Mark Chase's
METAL STORM 2380
(Kinzoku Arashi 2380)
Episode 21
"And the Heavens Cried, Amen!" 

Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
                         - Alfred Lord Tennyson,"Ulysses"
November 18th, 2380. Armageddon! As Taeon's Psycho Raptor neared the devastated lunar base, he stretched out his mind searching for the presence of his younger sister. The burning sky of pure energy far above had unnerved him and he was finding it difficult to concentrate. Arcs of energy still leapt about, jumping from one section of the moon's amplifier bands to another. "Bother..." whispered the soft, yet skull-splitting voice of Xandra. Taeon winced, feeling the shear force of her thought digging into his mind. "Xandra," he thought back. "Don't think so loud!" "The Old Empire must fall to make way for the New." "What?" asked Taeon. He felt a twisted emotion embedded in her thoughts. An emotion, like the jubilant exhilaration of a child, yet tainted with the malicious glee of one contemplating the torture of a captive insect. "Xandra... What are you..." "Watch," she thought to him. "The Rebirth of Time!" Then he saw it. He saw her thoughts. Her terrible, twisted thoughts... "Xandra, wait! No!" It was too late. Every sensor scope spiked off the scale. His view was whited out as if there had been another nuclear explosion. But the energy unleashed was a million fold that of any fusion bomb. When the visual image returned, Taeon watched in horror as the shimmering blue sky, now a blinding white furry, condensed to a blazing, hellish point of concentrated forces. Energy... Beyond any form yet imagined. Beyond that of electromagnetic. Beyond gravity. Beyond the nuclear forces. Beyond even quantum mechanics. The energy was undetectable by any electronic sensor, though its shattering effects on reality were quite visible. Taeon knew the nature of those infinite forces -- it was the binding energy of space and time itself, tapped from the sub- dimension of diverspace by Xandra's very will. Ryo was yelling something, but Taeon couldn't hear him. He knew what was happening. The images in Xandra's thoughts were all to clear. He could do nothing to stop it. The sky went blinding white again as the spherical vortex of diver energy focused into a point beam of light. The energy laser stabbed straight up into the zenith, toward where Mars hung in the starry sky. Taeon couldn't see the world for the brilliant flash, but he knew it was there. Or it should have been. When the white glare vanished, and Taeon could see again, he stared only into the great starry abyss, his eyes darted back and forth, searching for a sign, any sign... But Mars was not to be seen. "Taeon!" screamed Ryo. "What the hell is going on!" "My God..." muttered Taeon. "She did it... She did it..." "Taeon!?" He didn't reply. The muscles in his throat contorted as he contemplated the devastation. An entry planet, destroyed by the twisted energies of space-time. Every known force of physics, and all forces yet unknown, had acted upon the planet, shattering it utterly. All that could been see in the sky was a glittering ball of fire and a shower of a million shooting stars which had once been Mars. "Two billion people," stammered Taeon. "Two billion..." "Are you telling me Xandra destroyed Mars?" screamed Ryo. "Taeon!" His terror and fear contorted to anger and rage. He lashed out with his mind, seeking the demon that had once been his beloved sister. "Xandra!" "Earth," she replied. Then, with a mental laugh... "Next." No further explanation was needed. Taeon knew her plans. "But, why?" he demanded. Xandra laughed. "To end the War." "By destroying civilization!" "Civilization makes war." "No," said Taeon. "War made civilization. You can't kill a billion lives to save a billion more. It's wrong! There will always be war." "I've known the future. All my life I have seen history, past and future. For a hundred more years war would have ravaged the Galaxy." "But you can't change the future," said Taeon. "If you saw the future..." "The Fate Blanket I invoked blotted the future away. Only I could see what was to come. Only I could change it." "That's absurd!" "Is it? Should a tree fall in a forest, yet no one is there to hear it, no sound was made. And yet, the tree itself was there." "I don't understand..." "The major worlds must be destroyed," stated Xandra. "Mars, Earth, and Ozma. It will take a hundred years to rebuild -- a hundred years of peace. Men will know the terror of war, and never fight again." "How can you be sure?" Xandra didn't reply. "Xandra?" Taeon was pulled back from his telepathic dialog by a voice over the comm system. "Taeon? This is General Avenger. I need a report from you at once!" "Xandra's gone mad," replied Taeon. "I don't know why, but she thinks that by destroying Earth and Mars she can end the war. She might be planning to destroy Ozma and some other worlds as well." "This is insane! She's just a kid!" "Everyone keeps saying that," said Taeon. "But she's not a kid, and never was. General, did Leta tell you about the theory that Xandra's mind existed on a zero-point level?" "No. What the hell are you talking about?" "Suffice to say she's god-like," replied Taeon. "And she intends to destroy civilization to end the war. By her blanketing the future, there is now an infinity of possibilities ahead of us. We don't have to follow the path of destruction. We can follow our own destiny now." The was a momentary pause on the General's end. "Lieutenant Toshio, the moon is accelerating rapidly. We're in the gravity- well of the moon, and are having to lower our altitude to keep from being left behind, but our course apparently bearing toward Earth. She's planning to destroy Earth, isn't she?" "Yes," replied Taeon. "ETA?" "Unknown. We are accelerating at an accelerating rate. Could be a matter of hours. Maybe less. And Lieutenant, there are twelve billion people on Earth. Do whatever you have to do. Just stop her." Taeon dove his mecha toward the lunar base below. "Believe me, I will. Toshio out." * * * The power core on the Metal Storm Alpha reached peak and leveled off. The mighty mecha stood and looked to the sky where Ryo hovered in waiting. Ryo checked his sensors. The MS-Alpha's cloaking system was still off-line, probably damaged by the nuclear blast. "What the hell are you talking about!" said General Briggs. Ryo smiled. He was still receiving a live-feed on the General's personal frequency, thanks to his mecha's sophisticated electronics countermeasure and descrambling system. "Mars has been utterly destroyed," replied some other GSC officer. "Then... The ITR can't be in control of the moon," said Briggs. "But if not then, who?" "General," said another voice. "MS-Alpha reports ready." "Excellent. Tell her I'm switching to channel twelve." "Yes, sir." "Her?" wondered Ryo. Could Kay Sabre be the pilot of Metal Storm Alpha? He flipped through the comm frequencies to GSC channel twelve. "...tems active," he heard a chilling female voice state, mid-sentence. "You want me to try and take the Beta intact?" "Negative," said Briggs. "Kill him. The bastard destroyed my flagship. He'll pay with his life!" "Understood," replied Kay. This was fairly advantageous, having access to the GSC's communication frequencies, thought Ryo with a smile. "I'll join you shortly in the Ares-1," stated Briggs. "With the Beta out of the way, we will crush the ITR once and for all!" Ares-1, pondered Ryo. What the hell was that? He switched to the CIC channel. "CIC, this