Noah paces around the bridge, stressed to hell. They've got more Advanced Units about to kill them, and they need backup.

Yet how long will it take for backup to arrive?

He only sent the distress signal a few minutes ago, but he doesn’t have more than an hour at best before they sink.

Carly lets out a confused “huh?” as she types away at her computer. “Hangar B is opening, sir,” she states.

Hangar B? They have another hangar?

Yet who could be launching? Their only pilot was in battle, and the other Advanced Unit was in Hangar A. So what the heck is in Hangar B? Noah couldn’t take another factor into consideration right now; his head is blowing up as he is trying to find a way to protect the base.

“Approve the launch…”

“But sir?”

“Just approve it; we need to buy time!”

Carly turns back towards her screen, “Okay…”

Noah sits himself back into the commander's chair. “Mateo, how many Advanced Units are we dealing with?”

“I have been able to pick up twelve mobile suits, fifteen if you include the Cobalt Angel, Red Spark, and Volt’s Lapin.”

Fourteen Enemy Units, two Advanced Units. How will this work?

If any deity can hear him, answer his prayer for safety!

“Advanced Unit Thanatos preparing to launch!” Wolf exclaims, holding tightly to the control sticks, the seatbelt of Thanatos was digging into him, they’re very tight. 

“You should hold on tight; it’s a bumpy ride!”

What did Kamille mean by that?

Suddenly, Wolf’s head slams into the headrest as he thrashes within the cockpit. The velocity of the launch caused him to feel nauseous.

“I told you!”

Wolf shakes his head and sits right up, he chokes down the vomit he was about to eject all over the cockpit. The monitor in front of him is showing at least fourteen red dots and a single blue dot.

Blue must be Volt, and the red ones are the enemy units.

That’s a lot of enemies to battle!

It’s best dealing with some of these guys at a far range for now; close range would be suicide. He needs a weapon. Is there a rifle anywhere?

“Beam rifle, drifting just east of you!”

How did he even know that?

And how was he correct?

There was a beam rifle just drifting there, likely from a destroyed unit or simply discarded.

Wolf quickly moves the arm of Thanatos to pick up the rifle. It’s weird; this feels so natural to him. Like he’s just moving his normal body.

The rifle still has cartridges in it, great!

With a rifle in hand, there’s nothing left to do but join the battle. Looking at his radar, the battle is to the port side of Dreamer Base, it seems.

Wolf presses on the pedal and thrusts himself towards portside but keeps his distance from the battle, softly perching himself onto Dreamer Base itself.

“This is a good vantage point… Staying behind the wings, they won’t see me,” he says mostly to himself. Kamille was listening, but he definitely isn’t going to respond.

“Button to the left, press it for scope view,”

Pressing the button, the cockpit’s monitors shift their view into a close-up of the battle; there’s also a reticle softly flashing on the screen.

He should get as many enemies as he can into his line of fire.

Just to the side, he sees the red bunny-like robot being ganged up on by two paladin units. He slowly raises the rifle to his eye level and aims for them. 

Now how does he fire?

“Red button on the side of the control stick, press it to fire your weapon,”

“Thanks?”

“You’re welcome, darling…”

1…2…3 FIRE!

Wolf presses the button, and a beam of light fires from the beam rifle he picked up, quickly piercing the chest of the two paladins.

The red bunny robot leaps back as the explosion happens, safely getting out of harm's way. The bunny bot turns around and sees Wolf.

“Are you an idiot?!” Volts yells over comms, “You could’ve killed me with one misplaced shot. You should’ve aimed further away!”

He was getting the most enemies down doing this method; he’s just mad he took the kill and not him.

“You also just blew any negotiations we could’ve had!”

Those were blown long ago; he’s just helping them live until they can get backup. 

“Wait, behind you!”

Behind him?

Wolf looks behind him and sees a Red Advanced Unit kick him across the battlefield.

“Did you even turn off your tagger before hiding?” Volt yells.

Tagger? What's that?

“It’s the thing that makes us unable to be picked up by radars,”

Oh… well then no, no he didn’t.

Pulling the control sticks back fully, Wolf is able to use the thrusters and stabilize himself before he spins out of control.

“You kinda suck at this…”

He is aware, Kamille… he is very aware.  

“It’s cute…”

Okay, that’s just adding insult to injury there.

Now where’s that Advanced Unit that attacked him?

Wolf swerves his head to the left and sees a Blue Advanced Unit charging at him.

Like instinct, he uses the rifle again to fire at the blue one; however, the beam deflects with a well-timed parry and back towards him, hitting the arm of Thanatos!

“Damn it!” 

“You, mysterious unit,”

He knew that voice; it’s the blonde dude from the auction… How did they tap into his comms?

