Callum was jerked out of his sleep by a horrible screech and a bright light. He covered his head and moaned, curling up. 'What the hell?!' Then Cosmos's voice came over the intercom. "Warning, warning, carcha forces in system." Then the screech came back. Callum sat bolt upright. They were here. Here before the fie were. 'Damn it! Damn it!' He'd been preparing for this while at the same time desperately hoping it wouldn't happen. Callum jumped out of his bed and pulled on his pilot's suit. He would just have to do whatever he could do. His stomach felt like a rock.
He exited his room and found that the entire hallway was filled with the bright, white blinking alarm lights. The screeching was interspersed with Cosmos repeating the same warning over and over again. Callum sprinted down the hall and was joined by most of the residents of the compound. They met the rest in the meeting room where a large holo of the planet Ragrun and the surrounding space was displayed. There was a large blinking light over the planet.
"Stop the damn alarm already, Cosmos!" Russell shouted. "We're all here already."
"Acknowledged." The blinking light and screech stopped.
"Now tell us what we're looking at," Russell said.
"Answer: approximately two hundred and seventy seconds ago, a carcha light cruiser appeared in system. Thus far they have launched fifty selachii of various class. This is approximately half their total complement based upon the standard of carcha light cruisers."
There was stunned silence and then Nita groaned. "Are you telling me that they sent a hundred selachii after us?"
"It's not a surprise," Yemoramato said. "We utterly annihilated the company of selachii that came here with the freighter. It's standard protocol to send in a battalion in such a circumstance. The carcha didn't come to dominate the galaxy by fucking around. They crush people, thoroughly and utterly."
"W-w-what are we going to do?" Mikan asked. Callum glanced at her. She was in her pilot's suit but seemed completely terrified. Callum couldn't blame her. He was scared himself, teetering on complete despair. 'A hundred of them. Twenty for every one of us. How can we possibly survive this?'
"Why, we're going to fight." The voice surprised all of them. It was the cold, smooth voice of Chajin. Callum looked at her and saw that she was smiling. There was a definite look of mad pleasure in her eyes.
"How can you possibly fight that?" Riley asked.
Chajin looked at him and he took a step back. There was deep glee in her eyes and a disturbing hunger. "They are coming and there is nothing you can do or say to stop them. They'll kill every single human on this planet. What's it to them? They'll import a few hundred slum trash to replace you. The best and only choice is to fight, fight, fight!" She smiled rapturously.
"As insane as she is, the carcha is right," Yemoramato said. "There is no point in cowering here. They'll kill us either way. I'd rather go down fighting." She paused and her face firmed. "And besides, all hope isn't lost yet. It has been twenty days since we contacted Belmavidelko. The Shimayasumota could show up at any time. It is a super-dreadnought and will obliterate that light cruiser instantly. If we can hang on until they get here, we still have a chance." That lifted Callum's spirits a little. It was a faint chance but even a tiny hope was better than the utter despair he'd been feeling a moment ago.
"The girls are right," Russell said, jumping on a table and thrusting out his hand. "I've faced longer odds than this and prevailed. Go and fight with everything you have and you cannot fail!"
"Well, I think we probably will fail," Nita said, crossing her arms. "But we don't really have a choice so we might as well do it. And who knows," she shrugged, "maybe a miracle will happen."
"We have to try," Callum said with a nod as confident as he could make it. "I'm willing to fight to the very end." His stomach tightened and he was trembling. He didn't want to die and, more importantly, he couldn't stand the thought of Catriona or Nita or Valencia dying. '...Valencia, how can I leave things like this with her?'
All of them turned to look at Mikan. The slight girl flinched at their gaze but slowly drew herself up and raised her eyes to look at them all. It was perhaps the most self-assured Callum had ever seen Mikan. "I'm going to fight, too," was all she said, but it was a lot, considering how infrequently she spoke at large gatherings.
"Great. I say we get out there as quickly as possible," Yemoramato said.
"But didn't you just say that we have to try and survive for as long as possible?" Nita asked.