is Gunn. Have you heard of an Ares-1?" "Negative," replied the CIC officer. "We just monitored that transmission ourselves and are currently checking all intelligence records. It could be the designation of Briggs' personal War God." "Possibly," said Ryo. Ryo turned his attention back to the Metal Storm Alpha. The giant mecha launched from lunar surface and thundered through the silent void toward the Metal Storm Beta. Despite the MS-Beta's cloaking system, the Alpha had still spotted him. No doubt the Alpha's sensors were just as keen as those of his own mecha. But he also knew the Alpha had one tremendous advantage over his mecha. The Alpha's main gun would have a full complement of ammo, whereas he had none. Ryo began to regret having spent his only high-powered ordnance to destroy the Victorious, but maybe it was worth it. Even if he died, at least he had made a tremendous blow against the GSC. Suddenly, the Alpha readied its main cannon and fired. Ryo dove backward and down, the shell missing by mere inches. "Crap!" screamed Ryo, taken by surprise at the quick, fluid actions of the opposing mecha. "And I thought I was the fastest!" Ryo furrowed his eyebrows as he watched the incoming Metal Storm Alpha prepare to fire a second deadly round. It was true that Briggs could not utilize the whole of the Alpha's abilities, as he was not genetically engineered to pilot it. But he could still have used the secondary control system. Instead, he had let Key Sabre pilot the Alpha. Kay, whom Briggs had desperately rescued from the burning wreckage of her mecha. Kay, who of all people seemed a very special individual in Briggs' eyes. Ryo had thought they might have been lovers. Perhaps it was much more. If Briggs had access to some of the Zion technology all those years ago, he might have learned that a special genetically engineered pilot was required to optimize the Metal Storm. Knowing that he himself could not use the special interface system, could he have engineered Kay Sabre? Could his plans to take control of the GSC and capture the secret Zion base have extended that far back? Had Briggs been planning and scheming for all that time? Kay was at least five years younger than Ryo. It was possible, unbelievable as it was, but it was possible that she was genetically engineered to interface with the Metal Storm control system. Engineered by Briggs and his people to help steal the Alpha. Another destructive shell tore past. Ryo readied his remaining arsenal of energy-based weapons to finish this Nemesis of Briggs' design. It would be a battle unparalleled he knew, and even if he survived, he would have to face Briggs himself in his Ares-1, whatever monstrous war machine that might be. As a third shell blast forth, Ryo launched himself down toward the incoming Metal Storm Alpha, firing wave after wave of energy missiles, particle blasts, and energy pulses. "Die!" screamed Ryo, straining against the G-forces as he plummeted toward his approaching foe. And the two colossal mecha clashed in a fury of destructive forces and energy. * * * Taeon landed five kilometers north of the nuclear crater where the Victorious had been destroyed. He knelt his Psycho Raptor down, taking shelter from the battle in an ancient meteor impact site. The Reality Throne was twelve kilometers under the base. That was were Xandra would be. Taeon extended his consciousness, looking down through the rocky crust of the moon, his psychic sight ridding on waves of energy, amplified by his diver mecha. Down through layers of dust and dirt. Down through surface rocks, bedrock, ancient rock, and further on. His mind search for artificial peculiarities, found it, and dove further. His vision faded into what seemed a great downward shaft -- an elevator leading to the underground chamber. A psychic force, a mental barrier, obstructed his descent. He feared he could go no further, but suddenly the barrier lifted as if allowing him passage through. He continued onward and came to the end of his search. Taeon's psychic eye peered into a vast underground chamber. The centerpiece was a great machine of glowing spheres, swirling energies, and devices beyond imagine. Upon a throne-like alcove at the front of the machine was Xandra, sitting in almost child- like innocence while arcs of energy danced across her small body. There was another presence in the room as well. There, off to the side, was his older sister, Sara, lying on the floor either unconscious or dead. Taeon's mind pondered how she would have come to be in the room, even while the GSC forces far above were struggling to breach Xandra's imposing barriers. No matter, thought Taeon. She was there, and he could only assumed that Xandra brought her by her own will. Time to join the party, he thought to himself. He willed his material being, his body and the Psycho Raptor, into the underground chamber. Matter and energy swapped places, and his mecha materialized in the center of the Reality Horizon room. Taeon opened his eyes. His control system, being a standard neural interface, piped the mecha's sensor imaging system into his visual cortex. He looked around and saw everything as he had seen it in his telepathic vision. Sara was on the floor near-by, her hand still clutching a 4mm laser pistol. Taeon scanned her in infrared and was relieved to discover her temperature was still at human norm. She was alive, but unconscious. Then there was Xandra. Taeon turned toward the Reality Horizon machine and his sister who so maliciously controlled it. "Xandra," he thought at her. "Cease this activity at once!" "So," she thought back to his mind. "Brother wishes me ill as well." "As well?" he thought. "You mean Sara was... What did you do to her?" "Little Sister tried to kill me. I invited her to watch me play but she was blind to the truth. She did not understand." "What did you do to her!" screamed Taeon. He leveled his left arm bearing graser cannon toward Xandra. "Her mind was weak, easy to put to sleep. But you... With your powers enhanced I would have to destroy you should you stand in my way. Do not get in my way." Taeon ground his teeth together and dropped his arm. "You killed two billion people!" "All people die," whispered Xandra. "Such a fraction of a second of time do they exist as a conscious, cognitive force before passing on into the void of space-time. I destroyed nothing, only changed the forms of matter and energy." "You killed two billion people," growled Taeon in reply. "You aren't my sister any more!" "Then I would have no reason to spare your life," replied Xandra. "Or Little Sister's." "Spare Earth," sent Taeon. "The war is almost won. Our victory is assured now that the Victorious has been destroyed..." "The war is not won; it has only just begun! Both empires remain and forever shall they boil in hatred to one another. The slate must be wiped clean so that a New Empire may rise from the ashes of the Old." "No," said Taeon. "I am your elder brother. You will do as I say! Stop at once! Power down the Reality Horizon!" "You cannot see as I do. All of time and space is laid out before me like a tapestry of history, past, present, and yet to come. The future is torn asunder, like the shards of shattered mirror. They called this machine the Reality Horizon for a reason. For with it one can see beyond the boundaries of reality itself. I know far more than I have ever know before, seen further than I have ever seen, and can do things the likes of which you could never imagine! You have only