All Anime World

Zera! Glad your still around, I'd feared you had shipped off to Venus or something. Summers are a busy time for everyone I guess.

Well, back with the next thrilling chapter......... ok, not to thrilling, we seem to be between conflicts at the moment. I thought we should catch up on the pilots on board the Krikav. There aren't a lot of them left. Georgianna and John didn't return as ordered, wonder where they're going? Everybody should be happy, they did win the battle, with only the one casualty, but Arisa seems to be missing. Hope she's alright. We'll see.


Chapter 79

John finally caught up with Georgianna’s Thunderbird. Epyon was fast, but she’d dived
through the opening in the asteroid belts like a mad woman. John had been sure one of the stray
rocks was going to get her....... but, she always did have some kind of guardian angel helping her.
Georgianna saw Epyon pull up next to her as she hesitated just below the asteroid belts.
Just what she didn’t need, someone else to get in her way. “Crichton, I thought I told you to get
back to the ship.”

“Oh? Sorry, I seem to be having some trouble with communications.” John replied
smugly.

“That’s BS and you know it, Crichton. You’re just insubordinate. I’ll have you thrown in
the brig.” Georgianna fumed at him.

“I don’t think so, darlin,” John told her with a laugh. “You seem to be a bit on the
insubordinate side yourself.”

“They won’t think so when I disable that weapon down there.” Georgianna snapped.

“Well, I can’t let a lady like you go unescorted into an enemy camp, now can I.” John told
her smoothly.

“You don’t have an I-shield, you wouldn’t last a minute.” Georgianna turned and started
down. “You’d just get yourself killed..........but then, maybe that’d be the best for everyone.”

John quickly followed Reina, Georgianna couldn’t use the Minovsky drive as they were
entering the atmosphere so Epyon could easily catch her.

Megumi looked around the cafeteria tables as she entered the room then, with a sigh, sat
down across from Ben at his table.
“I’d guess you didn’t find her,” Ben said as he handed Megumi a drink bottle.
“No, she isn’t in her room either,” Megumi answered. She was concerned about Arisa.
The colonel had come out to congratulate the pilots for their good work, that is, until he learned
that Captain McFarlaine and Lieutenant Crichton hadn’t returned, but Arisa hadn’t been with the
pilots. She’d disappeared after she’d parked Kion in the hangar bay. Ben thought Arisa was just
angry because he’d beat her to the shot, but Megumi knew it was more than that.
“Did you check the observation room?” Ben asked. “There’s, kind of, a rumor that she
and Chad were caught sleeping together there.”
“Oh, Really?” Megumi looked surprised.
“Well, actually, they were just kind of taking a nap, I guess,” Ben admitted, “but it does
sound suggestive.” He laughed.
“It does,” Megumi giggled as she got up and started for the door. “Let’s check there.”

