, where any woman can be a Fahma or Ohma, then in Talark, we have the same belief as well, though to us, all children of Talark are part of the whole population, so we're very much a free society.

“So this Alpha and Omega were the ones who raised both of you?”

“Yes, but our Omega died before we were old enough to be part of the Talark hierarchy. In our world, children can be drafted by the government officials and their stations can only be changed by those of the higher ups, which wasn't often, due to the ridged class structure we were born into.”

“I see…but how…did your Omega die?”

“He was killed in an earthquake that rocked the city for less than a day. A lot of men were killed, and our Omega was crushed to death when a side of the building fell on him.” Max said with a soft tone.

Barnette immediately stopped as she heard that both Max and Duero's second parent was killed.

“I'm sorry.”

“It's all right, we were still babies when we were release from the Cronus Center so we didn't know him all that well. Our Alpha was the only father me and Duero knew as we grew older.”

“What was your Alpha's name?”

“Hiryu McFile was the name of our Alpha, and we were happy when we were with him. He taught us a lot of things, and we used them a lot to get by in the world we lived in, and it was good, since me, Duero, and our dad were still in the Second Class citizenry. You see, our world has a strong Class section, the first class were the elites, they held government positions, business, and military leadership. The Second Class were the middlemen and held the lower ranking jobs on Talark, and the last was the Third Class, considered nothing more than laborers and menial workers.”

Max went on with his description of the society and history of Talark. “When the eight founding fathers including our leader Grandpa came to Talark, they had limited supplies and resources. It was the bleakest time of their lives. Minimal food, medicine, water, materials, predators left and right, death in every corner of the world. Sad to say, by all circumstances we would have never existed at all.”

“Hmmm.” Barnette was bit irritated to her the name of the despised leader of Talark, as like all women of her home-planet, she was conditioned to hate the leader of the men. But she kept her opinions to herself as she listened.

“But through the determination and sheer will to live, our fore-fathers were able to forge an existence on Talark. They gathered whatever they could salvage from the Ikazuchi and rationed the supplies. Though they lacked a great amount of equipment and technology, none of them wasted time bemoaning the lack of those tools and made due with what they had. Once they had been able to gather what they could, they had to deal with water shortages, so Grandpa went out alone into the desert with limited supplies and weapons. He found an underground spring of water that saved him after nearly a month and a half in the desert, braving the sun, sand, wind, predators, starvation, dehydration, and near loss of sanity. With that he was able to bring enough water to the others with the container truck that they had managed to build from scratch, and our capital city of Tarllaseis was founded.”

Barnette was silent a bit as she grasped the circumstances of what it took for the men to survive in the hostile world they called home.

“Most of our cities are built in canyons and underground fissures. The reasons are very simple. It's easier to avoid the massive sand-storms that blanket our world's surface. There aren't enough places to establish a city on the surface, and the weather's not all that hospitable, so most of the cities are in domes as well, it also makes it easier to gather water and metals in this fashion. Another is that the way the cities are built, makes things far less consuming of resources and precious manpower. We mostly rely on wind power, so our cities rely on what we call Wind Traps, the generators harness the winds and create power for our cities, but we try not to over-rely on them as they are very hard to build and expensive to maintain at times.”

“Our culture's very straight-forward, we rely on practicality to live and we have the more utilitarian approach to life. That's why we train our very best, right from the moment we're able to use our limbs, and to think in order to survive in our planet. That includes rationing whatever supplies and resources we have with us, and to rely on what is available to us and naturally, think outside the box. Our values stress strength in both words and action, and keeping a promise even under the most dire of circumstances is considered a mark of the good man of Talark.”

“Just so you know, the reason we eat only pills is for several practical reasons. The first is that the majority of Talark's native populations are highly predaceous creatures, they can come in pair or in packs, and we'd lose too many men trying to capture them, meaning we'd waste precious lives in the process. The next is that even if we could capture one or two of the creatures, it would be far too expensive and dangerous to try and breed them in captivity. Finding plants on Talark is twice as hard and twice as dangerous, as there are other creatures that eat them, and most likely are food for the hunters of our planet. Growing plants is also out of the question as the water supplies in Talark are few, so the soil's not good or nearly impossible to grow food on. I can guess that on Megele, you rely on advanced farms for your fruits and vegetables and cloning facilities for meat and other animal products, am I right?”

“Yeah, we have those things, and most of the process of harvesting is done by mechanical means.” Barnette answered honestly. There on Megele they relied a great deal on those said farms and facilities to grow and breed their food, and machines did most of the harvesting so none of her fellow women had to get their hands dirty.

“I thought so. Another reason for the food pills is that they are easy to manufacture, and are easy to store. Plus They last for a very long time, don't need to be prepared or cooked so no time and energy is wasted, the pills can be carried in small easy to manage packs, and well, they don't bite back. Though that doesn't mean we don't eat regular food, as one of the girls trapped here with us all those months ago would say. Some of the creatures that we know of that live with us, happen to be very nice on the taste buds, and they can be eaten.”

“Like what kind of creatures?”

“Oh, the Sand Vipers are one type.”

“Sand Viper?”

“Yep, it's like the creature we fought with before, only sand Vipers are a LOT more dangerous than those things, despite they aren't partially mechanical.”

“What?! MORE DANGEROUS?!” Barnette was silent at that, there was something on Talark more powerful than those horrors?!

“Yeah, they are like snakes of old Earth and can be very vicious. Like the ones we fought with, they hide in the sand and ambush their prey, but they are tough as hell and can move very fast on short distances. They have tough scales that can resist small arms fire and can be hard to penetrate unless you can bypass the scaly protrusions, and the skin is in the color of the sands, so seeing one's a bit of a challenge, they also have strong muscles and can wrap themselves around prey and tighten their grip on the food they catch until it dies of internal injuries from crushed bone fragments in the tissue. They can also spit out a type of caustic venom. The venom is not fast acting, but can cause massive voluntary muscle paralysis on their victims, though they use that only once or twice, it also tenderizes their food so they can easily consume it as well. Their fangs are the same form of a bayonet and are made out of hard calcium and they have powerful mouth muscles, so they have quite the bite force, capable of punching through skin, flesh and bone, even lesser metals with no problem.”

“And you have eaten one of those things?!”

“Yep, both me and Duero in fact, along with our Alpha. Our dad Hiryu was a top survival instructor in the Academy and on occasion, he'd take us to the desert to learn how to survive there. It was on one such day that all of us got to face a Sand Viper, a lone female Sand Viper within it's nest to be more precise.”

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

Flashback…

Young Duero and Aleck sighed as they walked the route with their Alpha. They were on an excursion with their father in the desert, at least a few days away from the capital city. The two boys looked forward to these excursions as they learned more and more of their harsh wilderness planet. It was a natural way of life in Talark; boys had to learn early the values and skills needed to survive in the harsh landscape.

To others it would be considered barbaric to let children as young as Duero and his brother Max, who were seven and six years old respectively go into the desert and potentially get killed by the elements, predators, starvation, and thirst. But there was no other way for them to learn some very valuable lessons in the world.

One of them included how to find sources of water in the seemingly dry desert. It was a fact that despite the desert's open lack of water, there were always sources in the wastes, all one had to do was look hard enough and learn how to get to it.

Duero and Max smiled a bit as their Alpha called their attention. As he went to the side of a nearby ridge near the side of one of the dunes they spotted that the ridge covered a good portion of the ground. And that normally might have meant that they had found some shade. But it meant more than just shade.

Both sons and father took out shovels, each the hand held type and began to dig the sand away. It was easy at first, but as they dug deeper, it began to become even harder as the trio sweated it out. To those who were unacquainted with desert tactics, the family looked almost as if they were going to dig their own graves. While in reality it was the opposite of what they had pictured.

If there was covering of the sand, it would make sense that wind would be passing through there. But in the cool night of the desert world, the stones would retain it's immense heat from the scorching desert sun. And as wind would pass by the heat of the stones would cause the air to precipitate into water. This formed water would then cling to the stone ridge and began to drip and seep into the soil. If conditions were right, the water would condense in the cooler sand layers in the bottom.

This meant that the bottom would have a great area of water in the lower layers of sand. And the men had learned that it could be harvested, but due to the efforts used to gather this few sources of water, the men would not use this method to gather water often as they would have no way to watch their surroundings. But the methods were not forgotten and were still widely practiced by many of the men of Talark.

Once they got to the depth of five and a half feet, the sand became moist and harder to move. The two boys nodded at the sight of the moist sands, this meant that they found their target. Their Alpha then took out a synthetic sponge of highly absorbent material and the family began using the sponge to seep in the water and they then poured it into their special shoulder canteens. The water was very pure as it's journey to the bottom allowed the sands to strip away any impurities in it. This was a true treasure for them men, and they knew just how to exploit it whenever the chance came. Nature had one monolithic rule in any world, eat or be eaten, and dying was never part of the young men's plans anyway.

It took them over an hour and a half to gather enough water to fill their canteens, along with some drinks for themselves. The water they gathered for their canteens, was enough for over five more days. As they left the area of the ridge, that was when Max spotted one of the creatures of his home-planet, and one of the strongest of the species.

The Sand Viper was a nearly full grown female and it seemed to be heading towards it's home. But from the wounds on it's body, it appeared to have been caught in a fierce battle. The creature was tired and was in the mood to recover it's strength, but it was then that it caught the scent of three unidentified creatures. It stopped and looked about. Though not nearly full grown, this Sand Viper was huge, over fifty feet long and nearly a foot and a half wide, this creature made the normally massive old Earth anaconda look like an earth-worm.

The three men of Talark knew that the creature would try and find them, so they had no choice but to fight. Fortunately, Hiryu had made sure that both his sons had been given training on how to deal with the Sand Viper should they ever met one. One weakness of Sand Vipers was their size. Despite their inherent strength, they had a lot of difficulty dealing with the environment that they lived in. One of those weaknesses was that they were very slow when they had been hunting, and that was the reason why they preferred ambush as they didn't have the build to chase down fast prey. And from the looks of things, this particular Sand Viper was already tired.

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

“What happened?” Barnette asked as she eagerly leaned forward to hear the rest of Max's encounter with the Sand Viper.

“Both I and Duero knew one thing, this creature would attack us, no matter what we did. All of us wasted no time as we got into fighting mode with our knives I wasted no time and took out my knives. Duero and my Dad were already in position, the best way to kill this creature was to make it tired by dodging each of it's attacks until it made a mistake and could be killed. We were able to dodge most of it's attempts to bit us, but the thing managed to knock me back with it's tail and lashed out, cutting my torso with it's powerful sharp scales, thankfully I moved away in time and it missed most of my important blood vessels.”

“So then what?”

“The Viper lunged at me again, and this time was able to bite through my leggings and nearly bit a chunk off my right leg, but I bit back the pain, turned and stabbed it right in the left eye, and made the creature release me, I was lucky that the creature had used up all it's venom supply. It was already in a berserk mode and tried to bite me or Duero or our Alpha with it's teeth. It then attacked Duero and it raked my brother's chest with it's scales wounding my brother and knocking him back, our Alpha managed to wound the creature in the side but it wasn't going to stop as it slammed it's scales into the side of our Alpha, wounding him as well. It was about to bite Duero's head off when I plunged both my knives into it's head and remaining eye. Duero then stabbed it's throat through the scales and severed the wind-pipe. Our Alpha came in and stabbed the creature through the back, and the base of it's skull, severing the spine. In that way, we killed the Viper.”

Barnette felt an urge to throw up, as she imagined the image of Max fighting for his life against the Sand Viper. She managed not to lose it and was grateful that she didn't eat anything.

“I wasn't all that sure if the blades had aimed at the right area, but as our Alpha taught us, Sand Vipers may be tough outside, but not inside, and they can be dumb as well at times.”

Barnette took a deep gulp, then asked, “So…you all fought and killed the thing…with just a pair of knives?”