seen me in passing moments and think me still a child! How wrong you are, Brother. I see in your mind you know the truth. The one you call Leta was correct. I am a zero-point mentality with all knowledge and memory, past and future, cascaded across my existence. I have always been here, in this place. I have always been born. I have always been dead. How could you possibly understand me? How could you dare to defy me?" Taeon's heart raced with fear as the sheer awe of Xandra's knowledge and power hit home. How could he stop her? How could he save civilization from Armageddon? How could he kill his own sister? How could he destroy a god? * * * Energy lashed through the vacuum sea. Two great war machines clashed, pitted in mortal combat. Torrid energies ravaged shields and armor amidst infernal fireballs potent enough to consume entire armies. The Alpha swung about and unleashed a pulsing stream of nuclear particle energy. Ryo brought up his left arm and powered the reflector shield. Charged particles impacted the wall of negative ions and anti-gravitons, scattering away in a rainbow of refracted light. Ryo returned fire, launching a barrage of energy missiles. The light-speed quantum projectiles drilled instantaneously into the Alpha's force shields, penetrated, and scathed the near- impregnable armor beneath. The Alpha launched away and rose to position itself between Ryo's line of site and the distant G-class sun, which steadily grow as the Zion Moon neared the third orbital plane. The sensor system instantly flipped to laser/radar imaging, washing out the brilliant glare of Sol. She's good, thought Ryo. Too good. He could only conclude that he was correct in his assumption. Somehow Briggs had created another pilot with abilities parallel to his own. No doubt Briggs had been better informed than anyone had thought. He must have had access to Ryo's genetic records and used them as a basis for creating Kay. But did that mean Kay was his... "Hell no!" screamed Ryo, in reply to his own unthinkable question. He strafed the particle blaster through the sky, spraying his target with deadly energy. The Alpha's shield held and the great mecha readied its massive cannon to fire another killer round. Ryo flew backward on the gravitic thrusters, preparing to dodge the imminent attack. It didn't come. Instead, the energy launchers on the Alpha's chest flared to life. A swarm of ten energy missiles flashed out. Even as energy bolts ripped into his shields, Ryo reflexively dodged to the side useless as the maneuver was. "Dammit!" he cursed himself, realizing Kay's plan. The great cannon fired, sending it's hypersonic shell toward him. As the Beta's momentum carried it on a collision course with in incoming buster-shell, Ryo focused all thrust power in the opposite direction. The mecha's chassis groaned as the torque pressure threatened to fold the metal support skeleton. Ryo could feel the pain of the G-forces pushing against his own frail human body and felt the threatening darkness of unconsciousness flooding into his mind. His momentum still carried him toward Kay's trap, but his velocity had slowed. The shell hit the edge of the Beta's shoulder, skipped off, and exploded only a fraction of a second later a few dozen meters behind. That was the fourth shell, tallied Ryo. Only one more remaining. But one was all she needed to kill him. As Ryo lifted away from the looming fireball behind him, he grabbed the beam sword off the Beta's hip. With the beam sword's ability to slice though shields and armor like an arc welder on a tin can, he knew close-range combat was his best bet at stopping her. Besides, at that close range she wouldn't dare use the cannon. The explosion would kill her, too. "This is General Avenger to Lieutenant Gunn," came the General's voice. "I'm a little busy, sir." "Lieutenant Toshio's mecha has vanished from our scopes. It's possible he has been destroyed. It is imperative that this moon is stopped!" "What?" asked Ryo. "Taeon..." "This moon has sustained a velocity of 0.3 cee. I don't know how, but we must have been shielded from the massive effects of acceleration. ETA to Earth is thirty minutes." Ryo looked to the sky. The Sun was a tinge bluer than normal. "Good God..." he muttered. Though Earth was not in a direct line between Mars and the Sun, it was at a point only thirty degrees off and just over an AU distance. As their course took them through the solar system at relativistic speed, their angle to the Sun increased. They were nearing the Sun at an incredible velocity and the blue shift of the Doppler effect was distinctly apparent. "It's up to you now," stated the General. "You're our last hope for Earth." Ryo gripped the hilt of the fusion sword in hand and the weapon flared to life, glowing with the brilliance of a mini- nova. He raised his reflector shield arm, charging the array of magnetic coils and gravity-lenses. The Alpha fired its rapid pulse strafer gun, but Ryo deflected the attack with his energy reflector. He knew the Alpha possessed no such reflector system. The energy reflector was a much later development of Project Reality Dawn. Having it would give him a distinct advantage over her in close-ranged combat. Not only would he be able to fight the Alpha beam sword to beam sword, but beam sword to reflector shield as well. Kay may have known this, but she didn't back away. Instead, the Alpha mecha reached for it's own beam sword and prepared for melee combat. Over the GSC comm channel, Ryo heard the agitated voice of General Briggs. "He's causing you more trouble than you had anticipated, eh?" "I can take him," replied Kay. At that moment the Alpha fired a swarm of energy missiles. Ryo readied his energy reflector and shielded himself from most of the energy bolts. Even so, some got past and drilled into his ever-weakening force fields. "I'm in the Ares-1. I'll be joining you shortly. Keep him busy. I want the pleasure of slaying him myself." "As you wish," replied Kay. Ryo swallowed and felt a bead of sweet run down his face. Briggs and the Metal Storm Alpha? And what was the Ares-1? Another super-mecha? A clone of the Alpha? Or something worse? As he entered melee range with the MS-Alpha, his mecha's advanced sensor array detected a new enemy signal. Something big was coming out of a hanger in the GSC occupied moon base. Something terribly big... * * * A planetarium of space materialized on the ceiling above. Taeon checked his sensors. No, it wasn't a hologram, there were no lasers, and it wasn't any sort of display screen. He double checked the readings when he discovered what the image truly was. "Impossible..." he stated. Some invisible force was controlling the quantum packets of light energy, manipulating the photons to bend and shift in a manner to create the visual image. "The time nears," floated Xandra's thoughts. "The core of turmoil and war shall soon be extinguished." He couldn't kill Xandra. Not his own sister. Even if he could bring himself to doing it, there was no way he could defeat her powers. But the machine -- the seat of her power... "Xandra," thought Taeon. "I give you one last chance. With the destruction of Mars, you crossed the line between good and evil. You must be stopped at all cost." "Such petty ideals are beneath me. I transcend the bounds of good and evil. Do not think to judge my actions, Brother." Taeon swallowed. She left him no choice. Xandra had gone too far. By masking the threads of future history, she could not see the fate that was to come. She