“I need you to stand down so I can talk to my… allies here,”

So they could be imprisoned? Like hell that’s happening!

He slams on the pedals and throttles past them, charging towards the several mobile suits in front of them. 

“Damn it, newbie!” he hears Volt chase after him. 

Aiming isn’t even a concern for him now; he fires his beam rifle without care, hitting several units. Volt isn’t rushing in, trying to stop him; in fact, he was being held back by two ace pilots. 

“Try a plasma saber…”

Fine, he will. 

Wolf presses the button to release the saber and grabs it, charging at the nearest enemy unit. 

“Take this, you Galactic Scum!” he yells, piercing the muted green Paladin Unit through its chest. 

Wolf tries sliding the saber back out, but it’s stuck. Why is it stuck? Why isn’t it coming out?

Pressing every button and jiggling every switch isn’t helping at all. Why isn’t it coming out?

Suddenly an enemy unit throws him away!

He feels his body bounce around the cockpit like a ball; the seatbelt is barely holding him in. The last thing he sees is his head hitting the radar.

Then everything went black… And then there was a laugh, a sickening laugh, as he felt something take over him.

“Advanced Unit is down, pilot unresponsive!” Mateo yells.

“Carly, how long is that response time?!” Noah demands, looking upwards to the two operators.

“Ten minutes!”

“That’s not enough time…” he mumbles, gripping his hair again.

“Prepare to abort Volt and the other pilot out of their units and start waving the surrender flag!”

“On it!”

The door slides open, and a loud voice booms, “Boy, what have you done now!”

It’s Commander Reinhard!

Why is he here? His injuries aren’t even healed, and the blood is soaking through his bandages.

Noah quickly thinks of an answer: “Someone took one of the Advanced Units, the one in Hangar B… I let them pilot it to buy us more time.”

“YOU DID WHAT?!”

“Sir, I already told you—”

SMACK!

“That machine is cursed, Nyx, and you let some poor fool pilot it… I’ll have you court-martialed for this!” he threatens. 

Noah doesn’t care anymore… They were dead anyway.

“Unbelievable…” Mateo mumbles. “I’m getting vital signs from the Advanced Unit; it’s responding again!”

That’s impossible. How is the pilot responding again?

Ruidhrí couldn’t believe what he was seeing from the cockpit of his Advanced Unit. 

The cursed unit that killed his commanding officer years ago was standing in front of him and coming back to life after crashing into an asteroid. 

The Advanced Unit stands tall, head to the sky as a primal roar is let out, echoing across the field.

“Incredible…” he mutters.

What does he name this unit? He already called the red one ,Bunny Bot.

The way it came back to life, in his eyes… It earned the name Reaper, especially after its ability to come back from death itself.

The battle continues; however, this time, Ruidhrí knows the tide has been overturned in the opposition's favor. 

“Luna, contact Ryoji and retrieve him…”

For some reason his gut is telling him Ryoji got captured.

“Okie Dokie” she responds.

He sees Luna fly away.

Meanwhile, the Reaper takes back his plasma saber, and with one swipe destroys the unit that it got stuck in.

Then another Paladin kicks the plasma saber out of the Reaper's grip. The Reaper counters, crushing the hands of the Paladin with its bare fist before throwing it into another unit!

The collision causes an instant explosion.

Ruidhrí is astonished at the fact it’s been able to take out five units within its first proper space battle. No other beginner pilot could do that… let alone live.

Then there was the bunny bot. He was impressed that the kid was able to hold out against the two of them as long as he did, and when the others showed up, he was able to kill three other units.

The Reaper is charged by the remaining four units… a last resort, a pointless one at that. 

It grabs ahold of its Plasma Saber and spins it around, destroying the last of the units with ease in a fiery explosion that follows.

Wait… a unit somehow dodged just in time, not that it mattered since the Reaper noticed and grabbed him from the back, raising him over its shoulders, and flew away towards the battleship it came from.

With a mighty battle cry, the Reaper threw the remaining Advanced Unit into the battleship and flew away as it exploded in a blaze of glory. 

The battle was over, and it was time for him and Luna to retreat, especially since a Defense Force fleet was coming to the rescue—not that they needed it, of course. 

“Luna, retreat now!”

“Yes, Captain,”

As the duo flew through the stars back to their beloved Alicorn Base, the cogs were turning in Ruidrhí’s mind. His goals have changed, that unit. He wants that unit and the pilot within; even just the unit will do, and he can put Marcas Nixon inside it once he obtains the boy. 

For the first time in his piloting career, Ruidhrí smiled at the fact someone could potentially oppose him. 

The Reaper will be his greatest accomplishment yet!