“Don't believe me?” Max took off his jacket and body shirt and showed Barnette's startled eyes the long streak of scars that ran from his stomach to the left side of his body, this had been missed by Barnette as she had been busy with other matters two days ago. Then he showed his right leg, there on his lower leg was a large puncture scar where the snake's fangs had bitten through the young man's leg.

“My experience with the Sand Viper had validated the lessons that our Alpha had taught us; Nature is rarely, if EVER kind.”

Barnette was rendered speechless. Unlike her own childhood, and growing up days, in which she was raised in a stable environment at the warm loving attention of both parents. Max's life on Talark, his years in harsh survival training and near death encounter in his young years would have left any girl from Megele shaken and quite traumatized for life.

“After… all that, you still went on with your survival training?”

Max nodded. “After killing the creature and tending to our wounds, we all realized that nature had given us a reward to help us all make through the last few days of our desert training in Talark.”

“How could being attacked by a Sand Viper be a reward?”

“You'd be surprised….”

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

Flashback…

Young Max assessed his work along with Duero. The new weapon as a bit hideous and archaic looking, but it was certainly effective. The fang of the Sand Viper was very strong and hard to remove. But it was a deadly stabbing weapon, Max's knives had been broken when the snake thrashed about and sent the young man onto the sand on his back before it died. The fang could cut and slash as well as it could pierce, and among the men of Talark, to defeat a Sand Viper at such a tender age was a sign of great courage and manhood. So not only was it a weapon, but a symbol of strength as well. The hides were just as useful, the skin was very much heat retardant and could be helpful in making a very good sized tents. With the removal of the scales, the skin was as soft as silk, but as tough as hardened leather, and was somewhat a fashion accessory on the male planet, and was used by the brothers to made grips for their new weapons

Both brothers then used the remaining hides as bandages and used them to temporarily halt the bleeding of their wounds, the two boys and their father then went and boned the creature. The bones would be helpful as they could be made into extra weapons and tools, Sand Viper bones were tough and very light, and could be fashioned with the right methods. Max sighed a bit as he drank some water and used it to cool his head, though he knew that they could ill-afford to waste too much.

The organs were of great use as well. After they had boned the creature, they went to work and eviscerated the beast. The venom sacks were useful to most of the men. Though toxic by nature, when fully processed the venom worked to cure the same symptoms that it caused, and could also be used in medicine as a highly effective pain killer. The organs were not much, but could be used to lure away other predators.

As the afternoon wore on, the three men were fully re-hydrated and were now able to rest, however they were hungry, losing a lot of energy finding the water, and fighting the Sand Viper, they were considering eating their nutrition pills, but then he and his brother gazed at the carcass of the Sand Viper. Their Alpha nodded as he realized that a new lesson was in order.

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

End of Flashback…

Barnette turned white as a bed sheet and trembled as she realized what both Max and Duero had done to the Sand Viper. She was already feeling somewhat queasy after hearing how both McFile siblings and their father had, beheaded, skinned, boned and eviscerated the beast and used parts for tools, clothes, weapons, and supplies for themselves. But they really didn't…?

“You mean…you…?”

“Yes, we did. The organs aren't that tasty, but the meat was very filling. We cut away manageable portions of the Sand Viper's body and threw away those we couldn't carry. The next day we dried most of the meat and ate those while we went on with our training, the rest we reserved.”

“You all ate it…raw?”

“Nope, too risky to do that, the meat has to be stripped of bad liquids or we'd be poisoned, the last thing you want to do is be poisoned by the food you brought with you anyway. And when either roasted or boiled right, the meat is just like that fowl you girls call…what was that again…oh yeah, chicken.”

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

Elsewhere…

The Harvester Council was deep in session, and the natural topic of discussion was none other than the Nirvana.

“How much longer will the Fleets be in position?”

“A least another five days, at best, the planet's…”

“Damn those five days! We want the Fleet there NOW!”

The Harvester Council were deep in debate and it was getting even more heated as the various factions wanted to end the debate before it led to violence. The Council had been guided by one drive, the survival of their race, despite the stark fact that they were killing people like them. But being doomed to slow death can strip them of all emotion and love for those who had seen the reaches of the universe. They didn't care about others, they cared for themselves, so they were very much resembled the totally corrupted side of mankind. The desire for survival was their only reason to do their dirty work. But they had the Nirvana as the barrier to their survival, and they were becoming divided. One side wanted to harvest the crew of the pirate vessel, the other wanted to destroy them. The last thing the Council needed was a breaking in their ranks.

“Shall we destroy the Nirvana?”

“And waste those prime organs?! Are you out of your mind?!”

The Leader of the Council then came in as he then addressed the Council Members.

“There will be no valid decision until the Nirvana HAS been captured! I want to make one thing clear to all of you, they will be dealt with soon enough.”

The leader knew one thing, the EM fields that surrounded the planet trap were not going to make things easy for them as it would make them unable to communicate with their AI agent, and they would only be able to send the data after a day and a half.

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

The planet…

The AI army's lead AI was now able to recover it's loses from the previous battle. But the army had lost track of the targets, namely the enemy battleship and the landing party. However…it had received data concerning the awakening of one of the sleeper traps that outlined the desert at least a day ago. That meant one thing…

Strike team on the way…

<<Attack team 7 will be there in one day and a half.>>

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

Back at the base…

Barnette felt a bit sick at what she had learned and began to regret talking to Max about his past life. But it seemed that Max caught on to what she was thinking as he spoke again.

“I know that you feel sick about it. Believe me, when some of the girls that I've met asked me that same question, they were feeling queasy about it too. But that's life for us on Talark, and that's why both my brother and I can eat both pills and solid food without any problem.”

The Megele girl nodded, and began to think about another matter, and decided to ask about the one thing that she knew that Max might not talk about, considering his changes in mood whenever there was a mention of it, but she wanted to know…

“Max…If it's okay…I'd like to know…how you got here all those months ago…”

Max's normally cheerful look disappeared and a look of pain replaced it. This made Barnette immediately regret her question.

“I'm…sorry. I guess you won't…”

Max shook his head and sighed a bit. “No…I guess I can talk about it now. No sense not sharing it with someone this time…”

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

At the Bunker…

Kyo sighed a bit as he finished the downloading of the OS data. He was able to finish the data load in three hours and was tired as hell. The good news was that Duero got the data and was now downloading the information into the OS of both the Morpheous and the SwitchBlade. Considering the need for as much fire-power as they could get, this was the next logical step to take. The OS access program his made for both Gundam would make it a lot easier for the others to use the full power of the Gundams, but not in a full capacity until he could customize the Gundams' OS once he was in the cockpit. He may not have shown it, but he could tell that a lot of the crew of the Nirvana had immense potential to use the Gundams to their best extent, though he knew that none of them had ever operated a complex battle unit as a G-Weapon.

< This makes me wonder…I know that Infinite-Freedom is my personal Gundam…but were there others you piloted I-Freedom before I did?>

His memories went back to the same man that he saw in his dreams, the man that he felt could have been part of his still shadowy past. But this time he was not being hidden by mist and shadows. He had short brown hair and deep violet eyes, he had a persona that told Kyo that he was both strong and vulnerable at the same time and his aura told Kyo that he had seen both the righteousness and corrupt sides of warfare, and apparently fought for a great reason, to end the war and stop it from ever spreading.

Kyo knew that his ties to this man were very strong, and he could tell that this particular man also had a tie to his Gundam, though he sensed that it wasn't an evil one. And the one thing he also knew in himself, was not only did he know this man, but he learned under him, in many things, and Kyo felt that he knew more about him than just being a teacher.

Another thought entered Kyo's mind as he walked back to the city to find Jura and Dita, he thought about it, and this was about another person he saw in his dreams. The woman he would see beside the man, she had long light pink hair and deep blue eyes, and her smile seemed to send a feeling of ease safety in the young man whenever he thought of her. She seemed innocent at times, but she displayed an iron will and courage that defied her innocent looks, and she had a voice that made the young man smile despite that the sounds were faint echoes in his head.

Kyo also knew that his ties with this woman were just as strong as those of his with the man he saw in his dreams. He learned a lot from her and he felt that those lessons had something to do with what he had done of the Nirvana months ago, singing, cooking, and even dancing. And in a way, he felt that he learned how to love and forgive from that person, though why he didn't know.

But before Kyo could think even further, he heard splashing noises as he entered the city, he then tracked it down to a large public lake with a waterfall in what appeared to be a large rest-house after half an hour, and was treated to a very…arousing sight.

Jura and Dita were there, splashing about in the waist deep lake, in their…birthday suits! Apparently the two Megele girls decided to take a bath, and had removed their sweat-drenched and smelly outfits to clean them later.

The two girls were happy to have found this place as it appeared that the city had a special water recycler-storage plant to ensure good water supply and distribution. And it seemed that the two girls enjoyed the water as it was cool and very much clean and clear.

They turned around and spotted the young Gundam pilot…who's back was turned and he was blushing furiously!

“Hey Mr. Alien! Look what we found!” Dita said with glee as she splashed Jura with some of the cool water.

“Yeah! This is one great place, at least his place can be a real way to relax!” Jura replied as she splashed Dita as well.

Kyo on the other hand was trying not to lose control of his basic instincts as he tried NOT to look at the two nubile females. The way the water flowed and dripped about their naked forms PAINFULLY reminded the former Coordinator about his little escapade in the Nirvana's bath area.

The two girls giggled to themselves as they saw how nervous and totally agitated the normally composed and disciplined Gundam pilot was, and they loved it as they knew that whenever Kyo would blush he would look so…attractive. They decided to play a little game with him…

“Mr. Alien…did you know that there's some extra bathing clothes near you? You could take a bath here with us.” Dita said with a slightly teasing tone as she tried to call the attention of the young man, and in truth there was some garments near the pool's outer edge, though in truth the clothes in question was nothing but a pair of swimming trunks.

“Yeah, if you'd like, you can take off your clothes and join us for a swim, the deep end's perfect for swimming. Though I think you'd look better WITHOUT any clothing on you. Plus you've seen us already naked, and we've SEEN you already, so there's no shame in it.” Jura said with a seductive tone.

“Yeah, you'd love the water Mr. Alien! It's cool and I think you need to clean up after all the hard work you did before. There's no need to be shy, you've seen me naked already, and I've seen you.” Dita chirped though in truth things of a less innocent nature were beginning to form in her mind.

Kyo resisted the desire to clean up, as he hadn't been able to bathe for over a few hours. He was tired and a soak was really something he was looking forward to, and he knew that, and the temptation to bathe was very strong, even more so with two sexy females in the nude beside him...

Kyo immediately restrained himself as the idea began to become even more vivid in his brain.

< BY THE GODS! WHAT SIN DID I COMMIT IN MY PAST LIFE TO DESERVE THIS TORTURE?!>

But before he could apologize and walk away, he was suddenly held by both Dita and Jura, who then began to drag him towards the pool.

“H…HEY…WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU TWO DOING?!” Kyo said as he tried to resist the two girls, while trying to keep his eyes averted from them, as he was now facing them in all their naked glory.

“You need a bath you know. Besides you'd smell a lot better once you take a bath.” Jura said with a smile that showed that she had MORE in mind than just getting her hands on him!

“Yeah, I like it better when you look clean Mr. Alien!” Dita said with a cheerful tone as she dragged Kyo on, a part of her mind however told her that she wanted MORE than to help Mr. Alien get clean!

Kyo had no problem reading both girls' intentions as he could sense the atmosphere in the air as he was now thigh deep in the water.

<THIS ISN'T A GOOD IDEA!!> Kyo was about to say to both Jura and Dita but it seemed that both girls had other things in mind.

“I'll wash your chest and make sure you're clean Mr. Alien!”

“What do you mean YOU will clean him?! I'll do it!”

Both girls then glared at each other as they still held Kyo. It didn't take long for both girls to start a little oral sparring match complete with tug-of-war, with Kyo as the rope.

