Gundam SEED Fan Fiction / Vandread Fan Fiction ❯ GunDread SEED- The Second Stage ❯ Part 4- Escape to an Uncertain Future ( Chapter 8 )

GunDread SEED- The Second Stage

 

Disclaimer: I do not own either VanDread or Gundam SEED, nor do I own the machines, people, and anything else that belongs to either universe. I'm just borrowing them for the writing material for my over active imagination.

 

< >: Thoughts

 

Chapter 5

 

Escape to an Uncertain Future…

 

Part 4

 

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

 

The Nirvana…

 

The ship was filled with a tense but not hopeless atmosphere. Ever since the crew had heard of the plan made by Kyo and the commanding officers, they knew that this would be a very tough mission. Everyone did their best to remain as normal as possible, while still keeping their edges up to full sharpness.

 

Some were very determined to do just that…

 

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

 

“Mission Status”

 

“Pilot Killed In Action…Mission failed”

 

A certain woman then pounded her fist on the inside of a Vanguard simulator.

 

“Damn it! If I only didn't have this fear of closed spaces!” Meia growled in frustration as she lost for the sixth time in a row. She knew what she was doing was not a good idea, especially concerning her condition, but she didn't want to be helpless and worthless to the crew and the rest of the Landing Party, to her friends, and namely to a certain Gundam pilot.

 

She then got out of the simulator and saw Misty who was very worried at her somewhat friend and rival for Kyo Yamato's affections. The former Earthling was scared at what the Megele girl was doing. Like Kyo, she knew that Meia had claustrophobia, and what the Dread leader was doing did more harm than good.

 

“Meia, please stop that! You know that you can't pilot a Vanguard! You'll just get in worse trouble!”

 

In normal situations, Meia would have blatantly ignored the warnings and pushed herself on. But ever since the Vanguard mission months before, her near death experience, and the times she had been with Kyo had helped her deal with some of the ghosts of her past. She owed him that much, and despite the fact that she knew that she and Kyo will get into another match on why she was doing this to herself once he found out, and no matter how she knew the truth and accepted it herself, a growing part of her wanted to help in any way she could, and even if it meant doing things that she was deeply afraid of.

 

“I know…but I can't stand being unable to find a way to help the others! They're out there and for all we know, they might be…” Meia fell silent as she tried to get her emotions under control.

 

“I know how you feel, I really do! I wish I could go out there and help them all, especially Kyo, but I can't do that by getting into more trouble than I should!” Misty answered back as she calmed down and sighed. “Look, we have to believe in them, and if we do something harmful to ourselves and to them, then the situation will get even worse.”

 

“Misty is correct in that one Meia.”

 

Both girls turned and spotted Magno who walked into the room with Paiway, BC, and Gascogne in tow. The older woman gave a smile to the young girl as she walked over to the blue-haired girl.

 

“Captain…I understand if you're going to be angry at me for doing this.” Meia said as she knew that Magno had forbidden her to enter Vanguard missions due to her claustrophobia, but she was now caught be the elder woman breaking a direct order.

 

Magno merely smiled. “I know why you are doing this to yourself, and there's nothing wrong with wanting to do everything in your power to help someone. I don't think what you're doing is wrong in the least. If I was as young as you Meia, and as talented, I would have done the very same thing you're doing now.”

 

“Captain…”

 

“But you should recall that we can ill-afford to lose anybody in this crew. You know this, and so does everyone else. The time will come for us when we WILL make it out of this Harvester trap. But we can't do that if we get too worked up, okay? Besides, I think Kyo would never forgive himself if anything happens to us, including you. You recall his rescue of you before? We have to wait, until we have the chance, so I ask you to wait, is that all right with you?”

 

“Yes, I understand and I will wait.” Meia answered as she bowed to the older woman, she and Misty walked towards the galley, Meia had not eaten for several hours ever since waking up at three in the morning to train in the Vanguard simulators.

 

Magno sighed as she watched Meia walk away. “Meia is getting very attached to him. I guess I can't blame her.” She said silently to herself as she then turned to face Gascogne, Paiway, and BC.

 

“What's Bart's condition Paiway?”

 

The young nurse nodded as she reported to Magno. “Bart's wounds are fully healed and he's showing no signs of any deeper physical injuries in the scans. He's ready to resume his duties as ship's navigator soon.”

 

Magno nodded with a bit of a smile. Despite her previous reluctance to be assigned as Duero's apprentice, Paiway's over-all medical skills had improved ever since she worked beside the Talark physician, and the old woman knew at despite the fact the young girl would not admit it openly, she was happy for the presence of the older medic and the off hours he would spend teaching her, though there were still areas Paiway wasn't eager to explore yet.

 

BC then came forward with a report. “Our scanners were able to locate one of the many bases that the AI army uses to coordinate it's ground and air forces. If what Kyo says is true, that base may be part of the main information distribution network of the AI entity used by the Harvesters for this trap of theirs.”

 

Magno gave a nod. “So that can be where we can strike. Gascogne, what about your end?”

 

The Register head nodded as she showed some data on the nearby monitor. “I've gotten as many members of my Register as I can spare to pilot the Vanguards, plus the others have been busy arming the Vanguards to the core with as many weapons as we can muster. The others have also been working with the Engineering teams to create any other weapons we can use. The supplies are more than enough, but we'll need more time.”

 

“And time is something we might be running out of soon.” The captain said as she looked at the images.

 

That was when BC's communicator came online. “Yes?”

 

“Commander? This is Ezra, we have contacted Kyo, he has some new information to show to us. It seems that Barnette, Duero, Max, and Aleck have found some new weapons that might help us!”

 

The older women looked at each other curiously and the Commander asked the gentle bridge officer. “What sort of weapons?”

 

“Commander, they've found Gundam Mobile Suits.”

 

The women were shocked at the news, but not shock from the bad side of news, but the good side. Magno then spoke to Ezra from BC's communicator.

 

“Did you just say they found Gundams?”

 

“Yes Captain.”

 

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

 

At the city…

 

“That's correct Grandma, the others had uncovered two new Gundams while they were out on a mission to recover the Templar Gundam, Duero's Vanguard, and the mecha that Aleck piloted.” Kyo answered as he spoke to the crew of the Nirvana.

 

“Are they weapons left behind by the victims of the Harvesters?” BC asked.

 

Kyo nodded. “Yeah, apparently, before they were destroyed, the people who developed the Morpheous and the SwitchBlade Gundams, had sealed them away from the enemy pretty good. Duero and Aleck were the ones who found them in the Research and Development vessel that they were stored in.”

 

“Any idea who they belonged to?”

 

“They belonged to the Taisian Planetary Alliance military, they were some of the people I ran into long before I went to Talark. The Taisians are experts on weapons engineering and have some serious equipment in terms of space and planetary warfare. The one thing that gets my attention is that when I met them, they never took an interest in making Mobile Suits, let alone, G-Weapon types. The last I heard of them, they had to abandon their home-system since they were under heavy attack.”

 

“Then I guess we'll have to use these weapons for them, any way we can use those Gundams, Kyo?” BC asked the young Coordinator.

 

“Yeah, I've made a basic operating system program for both the Morpheous and the SwitchBlade, Barnette and Duero have decided to pilot the Gundams, Barnette's taking the SwitchBlade, while Duero is taking the Morpheous, but that will only get them so far, once I'm in the cockpit, I'll do something more permanent. I'm managed to download all the data schematics on both Gundams, I'll send you the data now.”

 

With that, streams of information was passed to the Nirvana, along with detailed sketches and design plans of the Gundams in question. The crew on the bridge which included Meia, BC, Magno, Gascogne, Parfet, Bart, and Paiway were impressed as they read the data, as it was placed in their archives.

 

Once the data was transferred, Kyo then uploaded the location of where he, Dita, and Jura were to show the Nirvana their last destination before the strike on the AI army and the single Lancer Platform. “I'll have to cut the communications short, we might be traced here. How long will it take you to get here?”

 

Amarone and the others did the calculations, and they then displayed the data. “We'll be there in two days, even less once Bart's back in the Navigation Well, and Parfet gets the engine to full power, you'll have to hold the fort until we get there Kyo.” Magno answered as the gazed at the layout of the travel plan.

 

“Got you, today, Barnette and the others will be making their escape. We'll all meet here and plan the attack.”

 

Kyo sighed as he cut the communications to the Nirvana and went on to contact the supply base to check on the rest of the landing party. They were already awake and setting up a surprise for their soon to arrive visitors.

 

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

 

Earth…

 

The Harvesters were now ready to strike, the Council was pleased that in only two days, they could finally crush the ship that had caused such demoralizing delays to the path of their survival.

 

“The Fleet will now be in position within two days, provided they can reach the planet through the massive asteroids and the EM fields. The Gundams we have on combat standby are only seventy percent complete but they are more than ready to spell the end of the Nirvana and that blasted Gundam Infinite-Freedom!”

 

The Council members were happy with the reports of the technical staff and the data being given to them by their combat computers. However, they were not going to make the mistake they had made once with the Nirvana. They planned to surround the planet long before the pirates could effect an escape.

 

The leader nodded in agreement as he listened to the reports along with the rest of his staff. He however had some lingering doubts. “How long can it be before we can establish a communication link with the AI on the planet in question?”

 

The head technician bowed to his supreme leader. “We can establish a communication trace in half a day.”

 

The leader nodded and checked his console. Most of the Council never bothered their leader when he was in his musings, it was never their place to do so. In a few minutes the leader gave his orders.

 

“I want a full communications link to our forces on the planet. They are now to be redirected in the defense of all the Lancer Platforms to prevent them from escaping. However, I request a small force to be under my command, I have…a special reason for this request.”

 

The Council knew that it wasn't their concern, but others were a bit bold at that aspect. “What is your reason for this request, Leader?”

 

The Council leader merely looked at the questioning member with a simple look. “This has something to do with the Re-Genesis Project, if you wish to know. There is something I have in mind.”

 

The Council already knew what the Re-Genesis Project was, and knew that it would be the next step in the survival of the human race, and their leader was it's head so they dropped the subject. With that, the Council went on to other matters.

 

The leader had his reasons for this order, but he kept that a personal secret.

 

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

 

In the Supply base…

 

The rest of the Landing party were nearly finished with their plans to destroy the base that they had been in. The only thing left was to set the trap. They knew that the enemy would soon be on top of them, so they immediately decided to move at the earliest hours of dawn..

 

They had taken all that they could get from the supply base and they had already moved the trucks out several hours during the early morning to get as much distance from the base as they could. Barnette and Max had already boarded the trucks and Duero with Aleck activated their trap and waited a fair distance away, waiting for the two to arrive. The trucks were also EM shielded so there was no danger of them being over-powered by the EM interference of the planet and the suns.

 

They decided to use Duero's Vanguard as the weapon for the trap. Having re-routed the original design for the activation of the ejection system to lock into the various explosive materials they left behind, along with the connection to over-load the base's power supply, the trap would destroy a great deal of the base, and any enemy caught in the blast radius. The base had some powerful solar powered electrical generators, along with some left-over heavy weapon ordinance, coupled with all the explosives left behind, it was going to be one heck of a fire-works display. The Vanguard was now ready to be remote detonated as they tracked the landscape for any forces of the AI army. Duero and the others have already made a remote detonator with shielding to withstand the soon to arrive suns, plus the still existing EM emissions

 

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

 

Speaking of whom…

 

A large group of Desert Fangs, Ogres, and Sky Strikers were making their way towards the location a fraction of their intended prey. They had been able to store enough charged energy so they can make their move to complete their latest orders. The orders were simple and straight-forward.

 

Harvest the organics for every organ that they had.

 

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

 

Barnette sighed a bit while in the truck, beside Max. The younger brother was well enough for hard travel, but his brother restricted him from any combat duty until he had fully healed. Though he could pilot his Templar Gundam very well, his still healing body was not ready for a sustained battle. They were already just an hour away from where Duero and Aleck were.

 

“You all right?” Max asked the green-haired female as he looked at her.

 

“Huh? Nothing, just a little worried.”

 

“About what?”

 

“About what we should do to get off this place. I hope that we can find a way off this planet, the longer we stay here, the better chances we have of being captured by the Harvesters and being used as spare body parts for them.” Barnette said as she gazed out at night. She didn't even want to think of the Harvesters, but the knowledge of them stepping ever closer to this planet to cut off their escape made her very anxious.

 

Max nodded, and decided to speak to Barnette. “You know, all the time…I've been stuck here on this world, along with the others, long before you all came. I knew that escape here was near to impossible considering the facts in front of me. But I grew up where if you give up all hope, then you have no future at all, and there really IS nothing you can do to save yourself.”

 

“If you give up, and you give into despair and fear, then there is truly no hope left for you and anybody else at all. But if you never give up and strive to what you wish, no matter what is in front of you, then there will always be hope. The teaching that I had been given by one of my mentors in the military is this. ` The only thing necessary for evil to triumph, is for good men to do nothing.' I would never give up until me and Aleck will find a way to escape. And neither should you and the others, you told me about what you all went through in that gas giant, and how you won that battle, there's always a chance you can win this one, in the same way you won that battle all those months before.”

 

Barnette smiled a bit. “Thanks. What's our plan now?”

 

“Once we've got sight on the enemy, the guys will set the trap, and we move as fast as we can to the communications bunker where the others are, and thanks to our early movements, we can shave several hours of travel time. I heard from Duero that your blonde friend Jura wants to talk to you about something, what that is about, I can hardly make a guess.”

 

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

 

Back at the city…

 

“Jura, Dita, I want you all to track the others and relay to me their coordinates. I'm going out there to meet them with Infinite-Freedom.” Kyo said as he suited up and got his helmet while the two Megele girls were working on the consoles in the communications bunker.

 

“You got it Mr. Alien!”

 

Jura nodded as well while checking the incoming transmissions from the others on the ground. The two Megele girls decided with a little reluctance to remain behind and aid Kyo in meeting up with Barnette and the others. Despite Kyo's confidence, the young Coordinator left nothing to chance. He decided to meet up with Barnette and the others and move as quickly as possible to where they were, get what they had salvaged and when they were all assembled, along with the Nirvana and the crew, they would make their escape. Recently, the pirates had downloaded some more data images of the bases in the region and help in allowing Kyo to better initiate his plan on escape.

 

“I've gotten the recognition codes for the trucks and those new Gundams the others have. I've got a lot to talk about with Barnette when she gets back here.”

 

Kyo smirked a bit. “Sure, I'll make sure we all make it back here in one piece.”

 

Kyo then got on his helmet and made his way to his Gundam. Earlier, he had made some important modifications of the communication systems, plus that of his Gundam. The Infinite could now fight to full combat potential on the surface of the planet, and he hoped that there would be enough time to get to the others and then they could effect their escape.

 

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

 

The Harvester Fleets had just decided to combine into a massive combat force. The first fleet had been given new orders from the Council. It's new objectives was to prevent the Nirvana's escape beside it's brother ship and the fleets. It was now moving into position, though both fleets had to content with a barrage of energy emissions from the target destination as they closed the gap.

 

Inside the second Harvester Battleship, three Mobile Suits were being charged and armed with their weapons, they were not based on the Dominion blue-prints, but on three other models, older but nevertheless deadly. Each was designed to suit a certain combat trait. But all had one purpose.

 

To finally destroy the Infinite-Freedom Gundam.

 

Beside them were more Mobile Suits, all of which were Dominion models. And they too were now programmed with newer tactics and were installed new weapons of war, to finally crush the bones of the enemies of their creators.

 

The Gundams waited patiently for their time to come, and when it does…

 

All will fall to the Dominion of the Harvesters.

 

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

 

Duero and Aleck watched the distant line of the desert landscape through binoculars. The devices were armed with long range capability, and it didn't take too long for the two men to spot the enemy forces. The incoming group were just several hours from the now stripped and abandoned supply base. Duero nodded and set the timer as he and Aleck kept track of the incoming forces. The explosive ejection charges in his Vanguard were also armed with a timer fuse, so they knew they had plenty of time to high-tail it out of the area before all hell would break loose.

 

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

 

Kyo took off in Infinite-Freedom and now used his fully adapted OS and systems to track down the others. Despite the presence of the Morpheous and the SwitchBlade, Kyo knew that the others will still need back-up. The faster he met up with them, the lot better off they were.

 

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

 

Barnette, Max, Aleck and Duero wasted little time and got on the move as fast as possible. Once the timer was on, they high-tailed it out of the area, Duero was already piloting the Morpheous in it's normal mode, beam rifle in hand and shield in the other. Barnette was more than ready to pilot the SwitchBlade, but for now she had to help take care of the convoy and Max. Since Max's injuries were still healing, he was not all that fit to fight, and even if he was, both Barnette and Duero were not in the mood to let himself get into a serious situation with his still healing wounds.

 

Barnette looked to the monitor of the convoy truck. The hover truck was about the size of a ten wheeler trailer truck of old Earth, but with greater storage capacity, and with hover abilities, that made it very capable in avoiding any loose sands that would plague normal trucks, had they been used to carry loads in this desert world. They were also designed with immense protection from any incoming energy interference which would have fried normal electronic systems which were unprotected from the planet's unpredictable energy fields and the outer energy storms that surrounded the planet in space. As such, the AI of the trucks were easy to program and were independent from the main system AI on this planet. The others thanked this boon to them as they had hauled in the supplies.

 

The Megele girl was interested in the truck she was in as this one had her temporary weapon in storage, her temporary Gundam unit merely lying down on it's deployment frame/ramp. The SwitchBlade excluded an aura of power and strength, far beyond that of the Vanguard she had piloted in this mission, and the one she had used in that short but very dangerous mission all those months before. Max's Templar Gundam was in another convoy truck beside them, and the younger McFile could easily get out of the truck and get into the back of that one and use his Gundam.

 

Barnette had in her hand a disk that she could insert into the access port of the Switchblade's OS, in it was her passkey code and user ID to use the Gundam, she knew that she had talent as a Vanguard pilot, but she loved her Dread, and loved her skills as a Dread pilot, so she wasn't all that inclined to give up her desire to fly in a Dread at all. Though she had to admit, it was a bit of a joy to pilot a Vanguard, and that made her wonder on how it would feel to pilot a Gundam Mobile Suit. Though it was not as powerful as the Infinite-Freedom or it's dark Harvester twin, the Dominion, Barnette had no doubt that when it was used to it's highest ability, it would be a truly devastating weapon.

 

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

 

Duero sighed while running his OS through some test diagnostics, the Gundam unit was far superior to the Vanguard in sheer weaponry, adaptability, programming, armor, and design. Had their world designed weapons such as the Gundams, then they would have been nearly unstoppable. Duero also admitted that this Gundam unit had such a degree of power and flexibility, he should have been honored to be the first pilot to even use this Gundam in it's first trail run. It took him a while to master the system, but he had been a quick study with the Morpheous, as despite it's far superior systems, it still had some basic similarities to his Vanguard. But he was now more than happy to pilot a machine under the same capacity of Kyo's Infinite-Gundam. The power ratio was different along with other factors, but this Mobile Suit was very effective in it's own right.

 

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

 

The time frame was running quickly as the trap left behind by the team of Barnette, Aleck, Max, and Duero counted down, and the enemy was closing in.

 

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

 

Several hours later…

 

The AI strike force arrived in the area and began to converge around the supply base. The Ogres and the Desert Fangs patrolled the entrances while the Sky Strikers patrolled the air. They waited for a contingent of their medical drones to go in and do the dirty work. They on the other hand made sure that there would be no escape for their prey. They watched as the drones entered the facility by teams of six each.

 

As the medical drones made their way into the facility, they began swarming over the base and entering each room in search of their quarry. However, once they had taken over the base in a span of thirty minutes, the drones found no trace of their prey. However, when they found the Vanguard in the hanger bay, they also spotted the large number of explosive ordinance. They were unable to understand the situation as they were designed solely for medical work.

 

The timer was already reaching one minute…and in just half of that time.

 

The fire-works had just ignited…

 

BOOM!

 

The Vanguard's ejection charges suddenly ignited and started a chain-reaction with the other explosives in the room. The medical drones were immediately incinerated by the blasts as the rigged explosives in selected areas of the supply base went off. Room after room was blown apart and so were the medical drones, and anything else that wasn't nailed down, which thankfully wasn't a lot as Barnette and the others had stripped the place clean of all vital supplies and movable equipment.

 

The base then began to expand and exploded, catching many of the assault party unaware, most of the party's aerial assets were able to escape, but the ground forces weren't as lucky. The base's main power reactors also detonated, releasing a massive shockwave of explosive power, this coupled with the massive shrapnel tore through the ranks of the AI units. A squad of Desert Fangs were torn to pieces by the shrapnel and explosions, their explosive deaths also adding more fuel to the fire. Several Ogres were also destroyed, while the others were badly damaged. The AI assault team however were not human, they didn't care about loses. Once the explosions settled down, they began coordinating a search and capture mission, with their surviving teams. They then sent out a high-powered transmission to any other units in their vicinity for support.

 

The Sky Strikers were immediately deployed on a wide expanding perimeter scan to locate their prey. The ground forces were dedicated to following their aerial counterparts and wait for reinforcements.

 

They may have been caught off-guard, but they were NOT going to be denied their catch.

 

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

 

Duero and the others watched behind them as they saw the massive plume of smoke that told them that their trap had been sprung. They now had to move even faster as they knew that it might be possible that the enemy would be able to track down the signals of the detonator to them.

 

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

 

The AI forces were now fully reinforced by three extra squads, and were now ready to track down their elusive prey. The Sky Striker teams had been able to locate a signal from the now demolished base and began to track it with a precision owned only by machine units. Once they had made an approximate calculation of the signal's location, they got ready to guide their forces to the target.

 

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

 

Earth…

 

The leader of the Harvester forces smiled as he was in another chamber, unlike the Council chamber, this one was filled with data consoles, and monitors, and in those same units of equipment were charts and reports, all of which had the title Re-Genesis. He however frowned a bit as he looked at a monitor with the title…

 

<< DNA pattern at 95.6 % completion, extra DNA sequencing required. >>

 

< The DNA patterns and sequencers STILL need more patterns, It'll take more time to complete the sequencing pattern! The Re-Genesis needs more time to be completed!>

 

He then looked at another monitor, he then grinned a bit as he gazed at a certain picture.

 

< But if what I feel is correct…we might just get the sequencing we need.>

 

< Besides…I have a feeling about this one…this might just be an…interesting revelation.>

 

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

 

At half the distance of the communications base…

 

The convoy where Barnette and the others were in, were already halfway to the communications bunker when they had discovered that they were being tracked. They hoped that they would have enough time to escape, but it seemed that they could only make it a bit further, before they would be attacked.

 

Barnette gritted her teeth and got into her new flight suit, having realized that she needed protection from the heat and most of all, to give her some protection from any shrapnel, she took a flight-suit which was in the same design as that of Kyo's new flight suit. She then grabbed her helmet, got to the back of the truck and then boarded the SwitchBlade and logged into the SwitchBlade's main interface OS and loaded her disk and waited as the program was uploaded.

 

The SwitchBlade came online and it's own P. Phase Shift Armor came online, coloring the Gundam in the same color scheme as that of Barnette's own Dread. The Gundam's violet eyes glowed as it's systems began to activate. Barnette then made the Gundam pick up it's beam rifle and got the Gundam out of the back of the hover truck. Barnette then got ready to fly top cover for the convoy should they be attacked.

 

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

 

Duero knew that he needed some serious power and decided to upload the Morpheous Gundam's weapon systems, he quickly chose the `Koenig' Form Pack and waited for the parts to be unloaded from storage and locked into place.

 

The `Koenig' Form Pack parts and those of the other Form Pack parts were all programmed with basic AI systems and had a feature known as `smart mag patches' or smart magnetic patches. These built in patches could be able to home into the specified parts assigned to it on the Morpheous Gundam's body. Once that happened, the parts would fuse to the Gundam's OS with the aid of nano-machine data interface plugs that would bond with hidden access ports in the parts of the Gundam assigned to the Form Rack parts. These nano-plugs would transmit data and power to the Form Pack and allow it to share the same effect of the Polaris Phase Shift Armor.

 

The `Koenig' Form Pack parts began to fly quickly from their container and fuse with the Morpheous, and one it was done, the Morpheous' normal color scheme of red, blue, and black, became metallic grey and deep brown. The holographic projectors that had separated to various parts of the Gundam began to fluctuate for a few seconds and then the Morpheous blended throughout the desert landscape, becoming virtually invisible to the human eye, and to electronic sensors as the Koenig's holographic systems also created a jamming effect that rendered the Morpheous very hard to detect by radar.

 

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

 

The two new Gundam pilots got ready to fight as they both flew top cover for the convoy they belonged to.

 

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

 

The AI forces were now moving at high speed…they were now ready to pounce on their prey…

 

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

 

“Contacts, bearing at coordinates 34, 67, and 50. They'll be right on top of us in ten minutes!” Max said as he tracked their incoming targets.

 

Duero and Barnette nodded as they got ready to fight…

 

It was show time…

 

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

 

Dita and Jura were shocked to discover that enemy AI unit signatures were coming by the dozens towards the convoy of their comrades. They were somewhat relieved that they also tracked the transponder signals of the two Gundams that were with their comrades, but they knew that this was going to be one heck of a close one. They immediately got on the horn with Kyo and Infinite-Freedom.

 

“Mr. Alien! There are more of those bad robots after the others! They'll be hit in five minutes!”

 

“There seems to be ten squads this time around, be careful Kyo, and make sure that the others are safe!”

 

Kyo nodded as he got the messages. “Don't worry, I'll be there in a minute!”

 

He then spotted several explosions in the distance, and from the looks of things, the fight has just gotten underway. When he got there, the fight was getting more interesting….especially with Duero, Barnette and Aleck at the helm.

 

“This is going to be one hell of a day!” He said to himself as he dived into the fight.

 

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

 

Duero was firing round after round of his beam sniper rifle at the incoming forces. He had quite the kill rate, knocking out a collection of Ogre assault units and some Desert Fangs, but a good number began to close in, they however were not the first, several Desert Fang units had attempted to slash up the dune where Duero and they had been shredded by the Spiegel blade on the left arm of the Gundam unit. Several more had been blasted by the beam sniper rifle while even some of the Sky Strikers were hit. Once the Desert Fangs came too close for the rifle to work and their numbers were too great, Duero knew it was time to shift weapons. He took out one of the resonance short swords and the Spiegel Blade and began to tear through the enemy units. Once they were totaled he went back to work on the others.

