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RP: 188604 [PsychoPomp] Bananas

Alex let out a low "Grrrrrrr" as Nomine fired at him. He twisted the stick and tapped at the rudder pedals, pulling off a high gee maneuver which sent blood pouring into his head. He jammed the throttle forward as he let out what was part yell, part scream of anguish, part cry of confusion.

"DAMMIT NOMINE, DON'T MAKE ME HURT YOU, PLEASE!" He shouted over the radio."I DON'T... I DON'T WANT TO HURT YOU...."

Tears streamed down his face as he was forced to take action against his convictions. He couldn't let her go back to those bastards at Psychopomp. He couldn't... He wouldn't let them hurt her any longer!

He gave the Unicorn a twirl off to the side and released 50 mini missiles from the submunition pods, sent them streaking towards the points that Mikali had given him, and hoped that it wouldn't kill Nomine.
 
Mikali winced and grimaced as Alex screamed during his maneuver before pouting up at him. Alex's passionate, grief-stricken yells seemed to silence whatever contempt Mikki had displayed earlier in passing, replaced with a deeply troubled pout of concern and reflection. "Not killing is fine, Alex. Just be sure not to be killed yourself in the process," she finally informed him quietly as he opened fire upon Normine's craft.
 
Missiles.

Nomine thought to herself as she eyed the oncoming dots, there were so many of them she couldn't count, but she assumed there were at the very least a couple dozen in that field of red. She was pretty sure their yield wasn't much more then a standard Yamataian capital ship's knife-fight rocket batteries, else the rickety piece of machinery she was in would have fell apart from the first volley fired at her from before. Again, the annoyingly familiar voice transmitted to her, but again she had blocked it out; more so out of necessity then for any real specific reason. Her instruments were being extremely vocal after all and the ears on either side of her head were devoted entirely to the beeping of the proximity alert, slow rhythmic pulses to rapid pips. Longer stays between the blips denoted the distance, increasing in velocity and volume as whatever the radar detected came closer and closer to hitting.

The girl's eyes maintained their focus on the horizon, blood that she couldn't swallow in time bubbling past the corners of her mouth in tiny trickles, staining her snow-white complexion as speckles flew up towards her face. The U1's engines, flared blue and purple, suddenly closed off, it's flaps opening up briefly as it's air-brakes activated, slowing it down so suddenly that it seemed the missiles would find their target. All of them vying for the sweet spots that had been pointed out. It was like a video game, an almost laughable hyper-realistic version of one, as Nomine pushed the throttle back up and flipped the flaps back down; a maneuver in the cockpit that required all of two seconds, banking the U1 hard towards the left. The streaking contrails by-passed her, but again, the bubble shield was imperfect and several found their mark, brushing ever so gently against the energy field that their subsequent contact and explosions caused a chain reaction.

The remaining missiles were either knocked off-target and detonated prematurely or confused by the sudden burst of heat, particles, and smoke. Above the skies in Vice, where no human eye could see, was a black cloud that stretched half a mile wide; debris and parts falling down to the earth below as remnants. From above the cloud appeared a plume, moving fast and briefly obscured by the field as it flew upwards at an angle, the winds buffeting it blasted away the smoke, soon revealing it to be a relatively intact U1. Though one couldn't say the same for the pilot.

She had time now to properly process the voice, the machine, and why they were so keen on "not harming" her. Nomine entertained the idea of taking the helmet off but thought better of it as she saw how fast she was climbing. Instead, she took her hands off the controls and let the U1 fly unattended, sat back in the crappy leather seat, and exhaled; slowly, her breath clouding up the interior of the helmet.

....


.......


...........



"Then stop shooting at me. And let me go, Alex."
 
Alex's eyes shot open. "No... No! I can't let you go back to them... I won't let them hurt you..."

His eyes then screwed shut as he jammed a thumb down on the firing key on the joystick, spraying gunfire wildly, none of it hitting Nomine.

"No..."

Alex's hands left the controls, and with his mind occupied processing the events that were transpiring, he drew inward, paying no attention to either of his bodies, both the Unicorn and the one of flesh and blood.

The fighter fell away from Nomine, and began an uncontrolled fall back down towards the surface of Vice.

Alex's eyes were filled with tears of confusion and anger.
 