The young Coordinator was already reaching his threshold, and naturally…reacted.

“That's enough!” He shouted as he pulled back his arms, unfortunately for him, he slipped into the water with a splash, dragging the surprised girls with him.

Kyo sputtered as he then tried to get up, but found himself pinned to the floor in his wet clothes. He then looked and saw that he was on his back…

With both Jura and Dita on either side of him…and they were already rubbing themselves on his body.

If he thought that the tent scenario was torture, he was so wrong, as this was even worse. Even more so as the girls began to move, and since his clothing was already wet, it wasn't long for them to try and remove his clothing, in the exact same way Jura had tried to do on Kyo back in her GunDread.

“Take your clothes off Mr. Alien! You're soaking wet, and you need to clean up!”

“Keep your mitts off of him Dita! I'M GOING TO CLEAN UP KYO! And…” she smirked seductively while tracing a finger on Kyo's cheek. “I just might get that seed of yours!”

“YOU keep away from Mr. Alien! I want to clean him myself! AND I want to have his seed too!”

Kyo began to panic even more as the three began fighting verbally with each other while stripping away his soaked clothes.

(Anyone care to guess what's going to be Kyo's reaction to this?)

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHH!!!!”

(If you guessed screaming in absolute frustration and trying to get out of this mess…then congratulations!)

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

Barnette knew that was going to be a very long discussion as Max sighed while facing her…

“When both Duero and I were older, we took part in an exam that happens only every five years on Talark, this exam is given to interested Second Class Citizens and even some from the Third Class. The exam comprised a lot of practical tests, written exams, scenario training and survival tests. This exam was known as the Trial of the Fathers.”

“Trial of the Fathers?”

Max nodded. “Yes, it basically recreates the struggles of the first eight men of Talark on this desert world. That includes a rigorous thirty days of working with various materials and making tools out of selected items, survival without adequate food and water in the desert and many other tasks that our ancestors had done to forge a life out of the desert. The rules are simple, make it past the trial, then you can pass into the First Class Citizenry. Fail, and you will still be allowed your station as before, but with a mark of the ones who failed the test.”

“So it was a test of manhood then?”

“Yes, but the stipulation is very clear, you have to in the age of twelve or below to take this task, and you must survive…or you will become part of the desert forever, as you will be forced to live at least a full three hundred miles from any city at a random, and you must survive on what you have, and at the half of thirty days, you have to make it back to the capital city with whatever tools and supplies you have. Or you die...”

“They…leave you…as children…to live or die out there?! In the desert?!” At Max's nod, Barnette became horrified at the thought, to abandon merely adolescents in the harsh and merciless desert just to prove their worthiness to be placed in the Elite class was…inhuman! She though back on what Max had told her about the Sand Vipers and shuddered at the thoughts of mere boys fighting against such horrors, along with what other monstrosities inhabited the desert.

“No, the exam is entirely voluntary, no one forces the boys to join, and if anyone cannot hack it, then they can choose to be picked up by the instructors. Everyone's given a fair chance to back out of the exam, and there are those who do. There is no shame in accepting it if you fail. In our planet, it takes great courage to even volunteer for the Trial among the lower citizens, and even if you fail, you are still given respect by those who see and hear about you. Still it tries to select the best potential out of the other citizenry, so there's a lot of competition in it anyway.”

“Who…who came up with this `Trial of the Fathers'?”

Max gave a bit of a sigh. “It was Grandpa himself who authorized the `Trial' to be a part of our culture, and he wanted all to be given the chance to prove just how talented they are. Though the Elites make fun of it as they bet on who would lose, they know that it's a sanctioned exercise made by Grandpa.”

“So both you and Duero…”

“Yes, both of us were scared, I can tell you that. But thanks to all that our Alpha taught us, we were better prepared for the Trial than the others. We had the edge and thankfully we were allowed to put all our skills to good use.”

“Your Alpha taught you a lot then?”

“Oh yes, and we're both thankful for the training.” Max said with a smile. “It took us a long time, but we were among the few surviving students, and we were assigned to join the military. Duero was only nine and I was eight, both of us joined the medical profession and we had to go through all the basic and advanced medical courses. The training our Alpha gave us in first aid really helped us in the training. Both of us got the best scores in the school and it was in Vanguard training school that we both met Aleck, but I was selected to be transferred to one of the south cities. That was the last time I saw Duero, Aleck, and our Alpha.”

Max then went on to where he had been training, in one of the cities that managed to spring up in the vast wastelands of Talark. “Both Duero and I were able to speak to each other through the communications networks, and we continued our training until the day we would be hitting graduation, but before then, we'd still try to find out about women, though our opinions varied and we had disagreements. Duero was half a year ahead of me, so it made sense that he would graduate early. We were allowed to see each other days before the graduation ceremony in the Capital. I learned that Duero had been assigned as a Medic in the Ikazuchi and would be part of the main assault fleet against, well, you know already who he was sent to fight against… And the rest was history.”

Barnette nodded as she understood the situation, but she was curious about why the two brothers had some disagreements. “Why did you two disagree on women?”

“Well…for one thing you can bet our Alpha, being the eccentric type, didn't believe in what the government would say about women. He always told us that if we could see, and feel it for ourselves, then it's very real. Duero and I knew that as the truth, but at that time, I was very much stuck in with the same breed of guys that believed that women were monsters, so you can bet that being in a place like that school for over seven years can change things a bit in terms of thinking. So I had to wage a bit of an ideology war in my mind on what I should believe.”

“I see…and how did?”

“Like I said a few days ago, when the Ikazuchi and the main Space Fleet was attacked by you and your fellow pirates, the political situation in Talark became very unstable to say the least for several months. The government instituted a full drafting of all military personnel, even those who were not even graduates yet. I was chosen to be in the newly mobilized fleet a few months after my own graduation and the Ikazuchi incident. And the part of the mobilized fleet I was assigned to the teams that had developed a new weapon system based from the power given off by the Ikazuchi's own Paeksis reactor.”

“The device was known as the warp gate. Essentially, it was designed to replicate the effect that teleported the Ikazuchi to the farthest reaches of the universe, but in a controlled environment and the rift can be directed to open at a selected location through navigational coordinates. (Think Star gate for ships.) If this weapon was successful in the initial tests, the military could be able to launch unexpected strikes in any area of space, and on Megele so as to avoid the tragedy that the government claimed to have happened to the Ikazuchi's crew. I was selected along with Aleck to be part of the crew. This was mostly black ops R&D so we didn't have all that large a fleet. Just the ship I was in, along with some small escort ships.”

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

Nearly a year ago, months after the disappearance of the Ikazuchi…

The new fleet was small in number, but was well suited for the task handed to them by Talark High Command. They had been charged with a new weapon and their success would bring swift justice on the vile women that had killed so many of their fellow men in cowardly brazen way all those months ago. All the crew were ready to test the latest weapon. But two had their reservations about this matter.

A young man was busy working in the ship's medical bay, checking his medical instruments and tools. He had short hair with a braid and now he took stock of his medical gear.

Max McFile sighed as he took a full inventory check and took a bite from a few of his nutrition pills and went to the main meeting hall of the command ship. He was deep in thought, namely about the strict measures being done on his home planet after the Ikazuchi incident.

“Hey, Max, you all right boy?”

Max turned to face his old mentor in Vanguard combat. The tough no non-sense pilot of the Vanguard squadrons was drafted along with more older more experienced pilots. The Military command made a mistake of letting recruits into battle early, so very every three new Vanguard pilots, there would be a veteran, teaching his squad to be more effective in combat.

Max turned and nodded as they made their way to the mess hall. As they got their pill rations, Max heard many of his fellow men deep discussion on what they were going to do to the Megele pirates once the new warp gate was operational.

“We're going to win this war!”

“Yeah! Those pirates will rue the day they killed so many of our friends!!!”

“We'll avenge the Ikazuchi!”

“Death to the Megele women!”

Max sighed as he sat away from the others, and his only companion was Aleck, he ate his meals and took a drink of water. The two ate in silence while the other men were still going about with their plans to destroy the women. Once the two were done eating, they walked towards one of the nearby halls. Once they were inside, Max looked out into space, while he was near a table and sat on the furniture piece, while Aleck looked at him.

Aleck was curious, normally the younger brother of Duero would love to talk, but ever since the disappearance of his brother, he had been very silent and had this totally mopping look in his face. He wanted to know what was eating the brother, but all the time they had been in this ship, he didn't press the matter, but now, he was getting very uncomfortable with the silence.

“Max McFile, are you here?”

Max stared at his combat instructor with a bit of a glare. “I'm here Gunny, geez you've on my case for almost a week! What's eating you?!”

“What's eating me?! I'll tell you. You've been staring out into space for days, I could strip naked and wave a bone dagger in front of you, and you would look like you've got white stones for eyes! You've been so silent, I could literally hear your heart-beat a good ten tables from here! Now you tell me…what's eating YOU?”

“It's none of you're…!”

“It's none of my business, right? Look, I made a promise to your Alpha to help you deal with this situation, ever since…Duero disappeared. You know that I'm a man of my word, so I want to know what's eating you?”

Max got up and stabbed his bone dagger into the table while it was still in his grip, the same bone dagger that he had made for himself from the Sand Viper's fang, all those years ago.

“I'm NOT a kid anymore! You hear me Gunny?! I want to find out what happened to my brother! And if those…women…DID kill my brother! I'll make them bleed until they're nothing but husks!”

Aleck glared back at his subordinate, but not in anger, he knew how much Max respected his elder brother, so it made sense that the younger McFile would act like that.

“I know that you're no kid, you're a top-notch medic and a great Vanguard pilot, both your Alpha and your brother would say that with pride. But you know that you ARE a medic. You're suppose to save lives, not end them you know! Your brother would want you to do that, and besides that, you're not even sure that your brother IS gone.”

“I…” Max said as he held the bone dagger tightly, as he tried not to recall his sadness when he got the letter saying that his brother Duero had vanished, presumed killed by the Megele women.

“You know your brother better than me, or anybody else in this outfit. You know that he's smart and very creative, he's got great skill and brains to go with his muscles. He's one the best Vanguard pilots in the Capital Academy. He's also a top-notch medic just like you. Damn it Max, you know that it'll take a lot to take your brother out of the game! Why are you acting like this, back then you'd be so open minded about things. Now you want to face an enemy you know next to nothing about?”

“I don't even know if Duero IS alive Gunny. He wasn't in any of the escape pods that were recovered by the rescue fleet. The last people who saw my brother said that he was taken aside by the women. They didn't find even his bone dagger with his gear, they only showed me his medical graduation certificate. For all I know, he could have been killed and dumped out in space…” Max began to cry slowly as he thought about what could have happened to his brother.

Aleck shook his subordinate by the shoulder. “You don't KNOW that. All you know is what others told you, those people were herded in the space pods and were not able to see anything else. You're brother's smart, I think he may have found a way to make it through the mess, and he's a great medic, I've got a feeling that those women…”

“Those women did what to Duero? Use his skills to heal them, and then beat the crap out of him and then when they didn't need him, they kill him?! You haven't even met women before yourself Gunny, and you say that they had mercy?!”

“They DID have mercy! If they didn't, if they were REALLY those monsters that they were all cracked up to be, then why did they spare a lot of our fellow men? And don't you use that idea given by the government about them being poisoned, I was among the ones who checked them, and there were no signs of any type of toxin in their blood. You know that as a medic also, you also handled some of them before you got assigned here. They were not infected and they acted way too much to show that they were infected, you know that…don't you?”

Max nodded, he had dealt with some of the survivors of his brother's fated mission. They acted like truly indoctrinated people…way too truthfully. Max learned one thing in his years. Telling the truth was one thing, but telling the truth in a finely crafted way meant that there was something wrong in the whole picture.

“You're right…but I still think that something happened to Duero.”

