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arrow Eldridge, Lift to the Bridge

Vynn sighed. At the moment, he wanted to do nothing more than tear off into space and continue his search for her. But that was something he couldn't do; he'd promised these people that he'd assist them in repairing their vessel and give them an escort in to Second Miltia. At least there, he might be able to strongarm some information out of whoever ran the show at Vector these days.

As the lift doors opened onto the bridge, he sighed again. "Well, I guess it's out of my hands. There's nothing I can do right now."

arrow Eldridge, Bridge

Stepping out onto the ship's bridge, Vynn randomly began to softly hum the main verse of a song he had heard called 'LONGING.' While trying to keep his voice down low enough so as not to disturb any of the working crew, he began to look for anyone fitting the description that the captain had given him of this Rose.

And, well, that didn't take long. Cos there she was, right in front of him, looking right at him. Sure, Captain Eyanami had told him more or less how to recognize her, but the plain fact of the matter was that the only person he'd ever seen in his life before with red eyes was KOS-MOS.

And that minor resembling detail caused him to stop and stare at the poor girl for a full minute.

arrow Eldridge, Bridge

He shook himself out of his trance and gave her a rueful grin, scratching the back of his head nervously. "Ah, no, that's not it. It's just that you're only the second person I've ever seen that had red eyes. And the first was kind of...important to me."

Shaking his head as if to clear it, he stepped off the lift and followed her up to the control console. "I understand perfectly that sometimes one's duties tend to interfere with other things, so it's no problem."

arrow Eldridge, Bridge; Optional BGM: Gnosis - Xenosaga Episode I OST, Disc 1

"Hyperspace battles are a pain in the a**." He smirked, then shook his head ruefully. "The Intrepid interacts with hyperspace on a completely different level than anything that's been done before, so battles in hyperspace are out of the question for us."

He had been about to say something else, a witty remark of some kind, when the 100-series had given her alert of the enemy incursion. His eyes fixed far beyond the bridge, to the point in space where the barrier between realspace and hyperspace was being forcibly ruptured.

He swore a violent oath in a semi-fictional language. "Bastards must've found a hole in our web of Ession mines." As he was about to pull out his Connection Gear to give orders to the Intrepid, it was then that Rose handed him the clearance card, along with the strongly-voiced request to get to the containment area.

Turning the card over in his hand, he nodded to Rose, then stepped back onto the lift to ride it down to the lower level.

arrow Assault Star Cruiser Intrepid, Bridge

"Sensors, give me a report!" William bellowed, standing in the center of the command walkway.

"Massive fleet of Gnosis and Zilart forcing their way out of hyperspace directly ahead. Numbers are still coming in, but we're reading upwards of three hundred."

"Guns, begin computing firing solutions for a blanket of cover fire to thin their numbers. Starfighter control, launch all AGWS, AMWS, and send the fighters to protect the Eldridge. Weapons, focus our shield sphere forward and keep an eye for any enemy units trying to flank us. Prepare the Hilbert Device. As soon as the last of them comes through, blanket this entire parsec."

"Turbolasers charging to full power, sir! Proton torpedoes locking!"

"AGWS are away! AMWS and fighters are continuing to launch!"

"Diverting shield power!"

"Charging Hilbert Device! Amplifiers online and at one hundred percent capacity!"

William smiled a cruel smile. "Somebody send the Captain's ES to the Eldridge. We all know he'll be wanting to stain that armor with their blood this time."

Laughter ran across the bridge crew.

"Activating Mobile DOLL system on the ES Streich." Pause. "Orders to transit to the Eldridge received and confirmed. ES Streich is launching."

"Let's show these aliens who runs the show around here..."

arrow Eldridge, Internal Shuttle Bay

"Please present Class S security clearance card."

Dispassionately, Vynn slid the security card Rose had given him through the reader, then switched it to his left hand and grabbed hold of a rail running along the ceiling.

His entire body was tingling, and he knew it was because he wanted to be out with the squads in his ES, tearing apart the enemy at close range. It was only when he stood back on the bridge and watched the battles that he lost his mind; in his ES, the ZERO System kept his mind focused on annihilating the enemy.

A buzzing from his pocket caused him to withdraw his comlink, a device reserved for emergency or battle situations for communication with his ship, since Connection Gear could become overwhelmed and swamped with calls.

"Hano."

"Captain, we're deploying the Streich to the Eldridge via the Mobile DOLL system."

"Understood. I'll retrieve it shortly; the crew wants me to have a look at a new weapon of some sort. Personally, I hope they've gotten a superlaser hidden on this ship."

William chuckled. "Understood, Captain. We've deployed our mobile squads, and we're sending the TIEs to escort the Eldridge and keep her safe."

"It's a shame we didn't upgrade to the squints when we had the chance. Their greater speed would've given them back the edge that the eyeballs surrender against the Gnosis. Hano out."