 

Duero then deactivated the Koenig Form pack as he realized that now was the time to go mobile as the enemy were still growing and the Koenig might not be able to take them all out.. The Koenig Form Pack parts disengaged from the Morpheous and immediately returned to the truck. The Talark medic then activated the Schneider Form Pack. The Form Pack parts flew out of the truck and quickly assembled on the Gundam. The Morpheous Gundam's color scheme changed from the normal scheme to that of silver grey, green, and red. Duero then used the beam boomerangs to tear down several more Desert Fangs and once they returned, he used the anti-armor dart launchers at two Desert fangs that tried to attack on both sides with their beam cannons, both getting anti-armor darts right in the face, resulting in both being blown up. He then unleashed the anti-ship swords and began to cut down more of the quadruped mecha. Once more were dealt with, he charged at the Ogres to stop their barrage. The Gundam dodged each attack against it with ease and if any did hit the Gundam, the P. Phase Shift Armor reduced the damage. The Gundam had some limited flight and it leaped with both swords in hand right into the mess of enemy units and began to really give a new meaning to the term `diced salad' as it tore through them with deadly ease. Ogre heads, arms, and torsos were being cut off, while Desert Fang heads, legs and upper body parts were also being cut up.

 

Duero was impressed with the Gundam's performance. Compared to it, the Vanguard was a trainer for recruits! He was able to utilize most of the combat abilities, though his full use of the Morpheous Gundam's abilities were still somewhat limited due to some limits to his access programming to the OS. He hoped that Kyo could unleash the rest of the Gundam's powers and latent abilities. He then combined both anti-ship swords and tore through three Ogres and some Desert Fangs in rapid succession.

 

Barnette was busy blasting her own share of the enemy with her beam rifle. Most of the attacks thrown at her were disrupted by the shield or by the P. Phase Shift Armor. The Gundam moved very gracefully, startling and impressing the Megele girl at the same time. The Gundam jetted on the ground kicking up dust storms as it's pilot made moves around her foes that would have left other pilots of Vanguards green with envy. She then took out her beam sabers and with both in hand began to fight back. The beam melee weapons tore through the incoming foes like hot knives through butter. The flight abilities of the SwitchBlade were far greater than that of the Morpheous in normal mode. Barnette took that in effect as she launched her Gundam into the air and rained more fire into the enemy ranks with beam rifle, beam cannons, and other ranged weapons.

 

The SwitchBlade spotted it's other enemies, namely the Sky Strikers shooting at it and the Morpheous along with the convoy. The Gundam suddenly transformed in mid leap and turned into a Dread style fighter with beam cannons at the ready. The now transformed Gundam began a deadly ballet in the atmosphere with the Sky Strikers as it streaked like a lighting bolt from hell into their ranks.

 

The Sky Strikers had little to no warning to this change and were totally helpless as the sleek Gundam in Mobile Armor mode blasted at them with it's beam cannons and assault guns, turning more of them into falling piles of burning wreckage. The other fighters were able to recover and fight back, but the SwitchBlade was able to dodge most of the attacks with ease due to the fact that it was designed when in Mobile Armor mode to be very fast and maneuverable. The Gundam's beam rifle fired several shots at more of the Sky Strikers, turning them to scrap in seconds. The others got into a dogfight with the Gundam, but didn't last as long as the Gundam and it's pilot were able to out-class them as the Mobile Suit did some very complex moves and actions that challenged Dread pilots who would attempt to fight in the atmosphere.

 

The ground forces also decided to get involved as they shot salvos at the flying Gundam unit. But the SwitchBlade dodged the attacks and fired back.

 

Barnette felt her adrenaline levels reach a point she never quite reached in all her life, even…when in her Dread. This was…unbelievable! It was like being in a machine made by the finest engineers and then some. Though some of the abilities of the Gundam were not at full power and could not be accessed as of yet, the sheer power of this Gundam far out-shined her Vanguard by several high notches! And it had the ability to fight as a Dread in a planet's atmosphere! She couldn't wait to try this Gundam in space!

 

The SwitchBlade then converted back to it's Mobile Suit form and pulled out both beam sabers and slashed off the wings of two Sky Strikers and stabbed the empty cockpit of another. The Gundam then jetted to the side, as Barnette spotted incoming missiles, and used her Gundam's CIWS guns to shoot them down. The bullets tore through the incoming missiles and they exploded immediately. The Gundam then landed beside the Morpheous and with beam rifle and shield in hand, both of them went on the offensive.

 

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

 

Kyo was watching the whole battle with a smirk. He had to admit that both Duero and Barnette were awesome with the Gundam units in their possession, but the full power of the Gundams were STILL locked down.

 

“Should have known this was going to be one hell of a day.” He then stopped grinning as he spotted a horde of Ogres and Sky Strikers appear. It didn't take long for him to see that the forces were NOT going to allow the two pilots a chance to close the gap. And they were going to blast them all to bits.

 

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

 

Barnette and Duero, along with Aleck who came into the fight earlier spotted the incoming forces and were shocked to see a storm of missiles fired at them. The number of missiles were almost twenty per enemy AI unit. Despite their Gundams' speed and weapons, both pilots knew that blocking the missiles with their shields would be very difficult, and their CIWS guns could not take out all those missiles at once. They had to do something and fast!

 

The missiles were halfway towards the convoy when a massive beam storm slammed into the mess of missiles. The missiles exploded and filled the entire sky with debris and lit up the whole neighborhood like one heck of an explosive light-show. The Ogres and the Sky Strikers, along with the Desert Fangs that were still active turned and spotted their new attacker.

 

The Infinite-Freedom…

 

The Paeksis-powered Gundam retracted it's plasma cannons, rail-guns, and placed aside it's beam rifles. The Gundam then jetted forward, and slashed to pieces two Desert Fang units that tried to intercept it.

 

“KYO!” Duero, Barnette, and the others said as the former Coordinator got into contact with them.

 

“Hi, sorry I'm late!” Kyo said as he landed the I-Freedom beside the Morpheous, the SwitchBlade, and the GuIAZ.

 

“But it seems to me that you guys were doing great before I got here.” He said as he scanned the Gundam's visual sensors on the number of enemy units that the others had totaled. That was when he had an idea on how to deal with the escape plan he had in mind.

 

“Duero, I'll need you to use the Morpheous Gundam's Raiha Form Pack.”

 

“Why?”

 

Kyo merely grinned. “We're going to catch ourselves a little ride.”

 

Duero decided to try Kyo's plan and recalled the Schneider Form Pack Parts back to storage. Once the Raiha parts flew towards the Morpheous and docked, the color scheme switched once more. The Morpheous was now white, black , and deep blue as the Raiha systems powered up.

 

Kyo took out his Gundam's beam rifles and blasted away at the Ogre units, while Barnette used both her Gundam's CIWS guns and beam arsenals to track and destroy any incoming missiles. Both pilots then switched to beam sabers and used both weapons to dissect several incoming Desert Fang units. One winded up with both of I-Freedom's beam sabers in it's guts, while another had the SwitchBlade's beam saber in it's only eye. Both exploded as the two pilots went at it quickly and effectively. Kyo then communicated with Duero.

 

“Duero, try and aim for a group of those Desert Fangs, I've got an idea on just how to use them against their owners!”

 

Duero then unleashed a shot from the EMP cannons. Unlike the EMP fields generated by the planet's suns and magnetic fields, the EM energy fired by the Raiha's cannons were charged with quantum surge particles allowing them to bypass most EMP screens and shields. The energy pulses played merry hell on all the OS units of the Desert Fangs, making them shake like victims of an epileptic attack. The Desert Fangs then dropped like sacks of cement as they were rendered offline.

 

Kyo then activated the HiMAT system and locked in all the remaining units. The plasma cannons, rail-guns, beam rifles, and the feathers then activated and unleashed a massive barrage, leveling all the remaining Ogres, Sky Strikers, and Desert Fangs. In a few seconds all that was left were burning wrecks and craters.

 

Kyo then scanned the disabled Desert Fangs and determined that they were still active and could be useful. All he had to do was re-program their processors and make the needed downloads.

 

“How many trucks do you guys have available?”

 

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

 

Two hours later…

 

Barnette sighed in great contentment as she washed of the dirt and grime she had accumulated over the past day. She hadn't truly realized how much she had taken for granted the simplest of pleasures, until she was without them. Though she could have taken a bath before leaving the base, she wanted to make sure things with the others were done before such things. She was happily bathing in the same bath-house that Jura and Dita were in when they tried to seduce the young Kyo. The two women were overjoyed to see the others, namely Kyo alive and safe, and to show that, they both tackled the Gundam pilot to the floor, much to Kyo's utter embarrassment.

 

Barnette's best friend Jura was overjoyed to be reunited with her, though she pointed out that her Barnette had gotten `stinky.' However, the green-haired girl smiled and laughed a bit, getting the attention of the others. She responded, that she may be smelly, but at least she was okay. Max merely shrugged his shoulders, but also hiding a smirk, while Aleck and Duero merely sighed with smiles on their faces. Barnette in a way had learned how to prioritize her time and energy, and that was a good thing.

 

As the Megele girl continued to clean her body, she realized that in her haste to clean up, she had neglected to bring something to dry herself with. All she had was her clothes, which were nearby in a locker in the bath-house. Not wanting to get her clothes wet nor put them on until they were properly washed, she began to wonder what to do about this dilemma.

 

Lucky for her, there was someone still looking out for her. She heard footsteps approaching the bath area and ducked under the waters up to her neck. The girl sighed in relief when they saw the person.

 

“Barnette? Are you there?” Max asked as he looked about, he then spotted the girls and went towards her. His wounds were fully healed and he was ready to resume his duties, one of them was to help Barnette, as to help pay her back for taking care of him.

 

“I've brought you a towel. You left in a real hurry to wash up that you forgot to bring it with you.” Max said as he offered the article of cloth in question

 

The Dread pilot and quasi-Gundam operator smiled…and stood up.

 

“Thank you. I was wondering what I was going to dry myself with.” Both commented.

 

Max then got a REAL GOOD look at Barnette, and immediately felt hot and uneasy.

 

Barnette's figure was slimmer, firmer, and more athletic than Jura's. Her skin was in the same cream white tone as the rest of the females onboard the Nirvana, her face showed delicate features, and her eyes for the first time in Max's eyes shined like amelyst stones. Her body had acquired a light pink tint as she bathed, making her look…stunning. Her arms were long and slender and so were her legs, with some muscle showing, but was all in the right places.

 

Her hair was deep emerald green, and water dripped down the strands, making them look like wet threads of emerald satin. Her body had a perfect hour-glass figure and her, chest was…Barnette may not be as…bouncy as the blonde Dread pilot Jura, but she wasn't the least bit deficient in the breasts department, as hers were firm and well formed, their tips dark red. Her hips were well curved and accentuated her slender legs and thighs quite nicely…along with the patch of green hair in the juncture of her firm thighs. And the way the beads of water stuck and dripped down her flawless, cream white skin made her look so….enticing.

 

The younger physician immediately turned around as his cheeks took on a reddish tinge. His shoulders bunched up a bit and he felt himself at a total loss over his sudden reaction to Barnette's nakedness. He was deeply puzzled as to why he was feeling this way to his female companion and why certain parts of his male anatomy began to get stimulated as this was his first introduction to the female form in full view, without the restrictions of clothes.

 

“Max? What's…wrong?”

 

“Ah…well, it…I…should have respected your rights to…privacy and ah, I should have…waited for you to…get…dressed…uh, and…well…” Max stammered.

 

Max became even more flustered, making Barnette more confused.

 

“Max, what are you talking about? We're friends now, aren't we?”

 

“Ah…yes, we are.”

 

“Then why are you not looking at me Max? Is it because you're embarrassed to see me naked?” Barnette asked, then she realized that she was indeed naked, and in a way though it was embarrassing for her to be this exposed, she didn't feel all that embarrassed.

 

“Ah, er….that's…I mean, it's quite improper and…” Max turned to face Barnette, and found himself staring at her face. Before he could stop himself, he gazed down. Realizing his error he quickly spoke to Barnette. “This…uh…is my…first time…seeing a woman…naked, and, uh, well, I…I'll just leave your towel here and let you finish your bath, all right?”

 

And with that, the younger McFile quickly lay the towel near the edge of the pool and exited, leaving Barnette confused and slightly insulted.

 

< Just when I thought I was beginning to understand you, Max McFile…>

 

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

 

Kyo was busy cooking a new meal for the others, namely the same kind he had caught a few nights before. Only this time he had some spices and sauces to go with it as the meat was being roasted. This was also for the crew of the Nirvana as they were about to arrive in ten minutes.

 

“Kyo, do you have a minute?”

 

Kyo turned about and there was Max, looking rather…disturbed. He was curious, sure it was only several days since he had known Duero's younger sibling, but he was like his elder brother, though he was a lot more seasoned in terms of being with women, considering that he struck a friendship with the least likely candidate among the women, none other than Barnette. And Kyo had a feeling it had something to do with what happened a few days after the party separated. He didn't get all the details, but it must have been very strong to have changed the former-man hating Megele girl.

 

“Yeah, what do you want to talk about Max?”

 

“Uh….it's….kind of…uh, private.”

 

Kyo raised an eye-brow at this. “Sure, hold on a moment, Dita!”

 

The perky redhead went up to Kyo and smiled. “What is it Mr. Alien?”

 

“I need to talk with Max for a while, can you deal with the meat, until I get back?”

 

“Sure!”

 

With that, both men walked away while Dita watched over their lunch.

 

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

 

Barnette had just gotten her clothes back on after they were cleaned of dirt and removed of odor. As she put on her clothes, she began thinking about what had happened. As she began to recount the event earlier, she had to admit that when she thought that…Max was attractive, he looked even more so when he was blushing. Like most people, namely that of the opposite gender, Barnette had noted that Max was in awe at her appearance, and his eyes took on a hint that she didn't notice before.

 

But when she played that look in her mind, her heart began to beat a bit faster, and she felt some feeling of heat rise up to her face. This wasn't normal! At least to her, she didn't understand why. But her embarrassment came back in full force when she realized that she recalled seeing Max half-naked all those days ago. Before she could stop herself, she recalled what Jura had told her on what Kyo looked like without clothes on, and that was when the image of Max began to show itself in her head, only this time she was trying to imagine…

 

<ARGH! WHY am I THINKING these things?!>

 

Barnette sighed and made a decision. She was going to have a word with Jura, namely since Jura was always after Kyo. Maybe she knew something about these feelings, considering how much Jura was with Kyo.

 

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

 

In one building, namely in a café…

 

Kyo drank a glass of water slowly and then eye-balled his companion.

 

“Now let me get this right…You walked into the bath-house…and caught Barnette…”

 

Max nodded. “I saw her…naked. And…”

 

“And what?”

 

“And…I… can, can hardly explain it.” The younger Talark male explained to his fellow Gundam operator about his encounter with Barnette.

 

Kyo sighed to himself. <Of all the roles I have to take…God, I must be out of my mind for listening to this. > “Go on, you might as well tell me about it.”

 

< I feel like I'm peeking into somebody else's brain. >

 

“I found myself…it's really hard to describe. When I saw Barnette in the bath, all I could think was…how…beautiful she was. That…is that feeling normal?”

 

Kyo shook his head, at the young man's naiveté, then again, he knew that Max didn't have ALL the experience in the ancient relationships between genders, though he had better ideas about that aspect than Duero did. “Who says?” Kyo said with a shrug. “Men and women can both be beautiful. It all depends on the opinion of the person in question.”

 

The young man shook his head in disbelief.

 

Max said with slow tones. “How can that be? When I saw Barnette all wet…and just…standing there, I felt this…urge… to hold her close to me…and…”

 

“That particular urge you're talking about wouldn't be like you wanted to rip off your own clothes and touch her, right?” Kyo asked while silently adding, “Among other things.” He ought to know…he had to restrain his feelings on that particular subject for almost a year now.

 

“Yes! Exactly! It felt as if some…force within me was…compelling me. It was totally unfamiliar…yet it felt…instinctive, as if I've both known about it my whole life.”

 

“Yeah, I guess you can call it that.” The former Coordinator said calmly.

 

“What is this feeling Kyo? This was something…I felt before…, but never THIS strongly! Is it even RIGHT for me to experience it?”

 

The Gundam pilot looked away from Max for a long time and in silence. Finally, he responded. “To be totally honest with you Max, I'm not all that… sure that I'm the right person to answer that, since I have been fighting those urges myself for a very long time.” Kyo said solemnly then gave a smirk. “Cold showers haven't been very effective, and lately, I have been REALLY tempted to just jump the gun and do it.”

 

“You want to leap over firearms?”

 

Kyo laughed a little. “Sorry, that's just an expression I picked up along the way. I forgot that you and your brother are from Talark and these new feelings must be really scaring you. Though I have a feeling your brother will probably do the same soon. You both have been raised in a society that believed that all women were monsters. However, when you both found out that they weren't monsters, everything you both held to be true went very much out the window, right?”

 

“More or less.” Max admitted.

 

“So now that both of you don't have those beliefs to fall back on, you're both wondering why you're bodies are reacting the way they are now, right? Well, I can only say is that it's because that ancient instinct is now making itself known to you….considering the situation you were in” Kyo said with a smile.

 

“Instinct? What instinct?” Max asked.

 

“On Talark, that instinct has been repressed since the day you were both born. However, now that you have been living on a planet alongside females, and I can only surmise what happened between both parties, back then, and with you and Barnette now. I'm guessing that instinct is trying to make up for a LOT of lost time.”

 

Kyo chuckled a bit at that as he finished his drink.

 

“What instinct are you talking about?” The young man asked.

 

The Gundam pilot sighed as he realized that he would have to be blunt. “What I'm trying to point out is the ancient instinct, both emotional and physical, and `attraction' between men and women. That allows them to go and have children too, by the way.” Kyo said as he put down his glass.

 

Max looked as if he had been smacked on the head with a tire-iron. “You mean…what I feel for…Barnette…is…because…I'm attracted to her?”

 

“Well, in a word…” Kyo sighed and nodded strongly. “…Yes.”

 

Max looked totally confused, shocked, and finally…hurt.

 

Kyo noticed this. <Something's not right. > “You want to tell me something, I can tell you've had these feelings before, I heard that you did, but I wasn't paying attention. It's okay if you won't tell me.”

 

Max nodded. “It's all right, I guess I can tell you.”

 

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

 

Barnette sighed as she sat in a bench in a nearby park. Beside her was Jura. The green-haired friend of Jura had told her about all that had happened between her and Max, namely when he was nearly killed by one of the cybernetic horrors that nearly killed her.

 

“And…that's what happened, ever since then…I've done some things just to be with him.”

 

Jura nodded as she listened to her friend, she noted some moisture in Barnette's eyes when she talked about the one segment that terrified her to no end…the time when Max was nearly skewered to death, all because of her pride and stubbornness.

 

“Hey Barnette, it's cool, you've already been forgiven by him. So what's the problem?”

 

Barnette sighed and wiped some of her tears. “I…I don't know what else I should do! These feelings…they feel so…strange! I never…knew why, but…ever since I've spent time with Max, his brother, and their instructor…I realize how much I really never knew about men. And now I want to know…EVERYTHING about Max!”

 

“So?”

 

“So…I don't know what I should do…how I should feel towards him! Part of me feels like…I'm betraying Megele, I'm betraying Grandma, and all the things held true by my family for so many years! But the other part of me…doesn't…CARE at all! It cares about being with Max, to spent whatever time is there with him, to hear him talk, laugh, and even cry, to see him smile…everything…”

 

Barnette sighed as she looked at the lake nearby. “These feelings I have… for Max…should be wrong. But, they feel so…so right, so…natural. It's confusing me….but no matter what I try to think, all I want is to be with him. I don't know what I should do now. Jura, I never asked you this before, but now, I want to know.”

 

“Know what?”

 

“Do you….do you feel these feelings for…Kyo. I mean…”

 

Jura sighed and looked at the lake just like Barnette. “Remember when I fought with you about Kyo. I felt torn, very torn about how I should have felt at the time. You and I were best friends for years. And I love you Barnette…but all the time I was with Kyo, I felt these feelings like you did, I was also…confused and lost. The feelings felt so right…and natural, and yet they made me question all that I held true when we were still on Megele. However…Kyo did so many great things for everybody, including me as well, and I felt…warm and natural being with him. I felt like I was doing the most simple…yet the most beautiful thing in the whole universe…in my whole life. When he kissed me on Anpathos, I felt like my entire body burn and become weak…my knees…felt like they were now nothing but soft clay. But at the same time…I felt like, as long as I was with him, I can be able to do anything…as long as he was with me.”

 

Jura sighed as she looked at Barnette. “I think….you and I need…to sort out these feelings of ours, mine for Kyo, and yours for Max. These feelings are so new, and we need to see where they lead us.” She then grinned. “I'll say this much though, it'll be great to gossip about it in the long run, eh?”

 

Barnette nodded with her own smile. “Yeah, I guess so. I hope that…”

 

Jura nodded as she had now known about Max's life with the others that were with him and Aleck. “I know…I hope that you have success with Max, he sounds like he needs it after all he had to deal with.”

 

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

 

“So, that's the reason why you've got the lost sad puppy eyed look when I told you about it.” Kyo said as he and Max walked back towards the area where Dita was cooking their lunch.

 

“Yes, I guess so…when you told me about those feelings. I realized that…those were the same feelings I had for Clare. But, I never got the chance to talk to her about it…namely since she told me that she had…these feelings for me. I never got the chance to tell her I…”

 

“You feel that you're betraying the feelings you had for her now that you feel them for Barnette, right?”

 

“Yes. I feel as if I'm doing the wrong thing, but being near Barnette made me feel the same feelings I had. Now they are stronger than before, and it's not easy to realize those feelings so late for someone before and now feel them for someone else.”

 

“My take on your situation Max…is that you take the time to talk to Barnette about it, but I think you'd have to say how you feel once you go to where Clare is.”

 

“What do you mean? Clare is already…”

 

“Dead, I know, but sometimes when you talk to the person, despite the fact that they are not alive, then it helps lighten the load you have on your shoulders. Talking to others and sharing what you each feel can help you bridge the gaps you have between each other. Despite the fact that Clare's no longer alive, it's better you say those feelings to her; I can't really say for sure that it will work. But it'll make things easier for you to deal with it.”

 

Max thought about it and nodded. “I guess you have a point. I'll do just that when I get the chance.”

 

Kyo nodded with a smile. He may not be the best guy to talk things about when it came to the opposite gender, and he's no psychologist nor was he a guy who could solve all problems. But that didn't mean he wasn't going to try his best to help others. Sometimes he wondered why he had this kind of disposition, that regardless of circumstance he was always ready to help others and give others hope and a reason.

 

<I guess I must be visiting a part of myself that was hidden all this time.> Kyo thought to himself as he and Max walked back to where their lunch was being cooked.

 

Dita was there, cheerfully checking their lunch for the proper amount of freshness. Duero was nearby, he helped with the spices, listening to Dita when she asked him to sprinkle the right amount of the said spices. Barnette was also nearby, trying not to look shocked as she saw Jura and Dita prepare the cow creature. Aleck was nearby, hauling some supplies to where the others were.

 

He then nudged Max and pointed at Barnette. “I know you spent time with her before Max. But this is a good a time as any to learn more about Barnette. Go for it.”

 

Max nodded as he went ahead of Kyo and went to help the others. Kyo then went to where the communications bunker was. He then got into contact with the Nirvana.

 

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

 

The Nirvana…

 

“Go ahead Kyo, what's your status?” BC asked as she and the rest of the bridge crew listened in.

 

“Barnette and the others are now here with us. All the supplies they have and those two Gundams are here now. How long will it be before you all get here?”

 

“We'll be there in five minutes.” Magno said to Kyo as the older woman gave a smile, knowing that the others were all safe.

 

“Great, we've got lunch ready here for all of you!”

 

“Lunch?”

 

“You'll see.” Was Kyo's only reply, along with a smirk.

 

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

 

Later…

 

The crew of the Nirvana were happy beyond words when they were able to land and meet up with the others. The Nirvana went on combat standby while the crew went out to meet Kyo and the others. Magno and BC gave a pair of warm smiles as they saw the landing party safe and sound, and they greeted the two new men into their ranks.

 

“So you must be Max McFile.” Magno said as she shook hands with the younger sibling of their physician.

 

“Yes, Captain. My name is Max McFile.” Max replied as he shook hands with the Captain. The younger man had to admit that meeting a woman almost a century old was an honor into itself. It just showed to him how advanced Megele's medical technology was, if their population could reach the age of a hundred or more. Then again, his people could do the very same even if they didn't have all that medical technology.

 

“You don't to be so formal with me young one. I hear you are a doctor like your elder brother. I don't suppose you would mind working with us on the ship?” Magno asked, though she knew Max would say yes to the idea, she wanted to still formally present the proposal nevertheless.

 

“Of course, Cap…uh.”

 

“Magno will do Max. I think you might have to leave us for a few moments.” Magno smirked a bit.

 

“Oh?” Max asked, confused a bit by the statement.

 

“Take a look behind you.”

 

Max turned and there came Barnette smiling at him, while in her normal garb. The looks Barnette was giving him made him feel rather nervous and intrigued, so he walked up to her. The two then sat together while eating some of the food Kyo had cooked along with what was brought from the galley of the Nirvana. Parfet had found a way to shield the Nirvana from detection by the AI army, so they were safe for now. However the spunky head-engineer had other things on her mind.

 

“Duero, thank god you're safe!” The bespectacled girl said as she rushed up to Duero and hugged him. This startled the young doctor as the other crew just watched the situation unfold as Parfet began to cry a bit.

 

The sight of Parfet hugging the Talark medic and crying on his chest, while gripping him tightly was surprising to most of the crew. Though in truth some were aware of the growing affection between the head engineer and the Talark doctor…so the sight of her crying tears was not ALL that surprising. But everyone was all shocked at the sight of the former man-hating Megele girl staying beside Duero's younger sibling and smiling and chatting with the man…and what was even more shocking was the fact that…she looked happy to be around him!