“I know…something did happen to Duero…But I can feel in my bones that he didn't get killed. And IF…IF he is dead, and we find him…we'll do what we can to give him justice. All right?”

“All right.”

“That's the Max I knew. We'll find him, all right?”

The two men then heard their names being called in the intercom.

“Instructor Aleck Koubayashi, and Medic Max McFile, please make your way to the main command center on the double.”

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

The two men enter the main command bridge as their commanding officer saluted the two soldiers. The command center was abuzz with activity as command personnel moved about along with technicians as what appeared to be a weapons test as underway.

“Sir!”

“At ease gentlemen. You're here early.”

“What seems to be the rush Captain?” Aleck asked as he and Max stopped their greetings to their commanding officer. The technicians began typing in command reports and it seemed that the rest of the escort fleet was getting ready for a combat drill.

“Don't tell me we're starting already.” Max said as the technicians were working non-stop.

“That's not the reason; scouting team 9 has sighted several Megele cruisers in the area, and judging by their insignia…they're not pirates. They appear to be some sort of search and destroy team. Reports count that the main strength comprises of three Megele cruisers and who knows how many boarding squads and those blasted Dreads of theirs!”

This was bad news, as far as Max and Aleck could tell, the women of the Megele military had one policy when dealing with men from their world. Kill on sight, they were not like that of the pirates, who seemed to spare their men captives.

“How did they get all the way out here?” Aleck asked, “Only people who know about the op route were the big-wigs at high command and the Council. Besides, we're close to the orbital mine fields, they've have to be crazy to be this close.”

“Crazy or not, they're nearby nevertheless. I've ordered a full combat standby of all Vanguard personnel. If the women get their hands on the warp gate…then I don't need to tell you or anybody else what'll happen if they get their filthy hands on it! I'm going to assign this ship and the rest of the personnel to a defensive action. The escort fleet's been given the orders to hold the enemy off as long as possible, while the ship begins a retreat, if things get bad, activate the warp gate and teleport out of the area, and dump the coordinates to an escape pod to be sent back to Talark. If worse comes to worse…destroy the warp gate.”

“Sir…” Max did not like this, although the idea of retreating was a bad taste in any man's tongue, including him…. He didn't relish the idea of trashing the new weapon that his people had struggled for months to build.

“You know the command protocol issued for this project. I'm not you asking to like the idea, I'm asking you to do it. For all our sakes, and for Grandpa. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir, but why the two of us?” Max asked as he listened to the commanding officer. The self destruct codes were normally held by high ranking officers, and rarely given if at all, to low level personnel.

“You guys have great recommendations from many of the senior staff, namely that of you Max McFile. The file you have shows that your brother was part of the Ikazuchi crew before it was captured, and he was taken alive by the women. I want you to be responsible for this device, since you and your brother were considered the best. And I want you to do whatever you can make sure that what happened to your brother will never happen to either the men on this ship, the project, and to Talark. Do your duty, and make Grandpa proud, is that clear?”

“Yes sir!” Max replied with a salute.

“All right, these are the activation codes. Input them to the warp gates nav-com to activate them, but remember, only use them in the last moment, and ONLY in the worst case situation. I'll update you both if the situation is dire. Dismissed.”

“Sir!”

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

Back to the present…

Barnette wondered about that as well. She had heard back then on their previous forays on their own planet, their spies mentioned that the Megele military would attempt combat sorties dangerously close to the borders and near Talark's orbital mine network, though she discounted that idea. Now it became apparent that the rumors were true.

“So what happened?”

“It was over two days later…the crew had heard about what had happened before, and it took a bit of effort from the command crew to calm down the men who were overzealous, claiming that we'd get the drop on the women if they used the warp gate.”

“What happened after that?”

Max sighed as he looked away, making Barnette wonder if he would stop talking.

“Someone got the drop on the other all right…But it wasn't us.”

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

Back to the Past, two days after…

Max sighed as the crew began to relax, it had been a full two days worth of tension as the men of the small fleet had heard about the presence of the Megele military ships near their operation route. It had taken a lot of effort from the command crew to calm the others, reminding them of the project that they were involved in, and it's need for secrecy. Though Max knew one thing, the people in the command crew were just as interested in striking the Megele crew as the men.

Aleck walked into the medical bay and the two began to talk about the situation they were in. ever since the incident no less than two days ago. The two men had been able to hide the fact that they had the activation codes for the warp gate. The last thing the ship needed were the overzealous ones in the ship getting the codes.

“Any word from the Captain, Gunny?”

“Not a word. But the Shadow, the Masamune, the Crusader, and the Talon are in formation Halo at this time. So you can bet ten to one, they are on high alert, the Vanguard pilots are on full combat alert. The only thing I hope is that we don't get blind-sided like the Ikazuchi.”

Max nodded as he ran his hand on the dagger in his chest/shoulder holster. All Talark men are given a form of combat and personal identification system. For First Class men , it was a dagger in black metal with special access codes laser-burned like an old CD in the middle of the blade. The dagger was able to still function as a weapon, but was used to identify a man's data, namely his physiological data, health, and his history and that of his family, the dagger was over a foot long and made out of tempered tri-titanium alloy, hard to make, but very quick to forge. The Second Class had the same dagger ID but it was smaller and had a shorter blade. And the Third Class only had the standard ID design tag.

The pair of daggers he and Aleck had were colored silver with the codes in red. This showed the differences of the daggers. The daggers however were designed to break in the middle after use, so as to avoid the chance of the Megele women using the codes at all. A spare set of codes were in Talark, but the main access/activation codes were with the Captain of the mission Max and Aleck were in, and now they were the ones holding the codes.

“The situation's getting even more intense. How do you think will the fleet be on combat standby?” Max asked as he and Aleck left the medical bay.

“I don't know…”

That was when the battle that Max and Aleck had anticipated, but didn't like…happened.

“ALL PERSONNEL! REPORT TO COMBAT STATIONS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! REPEAT! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! ALL ESSENTIAL PERSONNEL REPORT TO ASSIGNED STATIONS!”

The ship the two men were onboard, named the Shard was hit by incoming beams, sending the ship aside as the insides were shaking and panels exploded from the impact. The resulting blasts jostled the brother of Duero and their instructor around as they immediately ran to their assigned tasks.

“Damn it! It's them!” Max shouted as he rushed to his duties. He knew his duty, and that was to help deal with incoming casualties.

“Looks like we're committed now!” Aleck said as he rushed to the hanger bay where he would meet up with his fellow veterans and the new boys in the Vanguards. They had to be prepared and get to the fighting.

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

Out in Space…

The Talark Fleet were totally caught off-guard as they engaged the Megele military forces. Apparently the Megele had detected the Talark black ops fleet and had been trailing the fleet while avoiding the orbital mines and the Talark ships' sensors and Vanguard patrols.

The Megele women were confident they would get the drop on the men, but this time, it was the other way around. When over two days ago, they were ready to strike, they had been spotted by a secret Talark Vanguard patrol, and had to pull back. The women knew they would have easily destroyed the patrol, but they decided instead to pull back and wait.

However it became apparent that the command crew of the Megele fleet were tired of waiting…and struck.

Relying on their Dreads' exceptional range and speed, the women struck hard and fast, hitting the Talark ship known as the Shadow, causing considerable damage to the ship, but to the shock of the women, the ship wasn't totally crippled. The Shadow's crew were able to recover and unleashed the weapons they had been given along with the company of Vanguards that were assigned to the ship, the Talon came to it's brother ship's aid and the ships began fighting back.

Ever since the defeat of the Ikazuchi's command fleet and the humiliation suffered by the men under the hands of the Megele pirates, the men reorganized their weapons and combat tactics. The ships' once slow and prodding mass driver cannons were updated with improved range adapters and quicker gears and rotator axels to improve response time. To add to the change in weaponry, the Talark men added a new formation, the old Phalanx Mode. The Vanguards were now armed with high grade general purpose shields and armed with long battle spears, reminiscent of that of the old Earth Greek sarissa spear. When the women thought that it was a foolish move, they were shocked as their Dreads were being hit fast and hard by the improved turrets of the Talark ships, making the normally confident Dread pilots uncoordinated as they could not lock in their weapons without running the risk of being hit.

The Vanguards then struck back as they charged into the Dreads' ranks that were trying to recover, the Vanguards were given increased rocket packs to boost their speed. The sudden rush of the once considered weak mecha caught the women off guard as they had no choice but to scatter. The slower ones were hit hard by either shields, or the sarissa style spears that tore through the Dreads' armor. Apparently the spears were designed for anti-armor work. Once the weapons were able to do their job, the Vanguards then scattered, switching to their more personal weapons and ranged armaments, each Vanguard was paired with another and now chased the Dreads as they were now in the position to strike fast and hard. These new tactics confused the once wily women and forced them to rethink their strategy.

The women were able to recover from the shock and redoubled their attacks. They too had some reserve tactics to use. The ships began to unleash a storm of torpedoes while the Dreads reformed into wedges and began to strike back at the formations of Vanguards, when the men would break formation to avoid the Dreads, they were sandwiched between the torpedo barrage and the other Dreads. The battles intensified as the two fleets went all out.

It was quickly evolving into a slaughter as Dread and Vanguard wrecks filled space…

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

Back at the Shard…

“Damn it! Get me some atropine here! This one's going into cardiac arrest!” One of the medics shouted as he was treating one of his wounded comrades. The medical bay of the Shard was in chaos, as members of it's crew and those of the Talon and the Shadow were in for medical treatment.

“I need more IVs!” Another medic shouted as he treated another patient.

“Damn it! Hold on man!” Another shouted as he tried to remove some hot fragments from the body of his comrade who was screaming in agony.

“More patients from the Talon coming in!” A soldier called in through the intercom.

“Damn! Tell them we're running out of room here!” Max answered as he treated another patient who's ribs were broken.

“Can't! The Talon's medical bay was destroyed and they were able to get out in time! Those guys are hit pretty bad, they need medical care now!”

“What about the Masamune?”

“The Masamune's also under attack! They're holding the rear flank from attack by the women, they are having their own problems over there too. The Crusader is there with them right now!”

Max sighed as he went back to work. This was the nightmare scenario for all medics, he was deep in a battle and more wounded were coming in and their supplies were getting stretched to the limit.

“I'm losing him!” One more of his buddies shouted as his patient, a man with a severe puncture wound to the chest was shaking in sporadic spasms. His uneven chest showed broken ribs and the blood in his chest had bubbles, indicating a punctured lung.

Max was able to treat his patient and before he could rest a new batch of patients were in the medical room now. More work for the young medic and his team-mates.

“Incoming patients!”

Max went to work as he dealt with one man who was bleeding from several wounds near the chest and what looks like a tearing near the femoral artery, if he didn't hurry the man would bleed to death internally.

“Get me some IVs and some clamps ASAP!” he shouted as the man was screaming in pain as the blood continued to flow from his wounds.

< Aleck…I hope to the Gods and Grandpa that you're not going to get killed!>

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

Back in space…

All Vanguard pilots! Maintain combat formation and defensive mode! We've got to protect the Shard, along with us supporting the Masamune and the Crusader and our fellow men in the medical bay of all three ships. We can't let them be killed in their states! Understood?” Aleck shouted to his squadron.

“Understood sir!” The men answered as they all got into combat formation. The majority of the crew were a mix of veterans and newbie pilots, and that was going to be one heck of a challenge.

The Shard's Vanguard teams met up with the Vanguards of the Crusader and the Masamune as they went into a defensive action. The Masamune however wasn't going to be of much help. Apparently some of the Megele women's torpedoes from their initial barrage had struck the engine sections and some had torn up badly the command bridge. The crew were now fighting tooth and nail to make sure that the ship would not be totally destroyed as a full evacuation was being done to take away the Masamune's survivors. The medical bay was already swamped and the excess members who were wounded had no choice but the evacuate while the remaining crew defended their retreat.

