lr.16
MEGAZONE 23
"You can stand me up at the gates of hell but I won't
back down."
--Tom Petty
"Iczer-1?" Iczer-2 said in a very perturbed voice.
"They told me you were destroyed!"
"They lied," Iczer-1 replied, appearing with a bluish
flash a few dozen feet from her "sister". She was a bit
shorter than Iczer-2, with wild, uncontrolled, and very thick
hair the color of straw, and was dressed in a pink bodysuit
with shining black and silver armor plates. "Astbury
couldn't do it. Largo's elite troops hunted me and wounded
me; I escaped, barely, and Astbury reported me destroyed."
"How sweet of him," Iczer-2 said caustically. "Largo
will not be pleased. Doctor Astbury will be lucky if
termination is all that is done to him."
"Largo will never hear of it," Iczer-1 replied. "You
aren't leaving here."
Iczer-2 laughed. "And will you stop me, sister? I
think not. You are weak. My systems have improvements up to
145% in some areas over those of your pathetic prototype
spec. You look exhausted and sick. You are not ruthless,
you suffer from the disease of compassion. I have very
detailed knowledge of your character--it is everything I was
created not to be."
"I am not well, it's true," Iczer-1 replied. "I was
wounded in my escape and I haven't been able to care for it
properly. You are correct; I am weak and sick. That will
not stop me from destroying you, if I have to."
"Why do you protect these people?" Iczer-2 demanded.
"What could they possibly mean to you?"
"Lord Fahrvergnugen asked me to watch over them. He
knew of our creation, my sister; Doctor Astbury is one of his
disciples in the scientific field. You and I both contain
elements of Wedge technology. To put it quite simply,
Iczer-2, I protect them because I am one of them."
Inside the ship, the odd jaw dropped.
"Whoa," Gryphon said. "Whoa. Iczer-1 a Wedge Rat?
This is far too intense."
"I can't deal with that right now," Zoner replied.
"Gryph, are you recovered from your little psychopathic
episode or are you still out to kill me? I think I need my
Exec back from the Edge, like soon."
"I'm back, I'm back," Gryphon replied, taking his seat.
"I'm fine now...I think my head cleared quite a bit when Kei
slammed it against the cosmocompass."
"It was an accident!" Kei said as she returned to her
station. "Besides, it never would've happened if you
hadn't've stuck your elbow in my--"
"Enough! Argue about it later. Right now I need my
bridge crew," Zoner scolded.
"Right!" Gryphon replied sharply.
"Sorry," Kei muttered.
"No problem. Now. Helm, impulse power. All astern
full. Tactical, keep Iczer-2 in your sights and arm all
secondary weapons. Engineering, recharge time on main gun?"
Rob checked a scope. "She's already at full," he
replied.
Gryphon grinned and said, "Lord F's people know how to
build a Reflex cannon. Unlike the Robotech Defense Force."
"Hey, give the RDF a break," Haywire said. "It was
alien and it was trashed. I think it's pretty good they got
it to work at all."
"You guys...!"
"Sorry."
"Nonsense!" Iczer-2 declared. "I don't believe a word
of it. You, one of those wretched rodents? Bah! You are
pathetic, sister, but give yourself some credit."
"Insults will not help you," Iczer-1 replied. "Either
swear peace with us and leave this area now, or I will kill
you."
"You will try. I will defeat you, and then destroy the
Wedge Rats irregardless."
"You will not yield?"
"No."
Iczer-1 leaped through space at her sister, an energy
sword materializing in her hand. Iczer-2 produced her own
and parried, knocking Iczer-1 almost into the bridge windows.
She appeared to be considerably stronger, and this disparity
in power became more apparent as the battle progressed--in
Iczer-2's favor.
On a dozen or more screens all over the bridge, the
battle raged, the incredible flying speeds of the combatants
having taken them out of visual range a long time ago;
brilliant flashes of energy and tremendously powerful
physical clashes rebounded, shaking the stars. Eventually,
Iczer-2 gained enough of an upper hand to deliver her sister
a crushing blow, smashing Iczer-1 at ridiculous speeds
through space and sending her crashing into a planetoid.
Then, as Iczer-1 lay stunned, Iczer-2 started speeding back
toward the Wayward Son.
"Oh, shit," said Mark. "She lost. I knew it. I knew
it. We're gonna die. I'm not even goin' home in a bodybag."
"Oh cheer up. We're not dead yet," Zoner said. "Target
main gun."
"Main gun armed and charging," Kei reported as the deck
split once more. "Targeting now." Iczer-2 wasn't a hard
target; small, but coming straight at them. The weapon began
charging, orange discharge building up all over its surface.
Iczer-1 dug herself out of the planetoid and began
speeding after Iczer-2, pushing herself to the limit in an
attempt to catch up and intercept her before she could
destroy the SDF-17, building power for one single shot.
SDF-17 powered backward on full impulse astern, main gun
charging, ready to make a last desperate stand.
Iczer-2 streaked in for the kill, smiling a feral smile
and gathering up her energies into a brilliant yellow comet's
corona around her. She was so caught up in the joy of the
impending kill she didn't even notice the main gun, or if she
did, chose to ignore it.
"FIRE!" Zoner shouted, and averted his eyes.
Kei pulled the trigger.
Iczer-1 shouted a challenge and released her collected
energy in a coherent blue bolt that flew at the same time the
Wayward Son's Reflex cannon went off. With nowhere to go and
no time to teleport, Iczer-2 was caught firmly in the middle.
Her own collected power was released into the resulting
three-way crossfire, and a huge wave of energy crashed over
the SDF-17's bow.
"Now we're fucked!" Zoner said with some force.
Gryphon screamed Kei's name as the heaving of the ship
pitched him to the deck, reached out to find her hand as the
overpowering brightness and thunderous noise obliterated
detail and washed his world away into loud whiteness. He
couldn't find her. Then it all went black.