 

“Parfet, calm down I'm fine, so please…loosen your grip…your making it hard to breath!”

 

“Duero…oh, I'm sorry!” Parfet said as she quickly loosened her grip, allowing the object of her affections to breathe while turning around blushing while twiddling her fingers.

 

Behind them, all of the crew in the under-ground city were shocked beyond belief. They all were staring and then looked at Kyo with questioning looks.

 

“Hey, don't look at me…I didn't do anything.”

 

In the background, Magno smiled at the scene as her second in command looked on in total confusion.

 

“Heh, heh. Well now…I have a feeling that things are going to get even more interesting in the near-future.”

 

The crew went on and had a great time eating, though most of them were a bit squeamish at eating the roasted creature Kyo had killed. But they got over it as Barnette, Jura, and Dita said it was safe.

 

Aleck had been elsewhere and now arrived to chow down as well.

 

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

 

Kyo smiled a bit as he watched the others eat, while holding his own plate of food. He then smiled a bit more as he spotted a certain person walking towards him.

 

“Hey Meia, nice to see you've decided to join us.”

 

The Dread pilot nodded as she walked over to the Gundam pilot. The rest of the crew were busy eating and talking to one another, trading stories and such. Right now, Kyo was near the lake of the park, while having his lunch. He had been there planning the escape while taking the time to relax after the hectic days ever since they had been trapped here.

 

“Good to see you too Kyo.” Meia said calmly, but in truth she was happy beyond words to be finally given the chance to be with Kyo. She only hoped that she would be uninterrupted by the others.

 

Kyo stood up and went to get another plate for the Dread pilot. He took some food out from the eating area, got some utensils and then offered the meal to Meia.

 

“Here, you look like you could really use something good to eat.” He said with a smile as he offered the plate. Meia gave a smile and took the plate from Kyo's hands, while brushing her hands on his own as she had taken off her piloting gloves.

 

Kyo had done the same as he had removed his own gloves when he had been cooking much earlier so it was easy for him to feel Meia's hands on his as he gave her the food. He had expected some calluses on her hands, after he had learned a great deal about her past life all those months ago. Though there were some, her hands were still smooth and not too rough. Apparently, despite Meia's lack maintaining her femininity due to her serious attitude as a pilot, she did have time to properly take her of herself. Her hands had smooth skin and were soft to the touch…

 

Kyo quickly halted the ideas that sprang into his head at the contact. He sighed mentally to himself, the situations he was in with Meia, Dita, Jura, and some of the other girls on the Nirvana were very hard for him at times.

 

Meia also had the same feelings, she had felt Kyo's hands as well. His hands were rougher and a bit more callused than hers, no doubt due to his many experiences before being part of the crew on the pirate group. Though he did have rougher skin, it didn't mean that Meia didn't notice that he had a gentle way of holding things. Her heart began to feel a little lighter for an odd reason as she began to wonder what his hands would feel if they were…

 

Meia quickly halted that train of confusing thoughts in her mind. She felt rather confused at those thoughts. Why should she care if Kyo's hands were rougher than hers? But she couldn't hide the fact that she was very curious about him.

 

Both decided to look at one another to halt their respective train of thoughts. Meia decided to concentrate on what the crew should do to escape.

 

“Kyo, do you have any plans on how we can escape from here?”

 

Kyo nodded as he pointed to a section of trucks. Meia spotted several quadruped mecha on them and were now being unloaded by Aleck, Max, Duero and Gascogne, along with the girls from the Register and the Engineering bay of the Nirvana.

 

“Yeah, once we re-program those Desert Fang units CPU and OS, we can use them to upload the virus I have in mind. This will be cutting it a little close though, it'll take several hours for us to do just that, plus I'll need to customize the OS of both the Morpheous and SwitchBlade Gundams to unlock their full power. Once that's done, we move out and use the units we've captured to distract the enemy while we take over a Lancer Platform.”

 

Meia nodded as she got the idea on what Kyo had in mind. They were going to attempt the famous `Trojan Horse' maneuver. The Desert Fangs that were incapacitated would carry the engineered virus and then would upload the virus into the data-drives of the Ai army's bases and units. However, it had to be done quickly as time was against them, as the Harvesters could be right on top of them at any given moment.

 

“Do you think we can make it?” Meia asked as she looked at Kyo.

 

Kyo nodded with a grin. “I know so. All we have to do is work hard and we can do just that.”

 

Meia had to admit that the time she had been with Kyo made her ready to trust him. Normally she didn't always trust others, except her fellow pirates and herself. But Kyo was probably the one man she trusted with a lot of things.

 

“Is there any way I can help?”

 

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

 

Unknown to the Nirvana's crew, they weren't the only ones with a plan…

 

The leader of the Harvester Council smiled a bit more as he looked at his computer monitors. The data uplink would be ready at late night time. He would then send this data protocol order to the AI agent of the trap his people had placed, and was fortuitous enough to catch the elusive and dangerous Nirvana. He knew for a fact that the possibility of the Nirvana effecting an escape was very much possible.

 

But instead of being angry and frustrated, the leader had an…unusual look of interested anticipation on his face. He then began uploading the last of his data into his special order for the AI forces. In the data was the order for the capture, or if not possible, the retrieval of a DNA and tissue sample from a certain individual.

 

<All seems to be in place… all that's missing…is a little blood.>

 

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

 

The underground city…

 

Duero and Parfet were now back at work, they were there in helping update the CPU and OS of the captured Desert Fang units that Duero had disabled using the Morpheous Gundam's Raiha Form Pack. It took some time for them to re-activate the systems and getting the basic programs into the OS of the mecha. But with both Duero, Parfet, and Kyo who had finished eating, they were making good time. Meia was there also, lending her skills with electronics to the plans. Having been always present with any tactical computer updates on her own Dread, had given the short-haired girl some considerable computer skills.

 

The head engineer was glad that Duero was safe and sound, and was now ready to complete whatever work was needed for their escape. Duero had gained some considerable technical knowledge and his appliance of his medical skills made him have great potential as an engineer, though he was not giving up his medical profession anytime soon.

 

Parfet sighed a bit to herself as she and Duero were hard at work. Both of them were near a computer console working on restoring a basic OS program that could be accepted by the AI army's main computer entity. Thanks to Kyo's recovery of an OS drive from the first encounter, they were able to salvage the basic data infra-structure of all the units' AI formation. The efforts were going well, with Kyo lending his computer and engineering skills to the work. Max on the other hand was busy learning the fundamental basics of medical treatment for women from Duero earlier and was now taking his place where he could treat the women, while his elder brother helped the spunky head engineer.

 

She looked at Duero with a wistful eye. She had been worried sick for almost a week, trying her best to remain at her duties to the ship and her teams, while resisting the urge to try and find Duero. Her feelings for the young medic had been growing for the past few days since he had been part of the Landing Party. She then thought of what she did earlier in hugging him in public, never mind the fact that it was embarrassing to her when the other engineers began to tease her about it. She sighed and wondered if she could find a way to know more about Duero…intimately (NO! Not that way you perverts…at least not YET. (^_^) ). She blushed a bit and wondered on what she should do.

 

Duero turned and noted this change in the young Megele engineer. He sometimes wondered why women would suddenly have these…stains of color on their cheeks. He had noticed it when Parfet had released him after hugging him impulsively when they saw each other. He wondered if Parfet had a fever, but her healthy actions went against that, so it must be something else…and why was it he thought she looked…what as the word Misty used? Oh yeah, cute?

 

“Are you all right Parfet? You seem to be feverish, with that show of color on your cheeks.”

 

“Oh!” Parfet realized that she was blushing right in front of Duero. She quickly tried to dissuade Duero from making the wrong assumption. “I'm sorry, I just, have a load of things on my mind lately.”

 

“I see… well, if ever you need my help, I'll do what I can.” Duero said with a smile at the spunky head engineer.

 

“Right…I will.” The head engineer said as she walked to get something from her supply kit. The head engineer decided to unzip her jacket and just cool off with some water.

 

Duero turned as he reached for a small data-pad when he spotted Parfet unzipping her jacket. He now looked at Parfet as she took a drink out of a water bottle. For some odd reason, seeing Parfet do a simple action as drinking some water had an effect on him. The movement of her neck muscles and the way she looked…made him feel nervous…and very…agitated….almost to a point that he was totally confused by his body's reactions, it seemed that the whole scene was…stimulating parts of him.

 

Duero then went on to study Parfet sub-consciously. He then took stock of Parfet as she was now bare except for her tank top. He had learned that it was also the women's choice as a partial solution to bras, thanks to their extensive research in various aspects of life, including the manufacturing methods for cloth. Most women, according to Paiway wore these as substitute for normal bras, so that meant that it also served as Parfet's undergarment.

 

That was when for the first time Duero was studying a woman, and NOT as a doctor…

 

Parfet may not be very attractive by most standards, she was considered to have a petite figure, with her small stature and slender frame. With her brown hair usually done in her trade-mark thick twin braids, and her oversized spectacles, her normal appearance was considered plain and average, until one took a closer look. Duero normally didn't have any difficulty dealing with his patient's appearance, including Parfet…but now, he was seeing the hidden beauty of the quiet female engineer.

 

She wasn't as showy as any of the other girls, but her features were appealing, at least to him. Her breasts were not as big as the other women, but were shaped to suit her height and slender frame. She had an hour-glass figure, and there was some considerable muscle-structure on her, nod doubt from carrying amounts of parts and equipment as being an engineer. They didn't detract her female attributes all that much, but rather, enhanced them. She had a good amount of curves on her as well, though those were hidden most of the time by her engineer's uniform. Despite the two braids that her hair was normally in, and her think glasses, she did have soft skin and Duero knew that for a fact he had treated her as well during her routine medical check-ups. She looked…

 

Duero shook his head a bit at the thoughts that were in his mind. Why was he suddenly thinking these things? Sure, he had been working with Parfet on the Nirvana on a normally daily basis, and that included seeing her without her upper jumpsuit covering her torso…along with medical checkups that also had her bare of the suit on occasion. But this feeling he had now as he watched her… was an absolute first! He felt some semblance of these feelings whenever he was near Parfet, but NEVER this strongly. He then felt a faint rush of heat go to his face as he began to look a lot harder and more closely at Parfet.

 

“Duero…are you all right?”

 

Duero quickly shook his head at he heard Parfet speak to him. He looked at Parfet and spoke. “Sorry, I had some thoughts in my mind, and got distracted.”

 

“Oh, sorry, I'll need to go get some extra parts, I'll be back, all right?”

 

“Of course.” Duero said, but not before looking at Parfet as she walked back. He didn't know why, but he was watching Parfet's back as she moved away. He noted that women had a different stride when they walked. But now he found himself staring at Parfet's back…all the way to her… backside.

 

<What am I doing?!> For some reason, looking Parfet began to tug at him in certain ways, ways he didn't understand completely, but were not…offensive at all. Did it have something to do with him not seeing Parfet and feeling these emotions while being away from her? In fact he began to think that he would have slapped himself to quit staring at Parfet.

 

<I think I need to talk to Kyo.>

 

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

 

On one side of the city…

 

“Okay, a little bit more…there, that should do it!” Kyo said with a sigh as he finished his upgrading of the Morpheous Gundam's OS. He had finished doing the same updating and customization of the OS to the SwitchBlade. By accessing the OS and conditioning it to fight with all the combat data and profiles of Barnette, plus adding some extra combat data from his own Infinite-Freedom Gundam, the SwitchBlade's combat performance was very much boosted. Barnette had taken it out after the customization and was very happy with the changes. She thanked Kyo and then asked if he could do the same for the Templar Gundam. He agreed to the suggestion and went to deal with the Morpheous. Once he was done with the Gundam Duero piloted, he'd work on the possible bugs in the Templar.

 

He then got out of the cockpit and descended down to the floor via the cable on the Gundam, and that was where he spotted Duero…looking as he had the world's greatest mystery on his shoulders.

 

Kyo suddenly wondered why this scene was getting to be familiar.

 

“Hey Duero, you okay?”

 

“Yeah, I need to ask you something, if you've got some time to spare.”

 

“Sure I'm done with your Gundam's updates anyway, you can take it out for a test drive anytime.”

 

<Why do I get the feeling this discussion I'm about to have has déjà vu written all over it?>

 

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

 

Max sighed a bit as he fixed a creak in his neck as he looked at his new gear. He had been working for over several hours since the end of lunch as he took care of the girls that were in need of medical treatment, though right now they were busy exploring the city. The doctor was in the city's hospital which still had stocks of medicine and supplies, so the doctor had no problem in the treatment, in reality he had some help, and from an unlikely source.

 

“This is a tissue regenerator, back on Megele we use this to bind cuts and lacerations, along with some disinfectant spray.”

 

Barnette replied as she pointed out some of the medical equipment that Paiway had brought along, she had checked the check-list and decided to help Max become acquainted with them all. It was the least she could do.

 

“I see…and this is?”

 

“That's a fusion scalpel, we use it when our nurses have to perform surgery. This is a pain-killer patch. It's like a stick on piece of adhesive, but it's filled with special pain-killers that can be absorbed through the skin, it's not all that effective as the more powerful pain killer medicine, but it's good for emergency field work.”

 

The two were working together, with Barnette giving Max details on some of the Megele medical equipment that Paiway brought with her. The introductions were very interesting as Max was surprised at the fact that Paiway was very young and was a nurse under Duero's supervision. The two got along well as Paiway's medical skills were exceptional to Max's standards and she had a check-list of the current patients. Duero's tutelage to Paiway had helped the young nurse to deal with patient load when he wasn't on the ship. The young girl was taking a break since she had been working nearly non-stop since the Nirvana had been without the elder brother.

 

An hour later…

 

“I am so tired…” Barnette moaned as she sat in a small bench near a café, The crew that were treated decided to work on the Nirvana and get some down time. Magno had ordered the crew to be ready for any combat situation while they got ready to escape the enemy trap. For the mean time, it was a chance to unwind after the tense combat standby they had been in since a week ago.

 

Really? If you don't mind, I'll try and relieve the stress you're in.” Max answered as he smiled at Barnette.

 

“Really? How?”

 

“I know physical therapy, and I might help deal with the muscular tension.”

 

Barnette was a bit confused, but quickly understood what Max was referring to.” You mean a massage?”

 

Max nodded.

 

Barnette nodded as she smiled a bit, she wondered for a while if Max had rough hands. Seeing them before showed that he had considerable calluses on his hands, and they were the results of his training both as a boy and as a soldier/healer.

 

“Uh sure, but have you…”

 

Max smirked a bit. “If you mean done this before on a woman? Then the answer is yes. I had too since I was the senior medic.”

 

Max then began to massage Barnette's shoulders slowly and gently. The young woman felt the rough skin of the medic but noticed how smoothly precise and gentle he was when doing the massage on her shoulders and neck. She gave some sounds of satisfaction as the knots in her muscles began to loosen and her tension began to ease away.

 

“You're pretty good at this.”

 

“Yeah, I guess you can say that. It's been some time though since I've done this.”

 

“Well Max, I really appreciate it, and so…if you don't mind. I'd like to teach you how to cook, if you don't mind?”

 

Max thought about it and nodded. “Sure, I've always wondered about how to cook like you women do anyway.”

 

Barnette smiled at the thought. Another chance to learn more about Max had just arrived, though she decided to take it slowly, so not to over-do her plans to get the younger sibling to open up to her more.

 

Unknown to them, Paiway was nearby with her trusty camera and her note-pad. Like before, she had more intuition when it came to these things, namely since Dita had always been chasing Kyo. So naturally she was VERY curious about this new relationship that was blossoming between the former man hating Dread pilot and the younger sibling of her mentor.

 

Paiway also knew that there was still the relationship between Duero and Parfet and she loved looking at whenever she got the chance to check the two. This new relationship CERTAINLY deserved her attention however. This new one was an absolute treat!

 

“This is going to be SO INTERESTING! Pai Check!”

 

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

 

Speaking of whom…

 

“Okay, so that what happened?” Kyo asked Duero while he and the young doctor were looking at nearby garden made from the stalactites and stalagmites that were near a cave entrance. The garden was apparently a rock-garden as the cave formations had been smoothened and chipped to resemble trees. These stone pillars reflected the lights coming from an opening in the surface and gave the garden a glittering feel, and with that, the lights gave the illusion that there was running water in the garden. It was a great sight, one that must have been a great spot for many gatherings for the former inhabitants of this world. Some of the crew were eager to look, but promised not to take any of the stones with them.

 

“Yes, and I've…I don't know how to call it exactly, but…I've been staring at her so intently. And then I began to have these thoughts about Parfet that…really trouble me.”

 

< I should have known…>

 

“Exactly HOW did these thoughts trouble you?” Kyo stressed.

 

“Well… Lately…when I see Parfet, I have this feeling in my stomach, kind of like a shiver that travels along my spinal cord.”

 

“Hmm…could you be a little MORE specific?”

 

<Why me? First it's Max, now Duero!>

 

“I feel like there's this ache in my stomach, and heart, nothing medically troubling, I had no irregularities physically, but I get this sudden… increase in heart rate and well…I've also experienced sudden rushes of heat in certain parts of my body whenever I look at Parfet now. I've been feeling these things before…but never this intensely.”

 

< I can imagine…still you're luckier in some ways Duero.> Kyo thought as he listened to the young doctor while thinking of his own situation. <You only have to deal with attraction to ONE girl, and you are… not burdened with what I have to go through whenever I see the girls, in any given day!> Kyo quickly squelched his own thoughts as he listened to Duero.

 

The problems he had were tame compared to Duero, but he kept in mind that Duero, like Max having been raised on a single gender world had little to non-existent contact with women. It made sense to the young Gundam operator that Duero was frightened by these feelings he had for his closest friend on the Nirvana. He saw the same for Parfet, but if he knew one thing, there was going to be a time that Parfet would make a few moves on Duero that will totally confuse the young man, and no matter what, he'll have to be the one to explain the whole thing to his comrade, the same way he had dealt with Max.

 

“And I've seen her in the same garments at times while helping in the Paeksis repairs…and there were, uh, times I had to see her for medical examinations and she had to…” Duero suddenly felt another rush of heat n his face as he suddenly did something he thought he'd never do in any place either public or private, he twiddled his fingers.

 

Kyo couldn't help but snicker silently at the looks that were all over Duero's face. But he remained objective. He however knew what Duero was trying to say and NOT say at the same time.

 

“Let me guess…she's, naked, right?”

 

“Yes, and though those were medical exams, every time I thought about it now, and, being this close to Parfet after being away from her for nearly a week… I can't help but think on so many things…One of them is…”

 

“Is what?”

 

“Is…how…how beautiful she was then…and now when I saw her. That can't be right, I mean… I've…uh, seen that…Parfet isn't as…pampered as the other girls, but I can't seem to think that she's not as attractive as the girls…or even more…to me she's more attractive than them! That can't be right, can it?”

 

Kyo sighed as he looked out at the rock-garden. “Duero, both men and women are beautiful, the important thing depends on the person's viewer, if the viewer thinks the person is beautiful, then there's nothing wrong with thinking those things.”

 

“But why…why now is it I feel this way for Parfet?”

 

Kyo sighed again as he looked at Duero straight in the eye. “Before I answer that question Duero, I need to ask you another question, and this is serious, so you have to tell me everything clearly and honestly. All right?”

 

Duero nodded. “I'll answer with the truth and only the truth. I promise.”

 

Kyo smiled a bit. <That should make things easier, I hope!>

 

“Okay, first things first. When you met Parfet, all those months ago…what did you think of her?”

 

Duero realized that from Kyo's tone of voice, this was a serious matter. He then began to think back on how he met Parfet and what he thought of her.

 

“When I first met Parfet, I thought that she had some very interesting views of the world. She treats all machines as alive as people, that's how we got to working together in solving mechanical problems whenever I'm in the Engineering Bay. She's very friendly, open-minded, and has a cheerful disposition. She didn't give up on anything that she set her mind to. And well, she seems to be the kind of person you and easily trust and work with.”

 

“Okay, I can imagine that part easy…so, when did you have THOSE feelings?”

 

“Well…I've had them after that time when…we were in that mutiny that Barnette started all those months ago. She came to us and offered us food, saying that what was going on was totally wrong and her comrades were wrong to imprison them. Bart made this nasty comment and it hurt Parfet. I didn't know why but I felt almost tempted to bash Bart's head in with my bare hands. After that, there were other occasions I began to have these thoughts about her. I began to notice things about her that I didn't…notice before. Like how she smiles whenever something goes well, and how hard she works eagerly on a new project. There's also when she gives these expressions…when she's sad, agitated, upset, relieved, and when…she seems to be at ease whenever she's working beside me. I sometimes wonder to myself what she looks like without her glasses, though for the life of me I don't know why I should be so interested to see what she looks like without her glasses. I also like it, though I have no idea why, when she's just there drinking a cup of her favorite tea when she's taking a break. And…”

 

“And?”

 

“And even when she's covered in some parts of her body with oil from working on the ship's systems, I don't seem to mind at all. I also wonder at how her hands feel. I can't know since she wears gloves all the time. And well, the feelings have been growing somewhat long before I got into being part of the Landing Party. I thought at first it was a normal thing for one to be attached to a close friend…but now… I guess that's how I feel about Parfet now. Tell me Kyo, what am I feeling for her?”

 

Kyo nodded as he already knew where Duero was going. He couldn't help but recall a certain time he had been on his journey and had walked into something totally similar to this situation. He decided to give Duero his explanation.

 

“I think that what you're feeling is very normal. It's called attraction, and it has a lot to do with feelings and emotions towards another person, namely when you have been with that person for a very long time. It blossoms out of friendship and grows… And that has a tendency to lead to other things.”

 

“I'm attracted to Parfet?! But how…”

 

“It's a very long story, and I know that since you've never grown up with women for almost all your life except when you were in the Ikazuchi before and after it was shot half-way across the galaxy, these feelings are really shocking you. You've spent a lot of time with women, but mostly with Parfet, and it troubles you a lot that you feel this way, right?”

 

“Yes, I feel somewhat torn…Part of me feels that if I…if I do this, I'll be breaking every oath I had made to my planet and Grand Pa. But despite that…these feelings feel so right and…so foreign at the same time, but they won't go away, like they're already a part of me, but I didn't even know they existed!”

 

Kyo thought about it. This was somewhat a sensitive subject so he decided to finally ask his last question.

 

“I'll answer your question…with a question. What do your new feelings tell you, whenever you look at Parfet, apart from how beautiful she is?”

 

Duero took in a deep breath and sighed slowly “When I saw Parfet all wet with sweat…and just…standing there with her in her normal undergarment, I felt this…urge… to hold her close to me…and”

 

“That urge wouldn't be like you wanted to rip off your own clothes, and touch her in a number of places, right?” Kyo asked.

 

“Yes! Exactly! It felt as if some…force within me was…compelling me. It was totally unfamiliar…yet it felt…instinctive, as if it's been part of me my whole life!”

 

“Thought as much, you could call those feelings instinctive.” Kyo said calmly.

 

“What is this feeling of attraction Kyo? Why is it NOW for me to experience it? Why is it making me think these things for Parfet?”

 

“Attraction has a way of doing things that are hard to understand. I can only say is that you feel this deep attraction to Parfet is because that ancient instinct that has been suppressed on your home-planet of Talark is now making itself known to you.” Kyo said with a smile.

 

“Instinct? What instinct?” Duero asked.

 

“On Talark, that instinct has been repressed since the day you and Max were born. However, now that you have been living on a ship inhabited only by females and you see them no longer as monsters, I can guess your male side is being re-educated on the finer points of the female gender. I'm guessing that instinct is trying to make up for a LOT of lost time since it's gotten to be stimulated already.” Kyo chuckled a bit at that.

 

“What instinct are you talking about?” The young man asked.

 

The Gundam pilot decided he would have to be blunt. “What I'm trying to point out is, the ancient instinct, both emotional and physical between men and women. How else did you think they gave birth to children back in the old days of your ancestral world and that of Parfet?” Kyo said calmly.

 

Duero looked as if he had been struck by a two by four on the head. “What? Are you saying…that what I have been feeling lately for…Parfet, is because…of an urge…to…procreate?” He barely said the last word audibly.

 

“Well, in a word…Yes.”

 

THUD!!

 

Kyo looked at the now unconscious man.

 

<Wasn't the exact reaction I had in mind. But it came close.>

 

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

 

The Earth Fleets…

 

The CPU of the main combat fleet began receiving new instructions from it's creators. The information was to be relayed to the AI army commander unit on the desert world. The CPU now had determined that it was the best time to send the data burst to the receiver on the planet. This was a covert priority one message from it's leader and took precedence over the other combat protocols. The mother-ship then began to position a comm.-relay antennae and aimed it at the planet it was now approaching alongside it's sister fleet. The EM emissions from the planet had lessened and allowed a time frame for the transmission to be sent. Once it was done, the CPU would have to wait for a few hours before it could relay the new set of orders regarding the Nirvana.

 

On the surface…

 

The AI entity was able to receive the covert transmission and began updating it's software to include this new plan in the CPU units of it's current forces. The AI entity had began to recall all of it's current military units and have them return for a full data update.

 

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

 

Kyo smirked a bit he looked at Duero and Parfet working side by side while he was busy creating his patented virus/OS program. After he had revived the medic, he then managed to convince Duero to take his time in dealing with the new feelings, and get to know Parfet a lot more. He told the medic that if he had any problems with this situation, he would be nearby to try and answer as much as he could.

 

In his opinion, the two were very much made for each other. Both were smart, quick on their feet, and they get along very well with each other. Duero's got a quality that set him apart in Kyo's eyes, and it seemed that Parfet had a quality that set her apart in his eyes too. The two were very good friends, with Parfet helping Duero with any maintenance work in the Medical Bay, and Duero would be a welcome addition to Parfet whenever she worked in the Engineering Bay. So it was no surprise to him that the friendship could become something…deeper and more personal.

 

<Like two peas in a pod.>

 

He then realized that in some ways, things were not going to be easy between them. Not that either had an axe to grind with each other, far from it. It was the fact that Parfet may know how to approach someone in a more personal manner, but in Duero's case, it was different, he only hanged out with men and as such had no way to know what to say or do when being approached by a woman….and that naturally meant that he might not know how to act around Parfet. Parfet also was a bit of a problem, due to the fact that she may already know Duero, but her level of…knowing him was still somewhat in the professional level, and that could present a challenge when she might do things that would make no sense to the Talark physician since she had been raised to be only with women, and that could present a big hurdle.