had no way of knowing if her strategy of mass destruction could truly end war. But Taeon knew one thing -- the death billions weighed heavy on his soul and the fate of billions more was in his hands. The energy cells within the Psycho Raptor powered to full, and Taeon focused the energy array into a stream of crackling particle pulses. The energy fire swept across the machine, aiming for the glowing spheres and energy coil devices. But the shots didn't make it. The beams of energy plastered against an invisible wall deflected by whatever protective barrier Xandra had invoked. "Your weapons are useless against me," she stated. "Little Sister learned such the hard way. Do you wish the same?" "Listen to me Xandra. I can't let you destroy the Earth! I will fight to the death to stop you. I can't let you kill nine billion people." "They shall die for the greater good of mankind." "You don't know that!" "'Tis Fate that flings the dice, and as she flings, of kings makes peasants and of peasants kings!" Taeon ground his teeth together and felt his sweaty hands clenching the psi-amp orbs on the control console. Now she was quoting Dryden. He had to do something fast! "You're insane!" he yelled. "All minds are mad. For that is how we each perceive our realities. The majority is always sane, and all who transcend such are dubbed insane." There was movement from the floor. Taeon glanced down and saw Sara struggling up. She propped herself on one arm, and looked at the towering Psycho Raptor. "Sara!" called Taeon, over the external speakers. "Kill her..." she stammered. "Kill her before it's too late..." Just how good were her telekinetic shields, wondered Taeon. And what was her concentration limit? How many things could she concentrate on at once before becoming distracted? He had to find out. Taeon set the computer to auto-fire the energy weapons control system in rapid low-power particle bursts. The energy exploded against the invisible barrier, just as Taeon thought it would. He then leveled his left arm toward the machine and fire the graser wave cannon. It too proved to be of little effect as Xandra's powers negated the force of its gravity. Finally, Taeon closed his eyes and concentrated. He wrapped his consciousness around one of the large glowing spheres atop the great machine. Like switching King with Rook, Taeon willed the sphere to teleport from the machine to the innards of his own mecha, to the place his gravitic turbine reactor core should have been. The two objects castled, the sphere appearing in the reactor housing, the reactor turbine appearing just above the psychic machine. The brightly luminated machine flickered on and off. Great arcs of electrical current leapt from every point of the machine and stabbed into the still spinning gravitic turbine. There was a flash of light and an explosion as the turbine impacted with the machine, spinning with the force of twenty gravities. Taeon's Psycho Raptor lurched forward, unbalanced by the sudden shift in weight. The power flicked, but returned as the emergency systems kicked in. But those systems mattered little. Taeon stared in horror as a great wall of wild energy materialized between him and Xandra's machine and tore across the chamber toward him. He had just enough time to dive his mecha to the floor, putting himself between Sara and the hideous machine, shielding her from the psychokinetic retaliation. Taeon's universe was filled with a terrible, infinite light, and the laughing scream of twisted insanity. * * * Eight hundred tons of metal hurled from the devastated moon base, propelled by a fire of nuclear annihilation. As black as the void of space itself, the flying fortress glistened with an arsenal of weapons unparalleled by any mecha war machine yet fathomed. Though it was built of cruder, standard technology, the enormous craft's shear size struck fear into Ryo's heart. Briggs would reach him in less than a minute. Ryo had no desire to fight two super-mecha at once. He had to destroy the Metal Storm Alpha now and finish Kay once and for all. Now in melee range, Ryo swept his beam sword down on the Alpha. The Alpha blocked the attack with its own beam sword. The gravitic envelopes clashed and the opposing particle fields repelled one another in a fury of electric arcs. Ryo pressed down with his sword, forcing it against the repulsive nature of the other sword. A storm of sparks and wild lightening leapt from the energy blades and danced between the two mecha. Suddenly, the Alpha opened up with ten energy missiles. At that range, there was no way for Kay to miss. The missiles exploded into the Beta's force shields, ripped through, and tore savagely into his armor. Ryo jerked back reflexively. One more hit like that and he was done for. He readied his beam sword for another strike and spun his mecha three-sixty to make the attack. But he had another motive for the maneuver. With his back to the his foe, Ryo locked the missile targeting system on to the Alpha and fired all ten homing energy missiles. The light-speed gravitic guided energy packs launched out and vanished in the distance. Ryo knew it would only be a matter of seconds until the gravity control fields bent the energy back around to home in on their target. Finishing his spin, Ryo raised his reflector shield and lashed out with the beam sword. The Alpha swung with its sword, but Ryo blocked the seething blade with his reflector. Holding the enemy energy blade at bay, he came in with his sword and sliced into the Alpha's shields. "Aaah!" screamed Kay, over the comm channel. Ryo grinned and forced his sword on through. The enemy mecha's shields flickered, destabilized, and shattered. The beam sword carved into the Alpha's armor, melting metal to boiling red liquid. Perhaps Kay was unaware of the incoming energy missiles. Perhaps she didn't see them as a threat. Whatever the case, her mecha launched backward to avoid Ryo's beam sword and straight into the oncoming missiles. The homing energy missiles had looped completely around traveling at the speed of light and crossing a radius of space measurable in light-seconds. The missiles peppered into her back, tearing though unshielded armor and deep into the mecha's vital innards. They must have hit something vital, perhaps the mecha's antimatter core or the last 80cm ship-killer shell. As Ryo rocketed away, the Metal Storm Alpha erupted in a dazzling ball of flame. "No!" screamed Briggs over the GSC channel. "Kay! Kay!" Ryo smiled. Boy Briggs was pissed now! "My precious Metal Storm!" It was hard to suppress a laugh. If only Briggs knew he was listening to his pitiful cries of despair. At that moment, Ryo received a hail on a general comm channel. He checked its source and found the signal was from Briggs' Ares-1. The melodramatic dictator no doubt wished to rant and rave for all the trouble Ryo had caused him. Ryo chose to steal the advantage. "Hello Briggs," said Ryo, on the GSC channel Briggs had been using. "It seems your tin soldier was no match for me." The hail stopped and Briggs switched back to the GSC command frequency. "What? How did you get into this frequency?" "I've been monitoring all along, Briggs," said Ryo with a laugh. "And so have the boys in combat intelligence." "No..." "Oh yes," assured Ryo. "Your tyranny is ended Briggs. Time to die." "Never! It is you who shall die for defying me! Your Metal Storm is no match for the brute strength of my Ares-1 Space Booster. I will crush you with ease!" Ryo scanned the approaching