Rose stood in the doorway as they got up. “There you are, big guy. I owe you one giant
size pizza.”
Ben grinned at Rose, he was kind of hungry, then looked at Megumi and sighed. “Can
you wait a bit with that, Rose? We’re looking for Arisa, she disappeared after we landed. You
haven’t seen her, have you?”
“Nope, haven’t been looking,” Rose answered as she watched Megumi start down the
hallway. “You aren’t going to find her in the port observation room, it was wrecked in the
attack.”
Megumi stopped and turned around, “oh, I forgot about that, I guess I’ll check the
starboard side.” Ben followed her toward the observation room and Rose followed Ben. She was
curious to see what was up with the little pilot that had Megumi and Ben looking for her.
Megumi looked over the seats in the observation room and sighed, Arisa wasn’t there
either.”Ah, there you are kitten,” she heard Ben’s voice behind her, “we were just going to get
some pizza to celebrate our victory. You should come along too.” Megumi turned and looked
behind her, where Ben was looking. Arisa was sitting on the floor, with her back against the wall.
Her arms were wrapped around her knees that were pulled up with her head resting on them.
“I can’t celebrate,” Arisa told them in a quavering voice, “I didn’t do anything, I was
useless.”
“Hey, don’t feel bad just cause I beat you to that shot,” Ben tried to cheer her up. “It’s
tough to keep a lock on them when they start jerking around like that.
“No, I kept a lock on them the whole time,” Arisa answered without looking up. “I just
didn’t want to have to shoot them. I wanted them to go away. I thought they would turn, I didn’t
want to kill them. Maybe my father was right, maybe I can’t do this. I’m worse than useless to
you.”
Megumi sat down next to Arisa and put her arm around her. “None of us want to have to
kill anyone, Arisa,” She comforted her fellow pilot, “I know how hard it can be to have to face
that. I really felt hesitant in that first battle, but I had no choice. When you get in that situation,
you’ll do what you have to. I know you will.”
“But I might have gotten you killed,” Arisa looked at Megumi with teary eyes. “I didn’t
get a lock on the mech attacking you. What if it was because I hesitated? What if he’d killed you
and it was my fault?”
“I would have had a hard time getting a lock on at that distance,” Ben assured her. “And,
you really didn’t have time to. I saw what happened and it was over before you had time to swing
your gun around. Don’t blame yourself on that one. Besides, Megumi had it covered, no problem.
I wouldn’t call you useless at all. Anyone who saves the whole ship from a live nuke is definitely
not in the useless category.”
Arisa gave Ben a teary smile, “I guess I’m not completely useless.”
“It was your first battle, and Megumi is right, the first one is the hardest,” Rose spoke up
from the doorway. “In time you’ll learn, when you’re faced with the enemy, don’t hesitate. If you
don’t shoot first he will. Sure, you might not want to have to kill someone, but if you don’t pull
the trigger, he will. Don’t worry kid, when you have to, you’ll pull that trigger. Now let’s go, I
owe Ben a large pizza, and since I’m ‘buying’,” she laughed, “I’ll treat you all.”
Ben looked down at Arisa, “You better come along, or I’m going to carry you.”
Arisa got up, finally her smile was back, “oh no, I don’t want my head banging on the
ceiling all the way there.” As she passed Rose, Rose stopped her and told her, “don’t worry about
Chad, he’s a survivor. He’s probably better equipped to hole up on that planet than any of us
would be.”
In the cafeteria they all sat around a table with their pizzas and drinks. Arisa nibbled a
piece of pizza then looked up at Ben. “Ben, why have you been calling me kitten?” She asked.
“Is it because I’m helpless like a kitten?”
“Helpless? A kitten? Oh, heck no,” the big guy answered. “Have you ever tried to give a
kitten a bath? Those ten little hooks they have could shred hull metal. No sir, a kitten isn’t
helpless. You haven’t had a call name and I’ve been trying to think of one, and kitten, well, it’s
just, you being so cute and small, and with your yellow hair, you reminded me of one my kittens
I had back home when I left. She was yellow, and the smallest in the litter, but she was the most
playful too.”
Megumi stared at Ben, “You have kittens?”
“Oh heck yes,” He told her, “every mining colony has cats and my cat had another litter
of kittens a few weeks before I left........... I was sorry to leave the little guys, I just love to play
with them.”
Megumi started to giggle..... then laugh. Everyone stared at her as she laughed so hard she
tipped her chair over backward. The image in her mind of the huge young man, covered in tiny
kittens just cracked her up.

Yes I noticed the kitten in the story

The kitten is just for you, sweetheart........ :)
Actually, "kitten" was my wife's nickname when we were in college. I didn't give it to her, one of our friends was a fairly tall country boy. He was definitely the "yokel" type, and he thought she was cute like his kittens. The nickname stuck...... I always liked it, it fit her very well.

Back to the "short" story.......... chapter 80. Georgianna is about to attack the enemy base, by herself. She has a lot of faith in that I-shield. Wonder if it can hold up to all that firepower around the base. And will John survive? Epyon is fast and agile, but even John cant dodge all that anti-aircraft fire. Is colonel Hellwind going to blow a gasket? Things could get messy. On with the exciting story of 5-minutes.

Chapter 80

“Two more are coming in, sir,” the tech at the sensor screen reported.
His commanding officer looked over his shoulder. “Where are the interceptors?” he
asked.
“On the ground, refueling,” the tech replied. “They won’t be able to reach them.”
“It won’t matter, not with all the firepower we have around the base,” the officer shook
his head. “Fools.....Have the cannons and tanks ready, give them targeting resolutions. They can
open fire as soon as those mechs are in range.”