 

Kyo didn't want such a good couple to break up due to misunderstandings, and knowing this, he knew for a fact that he's going to have to do the one thing he partially disliked a great deal, and that was being match-maker. There was nothing wrong between Duero and Parfet, but if Kyo learned one thing from all his time with the women. It was that all it took to really make a mess out of things…was a misunderstanding and lack of communication.

 

He sighed and after making some more adjustments took a break, he informed Parfet and Duero that he had something left to do and work on Templar, to keep his promise to Barnette, he had talked to Max about it and the younger McFile agreed to the idea.

 

He had his own set of problems to deal with, and they came in the forms of several women…Dita, Meia. Jura as the first three, along with Misty, Sara, and Mai. He didn't know what to do with the girls ever since that debacle in the Nirvana's communal bath. Along with the things that happened here on the planet, he was already trying not to give in to his male hormones. In some senses he was lucky and unlucky at the same time, lucky in the fact that he knew WHY he felt these feelings unlike Duero who had just been introduced to them, and Max who is now re-discovering them…and unlucky in the fact that he didn't feel them strongly for one girl, but for several!

 

He didn't know what to do yet, and he hoped that he could at least figure SOMETHING out…

 

“Commander?”

 

Kyo looked from his staring at the ground and saw Sara looking at him with concern. “Oh, Sara is something wrong?”

 

“No, I was just concerned, you seem so…distant, is something wrong?” The young second in command of the Angel Squadron asked her superior.

 

“Nothing to concern yourself with Sara, but thanks for the concern nevertheless.” Kyo said with a smile. He then noted the outfit that Sara wore.

 

It looked like a normal full body suit, but had some changes in design. It was colored red and had some silver streaks on the sides. It fit like a glove on the athletic pilot, showing to Kyo once more the figure that he had seen in the bath. The sleeves were up to the middle of the upper arms and there on Sara's left arm was a gold bracelet with a blue stone in the center. The suit's lower area was up to the upper areas of the knees and there was a utility belt sewn into the hips. Sara always wore a jacket similar to Dita's, but had shorter sleeves. He had to admit one thing, Sara was very attractive.

 

“Commander... I wanted to…”

 

“Sara, I'd like it if you don't mind using my name for a change. Commander is fine when we're in battle, but right now, I want to relax. Is that okay with you?”

 

“Okay Comma…Kyo. I wanted to ask some questions.”

 

“About what? About the plans for the escape? I'll inform you when I get…”

 

“No, not those plans…I mean…uh…”

 

Sara then began to twiddle her fingers a bit. For someone of her skills and heritage, the thought of her being all flustered and unsure was very foreign. It was not something she would normally do in front of anybody. For the life of her, Sara didn't understand why she was acting this way, and in front of her commanding officer of all people! She should be really angry at herself. But for now…she didn't seem to care. Right now, she tried to get her thoughts into order, and hope that what she was about to do wasn't a big mistake on her part.

 

“Sara…? What do you want to ask me?”

 

Kyo wondered what was going on, though there was a voice in his head calling him a dunce for not noticing.

 

“I wanted to…ask you about…”

 

Kyo was getting more confused. “What do you want to ask me? And please calm down; I'm not going to get angry.”

 

Sara hoped that what he said was true. She hoped that she wasn't going to make a mistake. She had too much admiration and respect for Kyo for the past few months they had worked together for her to mess it up with a mistake of communication, and she hoped what she was about to ask wasn't going to make her a fool.

 

“I wanted to know…about you, Kyo.”

 

Kyo was a bit silent at this. <I had a feeling that something was going to happen.> He then decided to at least talk about himself along with as much as he could recall. He had a feeling that he was going to have to do it anyway, and it won't just be Sara who would be listening to him this time.

 

He gave a smile to Sara.

 

“All right, what do you want to know?”

 

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

 

As the two walked towards where Max's Templar Gundam was being stored, they saw several of the Register crew working alongside their boss, and they spotted Gascogne talking with none other than Aleck Koubayashi. The former Vanguard pilot and combat instructor decided to make use of his free time and help overhaul some of the new machines that were going to be used to effect their escape. The tough and wry soldier was a great worker and seemed to be at ease when working on something that involved heavy duties. Kyo and Sara took a detour as the young man decided to speak about himself to his second in command…and de facto…date, in this case.

 

Aleck gave a sigh as he hauled two boxes filled with repair parts and components to one side which would then be sent to the Engineering teams who were near the Desert Fangs on his shoulders and placed them on where they would by hauled via gravity cart. The older male was bare-chested and didn't seem to mind being without his uniform, and he didn't mind it when he heard some of the girls whisper and point at him. He had gotten used to such things long before the Nirvana made it's detour on this planet.

 

“Hey Gunny, you look like you could use a drink!”

 

Aleck turned and saw the Head of the Pirate's Register, Gascogne Rheingau holding a bottle. When he met the tough looking woman, he was a little bit curious about this woman, she seemed a little bit different from the rest of the girls that he had been in exile with, and the ones he was working with now. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that they were close to the same age. He was nearly 34, and she seemed maybe a year of two younger than he was. But he didn't judge anybody in his line of work by age, but by knowledge, guts, experience, training, and sheer talent and tenacity. That was what made him a tough, feared, but highly respected Vanguard instructor back home. He sensed a great deal coming from this tough woman, and it helped that they were roughly the same height, back then he had some difficulty dealing with some of the women who were a little bit shorter as he had to bend his head down to stare at them in the eye.

 

As he had learned from his previous trainer, the body and face may lie and deceive, but the eyes will always tell the truth. He sensed that this calm and very easy going woman had some history, but from his experience, he had no right to pry into it. He sensed that Gascogne carried some kind of burden on her shoulders, and he had learned before…in his time as a young man… that a burden that isn't completely cured, removed, or made to pass…will break you down eventually. He was happy to see that Max was easing up on the past, and now opened up to others. For now, he kept his opinions on Gascogne to himself.

 

“Thanks Miss Gascogne, I have been hauling a load of gear for over three hours now.” Aleck said as he sat beside Gascogne and took the bottled water and took some deep gulps. He sighed with satisfaction as he felt the cool liquid flow down his throat.

 

Gascogne grinned as she looked at the older man. “You work real hard, and you're just as efficient as Kyo. No wonder you and Max survived this long out here in this place.” She, had noticed that he too seemed to carry some of his own burdens. As she had done long ago when she was also in grief with what happened to Kyo all those months ago, her skills at reading a person came into play as she studied this older man. He seemed to by highly experienced, but not just in the field of warfare, it was something else…

 

She had been able to learn something about this man who decided to help the Register out. According to Bart, their navigator, Aleck was among those who piloted the Vanguard in it's prototype days and it was his recommendations that made the Vanguard tougher and stronger. Plus he was their top instructor in the Academy, along with his surviving Vanguard test pilots. His nickname of Gunny was due to his quick response in stopping any cadet who was making many errors, and he was not intimidated of their ranks and citizen status either. But he seemed to hide a great deal of himself as well, and it seemed that he too had his own reasons, as she did…

 

Gascogne sighed a bit to herself, she wasn't going to try and pry into this one's thoughts. Gascogne can tell that Aleck might not reveal to anybody what was in his mind, so no sense prying into his mind. Plus, her own reasons and secrets were not going to come out at this time. But that didn't mean she wouldn't try and make friends with the guy, he seemed to be the kind you could trust, and Gascogne rarely failed in that respect.

 

“I know that you're a combat pilot, but you don't mind joining us. The Captain seems to like how you handle things, and the Commander believes so too.”

 

“Yeah, why not? It's not like I've got any choice in the matter. But it's a great deal, considering we've met some friendly faces at last.” Aleck nodded as he finished his drink. He liked Gascogne, as he could tell that like before, she was easy going and can be a great friend.

 

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

 

Elsewhere…

 

“You have any hobbies?” Sara asked Kyo as he was working in the Templar Gundam's cockpit.

 

“Apart from cooking, music, and dancing?…well, I did dabble in painting, but I wasn't very good at it. Swimming is another of my hobbies, I loved to play baseball when I was still traveling.”

 

“Base…ball? What's that?”

 

“It's an outdoor sport, It's kind of complicated if you don't play it. I'll tell you about it some other time. Let's see…I take to martial arts, of course you know about it already, I do spare time to learn how to do handicrafts, but I'm still learning. Plus I work on computers and electronics. That's pretty much…all that I have as hobbies.”

 

Sara smirked a bit as she looked at Kyo as he still did some more tests on the Gundam Max piloted. The young male pilot seemed to be very relaxed and patient as he answered some of her questions while working on the Gundam he promised to fix. In a way, seeing Kyo with a content expression made Sara wonder even more about his personal life. As much as she knew that it was somewhat a sore subject for the Gundam pilot to discuss, since he never spoke to anybody about it…with the exceptions of Jura, Meia, and Dita.

 

At the thought of the three Dread pilots, she couldn't help but feel a tinge of envy for them. She didn't lie to Mai when she told her comrade about her asking the others under her command about the idea of having Kyo as the Ohma of their children. The young man was VERY unique in many ways, and not to mention that ever since she had seen him buck naked in the communal bath all those weeks ago, she couldn't help but feel very embarrassed, and curious at the same time…along with a tingling feeling in her body, from her hair-tips to her toes, and some other places in between.

 

To know that Jura, Meia, and Dita were very close to Kyo also sent some other emotions in the Elsman girl. She didn't know why, but after that debacle in the communal bath, and seeing Kyo's naked form, without a single stitch of clothing on him, she began to have thoughts about her commanding officer that seemed to border on insanity. The thoughts included her touching him in every part of his body, and both of them were naked! The images were so…scandalous to the young woman, but for reasons beyond her she didn't feel the least bit offended or disgusted by it, quite the reverse…she felt…VERY much stimulated. To know that the three Dread pilots were near Kyo made her not just envy at times, but jealousy as well since she could help but feel that they might get a shot at doing those same things to him.

 

As Sara thought about the situation more and more, she began to wonder why she was tingling in her toes again, along with the sensations in her gut. Her mind then began to doing something she normally wouldn't even dream of daring…

 

Kyo noted the silence and looked at Sara…and naturally he didn't have any trouble recognizing the looks on her face. He knew that the way she was staring at him was beginning to affect him too, so he decided to break her train of thought along with his before things could get even more complicated.

 

“Sara, are you all right?”

 

Sara shook her head a bit as Kyo's voice brought her out of her train of thought. She then felt the rush of heat in her face as the realization of the fact of her staring at Kyo came to her.

 

“Oh…sorry! I guess I'll head back to the others, I promised I'd help them train for the ground battle we might get involved in soon.”

 

She quickly rode down via cable from the Gundam's cockpit and a salute to her commander and left before she would do something she might never recover from.

 

Kyo gave another groan of frustration to himself as he eased out of the cockpit. It had been easy for him to visualize what could have happened had he and Sara been staring at each other for too long. His staring at her figure and her staring at his body the way she did, had that kept on going on, all it would have taken was a simple act or even a glance from any of them and he only knew where that would lead. His body knew as it began to heat up and harden on certain places, and a part of him began to react. He quickly clamped up and gave a growl.

 

<God damn hormones! If this keeps up, I'm going to seal myself in isolation for the duration of this entire trip!!>

 

However, another voice played with his head this time, he had been able to inhibit his ability to hear it, but after all that happened for the past few weeks, that voice in his head was not going to be restrained OR denied this time.

 

<Now why in the name of all that's good would you do that? You should have just reached out and kissed her…you KNOW you want to…>

 

<Shut up! I don't NEED this now!> Kyo said mentally to that voice in his head.

 

<Hah! Look who's lying! You've had this urge in your brain for a very long time. And you're already reaching the point where even a simple glance will give you a serious case of heat! Why don't you just pick one of the women, and get on with it already?!>

 

<Several reasons, let me name them out. One…I will NOT just take one of the women and just HAVE her for a night and hope that you'll shut up, cause I KNOW you'll be at it again! Two… I am NOT a playboy! No way in either heaven or hell will I just have sex with a woman on the Nirvana for the sake of it! Three…the very second I do that, I'll have every girl at my throat, some of them wanting to know how it feels, and the others would try and get me to do it with them…!>

 

<And what's so wrong with that? There's nothing wrong with having more than one partner, I doubt anybody will care that much.>

 

<That's reason four damn it! I care…I care too deeply for the girls, to hurt their feelings! What do you think would happen if Dita found out if I had sex with either Jura, Meia, Misty, Sara, or Mai?! What would Meia think if I did have sex with the others and not her?! What about Jura if I did that with them and not her?! Sara?! Mai?! Misty?! How in the hell can I handle it if I break the others' feelings and affections by rejecting them and placing my affections for only one?! How can I live with the facts that I'll break their friendships to each other if I do that without considering how they feel about me?! Answer me!!>

 

The other voice became silent. Kyo's frustration about his expanding libido ate at him as he got down to the ground and stared at a nearby table with a can nearby.

 

<ANSWER ME?! DAMN YOU!!! ANSWER ME!!!>

 

“I SAID…ANSWER ME!!!” Kyo shouted finally and vented out his frustration as he took out his sword and slashed the table with his sword. The table broke into two along with the neatly dissected can.

 

Kyo realized that he had vented out his depression and he then looked about and hoped that nobody from the crew had heard him. He tuned all his senses…and gave a great sigh of relief that nobody was around.

 

<I must be losing my mind…>

 

Kyo thought about his situation a bit more. He knew that he still had time to sort things out later. So no sense going crazy yet, besides…he had been in worse in his time as a warrior, how else can it get worse? He then calmed himself using some relaxation techniques he learned in his travels and hoped that things will work out someday.

 

With that, Kyo sheathed his sword and used his communicator and got into contact with Barnette, who no doubt in his mind was on an official date with Max. He gave a sigh and relaxed himself once more and spoke to the Dread/Gundam pilot.

 

After speaking to Barnette who relayed his report to Max, he got into contact with Duero and Parfet who told him that the virus/OS was now complete. He nodded as he then spoke to Magno and Buzam.

 

It was time…

 

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

 

After a few minutes…

 

Kyo sighed a bit as he knew that soon he would have to go on a solo mission. And this time…he wasn't going to be piloting I-Freedom. The only way he could upload the virus was to take the units and lock them into one of the bases. Once that was done, the CPU units of the doctored Desert Fangs would be uplinked to the main AI system and receive the downloads, and then they would relay the data to their fellow units in the other bases. It was a long shot in many ways cause it if went wrong then they were really in danger. He however got that out of his mind as he walked back to where the others were.

 

That was when he ran into another woman in question…

 

“Kyo?”

 

Kyo looked to the side and smiled a bit as he recognized Mai Miazaki. The woman was still in her family's traditional garb and she seemed to be mostly at ease with the clothes as she did in her Register uniform.

 

“Yes Mai, is something up?”

 

The Register girl shook her head and smiled. “Nothing…I just wanted to have a few words with you before you go with the others on this mission.”

 

Kyo thought about it and nodded. “Sure, why not?”

 

As the two sat down on a bench, the Register girl decided on her course of action. Naturally the reason she wanted to speak to Kyo was to get to know him better, but since time was against them, she decided to tell him about the history of the Miazaki family.

 

“Kyo…did Miss Gasco ever tell you about my family history?”

 

The Gundam pilot was a bit surprised at this question since as far as he knew Mai wasn't listening in on the conversation he and Gascogne had when he worked in the Register before becoming a part time worker in his off hours from piloting Freedom, leading the Vanguards, and forming the GunDreads.

 

“Yeah, she did tell me about it. Why?”

 

“Well…I guess I wanted to tell you what I knew about it. You see…back in the old days of my ancestors, my direct ancestor had a fiancée who was a man. They were engaged to be married…but it was then that she found out that he cancelled the whole wedding and had married his mistress instead of her. She was angry and very much…humiliated by all that happened.”

 

“And one thing led to another, and she decided not to have anything to do with men. Ever since then, she used only the artificial methods to have children, and she taught her daughters not to have any kind of relationship with a man, and to hate and loathe them. Any male child born in the family was given for adoption. And this happened all the way to Megele's time.”

 

“So that's what Gasco mentioned about you having anger towards men, beyond that of the propaganda films on your planet.”

 

“Yes, ever since that time on Earth, and the time in Megele, whenever women in the Miazaki family were born, we were conditioned to hate men on all bases. That's why I wasn't…exactly looking forward to you working in the Nirvana, namely in the Register.”

 

“Okay, but why are you telling me this? I mean, family history isn't exactly the kind of topic you share to just anybody.” (*)

 

Mai blushed a bit and looked at the ground. “Because…well, I guess I want to tell you since…I happen to be…very intrigued by you.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Well…when I met you all those months ago when we were sent to this part of the galaxy by the Paeksis, I thought of you as the same kind of man that callously shattered my ancestor's heart and destroyed her honor. So when you saved my life, I was confused, and tried to hold on to my anger and hate…”

 

“But after seeing you do so many things and being very kind and strong, plus being always here for us. I began to change my views of you. You are NOT like the men I was told to hate and despise when I left the cradle in my youth… You have kindness, compassion, honor, justice, and you don't judge anybody by gender. You are so…full of surprises! You know how to cook, play music, dance, and all the things none of my comrades and me ever thought a man could ever do. And when you…died before…I couldn't help but feel…how…stupid it was to hate you…just because of your gender. You became the only man, apart from the others, that I have my respect and admiration to.”

 

Mai sighed a bit as she spoke a bit more. “You've become…a very close friend to me. And it is kind of hard for me to try and justify what I was raised to believe and try to use it on what I learned from and about you.”

 

Kyo nodded silently. There had been situations like that in his journeys, and there had been things like that happening. He decided to say his words carefully so as not to make Mai feel angry.

 

“You know…I don't blame you or your ancestor for the feelings she had and the feelings you had before.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“Mai, not everyone in this world is dishonorable or garbage, yet there are those who are just like that. What I'm trying to say is that people are different in many ways. I understand why your ancestor became bitter, angry, and humiliated, and even if what she did may not…make sense to me, I can't find fault in that. Don't take this offensively, I have no intention to say bad things about your folks.”

 

“No…I want to hear this. You could say…a man's perspective should be interesting.”

 

“Okay…Your ancestor was right to be angry, but that does not mean that all men are the enemy. Not all men are dishonorable, and I can say this much, I think that the guy that she was going to marry was not meant for her. Guys like him don't deserve to be loved since all they care about is having fun, regardless of what others feel. But that does not mean all men are like him. There are men who are really kind and worth the time to…like. I guess that's where I don't agree with your ancestor, don't let one bad experience cloud you to the other possibilities out there in the world. I'm not saying that men are saints either, we all have our faults and imperfections, but those make us who we are. It's learning to accept both good points and bad points that make a relationship worthwhile.”

 

“I see…so if I decide to have a relationship with a man, I would have to accept him for who he is inside?”

 

“Yeah, that's pretty much it…by the way, who's the guy you want to have a relationship with anyway?”

 

Mai blushed bit more and twiddled her fingers. “I…think…you know who he is.”

 

<Oh no…>

 

Kyo was silent as Mai began to reach for his hands to take it into hers. She smiled at him with a very attractive gleam in her eyes.

 

That was when Kyo's communicator beeped. He gave a mental sigh of relief as he reached out to it and checked in.

 

“Hello. Oh Duero, is the Desert Fang I'm piloting fixed? Uh huh, right…I'll be on the way.”

 

Mai gave a sad expression as he put down his communicator. “You have to go…”

 

Kyo nodded. “Yeah.”

 

Before he could do anything she kissed him on the cheek and then stood up with a blush that would have passed for a tomato red and walked away. But not before saying…

 

“Be careful…”

 

Kyo felt the cheek where Mai had kissed him, he sighed and thought about all the situations with the girls he had been in and looked at the nearby reflection of himself.

 

<What am I going to do now?>

 

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

 

The Earth…

 

The Leader of the Harvesters gave a smirk as he was once more in his private chambers. He had just received the covert transmission that told him his plans were by being integrated into the AI systems of the ground forces.

 

All he had to do was wait.

 

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

 

“Are you sure you'll be all right with this Kyo?” Buzam asked as the Gundam pilot suited up and took his helmet. The commander was worried with the plan that had been outlined. In order for Kyo to completely install the virus/OS. He would have to pilot one of the Desert Fangs right into the jaws of the enemy forces. Once he was in and the other doctored units were in position, he would send a single burst data transmission that would immediately signal the other units to download the virus.

 

BC however knew that if anything would go wrong with the mission, then it would mean that Kyo would be on his own, and since he couldn't bring his Gundam with him on this mission, he was at a serious weapons disadvantage. They could ill afford to lose Kyo of all people.

 

“I know BC, but this is my plan and I need to be the one to see it through. Besides, you can't send any back-up with me, if the AI forces detect the Vanguards, then they'll KNOW we're up to something. This is a complete stealth op and we need to keep it that way.” Kyo said as he put on his helmet and locked in his visor.

 

He then climbed on the ramp and began to climb into the Desert Fang's cockpit. He knew that the crew will have to wait for him to make his move. He then hoped that things would work out and he would come back to see them again.

 

As he got into the cockpit, he spotted a certain number of girls run up to him, with a certain somebody in the lead.

 

“MR. ALIEN! WAIT!”

 

Dita climbed up on the ramp and then before Kyo could stop himself, he got out and Dita immediately tackled him. Thankfully the cockpit was large so he avoided injuries to himself and to the redhead.

 

“Dita! What…?!” He tried to speak, but decided he had to first get out of the cockpit and he did so while still holding the Megele girl. He then managed to remove the visor of his helmet and stared at Dita. He was surprised to see the normally happy girl in tears!

 

“Hey…what's wrong Dita?!” Kyo was worried, he didn't know what was going on and he didn't want to see the redhead in tears.

 

“They…they said…they said that you're going to fight the enemy on your own! Without your partner! I won't let you go out there!” Dita bawled out as she refused to let go of Kyo…despite his gentle request for her to release him.

 

“Dita's right! You work your best in Infinite-Freedom! You need your partner! You ARE NOT GOING!” Jura said with conviction as she too had grabbed Kyo even if Dita was nearby as well. Neither of the two would release the former Yamato, making the Gundam pilot a little bit nervous.

 

The others watched, all of them feeling either envy, jealousy, worry and fear. But it was then that Magno came to them and with her gentle tone spoke to both Jura and Dita.

 

“Jura, Dita, you know that Kyo has to go and do this we all can escape. He needs to do this before our enemies get here. And if they do arrive, how will we escape, and how can we go to Talark and Megele to warn them of the danger?”

 

The two girls along with the rest of the others knew that Magno said the truth, but that didn't mean that they liked the idea of Kyo going out alone. Even Meia gave a very concerned look as she stared at both Magno and Kyo. She knew that Kyo was at his best in Infinite Freedom and the dangers he was placing on his shoulders were too great, even for one of his physical skill, prowess, talent, and experience.

 

“I have to disagree there Captain. We can't lose Kyo, and…and if something goes wrong, then that would mean that Kyo would be all alone behind enemy lines, and we can't be there to help him.”

 

Misty also got into the mix as she then gripped Kyo's arm, the one that he had managed to wiggle out of Jura's embrace. “I'm not going to let my Prince Charming go into the enemy alone! I know he has to do it…but he might be killed!”

 

Meia and the others glared at the dark blue haired girl as she held onto Kyo the same way Dita is doing along with Jura. But the blue-haired girl either didn't notice, or she noticed, but didn't care a whit about it. To her, being with Kyo was a good thing, he was the only guy in the Nirvana who understood things the way she was used to, plus despite some his faults, he was the nicest guy she ever met and any girl in her mind would be the luckiest girl to catch him…and it became very obvious she wanted to be the one to catch him.

 

Kyo sighed once more and finally managed to remove the three girls glomping onto him like barnacles on a ship's anchor chain, but in this case, he didn't hold it against them for acting the way they did.

 

“Listen, you all have to trust me on this. I know that what I'm going to do sounds way beyond crazy…but it's the only chance we have to escape. Besides… as long as any of you are going to wait for me, I'll do everything I can to come back…okay?” He said with a slightly goofy grin at the assembled party.

 

The girls couldn't help but laugh at the look on Kyo's face, and that lightened up the tension a considerable deal. Magno had to admit that Kyo did have a way of making people who knew him feel happy and very confident, of course, this was among one of the many occasions in her mind where Kyo could inspire others by both words and actions. He was really one of a kind.

 

She also noticed the looks each girl was giving him. She maybe a hundred years old, but she could see what kind of the guy Kyo was had he been a normal guy on a planet with both men and women. He has great talents, skills, knowledge, good physical characteristics, and yet he never pretended to be better than anybody else or be one of those braggarts. Sure, he had his bad moments on occasion, but he was still a great guy to be around with.

 

<He's winning their hearts, and he seems to not notice. Of course I could be wrong. He IS a man after all.>

 

Magno said to herself with a smile. She knew that it would be a bad thing for her to do by breaking this moment, but she had to help get everything on the way for the mission to work so as she had to usher them along.

 

“I know that since all of you want to be near Kyo a great deal more, you want him to finish his mission, right? Don't worry, you'll all have plenty of time to get to know him a GREAT deal more, and hopefully…in private.” She said with a smile as the rest of the girls looked at her.

 

There was a great deal of blushing as all the girls were embarrassed, nearly due to the fact that they all wanted to know more about Kyo privately…and the case of their current feelings for the Gundam pilot…they were eager to learn whole lot MORE about Kyo. Even Meia had a faint shading of red on her cheeks as she tried to hide it.

 

Kyo couldn't help but feel a massive sweat-drop slid down his head as he looked at the flood of embarrassment near the cockpit. He had to admit that this situation would have made any guy green with envy, and he was a normal guy so he did feel some pride in being able to do these things, but he was a very much a kind-hearted guy, so he decided to crush that idea and put it aside for a while.

 

He gave a wave to the girls and the rest of the crew that assembled as he got his visor back on and got into the cockpit. Once inside he began accessing the systems and activated the OS. The Desert Fang's systems were now online and the quadruped mecha began to move in unison with it the orders of the pilot and OS.

