FicWad

Mission 10: ...What Mission?
"But if you do that, I'll lose some of my control over the auto-navigation system," Marice spoke to Laiserta, the latter tinkering with the ship's main controls at her designated pilot seat.
"But if I do, I can gain full maneuverability of the ship," Laiserta replied, countering Marice's argument with her own.
"Which is a necessity should we go into battle, but as for cruising around the open universe-"
"Where we could get into a battle-"
"With auto-navigation, we'll automatically avoid large fleets-"
"Are you two planning on going on like this all day?" Armada laughed at the pair while making her way into the bridge.
"Just trying to prove a point is all," Laiserta responded while still adjusting the dials before her.
"Don't mess with the ship too much," Armada told her pilot while fixing the small table in the rear of the bridge. She quickly finished, turning and facing Laiserta. "We're leaving shortly and I don't want to screw this one up."
Naya then strolled into the bridge, a little winded. "The ship is fully charged," she looked to Armada as she spoke. "But what do I do with the remaining fuel cells?" the former general asked.
Armada paused a moment before she spoke. "Didn't I tell you to have Trunks move those down into the cargo bay while you were refueling?" she turned her attention to Naya, not expecting the woman to shirk her responsibilities, but curious as to why Trunks hadn't moved the crates yet.
"Well, yes captain, you did," Naya said choppily, "and I would have told him, but, I couldn't find him anywhere."
Armada raised an eyebrow. "Well that's odd. It's not like this ship is that large anyway."
"The strangest thing was," Naya continued, "when I told him earlier this morning, he must have moved some of the crates because about six or seven are missing from the rest."
"Alright then," Armada replied while in thought, "go ahead and do whatever else needs done before we leave. I'll go find him," she started off with a wave of her hand until Naya stopped her.
"I can look for him. You still have things to do, yes?" Naya questioned, not yet ready to give up her responsibility-probably had something to do with her previous training.
"Don't worry about it. We've got time," Armada answered. "Besides, none of you know this ship better than I do." No one contested that statement. Armada left, throwing a "Won't be long" over her shoulder with another wave of her hand.
Through moving things around on the upper decks throughout the morning, Armada was sure that Trunks wouldn't be found there. Yet she checked all the possible places anyway-the barracks, comm. room, galley, infirmary, and the upper portion of the engine room. By this time, she stood on the lower deck, which contained only one area besides the inner engine room, that being the cargo bay. She glanced around the room, and with no sight of the demi-Saiyan began to worry. We didn't leave him in Ute...did we? she thought, remembering how the ship was currently in orbit around Bmyhad, since it was easier to refuel in lower gravity. She crossed her arms, once again clad in the digital armor for the upcoming mission, and thought. And idea suddenly hit her, and she glanced up and across the room. Older crates of other supplies had been moved aside from a door...a door leading to a room she'd almost completely forgotten about. /We have a winner/. She calmly walked to the end of the room and stood before the door. "Well if he's not here, I guess we better go back to Ute and check," she said aloud to herself in a hushed voice. With that, she slowly opened a door that hadn't been used in more than seven years...and found what, or whom, she was looking for on the other side.
The room was another bridge-albeit a smaller one. It was a room no bigger than twelve-by-twelve, filled mostly with a few operational consoles to the left and right of the door. Opposite the door were two chairs, one with a small console splitting off from the right in front of it and the other on the left with the same. Another set of controls sat between the two seats. Unlike the 'real' bridge, mostly blue with whitish metals, this incarnation was mostly red with dark metals.
Trunks sat in the left seat, staring out at the stars through the massive glass plate of sorts that served as the fourth and final wall in the small square space. In the dimly lit room-as it stood out of use-it was easy to see nearly every star in the sky. Armada left the door partially open behind her and moved forward, seating herself in the chair to her comrade's right.
"Shirking your duties, eh?" she joked with Trunks. He didn't move to look at her. Armada took her gaze away from him and looked out at the stars. "How did you manage to find this room?" she questioned, when I forgot it was here? she finished mentally.
"I was moving the extra fuel cells-"
"I know that much," Armada cut him off, turning to face him again.
At this point, Trunks actually turned to face her. "I thought I saw something weird so I moved some of the older crates out of the way...and found this," he said, gesturing towards the room with a wave of his right hand.