Yemoramato flipped her hair back over her shoulder with one hand. "I did but I'm assuming you want to keep the civilians down here out of the crossfire as much as possible?" All of the humans in the room nodded. "Then we should fight them outside of Ragrun's atmosphere. There are too many to keep contained this time and the openness of space might work to our advantage. We can dodge and play games with them. Our only advantage is that the five of us, even you humans for some reason, have more stamina than an average carcha pilot. They'll almost certainly deploy all of their selachii so we need to prolong the fight if we can. More importantly, if we fight them close to where they jumped in, we can keep them close to where the Shimayasumota will jump in. If we have any chance of living, it will be to make sure they get annihilated by the Shimayasumota as quickly as possible."
"Splendid," Chajin said. "I hate waiting around anyway."
Mikan and Callum both looked to Nita, who had much more experience with this kind of thing. She nodded slowly. "That makes sense to me." Mikan and Callum nodded. "Well, that's settled." Nita glanced at Catriona and Riley. "You two should get to your ships and stand by. It's even more unlikely you'll be able to escape this time but a small chance is better than none."
"We are," Riley said. "I think we have the kinks worked out after last time but I'm still going to keep quiet about exactly what we're facing. I don't want to create a panic."
"Keep an eye on the situation," Nita said. "If you see a chance to get out of Ragrun's atmosphere and make a run for it, do it." Riley and Catriona both nodded reluctantly. Callum wondered if his sister would really run and leave him behind if she had the chance. He hoped so.
A sudden realization hit him so hard he almost fell over. The ships could only hold about half the people in the camp outside the barracks. Before the first carcha attack, there had been a lottery to determine who could board the ships and try to escape. Valencia had been his partner then. She didn't have a place on the ships. She was going to be left behind. 'I can't. I can't. Oh, god, I already let this go on too long.' "I have to go," Callum said breathlessly.
"What are you talking about?" Nita asked sharply. She probably thought he was losing his nerve.
Callum was vibrating with his need to run. "I'll be back. I promise. I promise! But I have to go. I have to talk to her before...I have to!" He sprinted from the room, ignoring calls for him to stop. Callum ran full out, as fast as his legs could carry him, careening into walls and bouncing off them. He flew out of the barracks and reached his top speed crossing the open ground between the barracks and the camp. He was running faster than he'd ever run before, the power from Venus pulsing in him. He screamed past the tents of the camp, rustling them with his speed. He realized vaguely that he shouldn't have any idea where Valencia was but somehow he did.
He skidded to a halt in front of her father's tent, tearing deep grooves in the ground in front of him. Luckily, the jumpsuit was tough enough to survive his wild sprint and stop without damage. He wondered what it was made of.
"What the hell?" Seville muttered, twitching aside the door flap of the ten. "You!" he hissed when he saw Callum. "What the hell are you doing here?!"
"I need to speak to Valencia right now!" Callum said.
"You bastard!" Seville stomped up to him and put his face right in Callum's. "You have a lot of nerve!" he snarled. "After everything you said, you sent my girl running here, sobbing her heart out. How could you?!" Seville shoved a finger into Callum's chest. Callum was surprised to see tears glittering in the older man's eyes.
It made him feel horrible and any other time he would have been happy to let Seville tear him apart but not now. There was no time. Callum grasped Seville's arm and pulled it away. It was shockingly easy, like pushing away a child. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry but there isn't time. I need to speak to Valencia now." Seville stared at him with wide and fearful eyes.
"Let my father go," Valencia said, appearing in the doorway of the tent. Callum dropped Seville's arm instantly and took a step back. Seville cradled his arm even though Callum didn't think he'd been holding it hard enough to hurt. Of course, he hadn't known he could run that fast either. "What do you want, Callum?" she asked wearily.
Callum took a moment to study her. She was in her carcha-issued clothing, which seemed to hang on her even looser than usual. Her hair was stringy and there were dark circles under her eyes. It didn't look like she'd been crying at least but Callum thought, guiltily, that she'd probably cried herself out a few days ago.
"The carcha are here. A lot of them." Callum had been thinking of how to approach this since he started running. If Valencia thought he only wanted her because he wanted to protect her, she would reject it. She hated feeling pitied. "I want you to fight by my side again."