 

Kyo was lucky that despite the mecha were now being nothing more than AI dolls, they retained their original mecha design and had cockpits. The weapon systems were also active and that was the one advantage that Kyo had to rely on. He had hotwired the activated Desert Fangs that they had captured to be remote guided by him, using his unit's OS and communications. He had designed to OS to operate a random modulation pattern wave to make it harder for the AI army to determine the existence of a trap.

 

“I'll try and maintain radio contact as much as I can, but don't worry about me. I'll do my best and make it back here.”

 

“Promise?” The girls suddenly chorused as one, and they suddenly became embarrassed as they realized what they said, and when they realized that their companions did the same thing, they glared at each other.

 

Kyo couldn't help but chuckle. “Yes, I promise.”

 

His Desert Fang was now making it's way out of the hidden city and to the surface entrance, followed the other Desert Fang units. The desert was bathed now with the colors of the setting sun, and night time was making it's presence known.

 

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

 

Max and Barnette watched the setting suns as the desert night began to fall, the pair went to the surface, since Max always loved seeing the sun set back on Talark. As the pair watched the sun set, Max remembered what he had promised his deceased companions in the desert before. He and Aleck promised the last of their comrades, both men and women, that if they ever found a way out of this place, they were going to take them all back to Talark and Megele to be buried in their respective planets.

 

He then turned to face his female companion. “Barnette…there's something I have to do before we all make our escape from this world.”

 

The green- haired woman turned and looked at her companion, Barnette could tell that what Max wanted to do was a serious matter and it was something that he had to settle. But that didn't mean that she wasn't in the mood to know what he planned to do.

 

“What is it?”

 

Max looked in another direction and gave a sigh. “Aleck and I need to recover the bodies of those who were with us. We made a promise to them that we'd take them all back with us when we found the chance to escape. We found it…and now we have to keep our side of the promise.”

 

“You're going out now?”

 

“Yeah. I'll go and ask the Captain if it's okay for her to commission a shuttle for me and Aleck for the job.”

 

“Let me talk to her and the Commander. And Max…”

 

“Yes.”

 

Barnette smiled a bit. “I want to go with you.”

 

Later… in the Nirvana's Conference Room…

 

Magno, Buzam, and Gascogne listened to Barnette as the Dread pilot spoke to them about Max's request. The green haired girl had requested permission to meet up with Gascogne, Buzam, and Magno about a request by Max. They were surprised to learn that Max was requesting a shuttle for him and Aleck to use and retrieve the rest of their dead comrades, both from the Shard and the Emerald Dawn. Considering the dangers, the elder officers were not certain they would risk anyone getting lost and provided that their second in command was in a very critical mission, and without his Gundam no less.

 

“You realize that we can't run the risk of anybody being caught out there, Barnette? If any go out and become missing, we'll be at an even more serious disadvantage as we are already in.” Buzam asked the Dread pilot, or in this situation, new Gundam pilot. She had been aware that Barnette had training in Mobile Suit warfare, thanks to her previous battles on the first desert planet they had been to, and the battles here. She now showed exceptional talent in her acquired Gundam, the SwitchBlade when she and the others had fought an assault unit that was in pursuit of them. She disliked the idea of Barnette going out into an unknown location.

 

“I understand Commander, but this is something that I know Max wants to do, and I want to help him.” Barnette said earnestly.

 

“What EXACTLY happened to you Barnette?” Gascogne asked with a curious eye. “As far as I recalled, you didn't want to even get near a man before, and now you're asking for permission to help him? I'm not against the idea you know, but I'd like to ask what made you change you're mind.”

 

“I…it's a long story.” The girl then twiddled her fingers. This was unnatural in the mind sets of the older women as Barnette was rarely nervous, even more so when talking about men.

 

“We have time, so you might as well tell us.” Magno prodded with a smile. <This can become VERY interesting!>

 

It took Barnette several minutes to outline what had happened during the days she had been with the two McFile sibling in their former instructor, and naturally she spoke about what had happened to Max when she had sprung the trap that would have killed her. She spoke at what had happened between her and the two siblings, and how she became very close to Max, though naturally she omitted any mention of the episodes both emotional and physical reactions and confusion she had gone through while in the presence of the younger McFile, no telling what the elder women would say about that!

 

“And…well, that what happened. I guess I want to try and make up for all the stupid things I did wrong for several days, and I hope that you all can understand why I'm doing this.” Barnette kept her dignity and looked at her Captain, Commander, and Register head straight in the eyes. She wanted them to see that she was telling the truth.

 

Magno looked at Barnette with a slight smile, she read more that Barnette had both said and shown. <I think…that Barnette's attracted to Max! I never thought I'd see this day that she'd actually grow attached to a man. Well, if she's sure about her decision, then I guess I can't hold it against her.> She gave a nod to Barnette.

 

“All right, I'll have Parfet reconfigure one of the planetary shuttles for operations on the ground. But you'll have to be back here before the full hours of the night, no telling what's waiting for you all down there.”

 

Barnette smiled and bowed to the elder woman. “Thank you Captain. We'll be back here before the enemy finds us.”

 

Gascogne gave a sigh and smirked a bit. “Then I hope you don't mind having me along? I'd like to help out on this little trip myself.”

 

Barnette nodded with a bit of a sigh. “Sure.”

 

As the green-haired girl and the Register head walked out of the room, Buzam faced the elder woman with a questioning look.

 

“Captain, are you sure that allowing them to go out at such a critical time is a wise idea?” Buzam asked as she still had her reservations about the whole situation.

 

“I understand the concern BC, but I can tell that Max and Aleck are men of their word. They will not leave this planet until they keep their promise to the ones that they were with. It's one of the things that can really make men stand out in the crowd.” Magno said with a smile as she looked at the view-screen.

 

In the screen Max and Aleck were relieved that they had been allowed to take one of the shuttles of the Nirvana to retrieve the bodies of their fallen comrades. Barnette hugged Max, much to the young man's embarrassment, but instead of being all flustered and confused…the young man hugged Barnette back!

 

<This IS going to be a VERY interesting day!>

 

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

 

In the shuttle…

 

“I have to admit, the shuttle's pretty impressive.” Max commented as he flew in his Templar Gundam beside the planetary shuttle of the pirates. The Gundam's performance was far higher now, a load better than what was used before in his programming of his Gundam's OS. Beside the Templar was the SwitchBlade Gundam, which was currently in it's Mobile Armor mode. The pilots of the shuttle were Gascogne and Parfet, along with several members of the Register, the Engineering crew and that of the security teams. Duero and Aleck were in their own machines, Aleck in his GuIAZ unit, and Duero in his Morpheous Gundam, which was using it's Aero Form pack. Parfet decided to tag along with Duero and her team-mates to help the others out.

 

“Yeah, I used to…” Barnette began to say, but suddenly stopped.

 

Max immediately became curious. This was the first time, in his frame of mind, that Barnette would halt in what she wanted to say. Usually, she was ready to speak her mind and opinion whenever the chance came. But it seemed that this topic was somewhat a sensitive one. He however, like Barnette was curious to learn about the other as well.

 

“You used to what?”

 

“Ah…you might not believe this, but I… wasn't always a Dread pilot when I joined the pirates.” Barnette said with a faint blush and tone of embarrassment as she scratched her head.

 

“Oh?” Max asked curiously. He had heard that Barnette had been a Dread pilot and one of their talented pilots, not as high in terms of skill and experience as Meia Gisborn, the pirate's team leader of the Dread squadrons, or her blonde friend Jura Basil Elden. But he could tell from the way she piloted her current machine in it's second configuration showed that she had the talent for that type of combat machine.

 

“Yeah…that's the truth.”

 

“Okay, I'll take your word for it…so if you don't mind me asking…what was your job before when you were with the pirates?”

 

“Uh…”

 

Their conversation was interrupted by a certain girl with a certain metallic tooth-pick in her mouth.

 

“She used to work in the Register…under me.” Gascogne grinned as she looked at the Dread pilot. “Talking about some old history with your new friend…aren't we Barnette?”

 

Barnette's faint blush turned into a crimson sea of utter embarrassment.

 

“GASCO! Let ME tell him about that!” (**A)

 

“Sure…”

 

Barnette gave an embarrassed look at her male companion via comm.-link. “Yes, I used to work in the Register when I joined up. I joined shortly after leaving high-school back home. It was a move that shocked my folks, but both my Fahma and Ohma supported my decision, along with my sisters.”

 

“I see…how many…sisters did you have?”

 

“Four…I was the third youngest. Both my elder sisters were in either nursing or science, my youngest sister's still in school when I joined the Register in the pirates. My Ohma gave me her gun collection and that's where I have this hobby of collecting guns…you know…uh, the kind you guys use a lot.”

 

“Oh…I didn't expect you to be very interested in solid projectile gas operated weapons when we first met.”

 

“It's not wrong! I just fell in love with it…” Barnette calmed down as she could tell that Max was…teasing her. She then gave him a challenging look. “Don't tell me you didn't have any hobbies.”

 

“I do actually. I love making stone figures back on Talark. I have a good collection of those figures back in my home using a chisel and hammer, they aren't really big ones, just small ones. Maybe someday I'll show them to you.”

 

“Heh, I'll see them when I get the chance. I got to join the Register cause it dealt with a lot of things that most shops back on Megele couldn't or wouldn't deal in publicly. So I got more of my gun collection items from the Register.” Barnette then gave a bit of a sigh.

 

“Gasco was not very happy when I ordered a massive stack of pistols to be brought into the Register's supply lockers one time. I had to clean up some of the other pirate's rooms for a few weeks after that, but I didn't stop…even if I wiped out most of my earnings as a pirate.”

 

“So how did you become a Dread pilot?”

 

“Well…I did some really dumb things with a few shuttles one time… and well, Gascogne wasn't very happy about it.”

 

“You might want to elaborate…what did you do to those shuttles?”

 

“I was trying to get some supplies that we got from our contacts on Megele at least a year and a half ago, when I was intercepted by some of the space patrol forces. The shuttle had no weapons so I did some maneuvers that were definitely NOT in the design specifications. I got back into space and thankfully…got away…but not before doing some serious damages to the shuttle in question.”

 

“What sort of damages?”

 

“I fried several computers for maneuvering thrusters, navigation, and even some for communications. Not to mention…I had to lose some of the cargo, thankfully, none of the other pirates were harmed. I got creamed by the Captain, the Commander, and Gasco after Parfet and the others got the shuttle repaired. I had nearly been kicked out, but they let me stay since they saw that I had some piloting skills.”

 

“I take it…that wasn't the first shuttle?”

 

Barnette blushed a bit more as she shook her head. “No, I did the same to two other shuttles on more than three occasions, but by the third time, I became an excellent pilot, so the officers had me transferred from the Register and into the Dread squadrons…and that's how I became part of the Dread pilots, I wasn't as talented though as some of the girls, but it was a chance for me to try and fly a Dread, since I liked the interceptors when I was still a kid, just as much as I loved collecting guns. I still got enough to pay for the gun purchases, but I kind of miss flying the shuttle. Gasco won't let me get near one, namely in the cockpit.”

 

“And I doubt I ever will, unless you're going to take my place.” Gascogne smirked as she broke the train of conversation between the two.

 

“No way…I like being a Dread pilot, besides, nobody can take your place Gasco.” Barnette said with a groan.

 

“Heh, don't think that Barnette, and most of all…Quit calling me Gasco! Call me Gascogne!”

 

The two then gave a sigh of relief as they were now left alone by the head of the Register. Barnette was a little embarrassed about revealing her past as a member of the Register. But she then got curious about something. Considering Max had great skills as a pilot, she did wonder on occasion as she traveled with him why he and Duero became doctors, considering their deadly skills as pilots and soldiers, it made somewhat less sense why they were medics.

 

“Max, I've been meaning to ask you something.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Why are you a doctor? Don't take this wrong, you've got great skill as a medic, no doubts there. But you've got some serious skills as a soldier and pilot as well, so it kind of made me wonder about that.”

 

Max thought about it and decided to comply. “I became a medic because I wanted to heal people, just like the other medics, including my big brother. Like what Gunny said, he thought he was losing real talented pilots to being saw-bones. Besides that, I guess I wanted to protect our family name. For me and Duero, we had to deal at times with the number of people who would back-talk about our Alpha and us.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Me and Duero were from the Second Class, and since most of our classmates were from the Elites, it made sense they'd try and downgrade me and my brother. I caught one guy trying to pick on Duero when we were enlisting, and my brother didn't fight back, that is until he made a comment about our Alpha being a coward. Now calling a man's first father a coward was a serious offense, but this guy thought that since he was an Elite, Duero wouldn't dare harm him. My brother proved him wrong…”

 

“How?”

 

“Well, he didn't fight the guy, that was for sure, fighting between men isn't allowed in the Academy grounds…unless it was a formal challenge. Duero did that, and the match involved knife-throwing, which by the way was taught to us well be our dad. Duero was able to hit all his targets dead center, while the other guy didn't even come close to half. You can bet that after the match, he was jeered at by the other cadets. One up for us then. That's why Duero's got the nick-name `Rapier', all because he could hit a target dead center with any weapon with a cutting edge, plus he was the best in knife-fighting class, when he was in school and in sword practice, for a medic he knew more about melee combat than any of his unit. Plus all that with rifle and medical training, you can bet that any detractor in his school would be ready to stuff his mouth full of sand after facing my big brother in the challenge ring. ” Max laughed a bit at the memories.

 

“Did you ever get into a fight?”

 

“More than once actually. There was a time during the Trial of the Fathers, that a gang of boys stole some of my tools, and then made this remark that if I didn't take good care of it, then I don't deserve them. The boys then tried to steal what other tools I had, but that was when the leader got a good left hook from me, I think I broke his tooth at that time. After that, I got into a slugfest with his buddies. Duero came in and we both got into the swing of things. You can bet the instructor was fuming mad at all of us. Duero and me got sent to the far side of the camp, while the others got sent to the other side. That's also when got the nick-name Stitch as I had to be the one to patch up all the tents that me and the others tore up in our fight. Me and Duero were also the oddballs in the whole mess, since we don't always believe in most of the horror stories, even all the way to the Academy, though I kind of lost touch with that belief, until all the things that happened to me and Aleck… Kind of hard to believe, eh?”

 

“Not really, I've been in some fights myself, but most of the time, we didn't get that physical, mostly it'll be with words and tools, like food and stuff. I was the only girl in my class that couldn't be beaten in a gun range…and I was the only oddball since I loved using guns instead of laser weapons. It was a real riot when others would find out I could be so domestic and be a great cook of cakes in school and be a gun fanatic at the same time. You wouldn't belief how many eye-brows were raised back home when they found out about it. The only time the girls I was with got used to that was when I was with the pirates.” Barnette chuckled a bit at that, she had always been considered somewhat weird with her fascination with guns, instead of laser rings and laser rifles, not even Jura could figure it out. Max was the only guy apart from Duero and Kyo who understood her obsession with guns.

 

The green-haired girl wondered about the situation. She normally didn't talk about herself all that much, and before meeting Max, Jura was the only one who knew her well. She decided that as long as Max was willing to trust his secrets and life with her, then it was only considered fair for her to do the same.

 

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

 

Kyo gave a sigh as he calculated the approach vector to the base that he was about to infiltrate. It was near a massive collection of mesas and was walled off by the cliffs in the area. The base was formidable, and although could be assaulted, it would take some serious skills and fire-power to break through it all. The good news for him was that his unit's original transponder signal and IFF tags were still intact, so his unit was accepted as it was being data-scanned. The other Desert Fangs that they had doctored had been deployed to the other bases that were nearby, hopefully they too would be able to download the virus in their OS…otherwise this mission would really be their end.

 

<Got to stop thinking negatively, it's not going to be of much help if I panic now.>

 

Kyo had keep calm as the entrance into the base began to open. As soon as he entered the hanger bay, he was shocked to see a massive number of Ogres and Desert Fangs in their charging stations, plus squadrons of Sky Strikers being fueled and armed. The VTOL style fighters, quadruped mechs and their humanoid cousins were in numbers that would have spelt doom to any normal sized ship crew. No wonder he had this feeling that they were dealing with a serious threat for some time, he quickly shook this thoughts away. He and the others had beaten greater odds than this, so why should he worry.

 

Once his Desert Fang unit had completed it's docking in it's recharge/data plug-in port, he quickly activated the data exchange command and also sent the signal for the other surviving Desert Fang units to do the very same. He knew he had an hour, two or three at best until the data was downloaded, so he knew that it was time for him to learn more about what they were dealing with. He knew that a base this big would also have a computer archive, plus a data and communications array. He had to be careful, since the base's defensive systems were on full alert and the last thing he needed was a whole mess of medical droids turned butchers on his back.

 

Quickly checking through the external cameras for possible enemy forces, Kyo took out his rifle and his bandolier of clips, and then snuck out of the cockpit. He was lucky not to have hit any alarm systems. But Kyo learned one thing in his life-time…and that was not to get too cocky.

 

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

 

The base where Duero, Max, and the others arrived in was clean and spotless. This base had seen some hard use and habitation, and the underground town near it was very much devoid of any supplies. No doubt Max and Aleck's companions had used up those said resources while they were exiled on this planet.

 

Duero, Max, Aleck, Parfet, Barnette, Gascogne, and the others entered the base and made their way to the morgue, where the crew of both the Shard and the Emerald Dawn were contained. The bodies were preserved in cryo-suspension chambers to insure that they would be safe and not decaying during retrieval. Max and Aleck took great care of their comrades, both male and female, and that fact was evident as the bodies were clean and well preserved.

 

It was going to be some time as the bodies were carefully removed and covered in sheets. And then were placed in gravity supported containment capsules. The number of the dead were high so it was going to be a while before the crew could get moving again.

 

Max made his way to one side of the chamber where the bodies were, and he stopped at one in particular. He gave a sigh and took out his bone dagger, and unwrapped the jewel that was on the hilt. He had come back to her…and it was time to take her back home…

 

And to finally speak to her…even if she could no longer hear him.

 

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

 

Barnette spotted Max when he left their party for the far side of the facility, she then recalled that once they landed in the base, the younger medic would make his way to one end…since she was there. Aleck told her himself the second Max was out of earshot.

 

The quasi Gundam operator knew that it was not her place to intrude on this situation. As much as she wanted to know Max more, she knew that Max had been nearly snared by another woman…and it meant that she might have to deal with the ghost of another woman. This new feeling made her even more curious about this friendship she was getting into, but she knew that she did care for Max, partially because he saved her life, nearly losing his in the process, partially because she learned more about the true character of men from him than any other person, and partially because there was a quality in him that was nice to see. She wondered if that was what Clare saw in him when he saved her all those months ago. So despite her plans, she decided to leave him be so he can have peace for himself… He needed it.

 

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

 

Max looked into the capsule, and there was Clare, still the same when they met, before she died…and after. The capsule's design allowed Clare to be preserved perfectly for so long, anybody would have thought that she was merely in suspended animation…that is if they missed the massive bandage on her stomach, the place where the Desert Fang's beam saber had torn through the cockpit and stabbed her on the side. The Vanguard didn't exploded, therefore apart from the critical wound, she had no other injuries. She still had her beauty, even in death.

 

“Hey…it's been a long time, since I came here to visit.” Max began to speak as he gazed that Clare. He then began to recall some of the memories that he had with Clare and the others many months before the arrival of the Nirvana.

 

“I wanted to tell you, we've found a way off this planet, and we're all going, I'm going to go back to my planet…and like I promised you and your mother, and everyone, we're all going home together. I…just wanted to talk to you before you'll be taken into the shuttle we brought with us.”

 

<I…I don't know if I can do this.> Max thought to himself as he stared at Clare's face. The woman was still as beautiful, and her face was with him for a long time, though he sometimes wondered why he thought about her. They had been enemies since their birth, but he had long decided that he would no longer consider Clare, or any woman if he met them as the enemy. He sometimes wondered if she thought the same about him. But she never said it, and he never held it against her…until she said words that haunted and confused him, and now he knew that she did care for him. Max then thought back on that fateful day.

 

“I guess I'll talk about…what you said to me.”

 

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

 

Flashback…

 

The Templar Gundam and a few Vanguards, along with a new mecha model went out on patrol. The survivors had banded together and though there was still some friction between the men and women, they had to work as one to even survive.

 

Max gave a sigh as he and another Vanguard, namely the one being piloted by Clare were on the forefront of the patrol. The Megele pilot had some innate talent with the Vanguard she was piloting, despite never being able to use one. But her skills were still a bit unrefined as many of her fellow women were used to piloting Dreads. The men were busy trying to teach the finer points of Vanguard combat to the women, but it was hard as they were dwindling in numbers. All the men were great in using Vanguards, but the women still had a long way to go.

 

The patrol was out to locate any other supply bases, and other cities, if possible. But they could ill afford to be out for too long.

 

The Templar was a boon to the combined crew when discovered in a combat bunker over a few months after they came to this desolate planet. Apparently, the strange unit belonged to the prior inhabitants of this world. It took some concerted effort for the men and women to activate and use the strange mecha, and since Max showed a good degree of using the unit, the men designated him to be it's pilot. The OS program they made was effective, but still needed to be updated often.

 

The Gundam unit's weaponry and sheer power aided the very limited in number Vanguards, but many died due to the many traps and attacks on this planet's surface and by it's AI forces. And many of their comrades were not as lucky as many of them were taken down by the AI forces to be harvested for their bodies. It abhorred the men at how they were being butchered by the machines, and it sickened the women when they saw the carnage. Many of their comrades were killed, but they were lucky to rescue many of them from the butchering and to be saved in the cryogenic suspension capsules.

 

“Max, do you think we'll find more supplies around here for sure?” Clare asked her companion as they walked side by side in their Mobile Suits. The younger woman smiled as Max nodded back in answer.

 

“According to the data we've been able to collect, there might be a supply dock near here. In the general area anyway, once we do find it, we'll have to move quickly..” The Gundam pilot said as he looked through the data scans, there was a supply dock near here and they had to find them quickly. According to the data, the patrols of the AI forces were intensifying and they were busy hunting them all down.

 

“I hope we can escape this place soon.” Clare groaned as she gazed at the vast expanse of desert. She then gave a teasing glare to Max. “Though I suppose you'd be unhappy to leave a place like this, since you grew up in one like it, right?”

 

Max gave an amused look. “Yeah, I might miss the place a bit, but compared to having giant robots chasing you left and right, and medical drones trying to kill you for your innards. I'd gladly be back home on Talark, at least there, I won't have to worry about my guts being given to somebody else who doesn't give a whit about what I think about the whole affair.” He ended with a menacing tone, as he recalled the time they had learned about the directive of the AI machines to harvest their organs for their master's survival.

 

Clare nodded in agreement, whoever the new masters of the AI forces were, they were nothing but inhuman people to just consider other humans as spare parts. “I don't love the masters of these robots anymore than you do. I want to tell my other people at home, the last thing I want to see is my planet suffering the fate of the people of this world.”

 

Max nodded in agreement, they had seen the pictures of the people who inhabited this world long before they were attacked by the forces known as the `Harvesters'. The people who inhabited this world were both men and women, they had children and worked side by side, in their military and domestic life, and they all were happy. Though in the past many of the men and women from both Talark and Megele fervently denied the possibility of men and women ever living together, they had to admit that the people in the pictures were happy, and as they learned to work as one, they couldn't help but feel the pain of the people of this world when they were able to see records of the Harvesters' attacks on the cities.

 

Despite the harsh lives the men lived, many of them hurdled at sight of the people being butchered and gathered for spare parts, and the women were also sickened at the thoughts of men, women, and children being killed for spare organs without any consideration for their hopes and dreams. The thoughts of these mechanical demons doing the same to other planets, including their own made the two sides sick to their stomachs.

 

Ever since then, the men and women decided that if they wanted to return home, they would have to find a way, and they needed to do it together. Many of them had attempted to escape on one of the Lancer Platforms, but the number of enemy forces guarding the sites, made it impossible, even with the extra Vanguards they had salvaged from the Shard. They were able to recover the Templar Gundam, but even it's immense fire-power would not be enough to break through the AI army's lines so easily. Many of them were not so lucky and they knew it.

 

“Max, if anything…” Clare began to say, but then she thought better of it and stopped speaking.

 

“If anything, what? Clare?” Max asked, rather curious as to why the girl stopped her sentence midway. He knew that Clare was very feisty on occasion and spoke her mind a good deal when she wanted to. So the image of her not completing what she wanted to say was rather intriguing.

 

“Nothing, forget I said anything.”

 

“Are you sure? It sounded import…”

 

Clare gave a glare to the younger McFile sibling and reiterated her words. “I said, it was nothing.”

 

Max sighed a bit, despite the fact that he and Clare were now friends, there were times that Clare would try and hide things from him. And he learned that she wasn't the kind of person to just open up to anybody quickly. “All right, but if you ever need someone to talk to…let me know.”

 

Clare gave a sad smile. “Thanks…that means a lot to me.”

 

Max nodded. Clare had suffered several losses to her number of comrades and close friends, but her greatest lose was that of her mother. She had been badly wounded, and despite Max's best efforts to save her mother, he had no choice but to tell her that her that her mother's wounds were fatal, and she would not survive into the next day.

 

Max had to deal with the tears and anger that Clare had shown, and he decided to just do what he could and try to make her mother as comfortable as possible. He hated the idea that he could do nothing to help the older woman, but Clare's mother didn't blame him for her current condition. It was later, after having some time to learn a bit more about Clare that her mother asked permission to speak to her daughter in private.

 

The next day… he and the others buried Clare's mother with him and the other men giving their culture's best wishes and condolences to Clare. Max knew that things would be hard for Clare since then, and made some effort to be a friend to her. It was touch and go, but it was the one thing Clare's mother Fiona asked of him. She told him that she was happy that her daughter was happy, even if anything would happen, she felt happy that her daughter would be with someone.

 

Clare looked at the Gundam and thought back on what she had gone through on this planet alongside Max. They had been with each other and their fellow crew-members for over several months, and both she and Max worked in maintaining the peace. But now both men and women became very close as they each put their skills to use. Their numbers were fewer now and many had lost their lives against their relentless enemies.

