"Sure could use it," Dominator told him. "So far it's six against five, in our favor. With their Flag Ship entering that nebula over there, we don't have to worry about it for the time being." Suddenly a nearby Titus ship blew up, only leaving one left, Carlos'. "Where the hell did that blast come from?"
Ridge glanced at him. "The Flag Ship, sir. It's firing from within the nebula. Other Hunter ships are reporting their shots lose all energy when entering the nebula and cannot hurt the ship inside it. It's basically invincible."
"What?!" shouted Dominator. He had misjudged Fade's tactics and now it was going to cost them big time. "So no shots can hurt them in there?"
"Correct, the energy balance changes when inside. Once it leaves, it returns to normal, thus allowing them to shoot our ships like sitting ducks..." Ridge informed him.
Slash cursed. "We have to do something about that ship then."
Crystal appeared on the screen, next to Slash's face. "We can't spare our line of defense against the five ships to go running after it." Dominator frowned, knowing his ship could be pulled out of the line of defense.
"I'll go after it. Slash, you're in charge of the fleet. Take those ships out," Dominator ordered. Slash nodded.
"What do you plan on doing, Dom? There's no way to hurt it inside that nebula," he pointed out.
"I know, Slash, but I'll think of something. I just can't let our ships being sitting targets for it," Dominator told him. Slash nodded and cut the transmission along with Crystal. Dominator nodded at Ridge. "Lets go."
"Alone? You'll be destroyed," Darien pointed out. "I'll fly with you."
"You can't, those bombs will need cover. Look behind you and you'll see some guests coming along," Slasher told him. Darien was quiet a few minutes as he checked his sensors.
"You're right. Good luck to you," Darien said and flew away from him, hovering near the bombers. Slasher smiled and pulled back the throttle and flew on, firing upon the hull of the station as he did so, causing some minor explosions as he flew along, flying out of the way of some cannons blasts from it. That's when he noticed he had some fighters on his tail too. Looks like he would be destroyed...
Jerking hard to the right, he barely messed getting blasted by a few turbo cannons and he did a loop around and fired on the pilots, taking out one of them. The other two jerked off to separate sides and came in on him at an angle that he couldn't shoot them at without setting himself into the line of fire of the other. Setting his throttle to zero, he stopped short of the two fighters and they both flew into other, exploding. Snickering, Slasher pushed it back up to full and flipped around, preparing to fire on the station again.
Slasher flipped from his lasers to his missiles and targeted the various points along the Station that the computer logged as possible points of the Bridge. Watching his targeting box go red, indicating a clear shot, he flipped the button and pressed it, firing away along the hull, causing huge explosions along it. The station shuddered and shook with the damage. Slasher noticed he only had one missile left when the computer identified the correct location of the bridge on the mighty station. One shot...one shot... thought Slasher. No problem!
Hitting the thrusters, he spun along the hull when a turbo cannon aimed at him and fired, blasting his ship, taking the shields out in one hit and roasting his circuits and targeting system to bits. It also sent him flying out into the deep of space where his engines failed and died. Cursing, Slasher slammed his control panel, knowing he was out of the fight. For now.
"No problem," Seraphna responded as she flew close to his wounded side to help protect it.
"Guess what we have coming in to attack the battleships..." Blackjack's voice came up.
"Birds?" asked Dakota.
"Nah, I saw giant bees," Seraphna responded.
"Ha ha guys. No, we have two squadrons of fighters coming in. And I don't think what little fighter power we have over here will hold them off. That means we need the fanciest flying you can dish out. Don't let those fighters through!" Blackjack ordered.
"Roger," Dakota told him and pulled back on the controls, aiming at the incoming fighters. He felt a tinge of doubt run through him. What if we can't hold them off? What if we're not good enough to do it? he wondered but dismissed it. If he was going to go down, it would be with a bunch of them with him. Charging his cannon and shields, he dashed forward with Seraphna behind him. He targeted a couple of the fighters and transmitted it to Seraphna to hit. He then logged in a few others into his computer and switched to missiles as his cannons charged.
Firing his missiles, one to each target, Dakota watched all five of his targets blow up, cutting down the huge squad number. Seraphna finished off the last of her ships, making ten gone. However, that left the two of them without missiles now. And the other ten fighters were slowly heading in towards the ship, having passed them. Blackjack, however, came flying down and fired into the middle of them, blowing up three of the pilots instantly and scattering the rest.
Dakota U-turned and flew back towards the remaining fighters with Seraphna on his tail. Some other Hunter fighters flew in and blew up a couple before they reached the fighters, but Dakota managed to pick one off and Seraphna two. "Good flying," Blackjack told them all.
"Is that the last wave of them?" asked Dakota hopefully.