Seville made a sound but Valencia silenced him with a glare. "Why? Things not working out with that android co-pilot?"
Callum licked his dry lips, wondering how she'd heard about that. "No. She's actually a fantastic co-pilot. She thinks as fast as a computer and doesn't have any emotions to get in the way."
That startled her, just as Callum had hoped. "Then why do you want me?"
"Because I do. It's pure selfishness on my part. It doesn't help anybody but me." Callum resisted the urge to grab her hand, unsure of how she would react. "You are my partner, Valencia. I know things are messed up between us right now. I'm sorry I didn't come to talk to you sooner. I shouldn't have waited for the carcha to push me into it. But it doesn't feel right with Myna. It's supposed to be me and you."
Valencia looked down. "Damn you, Callum. I've been trying to accept that you and I aren't supposed to be. Not in the way I want. Now you're trying to drag me back to your side."
"I told you it was selfishness on my part," Callum said. "I won't promise not to hurt you again because I probably will. I don't know what I want in the future. If we even have a future. But right now all I know is that I want you with me."
"Damn it, Callum, damn it. You bastard. You asshole!" Valenca was staring at the ground and trembling. "How selfish can you be?"
"I'm not hiding it. If you want to tell me to go to hell, it's no more than I deserve." He held out a hand. "If you want to fight beside me again, though, we need to go."
Valencia stared at his hand and he could only imagine what was going through her head. This really was selfish on his part. He was asking her to come with him without responding to her feelings. He was almost certainly going to hurt her again. But he wanted her by his side anyway. There were limits to his selfishness, though. Every second he delayed here was probably tying his other companions' guts into knots. He started a slow count to thirty. If she didn't take his hand by then, he would leave.
Just as he came to 'twenty-two,' she reached out and placed her small hand in his. Callum's heart skipped a beat, to his surprise. "You jerk," Valencia said.
He pulled her close and hugged her. She was stiff at first but quickly relaxed. "I'm sorry, Valencia," he said into her hair. "I hope you know I do love you. I know it's not the way you want. Not yet. But I can't imagine my life without you."
"Damn it, Callum." She punched him weakly but made no effort to actually leave his embrace. "Don't say stuff like that so casually." Callum laughed and then scooped her up in his arms. "What are you doing?" she squawked.
"We have to hurry." Callum spared a quick glance for Seville, who was glaring at him balefully. Callum gave a nod that he hoped conveyed his intention to protect Valencia as much as he could. Then he was off, sprinting full out again. Valencia weighed nothing in his arms. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him close, squeezing her eyes shut as the camp whipped by them.
He was at the landing zone a few moments later, joining the four pilots along with Russell, Dahri, Myna and Jeffs. Riley and Catriona must have already set off for the camp. He set Valencia down and she clung to him unsteadily. "What's this?" Dahri snapped, glaring at Valencia.
"I'm sorry, Dahri. Myna is an amazing co-pilot but I want Valencia with me." Dahri's face darkened and Callum hurriedly said, "Besides, I think Myna might be more useful with you. The five of us are just fighting a delaying action. If anybody can find a route to get the ships out safely, though, it's Myna." Callum had just come up with that on the spot and he was pretty proud of himself for it.
"That's...actually a pretty good point," Dahri said, pointing at him. "But I think you'll regret it! Good luck, friends!" Dahri said, waving to the other pilots. "Come, Jeffs, to the ship!" The big dobed picked up both her and Myna and began to jog away. Callum sighed in relief.
"So you're back, Valencia," Nita said. Callum looked at her sharply but the older woman was smiling. "Glad to have you with us."
"I'm sorry, Nita," Valencia said, rubbing her hands together. "I didn't mean to abandon all of you."
Mikan was half hidden behind Nita. "Hi, Valencia," she squeaked. "Welcome back."
Valencia tried to smile and Callum was gratified to see it. "Thanks, Mikan."
"Yes. Yes!" Russell said. "This is how it should be! Angra Mainyu was built to be operated by humans. His true soul can't come out when one of his pilots is a cold, unfeeling android. It needs bot human blood!"
"I get what you're trying to say," Nita said with a grimace. "But maybe rethink the terminology."