Georgianna accelerated toward the base. She caressed the shield switch, as soon as she
was in their range she’d switch it on. They were in for a big surprise when they found out they
couldn’t shoot her down. She growled under her breath as she saw Epyon pull up alongside her.
That idiot, Crichton, wouldn’t stand a chance. That much firepower would tear his Firefly apart.
“Get out of here, Crichton, you’ll just get yourself killed,” she barked.
“Can’t do that, Georgi,” he told her. “Somebody’s got to watch your back. You have too
much faith in that shield. If it fails, you’ll need all the help you can get.”
“You idiot, you won’t last ten seconds.” Georgianna almost yelled at him. “With the
upgrades to this shield I can ignore their defensive fire and find that weapon and disable it.”
“And steal all the glory for yourself, darlin? That wouldn’t be nice.” John drawled.
“Guess I just have to tag along.”
Georgianna almost screamed in frustration. She should just keep going, just let him take
his chances. He’d be gone, she wouldn’t have to think about him again............ Georgianna pulled
hard left and headed behind the mountains to land in the second valley over from the enemy base.
As John slammed Epyon down next to Reina he told Georgianna, “I picked up a mech
signal, it’s Ghost, I have Chad’s coordinates.”
“That doesn’t matter, I’m going after that weapon. You just stay out of range.” She
ordered.
“He could be injured, we should go check first,” John urged her.
“You go if you want to, I’m taking out that base.” Georgianna said as she turned to leave.
“Wait Georgi, Chad has the recon you need.” John tried convince her. He didn’t want to
let her attack the base alone, it gave him a bad feeling. “If he knows where that weapon is, it
could mean the difference between success and failure.”
Georgianna stopped, she didn’t want to admit John might be right. “Quit calling me
Georgi,” she growled. “Alright, we’ll go check on Ross, but he’d better have something for me
or I’ll have your hide. Give me those coordinates.”

Colonel Hellwind listened to the message John had sent as he followed Georgianna.
There was a lot of hissing and static sounds garbling the message. “We didn’t read that last
message. I’m going with Captain McFarlaine to check for any remaining enemy units,” was what
they got from it..
“There should not be that much difficulty with the transmission,” Yuki informed the
colonel. “I have compensated for the interference and system damage.”
“There isn’t,” Daniel said, hotly. “Crichton didn’t even bother to do a good job faking
that interference. They’re deserters. I’ll have them court-marshaled for this. Damn it, I’ll shoot
them myself.”
Johana stepped closer to him, “ease up a bit, Dan, they may be insubordinate, but I don’t
think they’re deserting. That captain probably thinks she can use her I-shield to take them on by
herself.”
“But we need their units if we’re going to defend the ship.” Dan complained. “First Ross
and Torres run off, now McFarlaine and Crichton. I have two other Mechs down and I can’t send
Aiden out. I have nothing left to defend the ship with.”
“I think these guys have taken their best shot, and we beat them back, if we can avoid that
super weapon of theirs I think we’ll be alright. If we could get in contact with the four that went
down to the planet, we might have an even better chance of mounting a defense. They could be
our eyes on the planet.”
“If they aren’t already dead,” Daniel replied.

The Krikav’s subspace com tech and one of the ship techs entered Greg’s office. The com
tech looked up from the board he was carrying. “I found the problem, Greg. It’s hardwired in the
chipset. You’d never find it without running special tests for it. Yuki had to write a test for it.”
“Ok,” Greg answered, “put in the spare board and we should be good to go.”
“Ah, no,” the tech came back, “the spare board is the same chipset and has the same code
hardwired in.’
“Damn,” Greg swore as he turned to his subspace set, “I’ve got to tell the General.”

General Parker turned from his screen toward the ships com tech. “Seth you better take a
look at this, right now.”
The tech quickly read the message, “Oh sh**” he said under his breath. “That’s the
standard board in the fleet. All the ships would have that board.”
Parker frowned, “how long have those boards been used.”
“About three years, they were developed by Tex-In systems, supposed to be an upgrade,
higher bandwidth, more open codes.” The Seth answered looking over the screen on the pad he
was holding. “By the numbers on that board, it’s the original replacement from three years ago.”
“So, they were in place before the Tarsonis incident. They couldn’t know which ships
would be selected for the missions at Tarsonis and Mar Sara, they must have hardwired that into
all the boards.” the general mused. He turned back to his com set. “Tom, I’m sure you’ve been
listening in, I want you back at base. I want you to dig up everything you can on this chipset.
Every person that had anything to do with the development and the funding for it. Don’t wait for
a flight, requisition the fastest plane they have on the base.”
“Yes sir,” Tom answered, “I believe Tex-In systems has been the sole supplier of
subspace com equipment since they developed it.”
“How are we going to get around this?” The general questioned. “We’ll be crippled if all
we have is the subspace sets out of the recon mechs. They can only use one channel at a time.”
“We could put the old boards back in,” Seth offered.
“What? Do we have the old boards on the ships?” Parker asked hopefully.
“”No, not on board,” Seth told him, but they do have them stored here on the moon. They
were going to destroy them but it was cheaper just to store them.”
“Finally, bureaucracy gives us a break,” the general laughed. “Get those boards installed
on all the task force ships first, then get them sent to all the fleet ships.”


