"So Wing, there's another group of living mechs in the system?" Dreku asked his mech, as he waited for his sister. "Yeah, two groups, decking out it in a ongoing civil war." Wing replied. Pushing his sleeve up to reveal his computer gauntlet, he pulled up Wing's face on the screen. "Wanna go zoning later?" "Sure. So eight o'clock?" Before he answered Derek checked his mail and saw the usual mix of meaningless e-mails and adds, "Yeah. See you then." Shutting his computer down, he felt his sister touch his bicep, "Sorry I'm late bro, was zoning with Noila earlier and saw Blood Reygn." He heard the pleased tone in her voice and inwardly tensed. "Fine. I'm going to zone later with Wing. You can come, if you want to Dereka."
She noticed the terse tone in Derek's tone and wish she hadn't brought up Blood Reygn, but she was happy about hearing his name, even if it's only her saying it. Before she could say another word, her brother changed into his body armor and blasted off. Following him as he did the combat maneuvers that she watched him do when he was the fighting zones he entered most of the time. "Derek, talk to me, I'm sorry." she said over the com Derek had installed in their armors. But the only thing she got was static filled open air from him. 'Damn it.' she thought while looping over an Indynian cargo transport and coming to hover as she looked for Derek. "Your pursuit skills need a little work baby sister."
Dereka then saw Derek hovering at least a hundred feet above and to the left of her. "I know." She noticed that he turned his head to the side and sighed. As her brother hovered there, Dereka felt his sadness from her position and says, "Didn't mean to bring it up Der." "I know, still hurts, but I know." Coming to hover in front of Derek, she cupped his metal covered cheek. Looking into the green colored lens and rests her forehead on his. "You'll find someone one day Der, trust me." He dropped his shoulders and heaved a sad sigh.
Hours later Derek, Wing, Noila,and Dereka flew into Mech Fight zone and lands on conveniently placed space worthy faster than light drive retrofitted aircraft carrier. "Word is that there is two mech groups having it out past the Andromeda cluster." Noila said over the shared com system. "Wing told me about them earlier, how far out by Andromeda?" Noila did some quick math and replied, "Five or fifteen light years past, but no more than twenty." Derek looked up at Wing and saw his green colored optic narrowed slightly. "Which Rage goes by there?" Wing asked glancing down at Derek. "Don't think any do, but one of Daimyo's retrofitted space aircraft carriers does, why you ask?" Derek inquired. "We might as well see if what me and Noila heard are true." 'He do does have a point.' Derek thought, touching his mouth plate. "Now or later?" Dereka asked looking at Wing. "Was thinking now if it's possible." Derek pulled up his star chart that Daimyo had given him, "Looks like it, the closest is the Toshiko." Wing nods silently as he saw what he wanted to do form in his head. With in minutes, they were on the Toshiko and were sitting the hanger.
As the mechanics gave Wing and Noila an once over, Derek sat under a Zabrecat leaning on it's drop tank with Dereka leaning on him sleeping. 'A five hours transit to Andromeda Cluster, then god knows how long looking for the planet. Great.' he thought he also fell asleep minutes later. An explosion woke Derek and his sister, "Trouble." After learning what happen from Daimyo, they got ready to jump off as the Toshiko attempted push back against the enemy mechs. "Der, Dereka; the good mechs are asking for help. Think y'all can lend a hand?" they heard over the ship's inner com. "Ok, might as well." As Derek finished, Noila looked down at Dereka and says, "I'm not sure I can handle reentry to the planet's atmosphere." "Don't fret Noil, we've got several reentry shields on hand for emergencies." a mech pilot says up to the school girl mecha as he hopped in his mech.
Standing, in his body armor, on the fan tail with Wing, his sister, and her mech; Derek rolled his shoulder as he got ready to leap off the fan tail. Glancing up over his shoulder to Wing, as the mech held two reentry shields as Noila held one of her own, he says with neutral tone, "Alright, we are staying behind the shields on the way down, then dropping them when we get to a couple hundred feet above the ground." The three nods as the counter on their HUDs reached zero. Leaping from the fan tail, Derek and Dereka maneuvered in between their mechs and the reentry shields. Minutes passed as they free felled through through the atmosphere Derek watched the heat start dissipating from around them. When Wing and Noila swung the shields out from in front of them, Derek and his sister dove away from the mechs. "Damn, its a freaking blood bath down." Dereka said as she did a cursory scan of the fast approaching battlefield. "No kidding, Daimyo is establishing a communication link the good mechs." "Did he manage to push back attack on the Toshiko?" she asked. "To a point. Taking a pondering never the less." After landing Derek saw a group of mechs running towards them. "Wing, think you can give a com link with any orbiting satellites on both sides?" Derek asked his mech through his com. "I'm working on it."
Hours pasted as the leader of the good mechs, Alphatons, filled Derek, Dereka, and their mechs in about what's going on. 'Great, look what I got myself to.' Derek thought as the Alphatons medic went over Wing for data in case he gets damage. "Interesting, almost Kyberian in manufacture." the medic said before looking towards him and says, "We're done. Prymez wants you to go out on patrol with our close combat specialist in a few hours." Nodding Derek headed for his room that he shared with Wing. "What my sister doing?" he asked his mech. "Out patrolling with Hardcase. And Daimyo went back to Earth."
The Next Day
Derek watched the blue female close combat specialist mech zoom next to him in her motorcycle form. 'Even through she's mech, she is kinda cute, in a strange way.' he thought as he read Wing's sensor logs and his personal thoughts. 'So Wing agrees with me.' he added. "Right turn in twenty miles." Wing says aloud. "Got it." Derek replied with a nod. But the female biker mech didn't respond, she just rode on between him and Wing as the mile flew on like dust on in the wind.
