Disclaimer: Vandread is awesome, therefore I don’t own it.

Vandread: The Unknown Soldier

Chapter Twelve: Chaos

Location: Cockpit, Aidan’s Striker

Aidan brought his Striker from a kneeling to a standing position in one deft move. He checked his controls one last time. The targeting system, weapons panel, sensors, read all green. He walked his Striker towards the hatch, and launched as soon as it opened. It had been a while since he fought these fanatics, so he was looking forward to it.

It was time for a little payback.

Feeling as though she were shoved by a giant’s hand, Meia launched in her Dread. She made sure all of the pilots knew what they were supposed to do. She took up a position next to Hibiki and Dita, which had just combined.

“Alright, we are to engage to destroy, we are using the new formation, now let’s go give them hell!” she said as she smiled to herself. Apparently she was starting to become more like Hibiki, she was even starting to talk like him.

The reply was chorus of ‘Rogers,’ a hell yeah from Hibiki, and a simple affirmative from Aidan. A second later everyone leapt into action, ready to make them pay for the cowardly assassination attempt.

Gripping his fighter’s controls, Xander Sharr grinned as the enemy fighters started to advance. It had been a while since his last battle, and he was ready to destroy these heretics that stopped the Earth’s Harvest. He considered it an honor that he’d one of the soldiers to remove this blight upon the universe. He, along with many other pilots, leapt into action as well. The battle was joined.

Captain Gunter Argust stared into the view screen, watching the battle unfold. It was really looking to be a brutal battle, with neither side wanting to give in. It was hard to tell if the explosions were from one of his fighters, or the enemies’. Then he noticed something that caught his interest, a large blue mecha that seemed to be tearing away at his forces. Could it be one of those weapons that combine? If so, that meant trouble. But not for long, as he had an ace up his sleeve.

“Prepare to charge the device,” he ordered one of his crewmen.

“Meia, on your left!” Jura shouted as a fighter attempted to intercept the Dread Team Leader.

Meia reflexively dodged the incoming shots, with a few connecting with her shields. As the fighter passed, she lined up and locked on, several missiles leapt from there tubes and streaked out towards the enemy fighter. It tried to dodge, but several of the missiles hit engulfing it in a fireball for a split second.

“Team Leaders, tighten up your formations, don’t make it easy for them to hit you,” she advised.

Aidan took aim while moving out of the firing arc of the enemy fighter, he unloaded with several rounds from his automatic rifle, stitching a jagged line in the fighter’s armor. He immediately thrusted downward as enemy fighter flew over him, missing him by a only a few meters.

“Damn,” he muttered. These pilots were crazier than he thought. Out of the corner of his eye he saw two destroyers move forward, intent on engaging the Nirvana. Turning to get a better view, he saw them open up with several laser volleys that pounded the shields of the silver ship. There green blasts searing through space. He turned his attention back to the battle as his lock-on warning alarm blared for attention.

With a feral grin of satisfaction, Xander watched as his fighter’s lasers tore into the crippled fighter, destroying it. He actively searched for another target, there was one. He noticed a fighter that apparently was drifting, probably from damage. He scanned it, and found out that the pilot was still alive.

But not for long. He toggled his lasers and centered his targeting reticule on the cockpit. The two bursts of laser fire tore into the cockpit, and the oxygen venting out crystallized. There was no doubt that the pilot was dead.

There! A silver blur darted past him. That fighter was faster than any he had faced so far. Now there was a worthy opponent. He turned to pursue his new prey.

The battle cruiser Indomitable, which had kept out of the primary battle, stood motionless. Captain Argust tapped his finger on the arm of his chair. He was starting to get impatient.

“Is the device ready yet?” he asked the crewman.

“Almost, sir,”

“As soon as it’s ready, activate it,” he commanded.

Hibiki, along with Dita, tore into one of the frigates with their beam cannons. The gaping hole in the side of the vessel was leaking air like blood from an open wound as several bodies flew out into the cold depths of space.

They moved to where they saw the massive battle cruiser, and pondered for a seconds as to why it wasn’t moving.

“If that’s the enemies’ flagship, then why are they not fighting?” Dita asked.

“I don’t know, but let’s go wake them up,” Hibiki said as he and Dita charged towards the massive vessel.

Although the battle cruiser was motionless, it was in no way out of the fight. A massive ball of electricity rapidly expanded from the it, engulfing all nearby vessels, but apparently not causing them any harm. When it connected to the Vandread, surges of electricity went throughout it’s systems. Like to two polar opposites of a magnet, Vandread Dita split. Sending either one of them spinning out of control.

“What the hell was that!” Hibiki wondered.

As Bart was locking onto multiple targets in order to even the odds. The ball of expanding electrical energy engulfed the Nirvana. Just as he finished locking on, the targeting system went dead.

“What the hell just happened?” BC asked.

“I don’t know, Commander, just as I was about to fire, the targeting system just shut off.

“Commander, the we’ve lost the shields!” Amarone’s excited statement rang throughout the bridge.

“How?” BC asked.

“When that ball of energy connected with the ship, it shorted out several of the systems. It appears to not have affected any of the ships other than Vandread Dita,” Belvedere stated.

“This is bad, we have to pull back,” Magno said.

Just then several anti-ship missiles were fired from the nearest destroyer, and when they collided with the Nirvana, tore through the now unprotected hull, breaching it and causing severe damage to the starboard arm of the ship.

“All Dreads pull back, we are retreating from battle,” BC commanded as the ship took more laser hits, coring into the ship’s armor.

This wasn’t happening! Meia’s Dread started to become sluggish after getting by that electrical field. It made her an easy target for an enemy to pick off, if they decided to press their advantage. And that fighter that was pursuing her for the last several minutes would surely attempt to finish her off.

Xander saw that the fighter he was pursuing slow down. He was going to head in for the kill. As he forced is fighter into over thrust, pushing to close. He heard the sweet tone of a target lock as he tightened his fingers on the triggers. Before he could fire or even slow down, a lone Striker appeared in front of him, vibrosword angled towards him. With a sickening crunch, the canopy crushed inward as the blade went through the cockpit, cutting him in half. The dead fighter collided with the lower half of the Striker.

Aidan was violently thrown around his cockpit, the safety harness straps digging into his shoulders. The impact of the fighter literally tore the bottom half of the Striker off, and something inside the cockpit exploded. Aidan felt a biting pain as shrapnel tore into right half of his body. He also felt some ribs crunch as he slammed against his cockpit’s arms. Sparks shot through his cockpit as his consciousness started to rapidly fade away. His vision started to dim, and he felt death’s cold embrace as his life flashed before him. Not long after, he lost consciousness as the remainder of his Striker spun out of control.

“Captain, they appear to be withdrawing,” the helmsman informed him. “Shall we pursue?”

After thinking about it for a moment, Captain made his decision.

“No, they are no longer a threat to us.”

Chapter Twelve finished. Please Read & Review.