“Aleck Koubayashi to the Captain of the Masamune! Respond over!”

“This is the Captain! Thank Grandpa you're here!”

“Save the thanks man, what's your status?”

“Primary command bridge has been destroyed, we're currently working in the sub-command bridge! The ship's engines have been badly damaged and we're having internal fires from sections 12 to 19! We've got considerable casualties and the numbers just keep on piling. We can't run and we can't fight, most of the operation systems for our weapons systems have been destroyed.”

“Understood Captain, we'll hold the line here until you can get the ship online!”

“Yes Sir!”

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

Back in the present…

“We had no choice but to hold the line, The Crusader had to support the Masamune because of the massive damage it was in, the Shadow and the Talon had to maintain our forward defense…”

Barnette said nothing as Max continued to speak about the events that sent him here.

“It was at that moment, when all hell got really set loose.”

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

Back to the battle…

The battle between the Vanguards and the Dreads, along with their ships began to intensify in every second that passed. The areas of the fleet's encounter were filled with wrecks, both Dread and Vanguard. The ships continued to bombard each other, and both sides were being hit hard. The Shadow was slowly giving way to the bombardment of the Megele cruisers, but the women were just as battered as the ship that attacked the Shadow was also suffering fires and explosions, despite it's advanced alloy skin, even more so as teams of Vanguard had broken through the Dread lines and began attacking the ship itself. The Vanguards however had no choice but to relent their attack as they had to defend the Shadow from the Dreads. The Talon as now engaged with the other Megele cruiser and the two ships and their squadrons were now dancing in the battle dance of life and death.

“All Vanguards! Maintain your lines and defensive formations! Watch each other's backs!” Aleck shouted in a strong voice as he jammed his sarissa spear into the middle of a Dread that ran past him. He was a warrior of Talark, but that didn't excuse him from the fact that he disliked the idea of killing anybody just out of hearsay, but his men were his responsibility, and he didn't plan on letting themselves be killed.

He yanked out his spear as the Dread exploded and rallied his fellow men and they all went into a defensive action around the Masamune. He already knew that the Masamune was crippled beyond aid, and the least they could do was aid in the crippled ship's defense.

“Aleck Koubayashi to the Masamune! Respond over!”

“This is the acting Captain of the Masamune! Go ahead!” A new voice came into Aleck's com-link.

“Where's the Captain?!” Aleck asked the new speaker.

“He's…dead… sir. A blasted Megele barrage from the Dreads struck the area where he was, instructing the evacuation. The shrapnel….cut his throat, and he's lost…too much blood for the medics to save him.”

Aleck growled in anger at this, he knew that it meant, they had no choice but to retreat and do it now.

“All right, Captain, get all your surviving personnel and get to the Crusader, this is priority one! Get your men out of there!”

“Understood! All hands begin the evacuation! Security personnel, begin activating ship defense protocol 67, we're not going to let the blasted women get their stinking hands on this ship!”

Aleck knew that defense protocol 67 meant that the crew would now wire the whole ship with explosives and destroy the vessel once they were clear. This was clear combat doctrine, they'd rather destroy their own gear than let it be used against them in the future.

The Crusader's leader got the message as the ship closed in on it's crippled comrade.

“This is the Captain of the Crusader, we are ready to retrieve the crew of the Masamune! All Vanguards are requested to maintain defensive lines until evacuation and transfer of personnel is complete!”

Back at the Shard…

Max was able to save his patient, but now had to deal with another wounded man who apparently had his left arm broken at the lower bones. He had to hurry as the patients in the medical bay were becoming those of the more critical type.

Max grabbed some splints and heavy gauze bandages and corrected the broken bones that punctured the skin, he didn't care about the sight as the blood from the severed vessels spurted on his face, making him lose focus for a moment, before he wiped the blood away. The man was in great pain, but Max was able to sedate him prior to his treatment, he then injected the wounds with special anti-bacterial serum to prevent infection as he placed the bones back into the flesh and went to work on the cast. The younger brother's hands, arms, and chest were coated with blood, along with that of his face.

The medical bay's floor was now being flied with pools of blood as more casualties filtered in, while screams and groans of pain filled the section of the ship. The young man's fellow medics were being tested to the ultimate limit of their capacity.

“I need a full amount of adrenaline injections over here!”

“Damn! Hold him still! I can't get the fragment out of the leg, and if he keeps moving he's going to tear up even more of his blood vessels!”

“I've got no choice, if we don't amputate his leg, it won't matter what we do!”

“Get me some pain killers and heavy bandages in here right now! He's got third degree burns, and if we don't hurry, he'll either bleed to death of he'll be infected!”

Max got to deal with more issues as another patient was brought before him, and he knew that this guy was in serious trouble. The man had lost too much blood from a wound, Apparently he was lucky enough to be rescued in time, but his blood loss was severe.

“Get me some blood packs and some transfusion tools over here!”

The supply master of the medical bay shouted back to the young medic. “That's a negative! We're all out of the tools!”

Max swore but decided that it was time to get creative. “Get me some plastic tubing and a combat knife then!”

He looked back at the nearly unconscious man. “Hang on buddy! Don't you die here!”

A half hour into the battle…

“Incoming barrage!”

The Shard's crew braced for impact as the beams slammed into the ship, sending more explosions in the ship itself. Crew-members were tossed around as the fires continued to spread.

“Where did the barrage come from?!”

A lieutenant checked the scanners and gave a growl of anger. “There's another Megele cruiser, it stayed well out of our sensors and that of the Fleet, until now …and it's heading for us! Data indicates it's going to board us!”

The Captain knew this much, they had no other option…but to use the warp-gate.

“Medic Max McFile, report to the command bridge!”

The captain had reason for this move, as many of the casualties in the medical bay would have to run the risk of death should they be caught in the warp. The effects created by the warp effect would kill them instantly when it occurs.

It didn't take long for Max to arrive, he was able to complete the blood transfusion for the patient, but barely, the man was now in the hands of one of the other medics.

“What's going on?!”

The captain turned to the young McFile and pointed to the navigational chart. “We've isolated a lone Megele cruiser, it revealed itself no less than ten minutes ago. It's planning to board the Shard, they could be an extermination unit…or…”

“They could be after the warp-gate!”

“That's our estimate. All casualties are to be transferred to the emergency medical bay on the escape section of the ship! I'll leave you in charge of getting all the wounded out of here before you activate the warp gate!”

Max nodded as he realized the situation was getting really grim by the second, then he recalled another thing.

“We need to call Aleck back here for the plan to work!”

“That's already being done! Communications officer!”

“Yes Sir!”

“Get me a secure channel to Instructor Aleck ASAP!”

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

“Defensive team 3! Maintain defensive lines at the rear! Team 6! Fall back immediately!”

Aleck said as he issued orders to his command teams. The Vanguards had suffered several casualties and several losses, as evidence, there were many Vanguard wrecks in space…along with other…human remains. The sights enflamed him and his men, but he was the only man who kept his cool. That meant that he was the only man who could think rationally at this point. The other men were the more zealous ones and charged regardless of the fact that they were slowly being out numbered.

“Damn it! Team 2! Get back in formation!”

The team in question didn't respond and were now surrounded. Aleck shouted in frustration as he lunged into the battle and beat off several Dreads with his sarissa spear. Once he got the team back into formation, he immediately showed why he was called `Gunny' as he called towards the team leader.

“You idiot! Your team was supposed to stay in formation!

“I want to kill those blasted women! Not listen to you!”

“I'm the one in command here! You do what I order you to do!”

“And watch more of my friends die?! Are you a coward?!”

“You think I don't WANT to avenge them?! I want nothing more than to make the women pay for them! But I can't do that if I lose my temper and neither can you! You can't avenge anybody if you're also dead! And you'll be responsible for bringing more men to their deaths if you just lead into the heat of battle without controlling yourself!”

“But…!”

“How many more friends are you willing to lose?! And can you live with yourself if you let our fellow men get massacred if you break defensive formation?! The evacuation's not finished yet you know! They'll be slaughtered if we break our defensive lines! You think you can live with that kind of guilt in your consciences for the rest of your life?!”

The team leader realized the truth in Aleck's words, and nodded in agreement. “I…understand. All pilots, maintain order and defensive ranks until the Masmune's wounded are evacuated!”

Aleck nodded at that, he then got a direct communiqué from the Shard.

“Instructor Koubayashi! This is the Shard! This is a priority one message! Please respond!”

Aleck had a feeling this was going to be the message he knew would come, but disliked to hear either way.

“This is Instructor Koubayashi! Go ahead Shard!”

“The situation is critical! Another Megele cruiser has appeared on our flanks and it's heading on what appears to be a boarding action! We need to activate the warp-gate!”

“Understood, I'm heading there once the evacuation of the Masamune is complete!”

The Captain of the Shard however was in a mood not to wait, already the Megele cruiser was closing in, despite all the fire from the Shard's cannon batteries, the Dreads of the enemy women had began to disable the turrets.

“Negative! We're already planning a full evacuation of our own wounded and that of the other fleets from the medical bay! We need to activate the warp gate now!”

“I will NOT abandon my men out here to be slaughtered, Captain!”

That was when a communiqué from the ship in question.

“This is the Masamune to Instructor Koubayashi! We've successfully completed full evacuation and defense protocol 67 is already in effect! All remaining personnel have also transferred to the Crusader, along with whatever supplies and weapons we could bring!”

Aleck smiled…at least something was going right since this whole battle started. He then went and contacted the Shard.

“Evacuation and initiation of defense protocol 67 on the Masamune is complete! I'm heading back to the ship! All squadrons, escort the Crusader to a designated retreat point!”

“Yes Sir!”

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

Aleck arrived at the Shard a few minutes before the enemy cruiser could be close enough to dock. He immediately grabbed his rifle and ammunition clip bandolier and headed to the command bridge, there he found Max tending to some of the defensive personnel, it became apparent that the evacuation of the wounded had been successful, but there were more wounded coming, and this time, they were from the defensive teams.

“Max! What's the status?” Aleck asked the younger McFile as he was applying field dressing on the wounds of the Captain.

“The Megele have deployed some advanced invasion teams into the ship, but they haven't found the warp-gate as of yet!”

The Captain began to cough out some blood as he spoke. “We've got…to get the warp-gate online…I'll get the rest of the wounded and other essential personnel out of here!” He then tried to get up despite his wounds, earning him a stern glare from the young McFile.

“You aren't going anywhere! You need to rest and let me treat your wounds!”

The Captain glared at the medic. “I…am the Captain of this ship! This is my Fleet and you are part of my crew! You will follow my orders! Is THAT clear?!”

Max glared back with equal intensity. “And I am a sworn medic of the Talark military! That is my sworn office and saving my fellow men is my sacred duty for our home-planet and to Grandpa! And you are my patient! YOU WILL follow MY orders if you want to live! Is THAT clear?!”

Both glared at each other, until the Captain grinned a bit, and then sighed.

“You should have been an officer you know. You've got more guts and grit than any of the top brass back home.” He coughed a bit and sat back. “All right, I'll rest, but you'll have to my replacement.”

Max nodded as he began to finish his preparations on healing his wounded captain. Once he was done he began to issue orders to the other men in the command bridge.

“Have the escape section of the Shard ready to evacuate at least ten minutes before we activate the warp-gate! Have all wounded personnel, spare supplies, spare Vanguards, and weapons schematics from the data-drives removed and sent to the section. All combat personnel will divide into two teams, one to escort the transfer, while the other will hold the line and defend the activation of the warp-gate!”

“Yes Sir!”

The men who were now under Max's commands, they knew that Max McFile had excellent scores in the academy and he was a man who knew his job. In the minds of the other members of the command staff, it was an absolute shame that he wasn't a commander of his own ship, and the same with his missing and presumed dead elder brother Duero McFile. The home-world would be greatly benefited by their skills in this bloody war.

