Chapter Thirty-Four: Hour of Fate

“This is how it’s going to work. The drop pods will separate once we near the atmosphere, Pestilence you will be heading to Tokyo. That is the location of the EAP’s 2nd HQ. Destroy it. War, you will be heading towards Paris, the final EAP HQ. Famine your pod will be sending you to London, take out the TA base as quickly as possible. And Death you will be sent to Ontario for the other TA HQ. I will take care of the central HQ in Washington. If this all goes well then we’ll be able to finish this with little problems.” Rebel’s voice echoed discretely through the communications link to the other 4 MFs in the hanger.

Pestilence’s MF was ivory in color, and donned the name White Horse. It was a sleek middle weight biped design with two elongated spikes protruding from the shoulders outwards at a 45 degree angle. A massive brown cloth covered the back of the torso, it was made of special and unique fibers that would harden under extreme heat and act like a shield blocking any type of energy or plasma round. Hidden beneath the cloth was an Excalibur sword, a massive metallic sword with a thin beam of energy that radiates around the blade. White Horse also came equipped with dual grenade launchers which were held firmly in its hands, just above the wrists were two metallic blades that would extend outwards when needed.

Famine’s MF, Pale Horse was heavily armored with square-like limbs and a rectangular torso. The MF was a moving tower; the MF was equipped with a massive metallic axe that clung to the right side on the back of the torso next to a thin chrome energy cannon. The right arm was painted a different color than the rest of the gray tinted MF; it was crimson representing the heavy fire power stored in the right arm, a high attack powered bazooka.  A thickly armored platted solid shield was attached to the left arm.
War’s MF, Reaper Horse was a thinly armored bipedal unit, but what it lacked in armor it made up in speed with four extra boosters attached to the back of the torso. The purple and black MF held a dual sided energy trident in the right hand and a heavy bazooka on the left with two thigh cannons that fired linear solid shells. Its head unit was the most noticeable feature with four spikes pointing out from the top.

And finally Death’s MF, Black Horse was a heavily armored moving tank. When flying in space or in the atmosphere of Earth or Mars its leg units retracted inwards like a standard hover unit. But once the behemoth MF touched the ground its legs pivoted outwards taking the form of massive tank treads, powerful enough to move over any terrain. In its arm Black Horse head onto two massive plasma cannons, the head unit rested in between two elongated grenade cannons. The MF focused on sheer destructive power, such a power that could invoke death at any moment.

Rebel smirked as he noticed his four horsemen were prepared to head down to Earth to start what he referred to as the Tribulation of Humanity.

“Now, I expect to run into some resistance but do not let it detract you from the mission at hand. You are to destroy the main bases for both the TA and the EAP. Once they are crippled we shall finish them off with the EAP satellite cannon coded named, Retribution. I have recently managed to hack into its system; the remote detonator for the cannon is beside me here in Shadow’s cockpit. Are there any questions?”

“Yeah, I thought we were going to wait. You said they would have killed themselves by now.” Famine muttered.

“I was hoping for that outcome. I was expecting the nuclear attack on Berlin to trigger a nuclear war. But the EAP is much smarter than I thought, they must have known that if they launched nuclear weapons at the TA that there was a possibility of nuclear winter to occur. That was what I was expecting, and now we have to get our hands dirty.” Rebel replied.

“Rebel…are you sure you’re ok for this? Ever since the end of the tournament you’ve been acting well….strange….” War interrupted.

“I’m fine…I’m not sure I’ve ever seen things as clearly as I do now.” Rebel replied.

The 5 descent pods slowly opened, each pod was about 30 meters in height and 15 meters in width giving each MF more than enough room to be hidden within. Each MF slowly moved into their respected pods as the count down to the release began. Luscious smirked as he watched looming over in the control room for the descent hanger.

His hand began to swirl the glass of Merlot in his hand.

“And so it begins….I wonder what will happen….”