By the time he'd returned the comlink to his pocket, the shuttle had come to a halt. He made his way down the hallway, again using the clearance card where necessary, and entered the containment area.

arrow Eldridge, Containment Area; Optional BGM: I Love You Sincerely - Xenosaga Episode III OST, Disc 2

Fate had a way of messing with Vynn at critical moments. Like how you fall right into a puddle while you're rushing to work. Or forgetting to save a game in a thunderstorm and losing hours' worth of play time.

The door had opened, Vynn had entered, and then the first impact had hit the ship. In that order. As a result, the Intrepid's captain was sent headfirst into the bottom portion of a console.

"Son of a b***h!" His right hand came up over the top of the console, flailing about before coming down onto the console and using it to lever himself upright. He leaned heavily against the console, rubbing his head irritably. "Dammit, that b*****d had better be dead or I'll make his a** regret it when I get out in the-"

And then he looked up, and the throbbing in his head was immediately forgotten. He shot upright, as much as one could do so in zero gravity, and just stared. As bad as Rose had gotten it on the bridge a few minutes ago, KOS-MOS was getting it ten times worse.

"No way... How in the hells of Barab..."

Lifting himself up, he planted his right boot on the top of the console and used that as a springboard, propelling himself across the room toward KOS-MOS and Hikari. Bringing that same foot up, he planted it on the maintenance bed to bring himself to a halt, still staring.

"Is this for real? Is that really you, KOS-MOS?"

arrow Assault Star Cruiser Intrepid, Bridge; Optional BGM: Panic - Xenosaga Episode I OST, Disc 2

William watched as the last volley of the mass turbolaser fire died out, incinerating more enemies than he could count, and then the batteries opened fire again, more selectively this time. As he watched, a pair of AG-01s roared past the bridge, pursued by a fighter-type Gnosis. A point-defense laser cannon rotated to track the pursuing Gnosis, and a single burst of green energy burned the alien out of existence.

He spared a glance to the right, in the direction of the Eldridge, and watched as the Streich vanished inside the main hangar bay. All around the two ships, AGWS and AMWS swooped through the void, trading fire with the alien attackers.

"Pull the AMWS units back and open the re-arming bays. I want them loaded up with space lasers inside of ten minutes. Let's give the capital ships something to think about until Captain Hano joins the fray."

arrow Eldridge, Main Hangar Bay

In the shadow of the Intrepid's shuttlecraft, the pilot peeked out from behind cover with one of the new, long-barreled blaster rifles that had been developed aboard the star cruiser, and let out a cheer at the sight of reinforcements, and the presence of the one individual whom the captain had been seeking for ten years.

There was one last Gnosis, a dual-wielding Armaros type, left between Vynn and the ES Streich. Kicking off the railing, he propelled himself directly at it, drawing his sword from his left side and holding it back over his shoulder as he did.

"Nagareboshi!"

As he reached the Gnosis, he swung his sword out like a baseball bat. Predictably, the enemy moved its own blades to intercept, but the bugger damn sure was not anticipating the force behind that strike being equal to the recoil of a space laser. Needless to say, the Armaros was shot backwards like a bullet from a gun, to impact against the far wall of the hangar, where the shock of the impact liquefied it. [Vynn Overdrive/Shooting Star]

With that threat eliminated, Vynn sheathed his sword and kicked off the floor, sailing up into the cockpit of the Streich. Pulling himself into the seat, he strapped himself and his hands flew across the console, entering commands to disengage the Mobile DOLL mode, to seal the cockpit, and engage the artificial gravity.

"This is the part where I would normally say that this is like the good old days. The bad news is that I was never part of the good old days, so I guess that means it's time to make some good new days."

He tapped three final buttons on the control console.

[Optional BGM: Battlefield - Gundam Wing Endless Waltz OST]

The "eyes" of the Streich flashed their trademark bloody red color as the massive ES stood fully upright, unfurling its vernier wings and spreading them out behind it. Reaching back its left arm, the mech came back with a massive double-barreled laser cannon held in that hand. The right hand reached down to retrieve a bladeless hilt held in a docking station on the right hip armor, connected back to the mech's reactor by a power cable. It didn't power it on immediately.

Within the cockpit, Vynn switched on the viewscreens, which displayed a one hundred and eighty degree view ahead of his mech. "You guys ready to go?"

(you know, you posted like right before i had to go to work. rofl )

arrow Cockpit of the ES Streich

"Don't you worry none about whatever's knocking on your door. Streich was designed as instant death on wings for anything of fortress size or smaller."

If there was a rulebook for designing and building ES craft, whoever had built the Streich had thrown the entire book out the window. For starters, the cockpit lacked the "suspended in midair" feeling that most ES had, as it lacked the 360-degree monitors that provided a spherical view around the pilot. There was absolutely no holographic technology in the cockpit; every button, lever, and switch was present 100% of the time.