craft. It was a space booster, so it seemed. A very large booster, in fact. Magnetic resonance scanned detected a War God mecha housed inside. So, the Ares-1 was nothing more than a fortress shell for Briggs' War God. The flying fortress opened fire. From the massive underbelly mounted cannon, a great beam of furious energy erupted with enough recoil particle energy to punch through the hull of the largest of ships. From either wing, the entire payload of missiles launched, forty in all, each rocket massing a ton and armed with a devastating plasma warhead. And, amongst the swarm of missiles and blazing beam of terrible energy, the Ares-1 fired both hyper-cyclic, auto-tracking Gatling glaser guns. The streams of pulsating energy showered relentlessly through space toward the Metal Storm Beta. Ryo, still rocketing toward the incoming menace, pulled hard to his left, desperate to avoid the primary energy blast. The beam of fusion temperature charged particles skimmed over his left shoulder. The flood of gamma-ray laser pulses was impossible to avoid, and Ryo took the shower of energy head on. His force shields were far more powerful, and the laser blasts had little effect save the spectacular rainbow of color created upon their impact the electro-gravitic fields. More of a threat were the forty AI guided, full-spectrum homing missiles. Between the Beta's powerful ECM system and optical cloak, the missiles should have been thrown well of course. But whether they homed in on his mecha's heat trail, or hit by chance of sheer number, several missiles impacted head on. Ryo felt the Metal Storm lurch back as the three rockets hit and exploded. The shields deflected most of the blast, but nothing could stop the concussion forces created by their awesome momentum. "Armor penetrated," informed the computer, coolly. "Internal system's damaged." Ryo ignored the damage display window that appeared in the lower right of his field of vision and launched a flight of ten energy missiles. At the same time, he leveled his right arm and fired a burst of charged particle blaster energy. The energy missiles pelted the Ares-1's massive shields and were followed milliseconds later by a storm of particle fire. Nothing penetrated. Ryo grimaced. Nothing, not even the devastating energy missiles, managed to slip though those shields. His beam sword might have a chance, but only if he could get in range. "Hahah!" laughed Briggs. "No weapon you possess can harm me! You are finished!" Ryo spun away and thrust backwards, propelled by his self- sustained gravity-well. He glanced to his left, spotting the thirty-seven remaining missiles. Half the missiles were heading out in arbitrary directions, having failed to locate their stealthy target. But, the remaining eighteen were turning to make a second sweep at him. Ryo knew if those missiles hit he would be little more than sub-atomic ash. He sequenced the ECM jammers through a new sensory jamming pattern, then swung his left arm toward in the incoming rockets. The rapid pulse strafer gun unleashed a spread of laser fire and tore across the missiles' flight path. Space was littered with a dozen fiery explosions as missile after missile was prematurely detonated by the onslaught of laser energy. The remaining six missiles shot past, disoriented by the ECM systems randomly sequenced jamming pattern. "I grow tired of your interference!" growled Briggs. "This battle ends, now!" The Ares-1 fired its great energy cannon once more. Ryo's left arm was already outstretched in front of his body and the energy reflector still at full power. He reflexively braced the reflector at the proper angle. In the split second it took the energy beam to cross the space between the two war machines, Ryo had just enough time to recognize the situation for what it was, and turn that situation to his own advantage. The high-powered energy beam struck; and, like a laser striking a mirror, returned in the opposite direction. But the tremendous thermal energy and kinetic force were far too great. Though most of the energy pulse was bounced back, that which remained obliterated the reflector grid, and turned much of the Beta's left arm to molten red metal. Even so, the plan had worked. The energy blast returned to the Ares-1 and drilled into the force shield bubble. The force field bubble exploded in a shower of brilliant white light and then was gone. Ryo checked his sensors and was pleased to see the electro-gravitic field was no longer present. Though the energy blast had only singed the armor of the massive craft, the shield generator had been completely burned out. Ryo clutched his beam sword in his hand and launched himself toward his final opponent. * * * Sharp, hot pain ran through Taeon's body. He opened his eyes and struggled to stand only to find himself buried in a pile of twisted, sizzling hot metal. He pushed what must have been his piloting seat away and crawled out from under the shattered half dome of what had once been the Psycho Raptors cockpit compartment. His pressure suit was torn and coated with blood, and his head throbbed with the beating of his own heart. He staggered through the still smoking remains of the blasted mecha tripping over endoskeletal support beams, twisted actuators, and scrap metal. "Do not think to challenge me again," boomed Xandra's psychic voice. Taeon blinked and wiped the blood out of his eyes. The terrible machine glowed with the light of its awful energies. A portion was inactive, with several power spheres broken. Though this attack had done some good, he had only damaged the machine, not destroyed it. Taeon could only guess at the extent of the damage, but knew it couldn't have been more than superficial. Taeon glanced up and thought he saw a small blue dot at the zenith of the dome-shaped visual display of space. It was Earth, he knew. And they were only minutes away. Sara was nearby, lying face down on the floor just behind the ruins of the Psycho Raptor. Taeon ran over to her and placed his hand on her back. "Sara!" he called to her. "Get up!" Sara groaned and moved her left arm. "Sara!" She braced herself with her left arm and managed to struggle to her feet. "God..." she moan. "I can't move my right arm... Damn, it hurts..." His sister was hurt bad. Blood ran from under the sleeve of her right arm and down her hand. Her face was bruised and cut from the shower of shrapnel that must have blasted over her. It was a miracle she had survived at all. "Your arm must be broken. But we don't have time to deal with that right now." "Pain I can handle," said Sara. She staggered, as if on the verge of blacking out, but she seemed to catch herself and force her body back to a combat ready stance. "But Xandra..." Taeon looked back to the ceiling. The blue dot was distinctly Earth, and even the Moon could now be seen. Earth -- the birthplace of humanity, capital of the ITR, and home to nine billion men, women, and children. "Get your gun ready," whispered Taeon. "What good would that do?" "Just do it. I think I know her concentration threshold." Sara glanced at him doubtfully, then began searching the floor for her pistol. "Look Brother!" sent Xandra. "The vile pit of ten thousand years of blood, war, and corruption! Soon it shall be cleansed so that humanity might begin anew." "We aren't perfect, Xandra," said Taeon. "We are only mortal human beings. We can never transcend the frailties of what we are. There will always be war and corruption. But with that comes compassion, love, and