The world was still lingering in a state of confined chaos looming in the wake from the nuclear attack on Berlin. Riots broke out all over the U.S. and Canada, people all outraging from what they felt was an evil attack.  The EAP had lost a substantial amount of intelligence from the eradication of their central hub. Thousands of families were lost in the catastrophic event, soldiers that were stationed on Mars demanded justice which lead to unsanctioned battles on Mars. Due to the majority of the TA’s forces now stationed on Earth the Mars soldiers never stood a chance. It was a massacre, thousands of TA soldiers covered in a sea of their own blood; Evo was demolished in an instant from advancing EAP soldiers. Also the TA’s other 3 main camps; Stratos and Zion were also left in shambles covered by nothing but a sea of burning flames. The EAP became a dominant force on Mars with only a few TA soldiers still living, the ones that did live either became POWs or managed to join together creating a rebel faction trying to survive. The news cast of all of this information sounded off on every television set on Earth as well as Prosperity.

Adam sighed as he reclined on his mattress with his legs stretched out to their capacity the right crossed over the left. Sharon’s eyes were sealed tightly as her head reclined resting on Adam’s shoulders, her right arm crossed over her chest with her hand softly placed on his torso. She was wearing a pink halter top and jeans; he was wearing an azure shirt and denims as well. They still had a pass for up to another week to remain on Prosperity but Adam planned on heading back to Earth once Blue Dragon’s repairs were completed. His eyes were on the borderline of closing, the day was dreadfully boring, ever since the tournament came to its end a few days prior Prosperity became nothing more than a hotel in space.

“Will it ever end…?” Adam mumbled as his thoughts trailed off from the subject matter of war that was being televised.

Suddenly his phone began to ring rhythmically. He reluctantly glanced over to the small silver object, the sound of the phone also caused Sharon to wake from her slumber.

Her eyes flickered open and her lips parted as she yawned.

“Hello.” Adam answered as he flipped the phone open.

“Hey, listen, something’s happened….” Stephen, it was always soothing to Adam’s soul when he heard his brother say those lines. It was impossible to count how many times Stephen had said that to him over the past 2 years.

“What? Is it important? I was trying to just enjoy the rest of my time up here before we went back to Earth.”

“Yeah, well looks like we might have to head back a lot earlier than originally expected.” Stephen replied.

“Huh? What happened?”

“Get your ass over to my room now. Mario and everyone else is already here. I’ll explain everything to you once you get here. Later.” Stephen abruptly hung up the phone leaving Adam in the dark.

“Is everything alright?” Sharon asked even though she knew the answer. Her gleaming face and wide brown eyes looked back at Adam innocently.

“Why do you even ask those questions anymore?” Adam asked smirking back at her while reluctantly getting off the mattress.

“I don’t know….I guess it’s just a habit. So what’s going on?”

“Hell if I know. Everyone is at Stephen’s room. He said he’d inform me once I got there.”

“I see…you think it’s anything serious?”

“Knowing my luck; probably. Come on, I’d really like to get back to relaxing.” Adam replied.

            General Copiare remained in London along with hundreds of soldiers for the TA. They had been stationed there since the bombing of Berlin. The General rested in the control tower waiting for further orders for Vincent Avidus. Vincent Avidus, the bane of humanity as he had been named as of late.

“Sir…radar is detecting an object….it’s coming in extremely fast and just passed through the atmosphere. ETA in 5 minutes…”

“What? What could possibly be heading in our direction at that kind of velocity?” General Copiare screamed as he sprinted towards the radar systems in the tower. A blinking ivory dot continued to grow in size with each second that passed.

“Can we get a visual?” Copiare screamed.

The frantic young TA soldier shook his head, it was his first day on the job and probably last.

“General we’re getting a radio message from Ontario and Washington….the same thing is happening there…..our satellite has detected 5 objects in total sir….” A communications soldier blurted.

“What the hell is going on? What has our commander and chief said about this?”

“Nothing yet sir….”

“Fine, launch all Shade units to intercept the object. It could be an EAP assault and if that’s the case then we need to stop them as soon as possible!” General Copiare screamed.

“But sir…we still….”

“I don’t care. LAUNCH THOSE SHADES!”

“Yes….yes sir….Attention all TA pilots, we are at a level 5 alert, scramble to your Shades, I repeat scramble to your Shades and launch!”

Within seconds every Shade pilot began to sprint towards the base’ hanger, no one knew what was going on; it wasn’t their job to know, just to pull the trigger. 30 Shades in all lingered in the dreary hanger with dozens of thick obsidian wires protruding out from each machine.

Confusion swept across the planet as the five objects continued to descend. As they entered the safety of the cool air each descent pod abruptly burst open revealing the 5 MFs, Shadow, White Horse, Pale Horse, Reaper Horse, and Black Horse. Rebel smirked while opening a communications link with his 4 horsemen.