"Not a chance in hell," Blackjack answered.
"That's what I thought."
Carlos appeared on the screen. "Good idea. I volunteer to be the 'backbone' of covering them. My ship can take much more damage than any of yours," he told Slash.
Slash nodded. "Alright. Good luck to you." Carlos blinked out and his Flag Ship moved in behind the Infinity ships, immediately taking fire as Slash and the other Hunter ship moved in on the sides, blocking off the five ships completely. All four ships opened fire on the bunch, blowing one away almost instantly. The other four all centered their fire on the Flag Ship, trying to get out and away from the other three ships pounding them.
The four ships fired a volley of missiles along with their blasters at the Flag Ship, sending deep gashing holes in it's side, explosions flying off of it as the ship began to blow apart from the damage. Slash grabbed the comm., watching another one of the Infinity ship blow up in a brilliant light. "CARLOS! PULL BACK! YOUR SHIP IS GOING TO BLOW UP!!!" he warned.
"I kn~~~~. Good luck ~~~~~~~~~," Carlos said over the comm., it being scrambled due to the damage. It blinked out and Slash turned back, watching another Infinity ship blow up, the last two pounding the Flag Ship in. The last two picking up speed and flew at it, firing away until finally the Flag Ship blew up, a huge wave of fire hitting the ships and destroying one, leaving the last one seriously damaged. It flew off in a retreat mode, heading past the station if possible.
Crystal appeared on the screen. "We'll never get it with all the wreckage in the way," she told him.
"Hmph. Follow a vector around the wreckage and attempt to pick it off if possible. Don't let it enter hyperspace if possible. I'm heading on course to help Dominator."
"You'll never reach him in time. By the time you get there, whatever is going to happen is going to happen," she told him.
"Then that's something I'll have to chance."
Shell's voice appeared on the comm. "Considering leaving the station, just to be sure? It would be foolish to assume one is safe due to the technology one has."
"Stay out of this, Shell," Fade snapped. "We stay on the station. We're going to win this, you understand?!"
"If you say so."
"We're locked on targets and releasing our load," came the leader of the bombing group. The five bombers flew along the edges of the station and fired out their bomb missiles, the volley smashing up and down the side of the station, blowing them up in a huge bright light, causing the station to actually totter to the right some as the anti-gravity fields were blown up. All along the right side of the station it was destroyed, blowing it up in a huge explosion that took out two of the bombing fighters.
Darien pulled back out of the explosion, allowing the fighters he was attacking to crash into it and blow up along with the dying station. The other three bombers pulled back released their next volley of bombs along the middle section of the station, causing a chain reaction to blow up the middle part of the station down to the bottom, a huge nova blast going off that was heard even in space. And in a flash half the station was gone, but still very much operational. The station fired on the bombers, wiping out one of them.
Darien pulled along side the hull of the station, locking onto the turbo cannons and firing missiles into them, blowing up five along the top section to protect the last of the bombers, running out of missiles. "You guys still good to attack?" he asked.
"We have two missiles apiece," came back the rookie's voice, the leader dead.
"Then I suggest you use 'em," Darien told him. The bombers flew along the hull and released their last bomb-missiles, the four of them streaking down into the hanger area of the station, causing a chain reaction to blow up inside the station that caused it to blow up at an angle, leaving only a fraction of it left, the main part unfortunately, and a skeleton part along the rest.
Darien flew along, logging the data into his computer and transferring it to the Justice for Dominator to review. Gazing out at the station one more time, Darien felt a little better. Dath flashed before his eyes one more time as he flew along the station, the bombers heading back to the safety of the battle ships.
But the station was still operational and firing at the battle ships.
Laying the report down, he noticed the Justice was no longer shaking with damage. "What happened?" he asked Ridge.
"We entered the nebula. It's attacks can no longer hurt us, so now it's firing on Slash's ship, which is on a vector towards us now," Ridge told him.
"Dammit." Sighing, Dominator shook his head. "We have to figure out how to take out the ship without firing," he said, more to himself than to Ridge. He stood up and paced around, thinking. He watched a cup of coffee on the table nearby vibrate due to the engines. ".....Hey. Ridge, our shields our gone, right?"
"Yes. They vanished when we entered the nebula..." he answered.
"Good. Brings us on a course to their bridge, I have an idea!" Dominator told him. Ridge blinked, confused at the request, but sent the command through. The Justice slowly flew towards the Flag Ship.
"What do you plan on doing, ramming them?" asked Ridge doubtfully.
"No, not exactly," Dominator told him as the Justice flew in front of the Flag Ship. The commander on board didn't seem to know what do make of this, as the ship stopped firing and hovered there, as if watching Dominator. "Turn the ship around, face our engines towards the bridge and then hit full reverse. I then want you to heat the engines to the max..." Dominator ordered.