"Okay," Armada surmised, "but you started moving the fuel cells several hours ago and there isn't any power in this area, so I guess my next question is: what have you been doing down here?"
Trunks sighed. "Just...thinking."
"Thinking...?"
Trunks sighed and resumed staring out at the star-filled sky. "When the Bmyhadians came to Earth, it was...different. Every time another being had come to our planet in the past, it had been to either destroy mankind or take control of Earth. The Bmyhadians, they...they only wanted to learn about us, about our world. And when they discovered that we were reeling from losses in the not-so-distant past, they even wanted to help us.
"After the jump-gate was constructed, I...I don't know. I get the feeling that my mother knew I was going to leave, even before I'd ever thought about it. She kept giving me these weird looks the last few weeks, and we'd have some strangely deep conversations. One time, she started talking about my father-just out of the blue. I didn't bother to stop her, of course. I was sure she was just reliving out old memories, trying not to forget him; not that I thought she ever would. And then she said something strange...something about a light. The sudden tangent caught my attention, and I began to listen closely to what she said.
"She said that my father was the 'light in her life.' That he, a dark and brooding character, lit up everything around her-to her, at least. She said he was the reason she got up every morning, the reason she didn't regret another day. She said that for everybody, it was different-it could be another person, as in her case, a determination to do something, or just the life you lead. The weird thing was, after she said that, she turned to me, and on the brink of crying, told me that she hoped that I too, would someday find the 'light in my life.' My 'illumination.'
"It was only until I sat here, staring out at the endless stretch of stars that I really thought about what she said. And...it finally started making sense."
Armada shifted, and Trunks turned to face her. She looked at him with a smirk, and laughed callously. "That's a really sappy thing to say." She stood, noting the exasperated look on her comrade's face from her comment. "Come on, we've got-"
She was cut off as the Verdandi shook violently; sending her upright form flying into the metal door leading into the small mock-bridge, face first. Trunks was shaken up and over the chair he sat in, and slammed into the floor. His fall, however, was limited by the fact that he'd been fast enough to grab the back of the chair. Armada's, however, wasn't. She slowly used her arms to pull her form up and away from the door with her knees residing on the floor.
"Done eating metal?" Trunks mocked her while he stood.
Armada growled as she stood, turning to glance at him. "Come on!" At that, she pulled open the thick metal door once more and flew through, blasting across the cargo bay in seconds and up into the upper levels of the ship. Trunks followed her example by flying, and trailed behind by only a few seconds.
Armada flew into the bridge, landing just behind Laiserta at the primary operations console and glancing to all monitors. "What's going on?!" she demanded as Trunks entered the bridge just behind her.
"We're being attacked!" Laiserta shouted out.
"Who the hell is it?!" Armada ordered an answer from the Taydran pilot.
"Don't know. Can't get a visual yet; they blasted the rear cameras," Laiserta added while frantically punching buttons across the board.
"Naya! Return fire!" Armada commanded, turning her attention to the Tyrian at her right.
"Working on it captain," Naya replied while also operating at a frantic pace. "They damaged many of the rear weapons in their attack."
The ship shook violently once more, sending Armada backwards, into Trunks, and both into the metal wall of the back of the bridge. The three operating the /Verdandi/, however, managed to hold onto their seats and stay seated. Armada quickly stood once more, even more angered than before. "Get me a visual damnit! I need to know who we're up against!"
"There!" Laiserta exclaimed as the main monitor came to life with the image of what was indeed behind their ship.
"What...?" Armada trailed off confused. There was an entire fleet of ships behind them, around two hundred and fifty altogether, although they were only coming after one ship. And the ships in the fleet...they weren't uniform. Many different models and builds in many different shapes and colors.
As the realization hit of who or what the fleet was, Armada's eyes narrowed and she gritted her teeth, emitting a low growl. "Marice, start charting us a course to get out of here. I don't care where, anywhere!" she suddenly commanded to the Euphorian seated before the navigational console.
"I'm trying, but the navi-controls have been damaged. We had the systems open during the attack, and everything's gone haywire!" Marice shouted exasperated as she turned to look at her commander.
"Then just work on it!" Armada shouted back. "Lai," Armada turned her attention once more, "get ready to get us the hell out of here."