 

The younger woman admired the medic as he did his best to maintain the alliance between their groups and it held, along with her help. She trusted him…which was considered a mistake by her comrades initially, but now they changed their minds about him. And there were other qualities that made Max a great guy. He was open-minded and was ready to listen to any suggestion from anybody. He worked hard at everything and did it with a precision and skill that was enviable by anybody. He had a way with words, he didn't hide the truth nor did he play with words, but he didn't pretend to know everything, he spoke the whole truth and did it well. Had he been born a woman, Max would have attracted the attention of a load of women.

 

Clare however didn't like the idea of Max becoming a woman, the idea of him in women's clothes was…too humorous for her to picture in all ways. She liked him the way he was now and wouldn't want him to change at all…or was she the one who was changing?

 

Clare decided to put those thoughts aside as they went about in finding their supplies.

 

They were able to locate the supply dock which was underground in a small cave network a few hours later. The others were able to begin hauling the supplies on the trucks that they had with them, using the Vanguards to place the supplies on the trucks.

 

Max and the others then escorted the supply trucks to safety back to their camp. But as they traversed the wastelands, BOTH Max and Clare realized that they had company as their sensors warned them of incoming threats.

 

The two moved to a nearby ridge, and spotted their attackers. The group comprised of the mechas they knew to be `Ogre' assault units and a good number of the quadruped mecha known as `Desert Fangs'. The numbers were against them…as it had been for a long time. Max and Clare knew that now wasn't the time for them to go and lose more comrades to those monsters.

 

“Rika! Tell the others to move on and move those supplies out of here!”

 

One of the Vanguards turned and on Clare's view-screen, was an image of another Megele woman with blond hair and amber eyes. She was among the crew that had learned the basics of commanding and piloting a Vanguard, many of her comrades disliked the idea of using the Vanguards, but survival depended on them using the mecha. So they had to comply…

 

The Templar Gundam unleashed it's beam rifle and readied it's shield. The Vanguard piloted by Clare removed it's battle-sword as the two mecha faced off with the incoming units.

 

Little did they realize that one of them wasn't going to walk out of this battle…alive.

 

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

 

End of Flashback…

 

Max closed his eyes as he thought back on the battle that ended Clare's life. As they engaged the enemy forces, he dealt with the fast moving Desert Fang units, taking two out with his Gundam's beam rifle. He then took out his beam saber and slashed down an Ogre attempting to fire it's missiles. Clare attacked another Desert Fang, severing the mecha's head with her sword, then jammed it into another that tried to slice her Vanguard's head off with it's beam saber. The two battled their way through the ranks of the enemy and took out several of the Ogres that were trying to turn them into scrap through heavy saturation of the area they were all in.

 

They were lucky that they didn't have to deal with Sky Strikers at the moment, but the number of Desert Fangs and Ogres were more than enough to trouble them. They had to fight their best as the enemy began to intensify their attacks. Max then got Templar into the air and the Vanguard activated it's own thrusters, they had to leap upwards as several Ogres blasted the area they were in. Clare landed between two Ogres and then sliced both their heads off with a swing of her Vanguard's sword. Max then slammed both beam sabers right into the backs of two more Ogres.

 

That was when tragedy struck…

 

Max turned and blocked an incoming Desert Fang's beam saber with his shield amd slammed his own into the enemy. He then turned and spotted Clare dealing with another Ogre with her sword. But as she swung her weapon, the mecha grabbed the arm with the sword and broke it off with a cannon blast. Clare got out her spare sword and slashed off the Ogre's head.

 

“Clare! Are you all right?!”

 

As he watched the screen and waited for Clare's reply he fired his beam cannons at another incoming Desert Fang. He was relieved to see that Clare was still alive as she responded.

 

“What do you think?”

 

The two however were unable to finish the fight as a barrage of missiles came right at them from a still standing Ogre. Max locked in with the Templar's own HiMAT system and destroyed the missiles. The Gundam pilot fired the beam rifle and blew up the Ogre. But then he spotted another Desert Fang slam it's saber at the Vanguard, Clare was piloting, the Desert Fang slashed off the legs of the Vanguard. He was able to come in time and blast the Desert Fang, but another attacked stabbed the Vanguard…right near the side of the cockpit!

 

“CLARE!!!!”

 

Max then thought back about his last moments with Clare.

 

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

 

Flashback…

 

Max ran towards the cockpit of the badly mauled Vanguard. Clare had managed to slam her still functioning sword into the Desert Fang unit and pulled away from the beam saber that impaled her Vanguard, but the machine collapsed and Max knew that it might exploded with Clare inside of it.

 

As he pulled out the emergency hatch release, he gave it a mighty, sharp pull. Gears screeched in protest as the chest opened up to reveal the inside of the cockpit. The cockpit was in shambles, the beam saber had melted a considerable part of the side and the smell of melted metal and insulation was strong, along with the smell of evaporating coolants and hydraulic fluids. Max realized that if he didn't get Clare out of the cockpit, she'd die of asphyxiation. Clare was in her cockpit and the smell that was near her was sickening, even to Max who knew that smell.

 

Cauterized flesh, burnt cloth, and spilled blood… the beam saber had torn through the cockpit and stabbed Clare on the left side of her body, and the wound was horrendous, the uniform she had was soaked in her blood and if she didn't die of massive blood loss, infection, or asphyxiation, she would be blown to pieces as the Vanguard would no doubt detonate soon, considering that sparks were flying about.

 

There were various metal support frames that formed a metallic cage, making escape for her impossible with the time left, and her unconscious and critically wounded state, made it even worse.

 

Max knew that he had a full fifteen or twenty seconds to free her before the Vanguard went boom, and he couldn't bend or break the bars either. Then he looked at the upper compartment and realized that there was something hidden there, and it was more than adequate for the job, he tossed the empty extinguisher, he reached up and undid the latch. The panel opened to reveal a hidden Broad-sword Mark II assault rifle. Quickly grabbing the weapon, he was relieved that the weapon was fully loaded and ready for use. Moving the selector to AP (armor-piercing), he aimed carefully and fired.

 

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

 

Four accurate shots later, the moorings of the support beams gave way and the rods fell off the badly wounded pilot, letting Clare slump forward. Tossing the rifle far to his right, Max immediately leaned into cockpit and got the unconscious girl out of her seat, thankful that none of the metal rods had entered her wounds. Slinging her over his shoulder, he wasted no time and got off the mecha. He then heard the sound, meaning that the internal fire alarm was active, meaning that explosion was imminent. Max didn't wait, and ran at full power with Clare on his shoulder like a gunnysack, he didn't care right now about the blood spilling on his shoulder. With adrenaline levels at a full time high, he managed to make it a full twenty-five yards before the mecha detonated into a ball of flame, he had to make sure however, that he didn't injure Clare even more so he had torn off his jacket to serve as a make-shift bandage as he carried her. Talark engineers designed the Vanguard to explode in a confined area of at least twenty yards in diameter. He and the unconscious and badly bleeding girl were well away from the explosion's radius.

 

Max collapsed, face first into the desert sands, letting Clare lie on her back beside him. He then looked to where he and Clare narrowly cheated Death's scythe. He however wasted little time as he quickly tried to save Clare.

 

Minutes later…

 

Clare awoke in pain, intense pain. She opened her eyes and found herself in a room, that she immediately recognized to be a medical facility. The woman tried to move, but a voice called to her.

 

“Don't move Clare…you'll only aggravate your wounds.”

 

She looked to her right and spotted Max who gave her a grave look, a look she knew all to well.

 

“I'm…not going to make it…aren't I?”

 

Max tried to hold back his emotion, but failed miserably, as he gazed at his stricken companion. The wounds she had were very much fatal. The beam slashed had up her vital blood vessels and the wounds were too much for the supplies he had with him, and even those of the small medical station he found, her organs were badly mangled and despite him being able to bind and seal her wounds, they could not be healed…ever. He hated to feel this emotion of helplessness and sadness. He felt it so many times, healing the wounds of those that couldn't be saved due to the horrific extent of their wounds, he watched them die on the operating table, both those he had lost in the battle before coming to this desert world and now in this world.

 

“I'm so…sorry…I can't…I…”

 

Clare reached out and took Max's face in her hands, despite his look, warning her of her critical condition. “I know…I…I understand why you feel that way…But don't be all gloomy Max McFile, it doesn't suit you.”

 

Max nodded, but also made Clare lie back. Despite his failure to save her, he wanted make sure that…she didn't have to suffer so much pain. He then began to administer some sedatives to Clare. “I'm going to try and make you as comfortable as…Damn, I don't want to do this!” He stopped with his treatment partially as he faced Clare. “I should have paid more attention! I should have shot sooner! I feel like…”

 

“Like you failed being a doctor?”

 

Max nodded…and Clare knew why…When her mother had been wounded, she had been treated to the best of Max's abilities, but her wounds were too grave. Her mother had not trusted Max at first glance, and seemed never to do so. But as the months passed, the two were getting along rather well. She didn't know what words had passed between her mother and Max when she passed away, but those words were the reason Max was with her.

 

“You didn't…you did your very best, had you been a doctor on Megele, you'd be winning prizes the first few weeks.”

 

“I didn't become a doctor to be famous. But that's okay…”

 

“Please…I want you to stay, no matter how long or how…short my life is now…please stay.”

 

“I will.”

 

The pulse monitor near the bed was already recording Clare's fading life-signs as he tried his best to help Clare feel easier. It didn't appeal to Max at all that he could do nothing for Clare, he did care for her, in ways that seemed to be totally heretical on Talark, but he didn't care anymore. Being with Clare and the rest of the crew of the Emerald Dawn had changed him, and his mind for the better.

 

As she felt her life fading Clare then reached out and looked at Max amber eyes, admiring for probably the last time the color of this young man that became her closest friend, and much more…she hated to die, knowing that she would never see him again, but she hoped that he would escape, and…find somebody new. She will never be sorry for that…she was happy.

 

“Max…”

 

“Yes…”

 

“I…”

 

“Clare…you shouldn't speak! You'll only…!”

 

“I…like you…so much…”

 

“I like you too…don't speak now, you're making yourself worse.”

 

“I want to say…I love you…for all…you've done…for me…”

 

“Clare…What did you…?”

 

“Maybe…someday…you'll find someone…but don't forget me…good-bye…Max.”

 

The pulse monitor then gave the sound every medic dreaded…the signal of flat-line.

 

Max looked on in horror as Clare's hands fell from his face, and landed on the mattress. No matter how he tried to deny what he knew and saw…it was inescapable.

 

Clare was dead…

 

“CLARE!!!!”

 

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

 

End of Flashback…

 

“I didn't know what you meant back then. I guess I didn't know you felt that way, and now I realize that I should have admitted that I felt the same with you Clare.” Max said with a sigh as he studied the woman he had fallen for, but could no longer say his feelings to. “I do love you, and I want to say that I understand what you said now.”

 

Max then looked at Barnette who was walking up to him and Clare's stasis pod. The young woman reminded him of Clare in many ways. And as he looked at Clare he felt a great weight lift from his shoulders as he spoke once more.

 

“You should know…I did find someone new. She's a lot like you I was nearly bowled over by the same attitudes you had. But she's also different, as you were long ago. Her name's Barnette Orangello, and I think both of you would have gotten along very well.”

 

Max opened the container for only a short while and then placed the jewel he had taken from his bone dagger on Clare's neck.

 

“I will never forget you Clare McBride, you have my word. Even if I found Barnette and feel deeply for her, we're in the same way that you and I were long ago. But I'm not the same man I was before I met you. I'm not going to let what I thought was the truth stop me from seeking it for myself. I will bring you and the others back to Megele to be buried in your world. And I will do what I can to make a future for everyone in both your world and mine. We all deserve to, if we want to beat the Harvesters.”

 

Max then gave a parting kiss to Clare as he re-sealed the stasis pod. His eyes were brimming with tears of relief, hope, and regret, they fell on the glass as he moved the stasis pod towards Barnette and the others as they loaded the other pods into the shuttle for their ride back to the Nirvana. They were going to go all out to reach their destination and prepare for battle the next day, all their hopes rode on one man's shoulders…

 

Kyo. And Max was ready to do all that he could when the time came.

 

Barnette saw the tender moment between the two and felt a bit jealous, but quickly squashed the idea. Clare learned a lot about the truth of men, as she did, and she knew that like Clare her perspective had changed about men. She knew that she wasn't Clare and she would do things differently than she did, but she would do what she could no matter what.

 

Barnette then helped Max load the capsule that Clare was in, and placed it alongside the capsule where Clare's mother was in. They then boarded the shuttle with the others as they made their way back to the Nirvana.

 

(Who knows what might develop between them?)

 

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

 

Back to where Kyo was…

 

<This is one BIG place!>

 

Kyo thought for what seemed like the twentieth time since he went into the base. The location he was in appeared to be the barracks. He knew that he had enough time as he checked his chronometer, so he decided to make a quick detour to the armory.

 

Who knows? He might find some extra weapons if he decided to bust out of the area.

 

The barracks was enough to house a maximum of ten platoons of troops, and from the contents he found in the locker that he had checked out, the men were well equipped. The locker had a suit of desert combat armor, in the design of a suit with ballistic plating and what appeared to be energy dampening underlays. Next was a battle rifle complete with what appeared to be a grenade launcher, and loads of other combat gear, including ammunition, personnel grenades, ration packs, and basic medical gear. Whoever these guys were, they certainly were well armed.

 

Once he got to the armory, he gave a low whistle…

 

The room had racks of rifles of various designs, from normal assault, to sniper work, to anti-armor, and what appeared to be special operations duty or Spec-Ops, they were also in two categories, ballistic and energy design. The armory also had racks of suits for various duties, from normal light defense, medium, and heavy, all the way to stealth, bio-hazard, and chemical warfare. There were also heavy weapons, including, rocket launchers, mini-guns or either energy or ballistic profile, heavy infantry guns of the same purpose, along with some energy weapons and even advanced flame throwers. To add to that were stacks of pistols and sub-machine guns. And last were rows of ammunition, power cells, and explosives.

 

<Man…Barnette would be in gun heaven if she saw any of this!>

 

He then took some special demolition tools and made his way to a nearby computer on one of the walls. Quickly opening the computer, he began to access the data, while using his computer hacking skills to make a false account so as to avoid suspicion by the security systems…

 

He then tracked the location of the communications and data archive room. The room was at least three floors up and through a number of security walls and rooms. Looks like his trip to the armory was a good one, though he needed to hurry as he spotted a few occupants scattered throughout the level of the complex.

 

<Damn! More of those blasted medical droids! Doubt I'd have them for a patient to doctor conversation in the future. Now what else we got here…oh hell!>

 

One of the new models appeared to be the same as the normal medical droid, but was more human-like in both looks and design. The limbs apparently were covered in special synthetic skin and had human eyes, all of which were the color blue, and on their chests were deep black spots that seemed to fluctuate in intensity. And from the looks of those…blades on their forearms, they were designed for combat, along with what appeared to be rifles on their hands, along with a mix of shotgun weapons and SMG type weapons. (Think the new robot models looking like Sunny from the movie I-Robot)

 

<Great…now they've got combat robots.>

 

He switched the cameras and spotted another set of robots. And his heart sank…

 

The first appeared to be designed for one purpose…all out slaughter. The robot was built to move on legs and was over six feet tall, and was decked in strong combat armor. It was apparent to Kyo that he would have to empty an entire clip of his rifle to bust through that robot, not to mention the fact that the blasted robot was carrying a weapon that resembled a dual mini-gun.

 

The second was designed in the same parameters but was armed with a massive gun that in no time flat Kyo had identified as a flame-thrower.

 

(Think a better armed version of the Terminator series)

 

<Damn…>

 

The only good news for Kyo was the fact that the two larger and more powerfully armed robots were stationed in the far corners of the room and from what he was able to learn there were very few of those two models in this base. That however didn't mean that it was going to be all smooth sailing.

 

Kyo realized that the first thing he had to do was get the heck out of sight, he could handle the medical droids, and with some effort take out those combat robots…but no way was he in the mood to deal with any of the heavy combat variants. That meant only one thing…

 

He was going on a full stealth approach…meaning minimal engagement.

 

He quickly got what he needed from the armory and decided to download at the very least the design specs for all the gear in the armory. Once he was done, he quickly logged out before the AI systems could trace him…now all he had to worry about was how to get the room he had in mind.

 

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

 

<Whoever taught me those skills in evasion and stealth, I'm never going to regret all this…despite the fact I'm going to need a shower!>

 

Kyo said as he clung underneath a rail car, that was carrying a supply of munitions. The car was part of an assembly system where the more powerful ordinance was being brought into the sorting plant to arm the Desert Fangs, Ogres, and the Sky Strikers. He spotted it and quickly got beneath it as it was being towed by a magnetic cable overhead, and not a moment too soon. He had gotten out by a few rooms when he looked at a corner and spotted a pair of those combat robots. He moved silently as best he could and was happy that no alarm had been triggered and found himself in a facility that gathered the heavier and larger munitions. The foot-steps of the machines hadn't changed speed and sound tones, indicating that these machines were not armed with thermal vision, but he wasn't going to chance it as he activated a limited charge thermal shield on his uniform.

 

The uniform he wore had an underlay that operated on a limited power cell, and when active had reduced his body's thermal signature through several spectrums. He silently thanked the crew of the Engineering Bay of the Nirvana and Parfait for informing him of some of the additions they put in. Once he was done, he was going to have make up by making sure that things would be better between Duero and Parfait. He quickly put that idea aside and he quickly grabbed a nearby beam on the side after leaping away from the car as it reached the door to where the stores were to be delivered.

 

After lifting himself up he crawled on the beam and then checked the computer installed in his uniform. He had downloaded a map of the facility and had determined the best path of the archive room and he had recorded the paths all the security units would take in securing the area. Before doing so he took out a special EMP grenade that he had taken from the armory and then set it near the magnetic line and set the detonation system on his computer unit. He needed to do as much damage as he could if he was compromised, and the grenade could cause the line of munitions cars to slam into each other and cause a chain reaction, he however hoped that it wouldn't come to that. Once he did so he checked his chronometer. He timer showed that he had two more hours and thirty minutes before the incoming data uplink from the Harvesters to the AI forces and their AI commander would be active.

 

He then spotted the nearby access tunnel and once he was across, he quickly used a lock spike to unlock the door and climb upward. Despite the original inhabitants' use for robots, they still trusted their human counterparts as technicians, soldiers, engineers, and designers.

 

He only hoped that the Harvesters were not yet here.

 

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

 

High in space…

 

The two Harvester Fleets were now going to meet and get ready for their data exchange, their combined numbers of Cube Fighters, Seed Ships, Space Urchins were almost like unending storm clouds in space as they gathered in front and prepared to launch for their primary objective.

 

Inside one of the battle-ships were the three new Gundam models, which were now being taken through their final check-ups. The new Dominion units were already deployed and were now leading the spear-tip of the Harvester offensive.

 

In less than thirty-six hours…the massive force would surround the planet and stop the Nirvana from escape. In less than two hours, the new Harvester battleship would transmit the new data and objectives to the AI forces below.

 

Along with the new data the Harvester Council Leader had in mind…

 

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

 

Two hours later…

 

Kyo gave a groan of relief and pain as he got into the archive and communications room. He had managed to avoid most contact with the enemy, but the path he had to go through was NO picnic.

 

Flashback…

 

As he passed through the access tunnel he found himself over what appeared to be a power relay station. The place had super conductor and relay grids that crackled with massive flows of power, and the residual radiation played merry hell on Kyo's computer map. He was lucky he shut it down to avoid the energy pulses from frying his computer and it's battery pack. The bad news was that he had to go through a tunnel that was once insulated, but had fallen into questionable maintenance. And the last known access tunnel that would allow him to bypass the massive amount of security was through that tunnel.

 

The tunnel was bathed with random power arcs, and since most of the insulation was worn out by lack of replacements and proper maintenance, there were areas exposed to the voltage. This meant that at any moment a power surge could hit the tunnel and fire a massive amount of voltage that would fry anything organic. The humans who lived there had designed special suits to give considerable protection for their techs to walk in certain areas of the relay stations. But that would cut the time Kyo had to reach his target…meaning that he would have to move without protection.

 

Kyo wasted little time, activated his SEED ability and moved as fast as he could through the place while trying not to imagine what's going to happen if he got caught in a power arc. He had made it half-way when he spotted a massive amount of power arcs near the last few areas of the tunnel to where the exit was. Quickly realizing he had to move before he was hit, he ripped out a remaining piece of insulated late with his sword and then used it as a shield, along with another piece, he moved as fast as possible and was able to block most of the weaker arcs with the pieces with one blocking one part of his body, and along with the other.

 

(The episode where Samurai Jack and the Spartan-King fighting that massive robot monster with multiple arms/legs ring a bell? Then that is where this scene came from.)

 

He reached the tunnel by tossing the shields at an incoming blast that would have over powered him. The plates were smoking like over-fried meat as he looked back, and he was happy he wasn't the one cooked. Of course he didn't get out without injuries, Some sections of his uniform were scorched by the power and his body was tingling from the charged energy in the atmosphere. Kyo however shrugged it off and kept going.

 

End of Flashback…

 

<That is the LAST time I ever go through a power station!>

 

Kyo groaned again as he got to his feet. Thought that was tough, he to deal with another problem afterwards. The room he went through had a nest of sensor plates that responded to weight differences. One type of plate was able to carry normal human weight and also could handle the weight some the medical and combat robot models. But the other type of plate were pressure sensitive and could trigger an alarm. To add to the problem, there were no beams up there to bypass the whole mess. He was able to use his now workable computer unit in his uniform on one terminal, but learned that the plates were able to change their weight sensors by the day, meaning that he didn't know the exact order of the next plate, whether it would not react to his weight or not. He had to do some serious guess-work on this and there were some seriously near misses.

 

He also had to go through a recycling sector where the place had used a special constricting laser net to tear to pieces any garbage in the area and then the room would release robotic arms to sort out any salvageable material from the ruins. He had to climb the chute and then quickly ride down a broken metal plate like a surfer down a massive wave as the laser net followed him, dicing all in the firing path. Once he got to the bottom, Kyo had used his SEED mode once more as he ran with all the stamina he could muster as he then leaped to the safety of the access tunnel, while accessing the authorization override code.

 

Kyo was lucky that he was able to make it out through that one and had been able to make it to the next route and was now where he was. But he was exhausted and decided to rest, while making sure that he didn't leave anything behind to show that he had been here. Most of the time he evaded the cameras all throughout the base levels, but had to be careful by watching out for a mess of other security systems, including laser trip-wires, sound alarms, and bio-electrical sensors. He was able to avoid most as he downloaded the locations, but he wasn't going to take it easy as some of the locations coincided with the patrol paths of the robots he had to avoid.

 

Kyo got to his feet and began accessing the data-files, and as he did so he downloaded several important files, namely those concerning the location and security detail surrounding the Lancer platforms. He then downloaded the designs of the facilities.

 

The Lancer platform was a base that was the size of a small city, adeptly so as it wasn't like a base in the traditional sense as instead of normal base facilities it had power relays, back-up power stations, magnetic field coils, super computer banks, environmental adapter facilities, and even gravity core field generators and many other facilities normally associated with a orbital launching port.

 

The basic concept of the Lancer was simple. When the coordinates were set, namely distance, and speed, the first to work were the environmental adapter facilities. They created a control field namely to filter out elements that could mess of the magnetic induction effect needed to create the gravity field. Gases, sand and metal particles which are not controlled could mix with the magnetic induction effect to create a serious imbalance. Once the first step was done, the environment adapters would release special magnetically charged particles in container magnetic fields, they are then held in place by the magnetic coils' generated fields which is the second step, then that would create a stable field aiming upwards and act as a restriction barrier/containment field, and could stabilize the ship leaving the planet as the gravity core field generator is activated as the last step. The effect would be the magnetic fields would stabilize and guide the ship past the atmosphere while it uses the reverse gravity field created by the Lancer platform to take off and overcome the planet's gravity.

 

After he was done with the data load, he checked the data concerning the Harvesters operations. Kyo's anger flared up as he realized the full extend of the Harvester's activities after he had woken up and when he came to Talark and joined the crew of the pirates.

 

But when he saw the full extend of the Harvester Fleets numbers and combat strength…he felt that his heart had just stopped.

 

The ships that were being sent to Talark and Megele…they were nothing but rice grains in a person's hand as he counted the number of Harvester battle-ships, Cube Fighters, Seed Ships, Space Urchins, and whatever other ships the Harvesters had.

 

They were severely out-numbered!

 

Forget just Talark and Megele's forces…they needed every human world's fire power and fleets to take on an armada of THIS size.

 

He looked at his chronometer and spotted that in twenty minutes, the virus/OS would be downloaded as the Harvester link's link-up time was exactly on schedule.

 

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

 

As the Harvester Fleet began to arrive and set-up their new combat perimeter around the planet to seal of the Nirvana's possible escape routes, the second battleship activated it's transmission dish and aimed it at where the AI command center was located. It would take in fifteen minutes, but the data would finally be downloaded.

 

As the fleet began to disperse, they had some difficulty due to the massive amounts of EM waves and radioactive pusles, but they were adapting to the situation. Now however they were joined by several of the new Dominion units…

 

And by three new Mobile Suits… the Wyvern, Devastator, and the Hell-Fire!

 

The three Gundams activated their own Phase Shift systems and got into combat position, with the Dominions getting ready for planetary deployment. As the Gundams began to streak into the atmosphere, the new Gundams were assigned to wait for the Nirvana in space. Despite their now assembled weapons, they would not be able to equalize in their still incomplete states. The Harvester battle-ship was now able to complete the download, and the data was now being replicated and dispersed to all the AI forces below them

 

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

 

Kyo watched as the data-uploading was under-way and the link was now established, he then put aside his fears and hoped for the best as he watched to downloading progress. As he watched the screen, he was unaware that he was actually being watched…Neither was he aware of the fact that a hidden code message had been included in the whole base's security and response protocols.

 

Apparently there was a separate security system in the base and in sent out a silent alarm… and the robots being deployed as security detail were now deployed towards Kyo's location. Several combat robots and medical droids were on their way.

 

This time they were not programmed to kill Kyo instantly. They were going to take blood from his body, and when they did that part…

 

THEN they were going to KILL him.