“Have the rest of the Fleet break away from their engagement with the Megele forces! All Vanguards escort the rest of the Fleet! Status of the Megele cruiser trying to board us?”

“Contact will be in eight minutes. All combat turrets have been destroyed, we have no way to fight back, unless we fight in the ship!” Replied one of the aides in the command bridge as he tracked the Megele cruiser.

“Begin the evacuation immediately, notify all ships and Vanguard personnel to begin retreat action!”

Max then helped his wounded Captain to his feet and handed him carefully to one of his fellow medics, who went on to help the captain to a corridor to the secondary command bridge of the escape section of the Shard. The Captain then faced both Aleck and Max.

“You two had better hurry, good luck…and may the Gods and Grandpa watch over you and guide your way.”

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

“We…knew that we had no choice as we ran to where the warp-gate was housed. I made sure that the remaining personnel with Aleck and me were aware of what we had to do. If it was successful, then we were to dump the coordinates into a retrievable module for the rest of the Fleet to be picked. If we failed…then we were to cause a detonation in the Shard and make sure that your people would never get the warp-gate technology, Barnette. And considering the way the military of Megele would train it's soldiers, I don't think that I need to tell you what they would do if they caught us before we could do what we were ordered to do.”

Max said as he then began to cradle his bone dagger. He had shown to Barnette his weapon earlier when Aleck had come by and passed him his weapon. Apparently, Aleck had retrieved the bone dagger from the Templar Gundam's cockpit storage compartments. Barnette admitted silently that the bone weapon was elegant in a primal and feral way. She noticed that there was a jewel imbedded on the upper grip of the weapon, and she recognized it to be a piece of jewelry women like her people would wear, her curiosity about Max's life on this world continued to grow, along with her curiosity on who among her people had changed Max's way of thinking.

“I guess.” Barnette shivered a bit as she knew her military's policy with men. Unlike her fellow pirates, none of them have ever killed a man… even her. They had always released their male prisoners, and despite her hatred of men in the past, she wasn't all that prepared to kill men, unless there was no other option. The military however, killed on sight, regardless of the status of the men.

She also realized that she now didn't ever want to picture herself killing a man, even more so if the man was like Max, or his brother Duero. The two men changed her views about men, along with Kyo. And she was thankful that she met Max and that was because she was able to learn more about men from him far better than what she had heard about from the propaganda of her home-planet.

“What happened then?”

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

Back to Max's story…

The battles in the Shard became intense, men pulled back while firing their rifles as some of them were hit, the wounded helped to their feet by their fellow men, while those who died were reluctantly left behind. The women kept on moving and moving, their suits protecting them from most of the rifle-fire, but some were not as lucky, they were wounded…while some were killed.

Max growled a bit as the body-counts on both sides began to pile. His mind was divided by the scenes in front of him. One part was enraged by the senseless slaughter of his fellow men, another was in chaos on what he should believe about women, and the other was his hatred for the massive loss of life. He knew that he would be considered a fool and traitor if others apart from Aleck and his older brother Duero would hear that he hated the idea of shedding the blood of the women.

“ALL SECURITY PERSONNEL TO SECTION 6-19! ALL STANDBY FOR WARP-GATE ACTIVATION!”

The men knew that meant that the Warp-Gate was to be activated, squad leaders began to order their fellow men to retreat as fast as possible to the section in question. The women didn't know what was going on, but they seemed to be aware that the men were either going to escape, which was impossible since the escape section had been released, and that meant only one thing…they were going to detonate their ship.

The women were informed of this by their fellow women who had attempted to enter the Masamune, but learned too late as they were hit by the explosion causing damage to the ship, and deaths in the intended boarding party. They immediately retreated, all except for two women who were still going forward. Apparently they were either unable to understand the message, or their com-links were not working.

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

The men were exhausted as medics began treating the wounded, Max wasted no time as both he and Aleck inserted the daggers into the lock-in scanner slots on the control panel of the Warp-Gate. The daggers were locked in as the computer began reading the built-in data codes in the middle of the daggers. Once the data was loaded in, the daggers were ejected and broke into fragments in the middle. The daggers were now useless as data carriers…or weapons. But they had accomplished their purpose.

Max and Aleck knew that they had time before the women would try and find the warp-gate so that meant that they had no time to implant the needed calculations, so they began to type in the sequence codes of their home-planet of Talark…and they downloaded the remaining data and coordinates into a message pod to the escape section of their ship.

“Okay! Let's get this pod launched!”

The two men downloaded the launch coordinates into the deployment system and in less than a few seconds, the pod was launched in the direction of the escape section of the Shard. They now had to do what they had to before the women would get lucky.

“Activate the warp-gate…5…4…3…2…1…MARK!”

The warp gate opened itself like a ripple in water, as the gate field generators began to release arcs of power. The energy then began to flow into cables in the floor and spread throughout the ship. The Shard itself was the experiment as it would have been the ship that would attempt a controlled warp-jump. But now it had become a shadow of the lost Ikazuchi, but this time, there would be no escape for the men in the last section.

That was when Max spotted some movement near one of the entrances…and spotted a Megele laser rifle…aimed at them!

“LOOK OUT!” The young McFile knocked Aleck out of the way as the laser bolt struck the wall beside them. The men spotted two women in space combat uniforms as they came in. It was then that one of his men, fired a rifle round at the women, and instead struck a small barrel of somewhat volatile coolant, the barrel exploded and sent the women flying to a far-away section of the room, one of them was apparently knocked unconscious, while the other was send skidding to the floor, but not before she fired a bolt from what appeared to be a built-in laser in her suit…and this one he and Aleck dodged. But it didn't hit the wall….

But the coordinate module of the Warp-Gate!

“OH GREAT!”

Those were the last words ever spoken on the Shard as the ship opened a warp-hole, but it was going to do the same thing with the Megele cruiser that was trying to escape. The fleets of both sides could only watch as the two ships were absorbed by the warp hole…and in a span of ten seconds…vanished.

To the Gods only knew where…

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

To an unknown area of the vast cosmos of space…

The tranquil surroundings of space were violently disrupted as a massive burst of light occurred, and a massive tear in the very fabric of space opened…and out from this tear came two ships. Both looked like they were sent to hell and back, with their insides out.

On the planet's surface…

As if in response to the arrival of the new interlopers, a series of dishes from a nearby formation appeared and in the matter of moments…dragged the ships safely through the atmosphere and the surrounding debris.

However…the one that rescued the two ships and the surviving crew of both ships, wasn't human…

Neither was it in the mood to save the crew…but to use them…to save another race…by the most brutal and bloody means possible.

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

On the surface…

Both the Shard and the Megele cruiser…named the Emerald Dawn were brought to the surface with considerable force, but not enough to injure the already wounded personnel. The ships were now located near a ridge-line of stone and sand, as the heat of the day bore down on the ships.

Max and Aleck were now coming to their senses after that massive ride down the atmosphere. They then began to scan their wounded, and if possible…dead companions. Aleck them went around and some of the men were very lucky to be still alive…while others were not.

Max then went to check on the unexpected visitors. The women were still out cold, but he would never know for sure due to their suits and the masks they were wearing. It was then that several now conscious military personnel came forward with their rifles, apparently ready to kill their `guests'.

Max stood before them and shook his head.

“Lower your weapons, soldiers.”

The men glared at the medic and one of them gave a direct answer to Max.

“You've got to be kidding! This…monster…and it's friend killed many of our fellow men! AND you want to heal them?! YOU heal your fellow men! Don't bother with these…rejects!”

Max glared back. “You really think, I'm going to just stand aside and let you kill…important prisoners? You must be out of your gourd.”

“What are you getting at?!”

“Think about it…These two are the first prisoners we've had all day. With them as captives, we could find ways to counter their toxins, and make it possible for us to endure them. And when we do…”

“We can beat them!” The men then looked at Max, who looked back with a simple expression, showing that he was speaking the truth. Though the fact of the matter was that he was curious about what women looked like, under the suits, though he had to hurry, as he didn't know about their medical condition.

“Fine! You deal with them! But if you're wrong…” The leader left it hanging as he gestured to his rifle. Max needed no translation as to what the leader had in mind.

“Aleck…give me a hand with our…prisoners.”

Aleck arrived on the scene and was about to intervene, but was happy to see that Max was as skilled with diplomacy, as he was in healing people. He helped Max take the two women to the nearby emergency medical bay of the section that they were in.

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

It took a while for Max and Aleck to haul the women to the medical bay, and thankfully the facility was still intact. The two then worked on finding a way to remove the face masks. But in order to avoid a fatal mess, they restrained both women, so as to make sure that the women didn't react violently while being treated.

The two men then went to work as they removed the face-masks of the women, once they did so, they stared for the first time…two real live women, in the flesh.

The two women were very different in appearance, but they had the same skin tone, which was light cream. The two men knew what that meant, they had no protection from the harsh suns, but they had to admit this much, the women didn't look in the absolute likeness of the monsters they were portrayed to be in the films that they have seen back home. They had somewhat…delicate bone structure, considering the fact that they looked very much like them.

The women however were very much different from one another. The one that was first restrained had deep black hair in braids, and had a small earring on her left ear. The second one had deep emerald green tresses, all of which were short nearly to the back of the head, with only a lush tail on the right side of her head, with the long tail of hail, bound by a golden threaded piece of jewelry with a deep greed emerald in the center.

Max stared at the women, but decided to get into his persona as a medic. He checked the pulses of both women, finding them both to have strong but low pulses. He knew that they were still unconscious, as he examined them, he learned that both women had some injuries, the first had some bruising and broke a few ribs on her left side, while the other had bruising but had broken her left arm, but not to the point of it being totally broken…but before he could perform the needed medical treatment, he realized that they were recovering their wits.

Aleck was aware of it as well as both Max and he watched with anxiety as their patients began to recover. Max immediately told Aleck to seal off the medical bay. If the women started screaming and fighting, their male comrades would no doubt misinterpret the whole thing and kill the two women.

Once that was taken care of, the women began to wake up. And the results were easy to predict.

The first one began to scream out curses while the other was pretty much doing the same.

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

“So…what happened?” Barnette asked with greater curiosity.

“Well…it took us a great deal of work…but we managed to calm them down.” Max said in a somewhat sheepish manner.

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

The medical bay…

The whole area was filled with one heck of a litany…a litany of curses.

“YOU TOUCH ME AND I'LL HAVE YOUR HEAD ON A PLATTER!”

“GET AWAY FROM ME! YOU PARASITES!”

“WAIT UNTIL I GET LOOSE!”

“LET US GO NOW SO WE CAN KILL YOU!”

Max and Aleck merely looked at the two wide awake women who were threatening them with a barrage of words. They were lucky that the medical bay was sealed up AND they had restrained their patients effectively. If they didn't then things would have gotten rather ugly.

As the women struggled, Max decided that it was time he got things straight with their very angry guests.

“Now listen here…”

The one with emerald hair glared and then spat at him.

“YOU listen here buster! If you try anything on me and Arisa, I'll make sure you regret it to your grave!” The green-haired woman's blue eyes were inflamed as she looked at Max, who merely moved out of the way of her liquid projectile.

“I'm NOT going to do anything to either you or your companion Arisa…”

“The name's Clare, Clare McBride, and who might you be?!”

“My name's Max…Max. McFile. And my companion's name is Aleck, Aleck Koubayashi. Now if you two want to live a bit longer I suggest that you calm down and let me explain.”

The two women decided that they had nothing left to lose, with the exception of their health if they listened to the two men, and they at least, once they busted out can get even once their fellow women get here.

Clare glared at Max and nodded, and so did Arisa. “Fine, what do you want to tell us?”

“First things first, I'm a medic and the reason that you two are still breathing is that I need to treat your wounds. You, Clare have a broken arm and with a fracture and I need to treat that injury before anything major may occur. Your friend Arisa has some broken ribs and bruising and that needs to be patched up as fast as possible.”