General Edward Geraldine sat frowning at the com unit. The Leader had given him his
orders and he didn’t like them. He’d tried to argue that they could still destroy the Krikav, that he
still had a man on the Krikav, that he might be able to convince Rydia that she needed to defend
the planet, but the Leader wouldn’t listen. Edward was ordered to use the backup plan, and if that
didn’t convince Rydia to destroy the EDF ship, he was to deliver her and Atropos to the leader.
Edward didn’t want to do either, he knew there had to be another way. He stood up and crossed
the room to a control panel. This was Daniels fault, if he didn’t have such unbelievable luck, if he
hadn’t fought off the attacks.......... If he’d just die like he was supposed to. Edward's hand
hovered over the firing control. No, he didn’t want this, there had to be some other way.
The Leader looked at his subordinate, “do you still have control?”
“Yes, commander,” the subordinate answered, “he will perform his task.”
“And what of the other?” The Leader questioned.
“We are still trying, commander,” he answered. “The esper can only seem to connect with
him at rare intervals, and then only finds a confused and unresponsive pattern. You know how
difficult it can be to............”
“The esper is incompetent,” the Leader barked. “Double his drug dose, force him to
connect. I want control of that one.”
“That would be dangerous to him sir,” the subordinate said worriedly. “That dose
could.......”
“I don’t care,” the Leader screamed at the subordinate. “Either he gets control of that one,
or the danger will be yours.”

Darn, about time I get back to this. Sorry, I had writers cramp....... I was too busy......... alright, I'm just lazy. I'll try to get more done sooner again....... I hope.

Well on to Chapter 81, Will Chad get his mech fixed? He can fix anything..... right? What about Georgianna and John, will they find Chad, and how will that go. Georgianna isn't in too good a mood chasing after Chad in the first place. Well read on, all will become clear as pudding in no time.

Chapter 81

Roy stood in the doorway and watched Chad working on the Ghost. There was something
about the way the boy handled the tools that reminded him of his friend Souske. Both had seemed
in tune with the tools and the machine.

“I got the batteries replaced in the relay station up on the hilltop, we can call out from
Rachel’s phone now.” He called up to Chad. “I called the rest of the resistance leaders, they’ll be
ready in two days. Burt is picking a couple up on the way and should be here with your fuel in a
half hour or so.”

Chad climbed down from the mech. “It might be for nothing,” Chad informed him. He
picked up a valve from a work bench, “The main feed valve is cracked. I’m not that good at
welding, and I didn’t find the right kind of materials here for it. Ben could probably fix it with no
problem, on the ship, but I don’t think I can. It’s a special alloy, and you have to be careful not to
let the heat warp it.” Chad sighed, “I’m just not that good at it.”

“Let me see that,” Roy said as he took the piece from Chad. “Piece of cake, I’ll take care
of it.”

“You can weld that?” Chad asked with surprise.

“Of course I can, you’re looking at the best welder on Mar Sara, kid,” Roy assured him.
“My family’s been welders for generations. You didn’t think I made a living hauling mail out to
lonely widows, now did you? I’ll have to take it in to town to my shop, but I’ll have it good as
new by the time the fuel gets here. Can you use the subspace yet?”

“Ya, I got the power board fixed and back in, the pipes are ready and the armor panels
straightened. All I need is the valve and fuel.”

“Ok, you get that colonel of yours to go along with our plan.” Roy ordered. “If he’ll
commit his mechs, it will make it a lot more likely we’ll succeed.”

“I’ll try,” Chad answered without much conviction, “but do you think it’s a good idea,
sir? The general said he’d have the fleet here in a couple days.”

“That’s why we have to act now,” Roy told him. “We all know what happened at
Tarsonis. Maybe it would be different here, but I know there’s something strange about this
whole situation. We can’t take that chance, can we, son.”

“No sir,” Chad said, looking at the floor, “I’ll do my best.”

Roy stopped in the doorway as he was leaving. “Hey, I thought you said there wasn’t any
invasion,” he called back to Chad, “so what’s this?”

“What’s what?” Chad questioned as he climbed down from Ghost and came over to the
door. Outside he immediately recognized the two mechs entering the yard. “Wow, they must
have sent a search party, that’s captain McFarlaine and lieutenant Crichton.”