“Alright…that was the easy part. Now I’m sure each military facility has picked up or signal so it is extremely important to carry this out in a quick manor…and most important of all, have fun…hehehe…” Rebel’s voice carried on over the globe reaching each of his MFs.

“Yes sir…” Each pilot responded simultaneously.

Famine and his Pale Horse began to ignite the thrusters slowing down its descent. Abruptly his radar began to beep rapidly signifying that there was a tremendous force already approaching his location. Famine smiled as he pushed aside his white hair, his pure glowing blue eyes began to thin focusing on the torrent of Shades that was rapidly approaching.

“Heh…It’s been awhile. SHOW ME WHAT YOU GOT!” He screamed. Pale Horse’s boosters erupted with orange flames as the gray MF zoomed towards the bulk of Shades.

            Death smiled as he took notice of the TA HQ located in Ontario. His eyes slowly began to quiver with excitement and anticipation, his fingers constantly rubbing the side of the throttles as if he was at the peak of physiological pleasure. 30 Shades began to launch from the base all heading directly for his descending MF. Dark Horse’s dual plasma cannons slowly extended forwards while his eyes followed the lock on boxes that began to appear on the display screen.

“Hehehehe…hahahaha, YOU WILL ALL DIE! NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU!”

            Tokyo too began to burst into Chaos. The EAP base stationed in the center of the highly populated city continued to track the 5 rapidly descending objects. General Fenrir stood at the edge of the control panel in the radar tower.

“<What the hell are those things? Are they Trinity Alliance MFs?!?!>” Fenrir screamed.

The young radar military soldier quickly turned around in his chair. He couldn’t tell exactly what was heading towards Tokyo at such a speed.

“<We can’t tell General…not at this current distance…>”

“<Damn….how many Night-Wings do we have stationed here?>”

“<One second General…..10…>”

“<10? That won’t be enough…those damn TA when will they stop. First Berlin and now Tokyo…DAMN THEM…Prepare Blitzangriff.>” Fenrir screamed.

“<You’re going out there?>”

“<Yes…10 Night-Wings might not be enough!>”

            Pestilence’s green flowing strands of hair covered his eyes while he continued to thrust Pale Horse into stability. He sighed as he was sitting calm and collected eagerly awaiting the arrival of the EAP’s soldiers. His fingers were itching for the battle to move underway, he was tired of watching other pilots engage in battle he wanted his turn.

“It’s about time….” His voice trailed as the 10 Night-Wings flew into the sky lead by Blitzangriff. The reverse jointed MF with a triangular looking core. The purple icon of the Japanese military held onto a linear AST rifle in the right hand and a hi-end machine gun in its left. A massive energy trident hung off the back of the core; it had been a good amount of time since Fenrir was seen on the battlefield.

“There we go….11 in all huh…YOUR END IS NEAR!”

            Paris had the same reaction as Tokyo; the soldiers broke out into panic all believing the descending object to be another attack mirroring the one on Berlin earlier. The General stationed at Paris just stared at the radar screen in awe while he blindly sent out a Night-Wing battalion of 15 units.

“<General Dupree….do you think it’s another TA attack?>” The communications solider question with fear clearly written on his face.

“<I’m not sure….but we most engage the unknown object just in case. Any word from Tokyo?>”

“<None sir…>”

“<Damn…>”

            Reaper Horse eloquently began to descend through the air as the four extra boosters began to flicker crimson beams of thrust. War made no sound, his eyes focused coldly on his mission at hand; his brooding silhouette loomed in the cockpit. The muscles on his arms stretching through his jumpsuit, the tension was unbearable for him, they ordered a suit 1 size too small. Suddenly the cloth making up the brown jumpsuit began to tear, with only that sound screeching through out the walls of the cockpit.

“Ah…that’s much better.” War mumbled as his jumpsuit’s sleeve ripped off from the size of his brooding muscles.” His radar then began to pick up the Night-Wings that Paris’ branch of the EAP had sent out.

“There you are…..WILL YOU BE A CHALLENGE?!”

            “Vincent….there’s an unknown object approaching Washington quickly!” The feminine communications solider screamed.
Vincent cringed as he sat comfortably in his leather bound chair at the end of his office in Revelations.

“Is it the EAP? Are they finally attacking us for payback for Berlin?”