"As much fun as all this reunion shit is," Yemoramato cut in, her tone pure acid. "Can we please get going before the carcha enter the atmosphere and my plan is completely fucked in the ass?"
"Right," Callum said. "Sorry. Let's go." They scattered for their mechs. Callum was halfway up the rope ladder when he noticed Valencia was still standing at the foot of the mech. He glanced down. Please don't get cold feet now. "Valencia?" he called down. "What's going on?"
"You grabbed me and brought me here before I could get my jumpsuit, you moron!" she shouted, glaring up at him.
"Oh. Sorry." Callum thought for a moment. "Would it make it better or worse if I told you that I did it on purpose to see you naked?"
"Weirder!" Valencia shouted back. "You made it weird!"
"Don't worry about it!" Russell said, shouting down from the top of the mech. He always went up first. "I told you before that Angra Mainyu should be piloted naked! And you got nothing to be ashamed of, girl! You're hot! Sweet little titties with delicious pink nipples, a slender little waist and a tight ass!"
"You're not helping, you freak!" Valencia screamed before he could continue on. "Get in the mech. I will come up just as soon as you two idiots are inside!"
Callum took her word for it, scampering up to the ingress and sliding into the cockpit. "How was that not helpful?" Russell asked as he passed the mandroid by. "Women!" Callum laughed and shook his head as he slid into the PFC liquid. He hurriedly activated Angra Mainyu and saw that the other mechs were beginning to lift off.
Chajin and Yemoramato were first, of course. Mikan's mech was already active and she seemed only to be waiting for Nita, who was just coming online. Callum eagerly awaited Valencia. The truth was he was way too anxious about the fight to care overmuch about the fact that she would be naked. He just wanted to get going so he wasn't leaving the others in the lurch. Mikan and Nita both took off before Valencia slid into the opposite cockpit.
He could feel her again, pick up strands of her surface thoughts but he did his best to ignore them. 'Ready to go?' he asked.
'Ready as I'll ever be.' There was more trediptaton in that than he liked but he supposed it couldn't be helped. He felt her determination, too.
'Then let's go!' The Angra Mainyu rocketed upward. Callum concentrated and found that he could feed power to the boosters to increase their speed.
'When did you learn to do that?'
'Just now. Even with all the practice, I get the feeling I'm still not even close to using Angra Mainyu as effectively as I could.'
'Just what I like to hear as we head into battle against overwhelming forces. You told me the carcha were back. You didn't tell me there are, like, a hundred of them!'
'Would that have made a difference?'
'I guess not. We're really screwed this time, aren't we?'
'Yemoramato thinks there is still a chance her people will show up.' Valencia somehow mentally scoffed, showing what she thought of that.
Despite their burst of speed, they were still the last ones out of the atmosphere of Ragrun. They joined the other four mechs in a quick rendezvous. The enemy mechs were still too far away to see but Callum could feel them out there, a huge force of malevolency. He wondered if his mind was playing tricks on him or if he really could feel them. He'd somehow known where Valencia was, after all.
"Alright, just a reminder," Nita said. "The goal is delay and keeping them away from Ragrun. Hit and run. Do not get bogged down. Don't let them surround you. Keep moving at all times. If you get in trouble, call for help but don't expect anybody to bail you out here. We're pretty much going to be on our own. Prioritize your own life over anyone else's. I know that sounds harsh but if we all die trying to save each other, it won't help anything."
"Practical. I didn't know you had it in you, human," Yemoramato said.
"Yeah," Nita said, regret obvious in her voice even over the com. "Well. Is everybody clear?"
"Yes," Callum said, with a heavy heart. He didn't know what he would do if he saw another person in trouble but he didn't think he could ignore it.
"I think so," Mikan said.
"You think so?" Yemoramato snapped. Mikan didn't answer. Yemoramato said something in the lilting, songlike language that was her native tongue. "Let's just go." Yemoramato took off, followed quickly by Chajin.
"Good luck, kids," Nita said, following them.
'Are you ready?'
'Ready to die?' Valencia tried to make it a joking thought but he could sense the bleakness beneath. She pushed the thrusters to max and Angra Mainyu jetted toward that black mass of carcha.