"What?! That'll burn our engines out!" Ridge shouted.
"Then so be it." Ridge nodded slowly and gave the command, the Justice turning around and going in reverse. The Flag Ship opened fire on it, uselessly of course, but the Justice continued on, it's engines growing bright like novas. The engines waves crashed into the bridge, crumbling it and damaging the ship. The Flag Ship jumped into reverse, trying to escape the deadly attacking but the engines then hit max and a stream of fire hit the ship, blowing it up. However, the explosion hit the engines on the Justice and blew them up, sending the ship into a spin around and around and then leaving in floating their lifelessly.
Dominator cheered. "WE DID IT!" he shouted.
"Yeah, but now we have no power...we're dead...the only thing that is working is the comm.," Ridge pointed out.
"Doesn't matter. We saved lives. Now contact Slash and tell him to take that station out...and since we have the comm. working, trying to hack into Infinity's frequency. Maybe we can learn something," Dominator ordered. Ridge nodded and began to run through the comm. channels and suddenly they came across a garbled message that Ridge managed to begin to play.
"~~~~~Fade? Fade?" came the voice of the commander onboard the damage battle ship.
"What is it?" asked Fade.
"I suggest a full retreat, sir..we need to get out of here while we still can!" cried out the commander.
"That is a negative. You continue to protect this station!" Fade said. "This station can hold off the ships along with your help."
Finishing repairing the connection to his engines, Slasher flipped the switch and lit them. The engines roared in protest, but they began to hum with life in a few seconds. Slasher saw that he didn't have any power to his shields or his lasers, and his targeting system was fried along with the majority of his computer. However, he still had the comm. and it's signal. Slowing edging the ship along, Slasher flew towards the station, it opening fire on him as he began to draw near.
Doding the blasts, Slasher brought his last missile into position to be fired and flew towards the station. While the littler blasts were aiming at him, the largest ones were still firing on the Hunter ships, plugging holes into them. He couldn't allow that...
Flying along the hole, he continued to listen to the comm. "B-But sir, we're surrounded...please, give us the order to leave while we still can!" came the commander's voice, pleading. Slasher waited for Fade to respond, but he didn't. Tired of his whining? Well, you should listen to him... he thought to himself as he watched the signal go to a steady ping as he arrived. Pulling away from the station he did a U-turn and flew straight at it and hit the fire button, but the missile gave him an error, refusing to fire.
"What?! No!!!" shouted Slasher. But he knew what he could do. Grabbing the comm. he contacted Slash's ship. "Slash? I just wanted to let you know that..." he began, his voice breaking and he began to talk to Slash from the heart. "I'm glad I knew you and to have you as my 'brother'."
"Huh? Slasher? What are you talking about?! Slasher?!" shouted Slash on the comm. Slasher flipped it off and flew straight towards the station, hitting the missile countdown detonator and watched it go down. 5....4.....3.....2.....Slasher watched the fighter about to hit the hull of the station and he reached down and grabbed the lever and pulled, right as the fighter hit the station and the detonator went off, blowing a hole right into the vital part of the station, the missile exploding right inside it.
The station rumbled and exploded in a brilliant light, blinding every watching as the last traces of it blew up in a fiery ball of flames and then crumbled in under it's own weight from the destruction, nothing but a memory in mere minutes.
The other outcome, the one he chose, haunted him as he opened his eyes and watched the icicle plunge into Iceheart's chest, go straight through it and out the otherside, clean and simple, her eyes bulging wide open and a silent scream escaping her lips as she fell back, crashing onto the ground in her own battery fluid, withering and dying. She looked up at him and mouthed something he didn't ear, nor did he want to, and she let a grin. Falling back dead, Iceheart laid still, gone forever.
Shaking all over, Death Star took a step back, wondering what he had done. But he knew....Turning to X1, Death Star ran over and drew his saber, slashing the steel cables off his friend and leaning him against the wall as he let him go. Slapping X1 awake, the stunned robot looked up, "Hi handsome!"
"Oh God..." muttered Death Star and shook his head, not speaking anymore. X1 glanced down and saw the dead Iceheart and glanced back at Death Star. But he didn't say anything, which made Death Star very thankful. Suddenly the entire station shook, however, and snapped him out his thankful state and fall down. "What the hell was that?!"
"It sounded like the engine core ruptured..." X1 told him.
"How do you know this?!" cried Death Star as he rose to his feet again.
"Many of an experience..." X1 said. Death Star shook his head, not wanting to know. He reached down and grabbed Iceheart's limped body and slugged it over his shoulder. Even if it meant dying, he was going to bury her, like he wanted to do when she first died. He owed it to her, the one he loved, the one who died months ago and not the person in front of him, to bury her.