forgiveness. I ask you for the last time... No, I beg you... Don't do this. There must be some other way!" "I am the way!" "Found it," said Sara, limping back to her brother. Taeon nodded. "Hold on. When I say fire, fire." He looked back to the image above. Earth was nearly as large as it would be seen from the Moon. The Moon herself was setting beyond the western side of Earth. It seemed their motion had halted, and Taeon could only assume Xandra had placed the Zion Moon in a lunar orbit as a stable point from which to launch her attack. "Xandra..." whispered Taeon. He took his laser pistol from his side holster and switched off the safety. "I'm so sorry..." Xandra did not reply, or even seem to notice Taeon or Sara. She stared blankly at the image above. Stared beyond, peering outward with her psychic eye. Upon the visual image, great arcs of terrible blue energy leapt back and forth as Xandra filled the Reality Horizon bands with her power. Waves of energy upon waves of energy danced across the Zion Moon building to immeasurable levels. "Xandra!" Taeon blasted into her mind. Her head twitched slightly. "Xandra!" he sent again, and lashed out with a telekinetic punch. He felt the punch blocked by a counter force. "Fire!" he screamed. Sara aimed her gun and held the trigger. The pulses of energy struck an invisible barrier and dispersed in a shower of light, but she kept firing. Taeon triggered his own laser pistol, this time set on continuous beam. The beam lanced out and also struck an invisible barrier. It too was reflected in a rainbow of color. As his weapon's energy dwindled with each passing second, Taeon breached the limits of his own mental abilities. He lashed out once more with a psionic scream and a devastating telekinetic shock wave. The image on the ceiling vanished as Xandra lost her control of the photons of light. Taeon had no idea what the state of the great energy field was, nor did he know if Earth even existed any more. He could only hope Xandra was too distracted to fire her apocalyptic blast of world-shattering energy. Laser fire continued to pelt the invisible barriers, and Taeon's psionic assault battled the counter-forces of Xandra's mental shields. Through the slits of his squinting eyes, Taeon saw Xandra's body flinch. For the merest fraction of a second she was distracted. Taeon focused every last ounce of strength into once cohesive psychic assault. Screaming, both audibly and telepathically, he spread his blast of telekinetic force into a dozen spears of psionic energy. A great wave of counter-force materialized as a shimmering blue wall disintegrating space-time. Xandra's force shield flickered as she struggled to repel an assault from two fronts. With the last of his mental energy and the final burst of energy from the gun in hand, the laser beam punched through the field and stabbed into Xandra's skull. "Run!" screamed Taeon, knowing the unimaginable psychic backlash that was sure to come. The blue energy field of rending space-time collapsed back on Xandra, distorting the light of the room like a rippling cascade of water. Space-time itself bent toward the machine as it imploded into a singularity. Sara was at the elevator door in seconds and slammed her palm against the control button. Taeon ran from the collapsing vortex of reality, screaming for the elevator doors to open. The door opened and both dove into the elevator. Before they had even hit the floor, Sara was yelling for the elevator to override all safety limiters and take off at maximum possible acceleration. There was a brilliant flash of light; Taeon and Sara were spared from blinding only because they were facing the other way. Taeon spun around after the flash was gone and stared in horror as a rippling wall of energy radiated from where the Reality Throne had been. Penetrating waves of telepathic pain stabbed into his mind, tearing wildly through the soul of his being. He screamed and fell to his knees. Waves of boiling hot air blasted into the elevator as the doors snapped shut. The speeding wall of hellish other-dimensional energy was only seconds away. With just milliseconds to spare, the elevator pod rocketed upward. Taeon was shoved to the floor by the force of four Gs. The floor itself thundered with the chaotic powers blasting upward from below as the ravaging energies tore up the shaft, only meters behind. Terrible images flooding into Taeon's thoughts as the elevator raced toward the surface. Unbelievable pain, anguish, terror, hatred, and fury. The sound of Xandra's telepathic screamed tore through his mind -- a twisted thought of rage from her now shattered consciousness, swept up in the wake of her physical form turned pure energy. He heard her scream, felt her presence, then saw her terror. Darkness. A terrible state of non-being. Absolute darkness. Her consciousness was torn away and scattering outward like an out of control flood. The scream trailed off as Xandra's mind met with the infinity darkness of oblivion. Then there was nothing. Nothing but the terrific thunder of annihilating matter, twisted space-time, and the beyond nuclear energy thus unleashed below. * * * Energy lashed across the sky, just as it had before the destruction of Mars. Ryo knew Xandra was preparing to destroy the Earth, but he couldn't deal with that at the moment. "The Earth will burn!" screamed Briggs, laughing madly. "Burn! Burn! Burn!" "Shut up!" returned Ryo, coming down on the Ares-1 aiming his beam sword for the booster's mid-section. The Metal Storm Beta landed on the back of the massive space booster and thrust the fusion blade into the innards of the craft. Ryo smiled, knowing he had hit something vital. "You have sealed your own doom!" yelled Briggs. Ryo watched as the front of the Ares-1 blasted open and the War God mecha launch out into space. "Dammit!" yelled Ryo. He rocketed away from the disabled craft even as it exploded in a hellish ball of fire created from the meltdown of its breached antimatter reactor core. The explosion washed over his mecha blasting through his shields and disintegrated his armor. "Force shield system overloaded," alerted the computer. "System disabled." Ryo grimaced and swept his targeting cross-hairs through the shimmering blue sky of energy searching for the War God mecha. The War God swooped back toward Ryo firing its large nuclear beam cannon. The exploding pulse of atomic force slammed into the Metal Storm disintegrating the last of its protective armor. Alarms screamed, blaring the death cry of nearly every vital system aboard. Ryo leveled his blaster gun and opened fire, strafing the powerful energy pulses across the War God's flight path. But the War God spun away as Briggs' laughter resonated over the comm. Ryo prepared to strike again, but was distracted a flash of energy arcing past. He glanced to the sky and saw the heavens explode in a terrible storm of chaotic energy. Great arcs of furious blue light licked wildly about as if whatever mind had controlled them was now silent. An enormous brilliant white fire erupted across the equator and meridian bands of the moon as the entire Reality Horizon amplifier system exploded, unleashing terrible waves of energy. It seemed the universe itself was afire as lightening snapped past, spheres of wild nuclear force materialized and exploded all around, and waves of pure psionic energy blasted out in all directions. "What's going on!" screamed Briggs. Ryo dodged to the side, missing a tongue of cracking energy by less than a meter. He