Mikali displayed a surprised expression when Alex closed his eyes and let the craft drop into freefall, waiting for a few seconds before seizing control of the U1 herself and letting it glide in a more controlled manner, directing it away from Nomine. She said nothing, but her expression suggested that she was annoyed, flying the craft towards their original mission area.
 
Nomine waited a few minutes, then leaned forward slightly to activate the U1's rudimentary auto-pilot system, plotted a simple course back home and dialed it in. The interior of the craft shuddered, rocking the girl's body back and forth as it reached terminal velocity, before it gently transitioned into a near-weightless exit through Vice's gravity. It orientated itself towards a seemingly random direction, the engines coming to life as it shoved the U1 towards it's pre-keyed destination. A gentle hum filled the cockpit as the jump drive charged up.

The vibration going through the chair was enough to soothe Nomine's battered body, the fatigue catching up to her as the last thirty minutes of chaos made themselves apparent. Leaning her head against the side of the cockpit, she closed her eyes and breathed out, her body relaxing itself as she indulged in the impending threat of sleep. With a snap and pop, the U1 slipped into space and disappeared, traveling at a snail's pace towards wherever it's home base was.
 
Communication

"ALEX! Finish up there! Jack needs a hand!"

-Uso

See Attachment: BadGuysAreHere.spacedoc
 
"Alex," Mikki said, flying the craft towards the mission area. "Alex, am I really going to have fly this thing myself?" The AI sounded very annoyed, and her avatar reflected it, glaring at Alex with contempt. "There are people dying down below us. Real friends. Not ones trying to kill you. Focus on them. We need to help them." As she spoke, Mikki was transmitting her destination coordinates back to the Araxie as well as a strongly worded Pilot Performance Review reflecting her disappointment in Alex. "5/10, needs to grow up." were her closing words
 
Alex was silent. If Mikki looked through some of the cameras inside the cockpit, she would be able to see Alex crying. The tears were tears of anger, at himself for not being able to stop Nomine from going back to those who would hurt her. Anger at himself for not being able to stop her from killing his comrades. But most of all, the anger was at Psychopomp.

All that was left for him now was hate. The killing machine that Psychopomp had made was coming home.

They'll pay for this, Alex swore to himself. They'll pay for what they'd done to him, to his parents, to his lover and to his crew.

Alex's voice, when it was next discernible from his sobbing, was cold, detached, and uncharacteristically self assured. He was like a different person entirely. He spoke to the Araxie.

"Raze our target from orbit. They're not worth our time."
 
Mikali slowed the craft to a halt, overhearing Alex's orders to the Araxie far above, her face displaying a look of surprise. For a brief moment, it changed to a delighted, positively evil grin, before reverting to her usual, adorable smile. "We're gonna head back to base, Alex?" she asked him, while discreetly sending the Araxie an amendment to her earlier Pilot Performance Review: "10/10 - Nuke them ^_^"
 
Alex stated simply. "No, the Araxie is going to kill every enemy down there from orbit, and then we're going to help Jack, now get them to open fire."
 
ISS Araxie

Araxie started in her seat as the messages came in. She read them in order:
"5/10, needs to grow up."
"Oh, Alex... Sometimes you do act a little childish for your own good..." She chuckled a little bit, too. Yeah he was a bit childish but that also made him adorable.

"Raze our target from orbit. They're not worth our time."
"10/10 - Nuke them ^_^"

"Alex,are you...?" Her voice had trailed off. "I'm rotating us around to get into position to fire. It'll only be a few seconds. Make sure everyone's clear of the target!" She needed to talk to him about that. That voice... Well, it was his, but it wasn't his... And it worried her. As far as Arx can remember, Alex's voice only sounded like that when he was having nightmares...
 
After the Araxie had moved back to its original target and burned it from orbit, Alex gave instructions for the Araxie to follow him to the coordinates attatched to Uso's request to help Jack.

Given that the section 6 fleet was having trouble, Alex expected that he'd run into a fairly large threat. He sent word ahead to the skyguard fleet, letting them know where to go. He also told the engineers of one ship to build him a makeshift hyperspace bomb by hooking up a power source to a hyperspace fold drive, and setting its bubble radius to 250 meters.

Whatever resistance Alex ran into, he wasn't going to waste time taking it out. He'd just tear part of it out of existence and plop it back in hundreds of thousands of kilometers away.

He returned to the Araxie, and then they jumped to their new destination.
 
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