"Lets get out of here and find Garland," Death Star told him as the alarms began to go off. "Warning....warning....everyone evacuate the station immediately, there has been a core breach. The station will self-destruct in 27 minutes..." the computer shouted over the wailing of the alarms. Death Star knew then that everyone on the station would be evacuating and that would be mean shuttles left behind would be few and apart.
The two ran down the hallway, past the shut down trap that had left Death Star so drained, and to the closed wall. Just as Death Star was about to blast it, the wall eradicated itself and crumbled to the ground, Garland standing behind it in a rage like no other. He saw Iceheart and lunged for her body, but Death Star shielded her. "I WILL KILL HER!!!!" he screamed in rage, lunging at the body.
Death Star continued edging away. Garland teleported and appeared behind her, reached to shred her to bits when Death Star reached out and kicked him hard in the chest, sending the startled Hunter crashing in the wall. Even X1 backed away some. "She's dead, dammit! And you cannot have her body, because I'm going to bury it! If you so much as touch one HAIR on her head, I'll kill you," he snarled at Garland, who seemed to snap out his rage.
"....Fine..." he said icily.
"Uh, boys, I suggest we get on the magic carpet and fly off this station..." X1 piped up. They both glared at him but the three began to run through the hallways of the station, flashing red from the alarms, passing scattering Mavericks, fleeing for their lives. Death Star took no pity on them, his mind was void of emotion, trying his damnedest not to break down. He couldn't allow it. For himself and for the others.
The three continued on through the hallways, the alarms going off still. Death Star wished someone would silence them, but he guessed no one felt like sticking around long enough to flip a simple switch. "The station will self-destruct in 23 minutes..." the computer yelled again. That's when Death Star realized Garland was alone. "Where's Sharlena?"
Garland glared at him, making Death Star want to step back involuntarily. "She's dead...killed by that witch you so care about burying..." he said, his voice full of hatred.
"...I'm sorry..." Death Star started but Garland turned away as they continued through the hallways. Finally they ran into the station's hanger bay and the three marched into the shuttle, the only one left in the entire hanger bay area. Laying Iceheart's body in the back, Death Star wrapped her up in some of the materials there. He gave Garland a harsh glare as he glanced at the body and then walked up to the front, sitting down in the pilot seat, next to X1. He heard the computer shout off that they had 21 minutes left and he entered it onto the shuttle's clock, just to keep track of it.
Glancing back into the back, he saw Garland sitting there in one of the seats, emotionless and as if he was in a trance. Sighing, Death Star turned back, trying to keep his own heart from aching due to his loss. Powering the shuttle up, he lifted it off the station's hanger bay and flew through space, hoping to get away from it forever. He never wanted to go back to that hell hole. They had all lost so much...Iceheart and Sharlena.
Suddenly there was a shout from the back. Death Star whirled his head around. "What?!" he asked.
"S-She's alive!" Garland told him, his head jerking up from the trance. "I sensed her..."
"Sharlena?!" cried out Death Star.
"Yes! She's alive!" Garland repeated. "We have to go back!"
Death Star glanced panicedly at the timer 19 minutes. He flew the shuttle into a U-turn and flew back towards the station that loomed out. The station had two giant armlike sections poking out of the middle, the middle being were the hanger was. The station also rose high into the air and far below also, and quite a few ways back. It seemed like a monster, waiting to eat them....
"How can you sense her?!" asked Death Star.
"I-I don't know...but we have to help her. I refuse to leave her behind..." Garland told him as they landed on the station's hanger bay.
"Wait. While there is no more Mavericks on board, this place is crawling with aliens, and your kiama blasts don't hurt them. I should go..." he told Garland.
"No. You're hurt yourself, but besides, this is my own personal thing I have to do," Garland said. He threw off his broken pieces of his armor, even more damaged due to the blast from the engine core, and threw them all down and then threw his scattered shirt to the ground. That's when Death Star so to what extent Garland had been hurt, thick slashes all over his chest, silver blood oozing out. Garland reached down and grabbed his sword and placed it on his back, preparing to go.
"You need more weapons than that! You don't want to get into a sword fight! It'll take too long and the station will blow," Death Star told him, reaching out and grabbing a high powered rifle and throwing it at Garland, who caught it. "Use this too..." he told him.
"...Thanks Death Star..." Garland told him and took off down the ramp into the station.
"We'll be here waiting on you!" shouted Death Star, turning back to the timer. 16 minutes.... He had feeling that they would all end up dying here. Because Garland would never find Sharlena in time...especially with those aliens running around. It looked like game over for them finally.