glanced at the tactical display window and watched as dozens of war ships and mecha were obliterated by the out of control forces that lashed away from the Zion Moon. But the War God was still unharmed. Ryo planned to change that. He dove toward his archenemy's mecha and brought his beam sword over his head for a final strike. As he came down on the tyrannical machine, a great arc of nuclear force ripped across the face of Earth, touching down in Indian Ocean and tearing across the surface to the northern pole. Briggs screamed as the beam sword swung down on the War God's head and sliced through the body of the mecha with awesome force. The line of separation glowed with the light of vaporizing metal straight down the center of the mecha. Ryo blasted backward and away, but kept his sights on the bisected War God. The antimatter core erupted and the War God vanished in the blinding sphere of annihilating energy! "Yeh!" cheered Ryo waving his beam sword above his head. The maelstrom turmoil of twisted energy washed out the blazing fireball that had been the tyrant Briggs, and the Metal Storm Beta rocketed triumphantly away. * * * Taeon staggered out of the elevator, his head spinning wildly from the toll of psychic trauma. "C'mon!" yelled Sara, catching her brother as his legs gave way. "Move it! That explosion's right on our ass!" Though at the point of exhaustion, the increasing rumble from the floor told of the terrible force rushing up from below gave Taeon the strength to move on. Together, he and Sara rushed down the hall. Something erupted behind them, and a great light washed down the corridor luminating it in blue-white color. Taeon didn't look back; he didn't want to. The sound of the screaming explosion was awful, and the ground shook with the force of the most devastating earthquake. "This base is history," said Sara. "We've to get outside." "There," panted Taeon pointing down the hall. "Airlock." Sara nodded and made her way to the airlock door. She pressed her palm against the control and the door slide open to the inner lock room. Taeon looked back and saw only brilliant white light from where the elevator should have been. Was the light rolling their way or simply exploding up out the top of the base? He couldn't tell. The base shook with the sound of another thundering explosion, then a torrent of air blasted down the hall toward the eruption of light. "Hang on!" yelled Sara over the rushing air. "The blast must have torn through the roof of the base!" "Great," grumbled Taeon. He grabbed onto the airlock doorframe and pulled himself into the small compartment with Sara. "Do we have time to suit-up?" "We'd better," said Sara closing the airlock door. The rush of air stopped leaving them in the independently pressurized chamber. "This airlock only has a couple minutes of air in it, and the base will be a total vacuum in less time than that." Taeon took a pair of space suits out of the storage locker and handed one to Sara. Though he was in a pressure suit himself, it was torn and without a helmet. He hurried to remove his old suit and put on the new one, breaking his best suit-up record yet. Locking down the pressure seals on the helmet, the comforting hiss of the suit's air circulation system came to his ears. Taeon pressed a button on his wrist control activating the comm. "Ready to go?" "Yeah," said Sara. Taeon pressed the egress button on the airlock control. The airlock depressurized and the outer door open to the airless lunar surface. Taeon stepped out and was momentarily disoriented by a sudden rush of vertigo. The base had its own independent artificial gravity generators, set at one standard G, but the moon itself barely exerted point two Gs. Sara took a leap and bounded nearly five meters in slow motion. Taeon followed her lead and they hopped the lunar jump- walk as fast as the physics of low-G travel could allow. At the crest of a bound Taeon looked back and saw a frightful sight. The brilliant energy pulsated out of the base like a thick laser beam and stabbed upward into the sky of wild blue fire. Great arcs of vicious energy snapped about of their own accord, no longer under the guidance of conscious thought. Earth was still in the sky above. Xandra had not been able to fire! And yet, something was wrong... The sky of Earth seemed turbulent, as if some great force had torn into the beloved planet. "Is anybody out here!" yelled Taeon on various ITR frequencies. "Anybody at all?" * * * "Taeon?" asked Ryo switching channels to the one that his friend's voice had come. Though he hadn't been listening, Ryo had set his computer to constantly cycle through all frequencies monitoring for certain things, one of which was Taeon's voice. "Is that you?" "Ryo!" called Taeon. "Briggs and Kay are toast," he informed rocketing down toward the Zion Base. "All right!" exclaimed Taeon. "Earth is safe. I stopped Xandra." "Great..." Ryo started to say, but he stopped as the Zion Base rolled into view. A great beam of nuclear-white energy poured out of the primary biodome and every power indictor on his sensor array was reading off the scale. What had happened, he wondered. What had Taeon done to stopped his insane sister? "I understand," said Ryo. "Good job. But some of the energy hit Earth. I don't know how bad the damage is. The beam tore across India, China, and through Siberia to the pole." "Good God!" "Where are you? I'll pick you up?" "Just outside the base hopping east." Ryo checked his sensors and scanned the surface. "I see you. I'm coming in." The Metal Storm Beta came about and fell toward the surface of the moon, preparing to land where Taeon and Sara waited. "Lieutenant Gunn," came the voice of General Avenger. The signal was distorted and filled with the crackling buzz of static. "Lieutenant Gunn, do you copy?" "Sir," said Ryo. "Lieutenant Gunn here." "Good work, Lieutenant. We've been trying to get through. Pick up your friends and return to the Sri Lanka at once. We need time to make a full tactical assessment, but I think we've won!" Ryo smiled. He watched as the mad turmoil of energy dispersed as the last of the Reality Horizon's power discharged and fizzled away into space. The sun peaked over the side of Earth showering the war-torn lunar landscape with a warm, golden light. Armageddon day was over, and a new era had begun. * * * Ryo rushed into the medical bay and embraced JT. "You're okay!" JT smiled and pressed her cheek against his. "Yes," she replied weakly. "They say I almost didn't pull through." Ryo sat down on her bed, holding her hand in his. "JT... We won. We won!" She smiled and nodded. "They told me. You're a hero now. My hero." Ryo didn't know what to say. She was alive; he was alive. That was all that mattered. "There's going to be a victory celebration today in the reception hall here on the Sri Lanka. Can you make it?" "No. The doctors don't think I'm well enough to move around yet. I'm sorry." Ryo nodded. "I have to be there in an hour. I hear Taeon and I are going to get a metal or something." "You killed Briggs and Taeon saved the entire Earth. I think you deserve more than trivial metals or ribbons." "I know. I don't really care about either. The war's over and we won. More over, I can spend the rest of my life with you." "Oh? Is that a proposal?" she asked with a smile. Ryo nodded. He stroked her face. "I'm so glad you're alive. I don't think I could have lived had I lost you." They embraced again, and held each other for one eternal moment in time. * * * "Congratulations