The mechs stopped in front of the building and dropped into the dismount position.
Georgianna was the first out and quickly jumped down from her mech. “Ross, I want any intel
you have on the enemy’s cannon.” She demanded.

“I sent it to the Krikav, didn’t you get it?” Chad stammered, a bit surprised by the
captain’s sudden demand.

“S—! That mess,” Georgianna barked, “Yuki couldn’t get much more than a picture of
some cheap mech with a gun of some kind. I want to know where that weapon is.”

“Huh?.... That is the weapon,” Chad answered.

“You’re an idiot, Ross.” She sneered. “That weapon could burn through a battle cruiser,
no mech with a little pop gun could do that.”

“It’s not a little mech,” Chad replied angrily. That thing is four times the size of a Lancer.
That cannon is huge, and according to the co-ordinates from the ship, that’s where the fire came
from.”

Georgianna gave Chad an evil smile, “a giant mech, alright that just makes it an easier
target for me to hit. I want all the intel you have on that thing, right now.”

Chad thought furiously for several seconds. The captain must be thinking of attacking that
monster herself. She’s insane. It would be disobeying a direct order, but. “No, I won’t...........”

“What? I order you to give me that intel.” She shouted.

Chad stood his ground, “No, You’d never make it, they’d blast you to.....”

“You damned sewer rat, you don’t want me to beat them. You don’t want to admit I can
do it.” She snarled, “Well, I don’t need your intel now that I know what the weapon is. I’ll take it
out, they can’t touch me with my shield on.” Georgianna turned and started for her mech.

Chad jumped ahead and grabbed Georgianna’s left arm, he pulled her back. “You can’t, it
won’t work.”

Georgianna spun around, her right fist caught Chad hard on the jaw sending him reeling
backward to the ground. In seconds she’d pulled out her gun and aimed it at Chad. “I’ll kill you
for that you......”

John had been trying to keep out of this, but this was to much, he stepped over to
Georgianna and pushed her gun down. “Ease up a bit, Georgi.”

Roy quickly stepped between Georgianna and Chad, “Lower your weapon captain,” he
ordered in an authoritative voice.

Georgianna hesitated, then turned away. “Bastard...... just keep him away from me.”

Chad had stopped when she pointed her gun at him, now he stood up. “Your I-Shield
won’t work, you’ll be killed,” he called after her.

Georgianna looked back, “it works fine, I just used it in a battle, they couldn’t touch me.”
she started to climb up Reina.

“In space, yes,” Chad explained, “but not in an atmosphere. Your shield uses the same
principals as a Minovsky drive, only at a lot higher power. If you turn it on in the atmosphere it
would cause a direct short circuit.” Georgianna turned, a look of horrified recognition beginning
to show on her face. Chad continued, “if your power buss didn’t melt down right away, it would
drain your power in seconds, you’d have no shield, no weapons and no power to maneuver.......
You’d be dead.”

“But...... I didn’t know, they didn’t tell me that.” Georgianna moaned. “Are you sure
about that.”

“It’s why the EDF rejected the shield as standard equipment,” Chad stated flatly. “It’s too
dangerous. The Minovsky drive is bad enough, that’s why they only put it on recon mechs, and it
uses a fraction of the power that shield does.”

Georgianna felt weak. She’d been just seconds from trying to use her shield in an attack
on the base. If John hadn’t talked her into finding Chad, if Chad hadn’t stopped her...........

John put his arm around Georgianna, steadying her, “scary thought, isn’t it Georgi. Guess
luck was in your favor today.”

Georgianna gathered herself up and pushed John away, “keep your hands off me, and
don’t call me Georgi.”

Ooooh, nice! Another chapter! I really should get down and write something, but I have no time at all between work, work, life and work =___=

I'm sorry this is taking so long. I thought I'd have more time, now that I'm "retired" but I seem to have less. It's been a busy weekend. Friday I cleaned house, here and at Fairfax, Saturday I took care of my grandson Koen, and today we went to my daughters house and split wood all day. I'm working on the next chapter, we're getting closer to the action.

That's ok. I thought working projects would leave me more free time than an office job... oh, how wrong i was!

Zeratul2k wrote:working projects would leave me more free time than an office job

Hits Z2k with the baka stick

oh wait

Hits self with the baka stick

I need Z2k to work on a story with me, it could be interesting.

I am working on the 5min story, about a line a week ......... sigh. Right now, between doing the cleaning and painting that SHE has ordered at the Fairfax house, and trying to build the wall and get the wiring in my room here, I haven't had a lot of time.