"That's a problem," Laiserta responded while toiling away at the pilot's controls. "Several of the main thrusters are shot; not to mention that we won't have enough power to boost us fast enough to get away from them-the accelerators took the brunt of the first hit."
"Damn," Armada cursed under her breath. Trunks regarded her with a worried look and began to contemplate their situation. Were they...stranded? With the size of that fleet breathing down their necks, they could be obliterated easily. And if Lai was right, and they couldn't get away, were they really going to be killed?
"Naya," Armada spoke up, much calmer than she had been this entire time, "direct all of our weapons back towards the fleet-but don't worry about aiming at specific ships. Get everything ready to fire, and when I say, fire." She looked back at the display of ships behind her own. Hopefully the recoil from firing everything we've got at once will provide the extra acceleration needed to escape.
At that moment, Laiserta spoke up. "Incoming transmission!" Without permission, or even time to respond, the large monitor before Laiserta lit up with video of a red-haired young man wearing a dark blue suit.
"So this is the famous Armada?" the overly cocky red-head spoke, looking in the aforementioned mercenary's direction. "I expected you to put up more of a fight." He laughed.
"You haven't seen anything yet, you cocky bastard!" Armada shouted back, visibly shaken. Has it really been him after us? She thought worriedly.
"Rude." The red-head shook his head. He noticed the confused visages upon the other four people crowded into the small bridge of the /Verdandi/, and decided to introduce himself. "For those of you who don't know me, I'm Ryan Rieve." Ryan smirked. "The head of Rieve."
"What?!" Laiserta called out in surprise.
"I can't believe they had to send you out to catch /me/, one lowly mercenary," Armada spat back with bile.
"Hmph. You know you're more than most of my men can handle, so don't try to humble yourself now," Rieve responded with a much more serious tone. "I ordered a cease fire to give you a chance to surrender." Rieve paused and his cocky smirk reappeared across his face. "Surrender now and die a quick and painless death, or resist and die a long and excruciating death. Your choice."
"Didn't you receive my /payment/?" Armada shot back, remembering the highway robbery Dax had pulled on her.
"Yes, and it was fine until new orders came in. Orders calling for your death," Rieve slid back into a much more serious demeanor.
"And you think we'll surrender?!" Armada shouted at the figure on the other side of the monitor.
"You don't have a choice," Rieve responded, narrowing his eyes and in a threatening voice.
Armada sighed, and moved forward to the console between Laiserta and Naya. She pressed down a square red button and held it down while she spoke. "Do you have the navigational system ready?" she direct towards Marice while watching Rieve on the monitor.
"Uh, y-yes, it's ready," Marice responded nervously.
"Naya?" She continued to stare at Rieve.
"Yes, ready for your command, captain," the Tyrian responded quickly.
In the short space of time that followed, a man with black hair and dark sunglasses was seen walking past Rieve in the far background. Laiserta's eyes widened.../Tresia?!/ Her thoughts raced as memories of the man she'd thought had long since disappeared from her life resurfaced. /...with...Rieve?! /She wasn't left much time to think however, as the actions of her captain brought her back to the task at hand.
Armada released the button she held down, which had apparently muted their conversation to Rieve, and stood upright to face the leader of the most ruthless and infamous crime syndicate this side of the galaxy. She narrowed her eyes at Rieve.

"Like hell we'll surrender to you!"

And that was the cue.

Laiserta punched the thrusters as Naya fired everything the ship was equipped with. The acceleration was unnatural due to the recoil from the weapons fired, and sent both Trunks and Armada flying backwards yet again. However, it worked, and after only a few seconds, the ship had enough speed for Laiserta to fire the main thrusters and get the crew out of harm's way.
***
"They're getting away sir!" one of Rieve's lackeys at the control of his ship announced.
"Damn them!" Ryan shouted, pounding a fist upon the podium before him as he watched the speck that was the Verdandi disappear from sight upon the monitor before himself. Hamad will /not be pleased by this turn of events. We HAD them.../ Rieve growled, and whirling around on his heel, barked out more orders. "Find them! I don't care what it takes!" Ryan tore off through the ship to his personal quarters. He narrowed his eyes as he thought. This is far from over, wench...