Vynn finished uploading some tactical data and objectives into the ZERO System, then belatedly switched comm frequencies over to the Intrepid. A viewscreen popped up in the upper right corner of his main monitor, displaying William's face.

"I'm about to launch in the Streich. Captain Eyanami will be joining me in her ES, and we're going to blow their command ship out of space. Status."

"All craft have been deployed. We've lost three TIEs, four AMWS, and an AGWS unit. I've ordered the AMWS to pull back, take stands on the ship, and switch to space lasers. I'd originally intended them to put holes in their capital fleet, but now I've got them harassing that Cathedral-class Gnosis that's playing tag with the Eldridge."

Settling his hands over the control joysticks, Vynn sent the Streich marching toward the main hangar exit. "Good work. Now I've got some good news for you, William. That weapon system that they wanted to show me?" He grinned. "None other than KOS-MOS, herself."

William rocked back as if he had been physically struck. "Forgive my language sir, but are you shitting me?"

"Absolutely not." A twist of the levers turned the main camera on Streich's forehead until KOS-MOS, standing on the shoulder of Hikari's ES, was centered in the forward viewscreen, and he transmitted that data to William.

The ES pilot smirked. "Now that we've found our princess, we'd best put on a good show for her."

arrow Assault Star Cruiser Intrepid, Bridge

William nodded once. "I heartily agree with you, sir." He turned slightly, nodding to the communication officer, who opened up another channel to broadcast to all crew and personnel of the ship. "Attention, all hands. On this day, our long-sought mission has been accomplished, and we have found KOS-MOS, alive and well! Let no gunner, pilot, or marine abdicate his duty in any way before her!"

The affect of William's short speech was like there was a Jedi on board who had just cast Battle Meditation. The morale of the combat crew instantly doubled, and countless more explosions of Gnosis began to fill the battlefield.

arrow Cockpit of the ES Streich

Grinning, his mech's eyes glowing a bloody red color, Vynn brought the Streich right up to the edge of the hangar bay, pausing to look out at the battle raging before him.

"Hey, KOS-MOS," he said over an open comm frequency. "I spent the last ten years trying to find you. I can't even put into words how good it is to see you again. You may not be able to understand my feelings right now, but know that I'm going to fight my absolute best to protect you."

[Optional BGM: When the Dragon Swims, Everything Dies - Gundam Wing OST, Operation 1]

With that, the vernier engines cleverly hidden beneath the angelic wings of the ES Streich flared, and the mobile suit leapt into space, a dark blue beam of hyper-ionized energy leaping out of the beam saber emitter as soon as it was clear of the ship.

The maroon craft immediately shoulder-rammed a passing cruiser-type Gnosis, stunning the alien long enough for the right arm to bring up the hyper saber and drive it into the creature's head. Leaving the dead or dying creature to drift in space, the Streich turned and brought a fighter Gnosis' charge to a punishing halt with a devastating roundhouse kick, followed by a volley of machine cannon fire to put the alien down.

A dozen space laser beams, any one of them powerful enough to incinerate entire limbs of his mech, shot around the Streich on all sides, vaporizing any Gnosis they came in contact with and continuing on unabated, to slam into the side of the Cathedral-class Gnosis that was playing tag with the Eldridge.

Inside the Streich's cockpit, Vynn switched weapon control mode over to the twin buster rifle and leveled the massive weapon in its left hand toward the equally-massive Gnosis. If his craft were a true ES, capable of Anima awakening overdrives, then the buster rifle would definitely be the third and most powerful overdrive.

The interior lightning of the cockpit changed to red, indicating that the buster rifle's guidance computer was seeking a target lock. On the forward viewscreen, a red targeting reticle slid over the image of the Cathedral Gnosis, searching for the most critical target: its brain. Outside, the vernier engines began to glow white as they prepared to fire in controlled bursts to counter the recoil of the mighty weapon, and the twin barrels of the rifle began to glow an ominous golden color.

Finally, the reticle came to a halt over the upper portion of the Gnosis, three-quarters of the way back, and burned green to indicate a target lock. Vynn depressed the firing trigger.

It was as if a star had exploded in the center of the battlefield, so intense was the illumination of the buster rifle's beam as it was formed, accelerated, and blasted out toward its target in a tenth of a second. The Streich itself completely disappeared to the naked eye in the golden backwash of the weapon, and a beam the width and breadth of five AGWS units standing side by side roared out toward the Cathedral Gnosis.

Anything caught in the path of that beam simply ceased to exist, shielded or not. Nearly a hundred ball-shaped explosions sprang up along the beam's flight path, the result of any of the assimilated human craft used by the Zilart being caught within the ionization splash damage of the beam, but not directly in the path of the beam itself.

All but unstoppable, the twin buster rifle's beam continued on its inevitable date with the control center/brain of the Cathedral Gnosis. Unless God, Himself, was shielding that bugger, it was about three seconds from having a very, very bad day.