“And what's the deal with the restraints?!” Arisa asked as she gestured to the straps holding her and Clare in place.

“There's two reasons for that. The first is that if we didn't restrain you, you'd try to struggle through the medical treatment, and aggravate those injuries, plus you might try to escape.”

“And we will!”

“The second reason is for that too. You two happen to be in the Shard, if you can still recall. The crew onboard are all men, as you can tell with me and Aleck, and many of them have some serious axes to grind against your people, and they will not hesitate to kill you on sight. If you two did try to escape…they'd gun you both down before you could get even ten paces away from the medical bay without batting an eye. They almost tried to kill you both also…while you were still unconscious.”

The two women fell silent at that bit of information. “So…”

“I intervened and made a lie about doing research on you as prisoners of war, so as to…ah…find counter-toxins to what your people…supposedly used…on the men of the Ikazuchi Command Fleet.” Max said carefully.

“Counter-toxins?! What the heck are you blabbering about?!”

“Well…let me ask you this. What does your planet say about us men? And it had better be the truth.”

“Apart from being crude, inferior, savage, dumb, disease-ridden, filled with germs from head to toe… They say that you are hideous to look at.” Clare said with a bit of apprehensive look as she realized her slip of the tongue. Apparently she realized the situation she and her friend were in. The two men here had done something that surprised her, they didn't kill her and her companion.

They had spared them from being killed by their own comrades as well, and that was a surprise as she had injured a good number of men like the two in front of her when she and her team boarded the ship. And she realized that in order for the two of them to be in the good graces of their male captives, they would have to be careful about what they said. But it seemed that she had just made a serious error in judgment.

Max and Aleck merely looked at each other and looked squarely at the women. His made the two women realize that they might go back on their word and…get their fellow soldiers to do what they started.

The silence went on for another minute as the two pairs stared at each other, then the two men… began to laugh.

As the women looked in shock, Max and Aleck laughed a bit more and then looked at the two of them. They still had mirthful expressions as they looked at Clare and Arisa.

“And do you want to know what the men of our planet consider you women?”

“What?”

“That you all are hideously ugly to look at, you eat men's innards, livers for the most part, you enslave and torture men for the sheer pleasure of it, you are monstrous beings with no sense of honor, compassion and decency. You make other beings rot with your presence and you corrupt men's minds.”

“WHAT?!”

“THAT'S GARBAGE?! WE DON'T LOOK THE LEAST BIT UGLY!!”

The two sides got into another stream of conversation for a few more minutes. As they continued to converse with each other, Max and Aleck helped the two women by tending their wounds, but they did so with some caution as they took off the suits being worn by the women and that meant removing the restraints, but thankfully the two women didn't try to escape.

Clare and Arisa nodded as they watched the men treat their wounds, they were still frightened that they might get infected with germs from the men, but they decided that they would get medical treatment once they got back to their ship. But they admitted one thing, the medical expertise of the man named Max McFile was very exceptional as the pain of their wounds disappeared.

It was after they had been treated that the women decided to ask one more thing from their captors.

“Now that you've healed our wounds…are you going to kill us?”

Max raised an eyebrow at that statement. “What gave you that idea? Aleck and I have already patched you up, why would we kill you?”

“You guys are men, right? So why are you treating us women like we're not enemies?”

“Well…let's just say that we DON'T always believe everything so easily, right Max?” Aleck asked his younger companion.

Max merely gave a look at his older mentor and shrugged his shoulders. “That's still up for debate. I'll go convince the others not to shoot you, and just so you know, I think you might want to consider removing those suits.”

Clare and Arisa looked at the younger McFile and then turned to face Aleck. “What's the deal with your friend?”

Aleck sighed and spoke. “Max's older brother Duero was on the Ikazuchi when the pirates attacked it. According to our home-world's information networks, he's MIA, a sugar word for killed in action or KIA for short. Max and I think Duero's sill alive… but he's not all that sure himself.”

“Pirates, you mean the Megele pirates?”

“Who know them?” Aleck asked with a raised eye-brow at the green-haired woman.

“Yeah…most of them are political dissidents and unhappy women who left Megele and made a home somewhere in the asteroid belt between our planet and yours. Nobody really knows where they are since we could never find them, and they are a big headache for us since they raid our own ships too.”

Aleck raised both eye-brows at that revelation. “Okay…do they kill men on sight?”

“No, they spare them and just release them in the escape pods. They don't follow the Megele combat book on dealing with…men.” Clare said carefully, she knew that since Max had a brother, it would make sense that she would have to be truthful about the female pirates.

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

“To make the long story short…when Aleck and I patched up Clare and Arisa, the crew of the Megele cruiser came into our ship to try and finish the rest of us off. But they got caught in an ambush as we went out. The shootout happened again and some more people were injured. That was when Clare came into view and the female raiders halted their fire. Some men tried to take advantage of the whole thing, but Aleck came forward and stopped them. That was when I found out that Clare was none other than the daughter of the Captain of the Emerald Dawn. It took some effort, but we all managed to make a truce between the crews of our ships so as to find a way to escape and head back home. I became the diplomat for the men, while Clare became the head of the women, alongside her mother, Captain Fiona.”

Max sighed a bit as he cradled the bone dagger while looking at the weapon namely the jewel on the top of the handle. Barnette noticed this and she began to wonder about two things, the first was who Clare McBride was, and the second…why did she feel…envious of the girl.

That was when she realized something…

“Max…you said several days ago that you and Aleck were the only survivors of the mission you told me about…what happened to the others…and what happened to Clare?”

Max became very silent as if that was one question that caused him too much pain to even answer. This made Barnette realize that the bond between Max and Clare was very strong for him to be this silent.

“They…died. That's all I can say…Clare…died…as well.”

“I'm sorry.”

Barnette said mournfully as she looked at the desolate look Max had as he said those last words. The man then sighed as he sheathed his bone dagger and looked at Barnette with a sad look.

“Thank you for those words. I know…they won't…bring them all back…but thanks anyway. I think I'll go on and rest in the living quarters.” He then got up and began to walk back to the living quarters, he fell a bit, making Barnette panic as she reached him.

“Are you all right?!”

Max nodded and smiled a bit. “I'm okay…don't worry about me, this wound hasn't reduced me to a cripple yet.”

Barnette agreed as he hauled himself towards the quarters leaving the Megele girl quietly standing in the cafeteria. She then decided to walk to the hanger where the others were.

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

“All right…two more truck-loads and we're set to move out soon!” Aleck boomed as he completed the transfer of the materials they had salvaged from the supply base. The items included medical supplies and equipment, food, computer parts, fuel cells, spare construction parts, ammunition for personal weapons, munitions for combat machines, and other needed tools. The supply base had some very large trucks for this operation and most had AI drivers that were independent of the base's operation drives and so could not be re-programmed by other users except that of the drivers themselves and the trucks can be manually driven or linked into a convoy via AI.

Duero nodded as he looked out from the cockpit of the Morpheous Gundam. “That's great Gunny, I've completed installing the customized OS program in the SwitchBlade Gundam, and the installation of the OS for the Morpheous will take a few more hours. Once it's done, we'll need to move out as soon as possible.”

“Got you Duero…hey, Miss Barnette! What brings you out here?” Aleck bellowed as he spotted Barnette walking into the hanger.

Barnette gave a nod of greeting as she walked over to the old instructor. She knew she wouldn't get too many answers from Max at this point and time, and despite her rational side telling her to let Max tell her himself once he was more open about it, her female curiosity wanted to be satisfied, so she decided to talk to Aleck for a while.

“Aleck…can I ask you something?”

The instructor nodded as he got out from the control panel for the crane and wiped his hands clean with a rag, then went over to the Dread pilot.

“Sure, what is it?”

Barnette sat down on a bench nearby and so did Aleck, the man had been there in the cafeteria earlier to hand Max his bone dagger, so he knew that whatever conversation the two had there was pretty deep.

“Can you tell me…about what you all did along with the crew of the Emerald Dawn when you were all stranded?”

“Ah, I see that Max decided to elaborate. That's not a bad sign, he's only talked about it to either himself or me, nice to see him open up to someone new now.”

Aleck then got down to telling Barnette how things had done for them and the crew of both their ships. The days of the tense truce, the number incidents that were barely contained, the weeks of wandering the vast desert world, living in the located underground cities, bases, and surviving.

“It was in one of those bases that we found the Templar Gundam. Apparently it belonged to the inhabitants of this desert world. It didn't have any damage at the time, so they didn't use it long before they were wiped out by the Harvesters you all spoke of. It took some time but we all decided to take it with us, though none of us knew how to operate the OS all that well.”

“What happened to the others?”

“Many of them, namely on the women's side had no training prior to survival in the desert, so the men, no matter how reluctant and unwilling they were had to help them survive in the planet's surface. Not to mention they had no idea on the dangers on this world. Clare was the one who was the most adamant at first, but it was when she encountered one of those horrors that she kind of wised up a little.”

“What horrors?”

“The one that Max saved you from.”

Barnette gulped as she realized what creature Aleck was referring too. That was when she recalled the scars on Max's body, as far as she could recall he had no scars with the indication that he had been stabbed by those reptile creatures, apart from the one that got him.

“You mean…another cybernetic horror?!”

“Nope, this one was purely organic, and it was a juvenile too, not as full grown, but very reckless, unlike adults who are more cautious and cunning. The thing had snuck up on the camp and the first target it had in mind was Clare, if it hadn't been for Max's quick thinking, she would have been killed.”

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

Flashback…

The groups of men and women were now moving through a nearby valley filled with rocks and sand. The truce that existed was a fragile as thread at the moment, and all it would take was a mistake on either side, miscommunication, a matter of pride, stubbornness, and the whole thing would break.

“Damn! This heat is unbearable!” One of the women complained as she wiped her forehead. The other women were not behind in making complaints, but they could do nothing.

The men however didn't complain all that much as they checked the desert environment while maintaining their security net. They had grown up in a world like this so it wasn't all that big a deal when they were sweating and they knew the desert far better than these female tenderfoots.

The women were complaining non-stop as they trudged at a pained pace in the hot desert sun and sand. The young McFile sighed in disbelief, the women had turned down the spare sets of Talark combat boots all because they were ugly and too big, and the Talark sun-block just because it looked disgusting and smelled. They were going to be more of a burden than allies at the rate they slowed down. He wondered what his brother was thinking about women when he met them.

Max then looked at the column of human survivors from both crashes, and gave another sigh, at the rate of movement, it was a miracle they even got this far. The women had nearly tried to kill them all, but Clare intervened and talked with the Captain who turned out to be her mother. It had taken time, but a truce had been formed, a truce merely made out of necessity.

It was a few hours later that they came to a deep valley lined by some stone out-cropping. The suns had began to set but the heat was killing them all, so the convoy had to rest. The women wasted no time and tried to find some shade. They began taking in great gulps of water from their canteens and washed themselves. The men did the same but took smaller gulps of water and moved a little less slowly as to conserve their energy.

Clare then walked up to Max and spoke. “How come we have travel this far out?!”

“Two reasons.”

“And those are?!”

“One, the supplies on both ships aren't infinite, we will have to move eventually and find more supplies. And we have to find other means of transport off the planet.”

“The second?”

“Two, we have no idea if there are any inhabitants in this place, there may be people living out so we need to locate them and get help as soon as possible, and the dangers of enemy attacks along with attacks from the native populations is very possible, the less a centralized location we are in, the better off we all are.”

“You CAN'T be serious?! What makes you think that anybody would be in their right minds to live in a barren dust-ball like this?!”

Max gave a bit of a glare to Clare. “In case it may have escaped your attention, I lived all my life on a planet just as hostile as or much worse than this one. So has every man under my command, we all grew up on a planet like this one, so we know where to live and how to survive, don't think that we don't know possible places where people can live in.”

Clare glared at him and then looked around in the desert landscape. “So where do you think we can find anyone out here? The desert looks all the same!”