men," said General Avenger. "There are no words to express our debt of gratitude to you on your astounding victory." Ryo and Taeon stood side by side. Behind them were the other heroes of the war. Sara, without who's help Taeon would have perished, Allen and Vista, who had valiantly defended the Sri Lanka from the remaining GSC forces, and countless others gathered in the reception room aboard the Sri Lanka for the victory celebration. "This will be a day long remembered," continued the General. "Briggs is dead, the GSC military is in ruins, and from what we have heard, their entire economy has collapsed. Though much still needs to be done, we have overcome our greatest adversaries in history. But, we have paid a terrible, terrible price." The room was silent. Heads bowed at the painful reminder of the General's words. "We have lost Mars and all the great beauty and mystery of that world. Nothing can ever make up for the two billion people who died there. And Earth... Though the planet remains the devastation wrought is terrible. Not only has the presence of a second large moon disrupted tides and weather patterns, causing severe earthquakes, floods, tidal waves, and volcanic activity, but the lesser blast of energy carved a swath of destruction across the densely populated regions of India and China. We don't know the numbers, but it could be as high as one billion dead. The arc of energy that struck hit with the force of a thousand nuclear bombs. It tore not only across land, but across half the Indian Ocean creating great tsunamis that washed outward to both Africa and Malaysia. It's a terrible, terrible tragedy." "Where do we go from here?" asked Ryo. "The Imperial government is in shambles," informed General Avenger. "Our military is depleted, most our leaders are dead, and half our worlds are still officially under GSC control. I am the highest ranking official left. I guess that either makes me High General or acting Prime Minister, maybe both. The systems of Sirius, Alpha Centauri, and Eridani still must be liberated, and we must march forth to Tau Ceti, Altair, and Capella, and declare a new Empire of the Stars. An empire not of tyrants and evil, but a great federation of peace and prosperity. A new era has dawned and we stand at the threshold of a bold new future. We have broken the very chains of fate which had bound us to the singular path of self-destruction and forged our own destiny." The room erupted in applause at the General's speech. He would be elected to the head leadership position, knew Taeon, whatever position that might be in this new federation he spoke of. "Sir, what about Eridani? And all the worlds still under GSC control? Though their leader is dead, the GSC is still not destroyed." "Yes," said General Avenger. "We must regroup and give our troops time to rest and recover. We will soon begin the campaign to free those worlds from GSC control. Lieutenant Toshio, I know your family's holdings on Eridani were great, and your family paid a heavy loss in this war. You will help lead our forces to Eridani and reclaim what is rightfully yours. Falmore-Glave shall become the new capital of Eridani, and your family the ruling house of that world." "Wow," said Taeon. He looked back at Sara who only smiled and shrugged. "Thank you, sir." Ryo glanced at Taeon, then at General Avenger. "Sir, will I be with the task force to Eridani?" "Lieutenant Gunn, you are our only pilot for the Metal Storm Beta. I was considering employing your talents in the struggle to bring the fallen GSC worlds under our control." "Yes, sir," sighed Ryo. "But I have something else in mind. We first must free our own worlds, and Centauri is our primary concern." The General smiled. "How would you like an Imperial title?" "Sir?" "Join our forces in liberating Centrus and the world is yours." Ryo felt his heart skip a beat. A royal title? Centrus was a feudal oligarchy, ruled by four powerful houses, but those houses were no doubt crushed by the GSC. "I'm not sure. I never wanted to rule... I'm not one for politics." Avenger smiled. "You may, of course, take whatever you wish. Both of you both did an extraordinary job. I am happy to reward you both with the highest honor of the Imperial military -- The Imperial Arms of Valor." The General took two small boxes from a yeoman at his side and presented them to Ryo and Taeon. They took the boxes and opened them, seeing the gleaming gold metals held within. "And to all others recognized in this room, you shall be given the Heroic Medal of Honor." General Avenger folded his hands behind his back and nodded. "Today we give many medals to the brave soldiers of our army, but our victory rests on the graves of those millions who died in the service of humanity. A great victory has been won. Tyranny has fallen. A destroyer of worlds has been vanquished. Earth has been saved. Yes, the war is over, but our battle has just begun." * * * Taeon watched through the window as Luna set on the western side of Earth and Zion rose on the east. Earth had two moons now. Mars was little more than an asteroid field. The shape of the solar system had been forever changed by one eventful day in 2380. "Intelligence reports have just started coming in from Eridani," said Ryo as he joined his friend at the lounge window. He was followed by Sara Toshio. She looked down at the data pad in her hand. "Taeon?" Taeon turned to his sister and his friend. "I know." "It's too early to go in," explained Ryo. "We need time to recover. Ninety-five percent of all our forces have been destroyed. It's estimated there are ten GSC ships in Eridani, two of which are heavy capital ships. That many not seem like many, but we barely have ten capital ships to split between nearly a dozen star systems ourselves." Taeon nodded and looked out the window. There was Earth, sparkling blue. The damage done had been great, but the world would recover. "I know," he said solemnly. "Look," said Ryo. "There's something you have to know about Eridani." "It's something we've suspected all along..." started Sara. Earth rotated slowly below, the two moons orbiting in their celestial dance. Taeon turned his eyes to the bright star Eridani. He nodded. "I know." "We have the name of the renegade warlord who has taken charge of the scattered GSC forces there," said Ryo. Taeon turned again and looked at Ryo, then Sara. Tears welled in his eyes as the thunder of his own heart throbbed into his ears. He clenched his fist, digging his fingernails into his palm. "I know. I had a vision. I saw his laughing face in a dream..." Taeon looked at the ceiling, remembering the terrible dream. Maybe Xandra had been right. The only way to end war was to end civilization. For as long as civilization lasted, there would be men like him. "Kanis," was all he said. And the heavens cried, Amen.

Written and Directed By Mark Chase http://www.meta-earth.com
Copyright 1998. All rights reserved. Casting By Mark Chase Starring Ryo Gunn - Mathias Russ Taeon Toshio - Jonathan Fuller Other Characters - Mark Chase Xandra Toshio Sara Toshio Allen Mercer Vista Juno JT Major Katana Jason Grivar Dr. Kei Gunn General Avenger Alax Nair Leta Zodiac And Everyone Else Mecha Designs Metal Storm Beta - Mark Chase Psycho Raptor - Mark Chase Raptor Series - Mark Chase Gallant - Mark Chase Neo-Moray - Mark Chase Cobra ATM - Mark Chase Titan - Mark Chase War God - Mark Chase Ares-1 - Mark Chase (all mecha were constructed under the Mekton Zeta© RPG system, by R. Talsorian Games, Inc)