“I don’t think it’s the EAP Vincent….there’s 4 other objects descending through the atmosphere all heading towards focal military bases in London, Ontario, Paris and Tokyo…”

“What? That means someone’s launching an attack on both the TA and the EAP? Who the hell would be dumb enough to do that?!” Vincent demanded to now.

“Not sure sir….what should we do?”

“Send out every available Shade and intercept that object!”

“Yes sir!”

            Rebel sat reclining in his chair holding up his copy of Art of War in his hands. His eyebrows arched as his radar began to boom.

“About time…” Rebel muttered as he slid his hands over to the control throttles on the side of his seat. He pushed his obsidian hair away from his eyes as he smirked.

“Hey….wait a minute…isn’t that Shadow, the MF of Rebel358; the winner of the Azure Cup?!” One Shade pilot yelled out as he continued to ascend with the rest of his fleet.

“…Oh my God…..you’re right….that is Shadow!”

“But what is he doing here?!”

“Are you ready….THIS IS YOUR TRIBULATION HUMANITY! Hahahahaha” Rebel’s eyes were enflamed with intensity and hatred. All seemed lost as Shadow began to engage the Shade pilots.

            Vincent Avidus jumped out of his seat as the communications operator did the same.

“What is it?!”

“Sir…there’s another object approaching from the East….it’s heat signatures match the unknown MF that we were pursing a few days ago…”

Vincent’s eyes widened, it was the MF that managed to destroy 30 Shades in a single encounter. For the first time in his life he began to feel and express and adamant sensation of fear.

            “So Rebel and four other pilots left towards Earth….” Adam mumbled as he glanced up at his brother. Stephen sat on a plastic chair with his torso leaning over the back of the chair. Mario was laying down on one of the mattresses with Michelle. Ashley, Heather and Sharon sat comfortably on the other mattress while Zach and Reine sat on the edge of the window in Stephen’s quarters.

“Yeah…that’s what it seems like.” Stephen replied.

“Damn…we need to get to Earth.” Adam replied.

“Huh? Why? What’s going on?” Ashley interrupted.

“Rebel…he said something to me during our match about humanity needing to be purged….I don’t know what he meant by it but I’m sure it has something to do with him leaving to Earth.” Adam replied.

Suddenly their attention was diverted to the television as breaking announcements began to flicker on the screen.

“This is Stephanie Star and what you are about to see is live footage from Washington, Ontario, London, Paris and Tokyo. All of which are under heavy attack from 4 unknown MFs and strangely the MF belonging to the champion of the Azure Cup, Rebel358. We will feed you information once we receive until then all we can say is that the world has broken into chaos.” As her voice trailed off the screen split up into 5 squares, each depicting images from on of the 5 locations. Adam along with everyone else stared as all sorts of emotions flooded into their minds and souls. Blinding flashes of explosions lit up the pure azure backdrop of a sky as Shades and Night-Wings fell singed nearly destroyed.

“DAMN IT!” Adam screamed as he punched the wall with his right hand. Sharon and Stephen looked up glancing at him.

“Adam…there’s nothing we could have done….” Heather began to say.

“No…I won’t accept that. I’m going.” Adam replied as he jumped off the dresser and headed for the door.

“And what do you intend to do? Blue Dragon hasn’t been completely repaired yet!” Stephen yelled.

“All that’s left is the OS and the Angel System; I can handle the repairs on that. Once I’m finished I’m heading to Earth to stop Rebel.”

“You foolish bastard.” Ashley mumbled.

“Heh…I guess I’m foolish. Call me whatever you wish, but I refuse to stand idly by while Rebel does this.”

“Adam wait…” Stephen said.

“What?”

“I’m coming.”

“Heh, if he’s going then so am I.” Mario replied.

“Ugh, fine, I’ll go. Someone has to look out for you three.” Heather mentioned.

“Count me in too.” Zach replied

“Yeah, I’m going.” Reine jumped in as well.

“I…” Before Michelle could finish Mario just shook his head. “You stay here. We’ll handle this.” Mario mentioned.

“Fine….but be careful.” Michelle muttered.

“You know I will.” Mario replied.

“Same goes for you Adam.” Sharon mumbled.

“You too Stephen.” Ashley said as well.

Both Adam and Stephen smirked and nodded.

“Well then, looks like we’re going back to Earth….we’ll stop this tribulation.”