“As far as can be seen, the best places would be near massive mountains and deep ridges, it would be easier to have shade, gain resources from the ground, locate water tables for harvesting, drinking, and agriculture. Plus it would make sense to use the stone foundations as the perfect guise to hide installations and complexes.”

“You mean…underground cities?”

“Yes, it could also mean that there may be massive underground caverns underneath us, and that would mean that there can be complexes underneath us as well, and those might be either civilian or military.”

“So why can't we find them?”

Max sighed again. “It makes sense to hide the entrances from unknown forces, namely hostiles. You don't show where you live to the enemy, unless you are either very confident, or very reckless. The only people who would know would be the inhabitants. And it would mean that they would be using defensive systems to access their complexes. If we can find one that's abandoned…”

“Then you can bypass their security by accessing the codes used by the people?”

“Yes.”

“So we should get going!”

“Not now. We need to locate sources of water to replenish our stocks. Once we do that we can locate any of the complexes and get shelter. It's not a good idea to be caught out in the desert without proper protection from the environment. We'll need to find water here, but we'll also have to be careful, there's no telling what creatures can live in the desert.”

Clare however was moving already forcing Max to follow her. “You can't be serious?! What kind of creature can live out here?!”

“You'd be surprised.”

It didn't take long for the troop to locate a batch of water, Clare was the first to try and reach it. It was then that Max and Aleck stopped the women from getting closer.

“Hold it!”

The women glared at Max and Aleck, and immediately expected the men to kill them and take the water for themselves. They immediately took up their beam rifles and so did the men, who expected the same situation but the reverse of gender.

“What are you doing?!” Clare asked as she glared at Max.

“We need to make sure that there's no possible traps near this water hole. Trust us, we know this kind of…”

“Why should we trust men?!” One woman glared with a rifle aimed at Max.

Clare then moved forward as she decided to try and get to the water. “I'm going to get the water myself! So we don't have to deal with this kind of mess!”

What she didn't know was that a nearby mound of sand began to twitch…as if something was awakened by her foot-steps. And sure enough…there was an eye that popped up…and this eye was not the least bit human. It sized up the young woman and that was when it began to move. It moved as fast as possible, almost like an eel in water. It however didn't escape undetected by a man nearby.

Max spotted the mound, he was curious why the mound moved and there wasn't any wind blowing through the valley, that was when the mound moved towards Clare. His heart stopped beating and went on overdrive as he realized what that meant. He had met a creature like that before in his youth, and he knew that it had eyes on a meal.

Namely Clare McBride!

“Clare! Don't move!” He then ran towards the girl at full speed.

The women behind him thought that he was going to kill Clare and were about ready to fight with the men, but they were now able to spot the mound moving towards their friend. This made them realize that something was about to happen.

Max was able to make it with only seconds to spare, that was when the mound exploded.

Clare turned to face Max, but that was when she also spotted the mound moving towards her, she barely had time to move when Max collided with her and knocked her aside. That was when she heard a blood-chilling roar that came from the exploding mound.

When she opened her eyes, she spotted Max already facing the other direction, and when she did, she nearly gave out a scream that would have chilled even the bodies of the dead.

The thing was…hideous beyond account. It looked like a massive single-eyed snake with a maw of massive teeth. It had a set of frontal limbs with claws that looked like scythes. The more terrifying part was that it looked like is had spikes for skin. It then reared back and was about to take both Clare and Max down with either it's teeth or scythe-claws.

Max knew that this creature apparently was not yet full grown, but despite it's youth it looked more than powerful enough to kill a good number of their troop. He chided himself for not bringing either his pistol or his rifle, but he also knew that this creature would be hard to kill at the range they were facing each other. He then took out two Talark combat knives in both hands.

Clare was in disbelief! This creature looked too monstrous to fight alone with knives, and Max was about to fight it with only those weapons.

Both combatants began to fight each other as the others watched the spectacle.

Max had long since been familiar with how to avoid creatures like this one when they fought, but unlike the Sand Viper of his home-planet, this one had claws in it's forearms and would be hard to beat.

He dodged each attack of the claws and moved quickly out of the way when the creature lunged to try and take off his head, and any part of his body that it could try and eat. The others, including Clare watched as the creature and the medic fought evenly.

The battle lasted for over half an hour before the creature lunged once more and knocked away one of Max's knives. By now Max had been exhausted and the creature was wounded, making it somewhat sluggish, but it had more endurance than the young man. It sensed a chance and struck at the exhausted man, intent on killing this one and then returning to deal with it's food.

Max however had then reached behind him and drew something out from the small of his back as the creature slammed into him, while he avoided the teeth and claws. Clare screamed as she saw them fall.

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

End of Flashback…

“Max and the creature fell into a nearby ridge that was only several feet deep, and Max survived, with the creature acting as a cushion. A few minutes earlier, he came back with some scratches and bruises…with the severed head of the creature in his hands, and his bone dagger in it's only eye, along with him being covered head to toe in it's blood. The rest of us gave a whoop of triumph while the women tried not to gag and lose their lunches at the sight of Max covered in the life fluids of the beast.” Aleck said as he chuckled at the memory.

Barnette felt a little queasy at the thought herself, but had to admit the sight of Max in combat with a purely organic horror like that one wasn't all that gut wrenching by a small degree.

“After all that, we took the carcass of the creature, and cooked it. That was when the women somewhat lightened up around us, thought they didn't even dare to look at us eating the creature's meat. Clare was the only woman who thanked Max that night, and was the first to take a bite of the meat.”

Aleck then glared out into the desert as the suns began to set. “The last few months, we lost a good number of our group to the AI army, but we were able to save a great number of them from being turned into spare parts by those robotic butchers. Some were not so lucky…”

Barnette then decided to ask her final question. “Aleck. I know…I know I shouldn't ask. But how did…Clare die?”

Aleck remained silent for a few seconds. Then he sighed as he faced Barnette. “You recall that we took Vanguards with us since Dreads are worthless in the atmosphere?”

He sighed as Barnette nodded. “We had to train the women on how to use them, no matter how reluctant and unwilling they all were. Those weapons were the best option we had to fight back. Clare however was the best one among them. Max by that time had been able to use the Templar Gundam to most of designed power. But after several months…her luck ran out…and she died in Max's arms.”

Barnette was silent as death, then she looked at Aleck and saw no lie in his eyes.

“You mean…?”

“Clare died…in Max's arms, and she nearly died in a Vanguard. One of those Desert Fang mecha, had crippled her Vanguard and slammed it's beam saber into it's side, Max came just in time…but Clare had been severely wounded and she didn't have enough time left.”

“She was killed in the same fashion in which you nearly died yourself when we arrived. I think you had better not talk to Max about this incident for a while, he'll tell you about it eventually, I know the general events, I know nothing about what happened afterwards. But ever since then, Max has that jewel in that bone dagger of his, and whenever we talk about the past, I make it a point to avoid mentioning Clare.”

Barnette became silent as she considered Aleck's words.

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

Later…

Barnette arrived in the living quarters a few hours well into the early night, she had been with Duero as she decided to pilot the SwitchBlade Gundam, and Max also decided to pilot the Morpheous. She decided not to mention Clare as she helped Max eat earlier in the cafeteria. But she talked about other things, both of them comparing the differences of their respective home-worlds and their own lives. For her, it had been an absolute first for her to reveal her life to a man, and as she listened to the things that Max had done in his own world, she began to feel her childhood hatred for men begin to slip away.

The longer time she spent with Aleck, Duero, and most of all, Max she began to see a side of Talark that she knew she would never learn from the information networks of her planet. She had to admit that the men were very resilient on how they carved their existence with sweat, blood, tears, and hope into Talark. They survived things that would be too horrifying for any woman of her world, and despite the fact they were very much concerned with survival, they also knew how to have fun.

Max told them about their favorite past-times, which included going into two teams of eleven men while moving a ball into a pair goal post on either side of a field using only their hands. And another game where they had to again pair into teams of five or even three and try to send a ball into a high basket on a board post. Both Max and Duero were great players in those games, and on occasion, they were the team captains. (*)

She looked at Max as he slept peacefully, she sighed as he looked at his face, while still angular and smooth, they looked far more…attractive when he was asleep. She felt her heart race a bit more as she gazed at his peaceful feature, and she felt this urge to be with him and try her very best to help him with all that hurt him. Barnette sighed a bit, and she realized that she needed to talk to two people. One of them being Jura, so as she wanted to know if these new feelings were the same as that of her blonde friend's emotions when she was with Kyo. And another person was Max himself, she wanted to hear all about him, so she could really know the man that did all this to save her. She lay down and closed her eyes, hoping that they would one day escape this world, and then she would explore this new dimension of feelings.

Her growing feelings for Max.

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

At the city…

Kyo watched the screen as she surfed the data-networks, Jura and Dita were already sleeping and this time he had placed the incident behind him, but he was certainly NOT going to forget what happened. He sighed as he finally finished his calculations and was happy to learn that Max, Barnette, Duero, and Aleck were ready to leave immediately the next day.

They had a load of plans to make when they would meet up with each other, and the Nirvana. Jura and Dita had gone exploring before and came back with many items of their choosing. Kyo shook his head at the items the two girls had with them.

Though he wondered what Jura had with her, she seemed very protective about them.

Speaking of whom…

Jura looked one last time as the sets of items she had stored away, namely several old style movie cassettes and video discs, she smirked and went back to sleep. She had found them in a shop called the Gate to Heaven. (**)

< Now I`ve got the things I need to snare Kyo! Too bad I can't watch them here. But don't you worry Kyo, you and I will get to be together soon!>

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

To be continued…

This is now the end of the Chapter! Thank God it's finally wrapped up, the other scenes that I wanted to put in before will be moved to the next chapter. If anybody's got some comments and ideas about this and for the next chapter, e-mail me, okay?

BUT NO FLAMES!

By the way…there might be some mistakes in the Prologue of the First GunDread SEED, and some of the ideas I had originally in mind for the story, so if anybody has those questions, then your comments and ideas for the corrections is welcome. Just e-mail me and I'll make the needed changes.

More ideas are welcome, but just to be fair, I'd like people to vote on the idea and if it's a good addition to the GunDread SEED story, then it will be published in the coming chapters when it's approved by you, the readers.

This thing's getting more bloody by the minute! But that's what warfare can be like. We get to see Max McFile in action as a medic. And as the story will progress, we'll see him in action soon as a medic, diplomat, and pilot as he will get to the event that trapped him Aleck, their crew, and the crew of women who tried to bushwhack them. Plus the woman in Max's life will soon be introduced.

The Morpheous and the SwitchBlade will see action soon enough, but for now, they are inactive as the others in the supply base have no knowledge as of yet on how to operate G-Weapons. And when you will see them in action, alongside the Gundams Infinite-Freedom, and Templar, then you'll be happy they are in the hands of the pirates!

Oh and just so anybody wishes to know. The Morpheous is based on two Gundam designs, the Strike Gundam and the Impulse Gundam, and the SwitchBlade is based on the Savior Gundam.

Plus, I know that the Infinite-Freedom's Super DRAGOON system with the fifty beam cannons sounds like overkill. But considering what I have in mind for the incoming chapters and the foes the Nirvana will face soon, then you'll see that Kyo and the pirates will need EVERY weapon they can muster! You'll see that soon enough, that I can promise you all!

Oh yeah, before I forget, there will be a death in the GunDread SEED universe, but I will NOT say who it will be! And this time…unlike Kyo, that person WILL stay dead. Like I said I won't say who at all, so no matter how many questions you will ask me, I won't answer, but if you readers agree to the idea…then vote on it.

This is the end of Chapter 5- The Morpheous and the SwitchBlade- Part 3!

On to Chapter 5- Escape to an Uncertain Future- Part 4!

(*) Basketball and Soccer, what can I say? I like the sports!

(**) Anybody care to wager a guess what this shop is? (^_~)