 

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

 

The AI entity was busy reading the data files and monitored the progress of the new tactical data-uploads to most of the outlying bases and their forces under it's command influence. That was when it began to detect something different with the data-uploads. The computer decided to initiate it's tracking protocols and locate whatever anomaly was in the data stream. The new downloads had already seeped into the CPU of the bases in the northern Hemisphere. Plus the special commands from the Harvester Supreme Councilor had been given higher priority as it was the one that was sent out first.

 

Whatever it was…it may just be some sort of bug.

 

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

 

<Why is it I get the feeling that something's not right?>

 

Kyo couldn't shake the feeling of dread that seemed to be running up his spine. It had something to do with what he had learned about the size and numbers of the Harvester Armada, but the other part was…

 

Closer to home…

 

He quickly checked some of the controllable security cameras, and then he realized just WHY he had this feeling…

 

A dozen combat models were now after him, along with twice as many medical droids. Apparently the AI's base entity had deployed more of it's combat units and they were now heading in HIS direction.

 

<Crap! How in the hell did they find me?!>

 

Kyo quickly discarded his moment of anger as he focused on what he could do. Quickly gathering whatever valuable information he could get his hands on, and when he was done he got ready. Quickly placing several metallic boxes he then laced them on the floor and formed a barricade. He then took out his sword and slashed apart some nearby computer bank units. The large cabinet-like storage devices gave squeals of damage and fell down. The Ultimate Coordinator then placed the wrecks as a second barricade and finally he sheathed his sword and got ready to fight as he loaded his rifle.

 

Looks like he was going to have to do some serious damage now, regardless of his original intention to leave without a serious encounter…

 

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

 

The crew of the Nirvana were busy making the needed changes to the ship and were now gathering whatever supplies they could gain from the city. Jura had stored her newly acquired clothes and other items while Barnette helped with some of the arrangements. Dita was busy preparing a new batch of fluffy cakes for her Mr. Alien as Paiway helped her out with the cooking. Meia was busy working with both Mai and Sara in the briefing room for what new tactics they could use against the Harvesters. And Misty was busy working in the communications room with Belvedere and the other Bridge Bunnies, as the young (technically young looking anyway) woman nicknamed them. The ship was now in the process of getting ready for their escape. All had their thoughts on Kyo and the success of the mission. And deeper feelings for Kyo were in the minds of several particular girls.

 

But as a few more minutes passed…suddenly something happened… to the three Dread pilots.

 

In the briefing room…

 

Sara and Mai were busy running more simulations alongside Meia when the aqua-haired Dread Leader suddenly stiffened as if she had been doused from head to toe in ice cold water. Her eyes were dilated and she suddenly kneeled down and held herself as she gave a slight cry of pain.

 

“Meia?!”

 

In the kitchen…

 

Paiway was shocked as Dita suddenly stiffened as well, and dropped the bowl filled with cream as if she had been suddenly hit by a stun bolt from a laser rifle on the leg. The redhead gave a cry of shock and pain and then held her hands on her chest, breathing slightly faster.

 

“Dita?!”

 

In her room…

 

Barnette was shocked as Jura gave a cry of pain and dropped some of the items in her hands, including some jewelry. The jewelry gave some sounds, but they were then followed by the blonde as she fell to her knees and suddenly she curled into a ball as she seemed to be breathing faster than normal.

 

“Jura?!”

 

In one voice, the said companion crew-members gave the same cry.

 

“What's wrong?!?!”

 

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

 

However…it wasn't just the three girls that suddenly reacted strangely…

 

“Ma'am! I'm getting some weird readings from the Paeksis!” One of the engineers said as she called Parfet.

 

The bespectacled engineer gave out a Megelian oath of confusion as she began reading the data being given to her by the sensors in the reactor room. She gave a confused look as the crystal power source seemed to be…crying in fear?!

 

“Get the captain up here!”

 

Elsewhere…

 

The Register girls were busy with some maintenance in the Hanger Bay, but were suddenly surprised to see a certain Gundam move…without it's pilot!!

 

The Infinite-Freedom was in it's normal paddock and was being stored in the ship. The reaction from the crew was understandable as it suddenly glowed, signifying the activation of it's Prominence Phase Shift Armor, the Gundam was now decked in it's normal color scheme, and it's systems began to power up.

 

Inside the Paeksis-enhanced Gundam's cockpit, the crew would have been more shocked as systems began to reactivate. The OS began to run it's normal data scan, and checked all aspects of it's systems and weapons and the only one who could understand the OS and it's complex program was none other than Kyo…but he had to be IN the cockpit to do that as the young Gundam pilot was the only one with the access codes to use the full power of the war-machine.. The Gundam then began to jack into the system of the Nirvana as if something…inside it's OS was melding with the Nirvana's own OS!

 

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

 

In the Medical Bay…

 

“I don't understand it! There's nothing in the scans that show any injuries to any of them…but they act as if they were suddenly injured!” Duero said in confusion as he and his sibling were trying to determine why the three Dread pilots were acting this way. They were able to lie down on the beds and were resting a bit. Paiway was there also as she had called for help from the others to get Dita into the Medical Bay.

 

Barnette came in next with Jura leaning on her, along with Sara and Mai who were helping Meia walk in. None of the three girls said a word as if in shock, and this frightened the crew a considerable deal.

 

“Then what's going on Doctors?” Magno asked as she was with Gascogne and BC, who rushed as they heard what had happened. That was when they got some incoming communiqués.

 

“Captain! This is Misty, Belvedere and the others have detected something hacking into the Nirvana's operating systems! We can't stop it…it's activating the ship's launching platform…and the Nirvana's counter hacking program's aren't stopping it!”

 

“Parfet here! The Paeksis is acting wildly all of a sudden! The energy levels have suddenly spiked off the charts! The power seems to be routing to the launching deck!”

 

“This is Register team 3! The Infinite-Freedom's suddenly activated itself! It's starting to disengage from the paddock and is making it's way to the launching platform!”

 

“What's happening?! It's as if the whole ship and Kyo's Gundam are suddenly acting on their own!” BC said in confusion.

 

The three girls on the beds suddenly recovered from their strange ordeal…but they were far from fine…

 

“We've got to get out there!” Jura said in fear as she held the sheets tightly.

 

“We have to hurry…we don't have much time!!!” Meia also said as she looked at the others.

 

“Whoa! Calm down you two! Tell us what's going on?!” Gascogne said as she tried to calm the slightly hysteric girls.

 

“It's Kyo…” Meia said with uncertainty.

 

“Something's happening around him!” Jura replied.

 

Dita then began to cry. “It's Mr. Alien…we have to help him…HE'S IN DANGER!!”

 

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

 

The three girls were VERY close to the truth…

 

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

 

In the archive room…

 

The sounds of gun-fire ruled as several bodies lay on the floor. The bodies were all robotic and they were bleeding coolant fluid. Near one side of the room from a barricade, came rifle fire…as a certain young man was fighting for his life as more robots poured in.

 

Kyo swore as he loaded a fresh clip into his rifle, but had to quickly draw out his pistol as a medical droid tried to leap up to him and get closer. He plugged three shots…one in the head and two in the chest of the robot, sending the thing crashing to the ground in the deactivated heap. He then fired four more shots as another medical droid came in. The robot's arm was blown off as Kyo aimed at the exposed joint, the three other rounds struck the robot, two in the chest, one in the neck and the last in the eye.

 

Kyo wasted no time and holstered his pistol and fired his newly loaded rifle. He then ducked as the combat droids open fired on him. Apparently, the combat droids had switched to riot suppression rounds, apparently they wanted to take him alive…but he knew that if the syringes and surgical tools on the hands of the medical droids were of any sign of indication, they were going to use him as a test subject before turning him into a corpse.

 

The combat units moved with effective military precision. They came in first in single scout formations, but now switched to teams of two and three. Though Kyo could take down one, another would escape and provide covering fire for the others to get into the doorway. Kyo however wasn't going to give up and play dead.

 

He tossed a grenade into the area and watched as the explosive device blew more of the robots to pieces. The room was now covered in coolant and lubrication fluid and in areas were broken robotic bodies and severed limbs. He had been able to make it past the initial stages, but had been hit by a glancing shot…lucky for him his uniform still had it's ballistic protection layers, but the shot was sharp enough to draw blood from him, as it was able to hit the flesh on his thigh before moving aside. The wound was not much, but he was not in the mood to bleed while in a fire-fight. On the ground was a small puddle of blood from his wound, Kyo then used the time he had bought for himself and took out a Megele-made self sealing bandage, but not before placing some anti-bacterial serum on the wound. The pain from the medicine shot up from his leg to his entire body but he fought past it. He needed to focus as he made a promise to his friends that he would come back…and no wound or enemy was going to stop him!!!

 

The robots were still relentless as they casually walked over the bodies of their destroyed comrades.

 

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

 

The AI commander gave an electronic sound similar to a boy who found himself suckered to a bogus toy. Apparently the `bug' was a highly corruptive OS program and it seemed to be infecting the core network of the bases and the standing forces under it's command. This was a serious thing and had to be stopped!!!

 

The AI entity began to track down the source of the corruptive data and began to deploy a response.

 

In the shape of a regiment of Sky Strikers! And their objective was simple, in the event of target acquisition…

 

They were going to bomb the location into a glass crater!!!

 

For that task, the Sky Strikers were armed with SFF-HEIC Bombs along with their current array of missiles and gatling guns. The SFF-HEIC bombs were considered as the deadliest form of anti-base weaponry. Based on an old Earth weapon schematic, the weapon was named as such as they appear as normal sized bombs and could appear to be easily intercepted, but when they were able to reach a pre-programmed altitude, the bombs would unleash a massive barrage of smaller bombs, and these smaller bombs could spread over a very wide range and could tear through most rock formations and could pierce through steel or heavy alloy plates like a shrapnel round. But their power didn't stop there, they were filled with a high concentration of highly explosive/flammable mass cores, and the mixture was enough to leave a crater on a large apartment complex and can detonate like an old Earth style bunker buster bomb after it reached a pre-programmed depth, and since the target was a base of the AI army's own usage and that of it's former human masters, the strike team used four bombs per Sky Striker.

 

As the air force gathered for their combat sortie, the AI's search protocols were now on the way to locate the threat, while ensuring that the bases and forces that they could contact would not be infected by the incoming virus/OS program. Once the base where the infection was being deployed was located…

 

It was time to decorate the neighborhood!

 

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

 

Kyo gritted his teeth as he released another clip from his rifle and got ready to load another. Once he was done he looked around him. The robots he had turned into scrap were all over the place. Limbs and torsos of robotic origin were everywhere, and some of them had his sword's marks on them. When they got too close he cut them up with his sword and hand to hand combat skills. But this time he had another wound…one of the medical droids had gotten close enough to cut him with a serrated scalpel on the arm and the weapon bypassed his uniform's ballistic protection to cut his arm and draw even more blood.

 

He then felt a sensation of absorption but discarded it and kicked back the medical droid and slashed it into two pieces with his sword. After which he relaxed as he had been given a reprieve as the numbers of robots thinned down considerably and it seemed that they were pulling back.

 

He then patched up his latest wound, but for an odd reason, he wondered why he felt three extra sources of anxiety as he patched up his latest wound. But he focused on what he needed to do and faced the monitor to check the progress.

 

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

 

The AI entity was in a FOUL mood as it realized that the virus/OS had spread to most of it's current standing forces in the borders of the main hemispheres…the only good news was the fact that the other bases were not infected and were still under it's command. But this time it had been given new orders concerning it's catch.

 

It was now to hold the Nirvana and disable the ship for the Harvest Fleet and prevent it's attempts to escape the planet…and should it fail…

 

It was to exterminate the ship and the crew…down to the last one.

 

It then was able to locate the closest base that was the origin of the virus/OS and gave the order for it's Sky Striker regiment to launch, they were now given the green light to turn the base into a total mess… for now it had to coordinate it's unaffected forces in a defense and delay action. As for those infected with the virus/OS, they were now to be exterminated.

 

In the Hangers…

 

The launch ramps were now in full use as Sky Striker after Sky Striker were deployed with their new commands…In fifteen minutes the sky was filled with a full regiment of Sky Striker fighters, all heading in one direction.

 

Kyo's…

 

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

The Nirvana…

 

“What should we do, Captain?” BC asked as she faced the old woman while they were in the medical bay to debate what had happened to the Infinite-Freedom, Dita, Jura, Meia, and the ship itself.

 

Magno knew that if what the three girls, Duero, and Barnette had told them and BC about what had happened in the mesa was true, then it would suggest that the Gundam Kyo piloted may have a connection to their comrade and closest friend, thus it would be a bad idea for them to try and stop the Gundam. If the Gundam could activate itself and go after it's pilot and master, then it would mean that Kyo was in grave danger for the machine to activate itself, move and fight on it's own.

 

It still made Magno confused as to how and why a machine that was infused with the Paeksis's energies could develop such an amazing bond with it's pilot. And it made sense that when the three Dread pilots were with Kyo in the reactor room all those months ago, it would mean that they too had a faint but undeniable connection to the young man. In that sense she came to a quick decision.

 

“BC, allow the Gundam to launch, track it and don't lose sight of it!”

 

The dark skinned woman nodded and got her communicator and contacted the Bridge. “This is the Commander…activate the launch codes for the Launch Bay and track the Gundam's location at ALL times. This is not a drill…Kyo is in danger.”

 

The Bridge crew, including Belvedere, Celtic, Amarone, Ezra, and Misty gave their reply and began their work.

 

Magno then spoke to Parfet through the intercom. “Parfet, I want you to route as much power as you can get from the Paeksis to both the tracking systems in the Bridge and to the Launch Bay!”

 

“Roger!” Was Parfet's reply, she then turned to her crew and gave them their orders. The engineers then worked double time to gather all the power they could spare to give the Infinite-Freedom enough power to go a great distance to lessen the travel time to reach the base where Kyo was.

 

In the Launch Bay…

 

The Gundam's eyes glowed deep yellow as it got onto the launch platform and then with all the power it had in it's own reactor and the power routed into the Nirvana's Launching platform for it's own Paeksis, the Gundam rocketed out of the pirate ship in a velocity that was similar to a bullet being launched out of an EM railgun.

 

Once it reached the full distance, the Gundam's wings unleashed it's wings and thrusters, it flew at such a speed then it send massive sand waves as it moved at high speed over the desert, it's wings' feathers acting as powerful thrusters along with it's still powerful back mounted thrusters made it move like a blur as the wings moved like a bird's.

 

Will it reach Kyo in time?

 

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

 

In the atmosphere…

 

The Dominion Gundams began to make it past the half of the atmospheric levels. The newly designed Gundams still had the original design specs but were now given a set of new weapons. In place of the original shield was a special beam edged shield that was designed to be a massive beam edged discus that could be thrown as one and could be reeled back via a high density energy cable. Another addition was the presence of a built-in heavy plasma cannon on the forearm and is seemed that the new models were now armed with anti-ship swords.

 

The CPU of each Dominion Gundam began calculating the time needed for their arrival and meeting with the AI forces. They had been installed and programmed with the latest combat data from the previous models that were defeated when the Freedom had `evolved' into the Infinite Freedom model. The Harvester Council's technical department still had many hurdles to overcome before they could make a perfect replication of the Paeksis's effects on machines, so for now, the Dominions and the other Gundam models would have to be the Harvesters' best weapons against the Nirvana and the Paeksis powered Gundam.

 

The Gundams' eyes glowed a sickly red as they began to meet up with the AI's main assault forces.

 

On the ground it became apparent that even with the numbers of units who's AI was lo-jacked by the Nirvana pirates and Kyo, they were still out numbered. The Northern bases had far more numbers than the bases that were on the other regions, primarily due to the fact that the AI commander was their eyes and ears.

 

There were literally assault units of Ogres and Desert Fangs in the numbers of thousands and the Sky Strikers were now in massive wings, all being fueled and armed. Coupled with the Dominion Gundams, the AI army was enough to dwarf most, if not all conventional forces. Along with them were massive numbers of light to heavy combat droid models, bristling from head to toe of weapons. It was an army that would have normally inspired awe and respect.

 

Now it was an army that inspired fear and terror…

 

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

 

In the base…

 

“You have GOT to be kidding?!” Kyo said out loud as he saw the reports of an incoming assault wing of Sky Strikers heading for him! He had been able to tighten the barricade he made and salvaged some weapons from the downed droids, but now he realized that he had to leave. The big question was…how was he going to escape?

 

He then looked at his computer as it beeped, sending him a message. He looked on the installed laptop and realized that it was telling him that the I-Freedom had been launched from the Nirvana. The computer was very much still in good working order and that in itself was great news for the young Coordinator.

 

He had a moment of confusion but realized that it might have been the same thing that had happened nearly a few days ago, when the Gundam suddenly powered up on it's own and went to his rescue, despite him not being in the cockpit. He felt that things might work out, but knew that he was in a massive base and it would take far too long for him to escape and meet up with his Gundam.

 

That was when he came up with a plan that was beyond reckless…

 

He quickly began typing in data codes and plans to the Gundam and realized that he had to leave. Looking at the still present base specs, he realized that there was a quick route to the other side of the base, and from what he could tell, it was near the deep ravine where the base was.

 

As he blasted the wall with some of the demolitions he had with him and escaped from the incoming reinforcements, he knew that what he had in mind was crazier than anything he had ever cooked up. Heck, that plan he made to defeat the first Harvester battleship the Nirvana had fought with and the Dominion Gundam seemed saner than what he had in mind!

 

< I must be out of my mind.>

 

But it wasn't as if he had a load of options to begin with anyway.

 

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

 

As the room was once again filled by robots, one of the heavy combat models came into the room armed with it's gatling gun. The robots scanned the area and found that their prey had eluded them. They however were no longer interested as they went to one of their fallen comrades.

 

The same medical droid that had been able to slash through Kyo's uniform and it's ballistic armor.

 

The droid that was closest reached for a hatch on the robot's back, it then opened the hatch and locked in a data relay cable into the nearby slot. In a few seconds of what appeared to be a data transfer, another hatch opened on the destroyed medical robot. This time it was located near the arm, and that part seemed to have been reinforced from damage. Out of the hatch came a vial, just like that of the a small vial that was sealed to contain whatever it was storing, and in this case it was storing blood.

 

Kyo's blood…

 

The robot then handed the vial to one of the other medical droids and the new one headed out of the facility as the combat robots were now arming themselves with new rounds…highly lethal rounds. It looks like they had completed one of their primary directives and it was now time to do the next one, and that was to kill the one they got the blood sample from.

 

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

 

The I-Freedom began receiving the incoming data from it's pilot and began to run the data into a simulation drive test. On the screen was a visual representation of the conditions and factors that could affect the plan, as it computed all the data, it made the needed changes.

 

The Gundam pushed itself even further as it finally computed the last of the data. Had the Gundam been a living being, it would have considered the plan it's master had in mind more than crazy, it would have considered it totally insane. But it was the only way.

 

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

 

In the base…

 

BOOM!!!

 

Kyo ducked and covered as he used another batch of the high-grade explosives he had gained from the armory as he blasted his way to where he needed to be for the Gundam to reach him. He then turned and fired a few rounds into the group of pursuers that were behind him. Two more medical droids were turned into scrap and another combat model got a bullet right in where the CPU was.

 

Kyo then tossed another grenade and watched as his pursuers were now turned into junk, as he loaded another clip for his rifle and his pistol. He then gave a groan of dismay as he spotted another combat model coming, and this it was one of the heavy assault models armed with a double gatling gun. He then swore as the thing began to arm up and the distinctive sound of spinning barrels were heard.

 

“Oh Hell!”

 

He ran through the corridor narrowly escaping as a stream of high caliber armor piercing ammunition chewed up the wall behind him. Shrapnel was flying everywhere and he was lucky he still had his helmet on. It would have been totally humiliating to be hit in the head by shrapnel and dying now. Kyo wasted no time and ran to his full capability using still his SEED ability as the sounds of gun-fire surrounded and permeated the entire area. Quickly dodging through the corridor to his destination, he looked back a bit as he spotted the heavy assault unit closing the distance and chewing up the distance as more fire rained from it's weapon. He was barely able to dodge to the left corridor when the thing fired an RPG at him.

 

Apparently the robot was armed with a small portable rocket launcher and although the weapon wasn't as large as normal RPGs, the thing had the explosive power of several pounds of high grade plastic explosive mixed with a serious amount of thermal-plasma. The explosion missed Kyo, but it knocked him down to the floor, nearly knocking him into a pipe. The helmet he had on saved his life, as the impact would have resulted in a massive concussion and internal hemorrhaging, along with his uniform and it's ballistic armor layers, but he didn't escape cleanly.

 

Kyo felt the pain on his chest and from the sound of his breathing, he might have a few fractured ribs, and although he was no high grade EMT/Paramedic he could tell that none of his bones had broken through either his heart or lungs. The pain was getting more unbearable, but now wasn't the time for him to think about it.

 

Kyo used a built-in injector in his uniform to feed pain-killers and special anti-biotic fluids into his body, namely where his injuries were, plus the adrenaline booster he injected gave him more energy along with his body's normal adrenaline supply. Kyo got up and moved on, but his injuries were somewhat slowing him down. That was when he realized that the pipe he had nearly hit was a gas fuel line.

 

With a desperate plan in mind he opened the gas pipe and allowed the gas to flood the room, namely in the direction of the corner. He then moved to where the door was and got a good distance, just as the combat model came around the corner. Kyo heard the sound of the gatling gun barrels spinning, he reflexively ducked and with a serious focus through his never forgotten years of training and through SEED mode and growing abilities…

 

Fired a single round at the robot…namely at it's weapon.

 

(We have a moment ala Matrix as the rifle round fired out of Kyo's rifle, the bullet streaking through the air and seemed to be moving in slow motion, until it slammed into the double gatling gun…unleashing massive sparks from the collision…which ignited the gas all over the room area.)

 

The firestorm engulfed the combat droid along with several others that had arrived. Sounds of melted metal and exploding weapons signaled the end of the droid forces pursuing Kyo, but the firestorm was now heading towards Kyo. He however knew what he had done and rushed to the door as fire alarms went online and just as the fire suppression systems kicked in and the corridor was about to be sealed up, Kyo leaped and rolled as the blast doors behind him closed.

 

Kyo gave a groan but went on as he moved as fast as he could to where he had to be. Time was running out…

 

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

 

The CPU of each Sky Striker was on full alert as they reached the outer areas of their target. Each AI pilot unit began arming up for the projected bomb run.

 

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

 

The Infinite-Freedom tracked it's distance from the target and was now initiating the final phase of it's pilot's plan.

 

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

 

The team of Dominion Gundam units were now past the atmosphere, activating their wings for atmospheric flight. It had taken some time for the Harvesters' techs to condition the Dominion units for ground operations, but that was now complete. They were now to assemble with the rest of the forces targeting the pirates.

 

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

 

Kyo finally arrived in the room filled with supplies and he faced towards the wall of the room which was facing the ravine. He knew that it was time…or in this case in the next two minutes. He set the last of his pilfered explosives and set the timer. As he decided to rest he then felt his danger sense go on full alert, and he quickly rolled out of the way as another barrage of gatling gun fire tore through the door.

 

<You've got to be kidding!>

 

He spotted the shooter…and it was the very same robot he could have sworn was roasted! The droid had huge burning welts as sections of it's armor was melting a bit, but it became apparent that the blasted droid had some protection to fire. The droid concentrated a full barrage, which Kyo evaded as he hid behind a massive rack of supplies.

 

He looked quickly at the supply rack he was near to and realized that that they were now filled high explosive ordinance, namely for apparently human commando squads. He heard the sound of the stopping barrels, telling him that the blasted robot was going to reload it's weapon.

 

Kyo checked the timer and realized that he only had a minute and a half. It was desperation time!

 

He spotted that the rack's support struts were starting to get loose, all it needed was some more damage and the whole rack would release it's load. The droid however was moving while loading it's weapon. This meant that it knew that the explosives would do it in due to the current state of it's defensive armor. So the blasted thing would be looking for an opening.

 

Taking his pistol and his sword, Kyo slashed the support struts, and when that was done, he summoned as much strength he could muster in his injured state. As he shouted mentally the rack began to fall as his Paeksis enhanced strength took over and down came the stored pile of containers. The containers were designed to handle most damage, but the effect of being hit by high caliber rounds from a gatling gun or ANY heavy weapon system would puncture the containers like a soda can under a metal press in a second. The containers rolled right in front of the droid who had to move back and halt it's attempt to fire. In that same moment, Kyo moved aside to another safe area as the explosive he placed went off.

 

The explosion blew the wall and due to the depressurization, the air in the room began to siphon out. Kyo realized that it was do or die time. He had strapped on the restraining locks on his sword, rifle, and the rest of his survival gear and then ran towards the subsiding explosion. He turned, fired a round at one of the containers that had been damaged by the shrapnel that he was able to evade and…

 

Leaped right out of the hole in the wall!!!

 

To a forty thousand feet drop…just as the room behind him was covered in an explosion that totally destroyed it.

 

Kyo quickly positioned himself like a free fall sky diver as he looked at his computer, and that was when he heard it.

 

As the Gundam pilot went plummeting downwards on a controlled descent…the sky was filled with the sound of roaring engines as the Infinite Freedom rocketed into the sky…and then plunged downward as if to follow it's master. The Gundam went to a full descent flight pattern, using it's thrusters and retracted it's wings so as to have better room for maneuvering. The Gundam twisted itself until it's front side was now facing the other side of the ravine. The Gundam then began to decelerate to match the speed of descent of it's pilot.

 

Kyo waited as his Gundam was streaking past him and slowly began to match his descent. The Gundam was facing the other side of the wall of the ravine and that meant that he was in level descent of the chest area of the Gundam, namely to the cockpit. Quickly diving with his limbs all straight on his form downwards as he moved past the legs of his Gundam unit, he spotted the now released cockpit cable of the Gundam. The cable was released and the length was right in front of him.

 

Kyo then grabbed the cable, and bit back the pain as the cable was being reeled back in. The I-Freedom began to climb as it reached half of the distance of the ravine. As it did so, it decelerated even more to allow a level descent for both the cable and it's pilot so as to avoid the possibility of Kyo being knocked away by the winds, and the Gundam, piloted by it's mysterious Paeksis enhanced systems moved on as it was reeling back in it's pilot.

 

Kyo reached the area of the cockpit, and with a great deal of effort, managed to get himself inside the Gundam. He gave a sigh of relief a few moments later as he righted himself inside his Gundam. He quickly took control of his Mobile Suit and then took it to a full climb out of the descent. The Gundam rocketed out of the ravine and was now reaching the sky.

 

That was when the threat sensors of the Gundam warned it's pilot of an incoming mass threat. Kyo looked at the enhanced images and spotted the incoming forces.

 

It was the Sky Striker regiments, and apparently they were getting ready to engage!

 

Kyo groaned a bit as he held the controls and powered up his Gundam's weapons and sensors. The fighters may have been on a bomb run, but they were now ready to engage the Gundam and it's still injured pilot. Kyo however wasn't going to give up now!

 

<Never a dull moment!> Kyo thought to himself as he began to manipulate the controls.

 

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

 

At the base…

 

The robots who were not after Kyo however had an escort mission of their own. The droids escorted the medical unit that carried the blood sample they had been able to acquire. The retrieval information sent from the Harvester home-planet was designed to be logged deeply into the CPU cortex area of the droids and could not be over-ridden without installing a whole new CPU unit.

 

Apparently while Kyo tried to avoid the fate of being turned into a bullet riddled pile of unrecognizable meat, the droids were loading the sample of his blood on an AI transport ship, complete with an uninfected AI escort that would have made the Secret Service look like choir boys on parade. There were at least twenty combat models and ten of the heavy duty assault models, and the ship they were on was in a separate data-uplink drive.

 

The ship fired up it's engines and went out from another launching ramp and as it was taking off, it transmitted a signal to it's AI master, telling it that the cargo was now on the way for interstellar pick-up by the orbital fleet. This was possible as the transport shuttle was designed for considerable inter-stellar travel.

 

At the main AI base…

 

<< Data transmission cleared and authenticated…. Prepare Lancer Platform Alpha Six.> The screen of the AI super computer showed as it then transmitted the activation coordinates to the said Lancer Platform. It then activated it's transmission dish and typed in coordinates.

 

<< Communication Protocol Alpha Status Class-01. Sample of requested bio-liquid for priority 1 research achieved, sample is now being transported for Interstellar retrieval.>>

 

The transmitter now began to be covered with arcs of power. In an instant the dish fired a beam that streaked out like a bullet and went towards the atmosphere.

 

In space…

 

The main battle-ship of the secondary fleet's still active dish, picked up the transmission and then got ready to send for a heavy combat escort to bring the shuttle back to Earth, since this was a priority one order from Earth and the Harvester Council, this did take precedence over the mission the other Council members had in mind. The ship then selected a Seed Ship and began to have the other Seed Ships and the ships' Cube Fighters act as the escort squad.

 

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

 

Back in the atmosphere…

 

The entire area over the base was alive with gatling gun-fire and massive missile barrages. The Sky Strikers apparently broke into two teams. The first was to bomb the target into total saturation, while the other would engage their new priority one target. Once the first bomber wing was complete, they were engage and eliminate the Gundam.

 

But apparently their target was in NO mood to be taken out…

 

The Gundam streaked through the sky as missiles by the dozen followed it in the hopes of reducing the Gundam into scrap. The Mobile Suit however was more than agile. It was running loops all over the missiles. One cloud had came close to hitting the Gundam missed their target completely and collided with each other. The missiles exploded on contact and before things could get further, the Gundam turned about and streaked into squadron that fired the missiles. They fired their gatling guns, but those two were avoided as the Gundam streaked past them, quickly turned about and fired a massive barrage from it's head and shoulder guns. Several fighters were turned into scrap and the rest tried to escape, but were not able to at all.

 

The I-Freedom turned and ignited it's beam sabers as it attacked the next batch. The Sky Strikers that were trying to evade the incoming attacker were not able to as the Gundam's aerial combat speed out-paced them even if they were using their after-burners. Several fighters were cut into two as the Gundam blurred and struck their middles with the beam sabers. A few more found themselves literally clipped of their wings as they crashed all the way down to the ground. A Sky Striker attempted to ram the Gundam, but got a blow right into the cockpit with a beam saber.

 

Kyo breathed carefully as he felt that the pain-killers from his previous treatment of his injuries during his escape from the base began to wear off. Kyo knew that almost all the weaponry of the Sky Strikers were not in the least, VERY effective against the Prominence Phase Shift Armor System of the Infinite Freedom, but in order for him to avoid aggravating his still tender ribs, he put all his efforts into evasive maneuvers. He waited for an opening and took it the moment it came to him.

 

The Gundam then turned as several other Sky Strikers began their own offensive. Kyo then aimed his Gundam's CIWS guns and the shoulder guns. He locked on while on SEED mood and shoot down more incoming missiles, while dodging and blasting even more before they came close to even touching the outer armor. The Gundam then activated the plasma cannons and rail-guns as more missiles were fired by another incoming force of Sky Strikers.

 

The Gundam rocketed up and fired it's energy and projectile weaponry as the missiles were turned into exploding junk in the sky. It was then that Kyo placed back his Gundam's beam sabers, and then took out his Gundam's anti-ship swords. It was then that he combined the handles of both swords and that instant, the single edged beam swords became a bladed battle-staff…one beam edge facing downward, while the other faced upward. And considering the length of each blade and the length of the handles made it look like the Gundam was a four-winged war angel with a double bladed war-staff.

 

The Infinite-Freedom spun the weapon and in a defensive pattern like that of a staff-wielding martial artist dived into the morass of fighters that seemed to be all out in front. And with the new beam edged weapon at the ready…began a massive battle.

 

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

 

The Nirvana…

 

“Kyo is in his Gundam?!” BC asked Duero as the medic was there on the bridge. Apparently the medical sensors loaded in the Gundam during the pervious ground operation of the pirates were still present. They were happy to know that Kyo was in his Gundam and safe, but what they learned was troubling to say the least.

 

“That is correct…but I am getting some troubling readings. There seem to be signs of injuries on Kyo's body. According to the sensors Kyo has a few fractured ribs, the good news for us is that none of his bones had broken through either his heart or lungs, he seems to have used some pain-killers and they are working, but now are wearing off. There have been some abrasions and some cuts, but he has been suffering some internal bleeding, and although minor, they can be a hindrance if not treated. But judging from the high elevations of stress and energy usage, he is fighting a powerful foe…If he doesn't hurry and return…”

 

The implications of what Duero was saying wasn't lost in the VERY least to the crew. They recalled the sorry state Kyo was in all those months ago, and what happened when he went out to fight for them… they knew that Kyo's current injuries were light compared to the ones he had before, but they were never going to make the mistake of letting him fight in an injured state alone now.

 

“We've got to do something!” Ezra cried as she tried to contact Kyo, but despite the Nirvana's ability to track the Paeksis-enhanced Gundam, they still couldn't get a clear signal to call Kyo.

 

The three Dread pilots and three other girls that have grown close to the young Coordinator were on the bridge and it took a great deal of their discipline to try and not make a mess of things for the bridge crew…but like the others, they were still fearful for Kyo.

 

“I'll go out there!” A voice came to the bridge.

 

Magno, Buzam, and the others saw none other than…Barnette Orangello, with Max McFile beside her. Apparently the two had been with Gascogne, the Register girls who were helping in placing the crew of both the Shard and the Emerald Dawn into the Nirvana's morgue. They had been listening into the communications net and they had no problem making two and two fit on what was happening to Kyo.

 

“Barnette, are you sure about that?”

 

Barnette nodded. This was somewhat personal for her. Though she had been forgiven by the crew and herself, she apparently wanted to be the one to help Kyo. The others also knew that Barnette was among the very few in their crew that could come to Kyo's aid. The SwitchBlade Gundam she piloted before had the speed and the mobility in both Mobile Armor and Mobile Suit mode to reach Kyo in time. Duero's Gundam, the Morpheous was another Mobile Suit with the same specifications, namely when docked with it's Aero Form Pack, and lastly, Max's Templar Gundam had the same though watered down systems of the Infinite-Freedom Gundam. These three individuals and their current Mobile Suits were the only units and pilot in the pirate teams to be able to rescue Kyo.

 

Dita, Jura, Meia, Sara, Misty, and Mai also knew this, but they each had their own thoughts that conflicted with the logic of the whole thing.

 

For Dita, the feeling of pain coming from Mr. Alien terrified her, when the pain flashed in her body for the first time, she was at first very confused, but when she managed to identify the source of the pain, and realizing that she was able to feel it from another person, she was terrified…even more so when she saw in her mind's eye, the image of Kyo in pain, it was there she knew that Mr. Aline, the one she grew to love and cherish was in mortal danger. All the time she had spent with Kyo made her see less of a curiosity, and more of a close friend, and now an object of affection, and she then recalled an event in her life that made her what she was today, the happy-go lucky girl, and always cheerful, and now she hoped that she could buoy her spirits, no matter how hard it was now…but the more she knew that Kyo was in danger, and she could do nothing, she was feeling more afraid.

 

For Meia, it felt like a pain that she had nearly forgotten in her days as a street thug. She felt this when she had lost both her Ohma and Fahma, and in that time she was too young to be able to help them. When the pain hit her, not only did it affect her physically, but mentally as well. She saw the same thing Dita did, and no doubt did Jura…Kyo injured and in pain. The fear, guilt, and anguish she had tried to suppress for all those years came back like a flood until she was shacking like a leaf in the wind. And like before, despite being more mature, seasoned, and more than capable in holding her own, she was now powerless to protect a new person that was becoming the one she had her feelings for, despite her denials.

 

For Jura, she felt helpless once more as she thought back on the pain she felt. It chilled her from head to toe, not in the intensity to the body, but to her thoughts. Kyo was injured and she wasn't there to try and help him…just as he had done for her here on this world, and on so many occasions. She was afraid that she wouldn't be able to help him, the man that she cared about, and in a new and powerful way. She saw him in her own mind in danger and it triggered emotions in her that were new and very powerful, she wondered if she was feeling even more for Kyo since the time they had met, and what she felt earlier confirmed that. Her feelings were indeed growing, and where they would lead her was only something that she neither knew nor understood.

 

(For the three other girls who are after Kyo, I want to show some of the emotions they felt towards him…you readers, be the judge and tell me if it is OK. P.S. I'm going to get rid of some of the comments on the end of the page soon, since they have been there for too long and need to be removed for more space, though I won't remove my message to Panur. Plus, I want to ask for more comments and suggestions from you readers. Why? I want to hear from you all so I know what people think of the progress.)

 

For Misty Cornwell, it was a story similar to the three Dread pilots, but totally different. Ever since she had awakened on the Nirvana, and when she saw Kyo, she felt that she had found the one man who could cure her loneliness. Sure, she had tried to make friends among the female pirates, and she had made some acquaintances, but there were two things she couldn't deny. The first was that her behavior and beliefs made her an anomaly among the Megele females, and this seemed to mark her as weird and unusual, not to mention she acted differently around Kyo, and that made some of the girls nervous. The second was the fact that she felt totally out of place. She was among women and men who knew next to nothing about each other! Women having only female children, and men only having male offspring totally clashed with the way she had been raised. Not to mention that she knew other things related to men and women, but how could she break a wall of belief between men and women that was in place for nearly a life-time? The idea of an all female planet made her feel very uncomfortable, and while a planet full of men WAS a serious temptation for a girl of her upbringing and age…the fact that they would be repulsed by her as a woman totally turned her off. In Kyo she saw another soul who was in a place that totally was not suited towards the beliefs of the past. She knew that Kyo was a normal man and she had no trouble imagining how hard it was for him to be around so many gorgeous women for nearly a year. She wasn't as well developed as they were, but she knew about life between men and women, and hoped that this was enough to bring Kyo and her together, plus…she liked having a man who didn't act all confused or pole-axed when she spoke of certain things between men and women and the fact that Kyo was a handsome, intelligent, kind-hearted, brave, and tough man was a big plus, had he been born back home…he'd be considered a prime boy-friend! And although he had some minuses he was a good man. She hated the feeling that she could do nothing for her prince that saved her, and most of all she wished she could be closer to him, just as the redhead Dread pilot Dita, that blonde pilot Jura, and the Dread leader Meia were since they interacted with him the most, she wanted to be with him…she didn't want to be alone in this ship.

 

For Mai, the story was just as unique. She recalled the teachings of her family clan, about hating men with no exception, and she lived by it for almost all of her life. But when Kyo came into the lives of the crew, and hers…it began to dawn upon her that all that she believed was true about all men was not. She recalled the story she shared with Kyo hours before, and recalled all that he said…and she wondered what her family life would have been like if her ancestor had met a man like Kyo. She saw so many qualities about men in the young Gundam pilot that totally contradicted what she had learned all those years ago. In him, she saw what she now considered as the greatest qualities of men, and this intrigued her to no end. She never lied that she thought of having children with Kyo, nor the fact she wanted to get into a relationship with him, to her, the policy of the past made no sense when trying to compare the description of men by her family and that of Megele to Kyo. Kyo did change the way the pirates viewed men…along with her. The fact that she could do nothing to help him gnawed at her, as more feelings were flowing in her mind concerning him.

 

And for Sara, she recalled all the times she had been under Kyo's command, truth be told, she thought before that although Kyo bested her in the match they had with each other months before, she thought he would be a one man show-off, considering the skills he had with his Gundam, but he proved her wrong. He trusted the girls in the Crusaders and gave her full authority when he wasn't in command. He didn't pretend that the girls were for decoration when he was leading them. He gave orders that were very much that of a seasoned commander, and he never played favorites. At first she grated under his command, but she learned to trust him, and as time progressed, she became intrigued with her commander, and with the events that transpired between her and Kyo, she was even more determined to learn more about him. This wasn't just about respect and understanding though, the reason was deeper than she could imagine, and like her family had done, she was ready to go forward to find the truth of how she felt about him. So it made sense that she grated at the fact that for all she had become, she wasn't able to do anything for him.

 

The crew waited as Magno pondered the choices…but they didn't have to wait long.

 

“ Prepare the Launch Bay for the deployment of the Morpheous, the SwitchBlade, and the Templar! I want full power to the Launch Platform immediately!”

 

The crew went to work as fast as possible, while the pilots in question got ready to be deployed along with their Mobile Suits.

 

Later…

 

It didn't take long for the three new Gundams to be loaded into the Launch Platform. The Dread fighter's normal assembly arms had been re-configured to be able to assemble the Form Packs of the Gundam Morpheous as requested by Duero. The Morpheous was the first to be launched as the Aero Form Pack Parts were now being combined on the Gundam. Once more the color scheme of the Morpheous changed from the normal to gun metal grey with crimson edges, and olive green. The second Gundam was Barnette's Gundam, the SwitchBlade, and finally Max's Templar Gundam was being locked in. All three pilots made their last checks and were wearing spare flight suits modeled after Kyo's uniform.

 

Barnette, Duero, and Max then activated the helmet visors as they launched out in full order.

 

“Duero McFile in the Morpheous Gundam `Aero' ready to Launch…”

 

“Roger, green light for deploy!”

 

The Launch Platform got ready, and in moments, the Morpheous was released. Once the Gundam was airborne, it's Form Pack activated it's wings and thrusters, going on full power. In it's hands was it's beam rifle and shield.

 

“Barnette Orangello in the SwitchBlade Gundam ready for Launch…” The green-haired pilot called in as her Gundam was quickly locked into launching mode.

 

Quickly following the Morpheous, the SwitchBlade went on full throttle after launch, and quickly switched to Mobile Armor mode to take full advantage of it's speed. The Mobile Armor form quickly caught up with the Morpheous as both waited for their last comrade.

 

“Max McFile in the Templar Gundam, ready for Launch…” The younger sibling reported as his was the last Gundam to be loaded into the Launch Platform.

 

The Templar rocketed out of the Nirvana as soon as possible and activated it's own wings, as it joined the Morpehous and the SwitchBlade it resembled an angel going to war. It then took formation beside the Morpheous, with the SwitchBlade on the other side.

 

All three went on full after-burn as they closed in towards Kyo's location.

 

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

 

The AI forces however had other concerns, namely for one of their Lancer Platforms. As the transport and it's escorts arrived to the Lancer Platform in question. The Lancer had received the command and began activating it's systems, while the transport shuttle was now being escorted to the main launching deck. The Lancer's main computer archives went on to calculate the last of the needed field data and made the needed changes to all of the deployment systems.

 

The fields that were the basis for the Lancer Platform's function were now being deployed and the transport was now being stabilized for the deployment. The first field began to filter out elements that could mess of the magnetic induction effect needed to create the gravity field, and the field looked like a shimmering cloud of light red. Once the first step was done, the environment adapters released the specially magnetized charged particles in their container magnetic fields, they were then held in place by the magnetic coils' generated fields which is the second step, creating a bluish halo of light around the Lancer Platform and towards the said coordinates. And in effect create the stable restriction barrier/containment field, to stabilize the ship. Finally the full effect was a purplish tunnel of light that reached beyond the atmosphere. The gravity field generators went into effect as the ship began to rocket upwards in a controlled ascent to space and to where the forces of the Harvesters were waiting.

 

Once it was given the signal that the cargo it's master was waiting for was well underway. The AI entity sent a new order to it's forces…

 

Halt and restrict the escape of the Nirvana, and eliminate the Nirvana should it attempt to escape the planet.

 

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

 

For Kyo, the fight was getting a heck of a load more crowded. No matter how many he took out from the Sky Striker regiment, they were not going to stop. The ground beneath him was littered with a mess of burning wreckage from all the fighters he had reduced into scrap. But he was getting exhausted from the fighting as his injuries and all the energy he had expended was affecting him. So now he went totally on the defensive.

 

The Sky Strikers closed the gap as they received the data from the main command base. The regiment that engaged Kyo kept him from attacking the other regiment as they made their attack on the rogue base…but before it could begin.

 

The lead Sky Striker had no time to react as a blast of beam fire came right from above to reduce it into an exploding fireball. And this caught not just the attention of the other Sky Strikers, but also Kyo's attention as he jetted away from his pursuers.

 

“Kyo! Can you hear me?!”

 

Kyo checked his communicator and gave a cry of relief as he recognized the voice, although it surprised him.

 

“Barnette? Thank god you made it!”

 

The image of the Dread pilot in her uniform greeted the Gundam pilot with a smile. “Hang on, Max and Duero are with me, we're here to get you out.”

 

The Sky Strikers following Kyo and the Infinite-Freedom were forced to break off as more of them were destroyed by incmong beam and ballistic fire as the three Gundams arrived to support their comrade at the last moment.

 

Duero guided the Morpheous to cover Kyo's Gundam as Barnette and Max went ahead and give the enemy a sound thrashing. The SwitchBlade stayed in it's Mobile Armor mode and fired it's weaponry right at the incoming enemy fighters.

 

The SwitchBlade struck past the incoming fighters, quickly evading their attempts to fire with both guns and missiles, while quickly turning about and retaliating with it's own arsenals. The Polaris Phase Shift was different from the Prominence Phase Shift due to the fact that it sacrificed a small percentage of it's ability to deflect physical weaponry damage to improve anti-beam effectiveness, but not sacrificing the full effects of the original function of Phase Shift, where both armor systems were based on.

 

Barnette knew that she had the advantage, but they were charged to protect Kyo and get him back to the Nirvana. But there was something nagging her mind…

 

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

 

Inside the base…

 

The systems of the base began to reactivate as they began to deploy their forces. The security forces were the only ones that were activated, and now since base perimeter had been compromised, it was now time to call out the big guns. Hundreds of Ogres, Desert Fangs, and Sky Strikers were now being deployed. They were now being filled in with combat data and directives by their main supplier, and that was their base's main AI network…

 

The question now was…did Kyo's plan work?

 

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

 

In the sky…

 

Barnette and Max were now engaging the enemy forces while Duero stayed close to cover Kyo. The Templar was now activating it's own HiMAT system and began blasting to bits any missile that tried to tag it out of the game. The Gundam then used it's shiled to block incoming shots and missiles, then used it's beam saber to slash down any fighter that came into striking range. Barnette and Max were now able to push the full use of their respective Gundams, and it showed as the Gundams' reaction time was further boosted thanks to Kyo's tinkering with the OS. And that became apparent as Duero also went on to defend Kyo and the Infinite-Freedom. The Morpheous took out it's own beam saber and shield to block and defend it's Paeksis-enhanced twin while the pilot of the later Gundam rested. Every shot fired at the Morpheous was either dodged or blocked, while any Sky Striker that was attacked by the Morpheous was either torn to bits by the beam saber or torn up by the CIWS guns.

 

Kyo then scanned the base and realized that it was now releasing it's heavy assault units, namely the Desert Fangs, Sky Strikers, and the Ogres. In record time, several squads of the units were deployed and were now making their way towards them and their Sky Striker opponents.

 

“Oh great, just what we do NOT need!” Barnette said as she spotted the incoming forces while her Gundam was in Mobile Suit mode with her shiled blocking a missile blast. She then jetted away to meet up with Max to cover the younger brother.

 

Max spotted the new-comers but was busy fighting even more foes as he dodged more missiles and gatling gun-fire. He spotted Barnette as she blocked another missile from hitting him from behind and reducing the offending Sky Striker to scrap.

 

Duero then got into contact with Kyo as he scanned the incoming units. “Kyo, I'm reading those units to be arming up their targeting sensors and weapons. Are you sure your plan worked?”

 

They got their answer…

 

As the Ogres began firing…at the Sky Strikers! The Ogres went into a heavy stance against the Sky Strikers, firing all their weaponry at the enemy units. The Desert Fangs did the very same thing as they fired their beam arsenals at the enemy units of the Gundams. Kyo looked with a smile of relief as the Sky Strikers from the base join in the attack as they enegaged their former compatriots in a vicious air duel.

 

“I guess we can say it's a success. Once they're done, we'll have to rally them all from the other bases once we establish contact with the other bases infected by the OS we sent in.”

 

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

 

In the Nirvana…

 

It had been nearly an hour and a half since the deployment of the Morpheous, SwitchBlade, and the Templar and the crew were getting nervous. Magno and Buzam were on the bridge as they looked on the tactical monitors, showing that the tracking beacons on the four Mobile Suits were still active, but they still couldn't communicate with the pilots. This made the atmosphere on the ship once more filled with tension, just like before…but at least it wasn't tainted with a mutiny, but was still no less serious.

 

Magno sensed the atmosphere on the ship, and so did BC, and both senior pirates were getting very nervous themselves. If this kept up without any word from the others out there, they would have an even longer time in escaping their captors. All over the ship, there was now a tense atmosphere. Even in the Register, there was a great deal of tension and anxiety, and Gascogne knew it too, beside her was Aleck, who had decided to become part of the Register until the end of their journey home, making him the second man in the Register crew, he said nothing as he knew that adding to the tension wasn't his intention anyway.

 

It was then that things really changed…for the better.

 

“Captain! I'm picking up a transmission signal…It's from Kyo!” Celtic said with joy as she faced her fellow bridge officers. They were able to determine that all four Gundams were now streaking back to where they were.

 

“What?! Put it on screen!!!”

 

The monitors in front of the aged woman and her second in command came online, and a great cheer went throughout the entire Nirvana, as word spread that Kyo had been able to come into contact. The bridge was crowded with calls, but were quickly silenced by Magno with some help from Buzam.

 

“This is Kyo, we're all moving back to the Nirvana. Barnette, Duero and Max are with me now.” That was proven true as Kyo's image was now joined by Barnette's, Max's, and Duero's…all of their faces had tired but triumphant looks as they checked in with their comrades.

 

“Kyo…glad to see that you're safe along with the others…but did you succeed?” Buzam asked as she spoke to the Gundam pilot about his mission.

 

“Mission is a total success, we've downloaded the OS and we've hijacked enough units to help our escape! The forces we have will be enough to make our move in less than a day from now.”

 

“Captain! We're tracking a heavy concentration of friendly transponder signals behind the Infinite-Freedom, SwitchBlade, Templar, and Morpheous Gundams! There's a massive army right behind the Gundams!”

 

The pirates were in awe as the view-screens showed the Gundams being followed by a massive army of Sky Strikers that were following them like wing-men. On the ground were massive waves of Ogres and running beside them were a massive swarm of Desert Fangs. The wave behind them was now being followed by two more waves from the west, and the south.

 

Kyo's plan was a success! Now it was time to escape!

 

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

 

To be continued…

 

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

 

Author's Latest Notes:

 

Ran out of room, so I'll have to make a Part 5, hopefully it will be shorter than this one. But I wish to thank all visitors and viewers of this chapter and ask for even more reviews and comments, No Flame Policy is in operation, but constructive critiques are NOT forbidden.

 

See you on Chapter 5 Part 5: Infinite Possibilities!

 

---------

 

To Panur:

 

I like to say that your reviews don't bore me at all, in fact I was hoping that if I have any female readers, they could come forward and offer their reviews and comments. And you are one of them, alongside Tifa Lockheart 022, I hope to hear the women get involved in the creative process. I always love a second opinion.

 

In answer also to your views of Kyo's situation, yes I do agree to your opinions. And I thank you for offering the female perspective of the whole harem situation, and I would like to say my side. I have no intention of making Kyo into a sex-toy, and I know that there will be some jealousy between the girls after him, and that's not avoidable in most cases. I have read some fanfiction, namely the Tenchi Muyo works in which Ryoko and Ayeka are BOTH married to Tenchi, and they get along just great, and learn more about each other. And they learn the Tenchi loves them, and his feelings for either of them are unique from the other. That's kind of the same situation I have in mind for Kyo, hence the harem bit as the possibility for a harem style hentai romance story always existed in the original VanDread series anyway.

 

Now I'm not saying I'll copy that idea too closely, but I will do my best to make the harem thing work out between Kyo and the girls, namely Dita, Meia, Jura, Sara, Mai, and Misty. Though I will try other ideas, this will be mostly the default situation. I will try and take the time to have more ideas come into play when I get the chance to make the story work. So I hope that the whole deal will still be an effective one.

 

I thank you for the reviews Panur, and if you have the time…I'll talk to you about a possible commission.

 

To all the viewers…I once more encourage you to give your opinions and ideas. Especially the guys, come on, I KNOW you've got some ideas, and I'm saying it now, that you can say them.