"We can't either," David spoke up. "Apparently they've assigned Captain Maersk to pilot it."

"Really?" Alasea asked, looking over at Raven. He nodded in confirmation.

"They want me to test it out before they get started on the next model of Super Mechanoids," he said. "They chose me since I'm the best Nine-Breaker pilot aside from Mobius and Cipher, and they refuse to use anything else."

"Where are you testing it at?" Hugo asked.

"Probably the next fight," replied the Captain. "Might as well do it somewhere it'd be useful."

"We'll root for ya, then," Matt said. While they were stuck babysitting the Essence, naturally.

"Well, enough chit-chat," Rodeo said as he finished his meal. "Let's go take a look at it!"

"Helena," Matt said suddenly.

She looked up from her large collection of sandwiches. "Yeah?"

"Mind if I tag along on your training today?"

Helena rolled a sandwich in her hand around the air. "It's not really anything special. You'd probably be bored. We just practice using fire over and over."

"Aren't you supposed to be learning how to control your dragon form?" Hugo added.

"Yeah," Helena said and pulled off a chunk of bread and meat from the side. She let the question hang.

Alasea looked over at Helena for a brief moment, due to the hanging question. She had caught the tail end of Helena's training, involving the part of her controlling her dragon form.

Considering what she had seen from the dragons... well, she figured it'd be a good idea if Matt didn't see it. It probably wouldn't have gone over with him too well.

Soon, breakfast had been finished up, and the Razgriz Squadron geared up to return to the hangers to resume their daily operations, and to show the kids the results of Project H1.

Guess she was feeling more sensitive than usual. Better not to press the issue. Ah, well. Matt had other things to do today anyway. Mostly some reading from the base's data files-he wanted to catch up on some military strategy. Matt just hoped it'd never come down to hands-on experience.

After a moment of rushing, the group found themselves following after Razgriz Squadron, headed towards the lower hangers.

"Now, technically we're supposed to give all of you this big speech about confidentiality about what you'll see down here," Rodeo started up as he, the rest of his team, and Matt's group were herded onto a large cargo elevator, "But considering how far gone the world is right now, it doesn't really matter."

The elevator shuddered momentarily before beginning its descent further into Aube, and soon the only illumination were the yellow lights embedded into the walls at short intervals, plus the klaxons at the corners of the platform. "What we can tell you, however, is to keep your hands to yourselves," Rodeo continued. "The engineers get a little testy about people touching their projects."

"They're that afraid we'll break something?" R.D. commented, raising an eyebrow.

"Well, these are where we keep our weapons of mass destruction," Rodeo pointed out.

"He as a point," Matt remarked.

"I suppose he does," R.D. said.

The elevator finished lowering, and stopped at the base, leaving them in a massive hanger of steel and concrete. Next to a wide concrete platform was an impossibly deep hanger bay. The hanger stretched down a fairly long distance before ending abruptly at a gigantic pair of metal blast doors, emblazoned with the G.A.R. emblem and various other safety markings. The chasm of a hanger was deep--what they could see of its bottom was covered in blackness.

That wasn't what got their attention, though. It was the gigantic red and silver object that filled the hanger, attached to a large magnetic rail system. The thing stretched well past the walls on either side of the platform, and was suspended out away from it quite a ways--presumably, walkways would be used to reach it normally.

This... whatever this was, R.D. was sure it was the escape vessel that the General had mentioned.

"Wow," Ileyna summed up the situation quite appropriately.

Hugo let out a long, protracted whistle. Juding by what they were witnessing, Matt wished he could do the same.

"That's weird," Raven muttered, looking at the vessel docked beneath Aube.

"What is?" Alasea asked, looking over at the Captain.

"The General must think we'll be leaving soon," he said. "This thing wouldn't be on the mass driver's launch rail if it were."

"Yeah, no kidding," Leon said, folding his arms over his chest. "If that thing's being prepped for launch, that download must be finished. Or its just about to finish."

"Think this is the reason why the place was under lockdown last night?" David asked.

"Might be," Raven said. "Come on, we can go ask once we're done here."

Edited by RisingDragon on July 26, 2009 at 18:07:58.

The download was finished? Good. As much as Matt had hopes for these guys, they couldn't stick around forever. There were other bits of Essence to recover.

Raven lead his team and the kids towards a metal doorway set on the far end of the wall, past the vessel. Raven spoke to the guards for a brief moment before they were admitted entry, and then moved down a long hallway, taking them farther into the facility. Soon the hallway expanded and showed various rooms through the windows, each one containing scientists, engineers, and technicians working with various machine parts and monitoring a number of computer terminals. It was at one of these rooms that Raven stopped at and entered.

"What's he doing?" R.D. asked Ashley as they waited outside.

"He's finding where Project H1's stored at currently and getting clearance for us to see it," she replied.

After a few minutes, Raven returned and once again started guiding them through a series of halls until they came to a large door.

"In here's where the Ultimate Nine-Ball's stored at," he said, walking up to the doorway and punching in a code on the keypad next to it. "They had to prep it for launch in case there's a battle today."

"Judging by your luck, that's probably in the cards," Hugo said.

"No kidding," remarked the pilot. "Well, here we are."

The doors opened, allowing them entry. They filed into the room one by one, and stopped dead in their tracks.

"Whoa," Alasea gasped, craning her head to look up at the machine standing before them.



The thing was, to put it lightly, huge. The Ultimate Nine-Ball stood up higher than any of the Nine-Balls and Nine-Breakers. If R.D. had to hazard a guess, the thing had to have matched the size of KishouDoragon, easily. The crimson and gunmetal armor of the mechanoid shone in the light of the hanger, adding to its look. He couldn't see any weapons attached to it... R.D. figured its armamemnts must have been built into it, instead of attached on hardpoints like the rest of the mechanoids fielded by the Genesis Armada Resistance.

Unconsciously, R.D. stepped back. There was something else here. Whenever R.D. had been around a Super Mechanoid, like Omega or KishouDoragon or Genesic GaoGaiGar... there had always been some sort of feeling, or a presence. Feelings of strength and power that filled the machine. But it was different with this... Ultimate Nine-Ball. R.D. could sense as if there was some sort of barely-restrained savageness coming from it. Something sinister, and that disturbed him.

He wondered if Matt could feel the same thing from the Ultimate Nine-Ball.

Matt didn't noticed R.D. step back, and just stared up at the giant mech. It felt...different. Different than any other mech he had seen or driven. Was that on purpose?

"Where are the weapons?" Hugo asked. "Are they built into the unit?"

Raven nodded. "All of its weapon systems are internalized to minimize weapon loss in combat. Plasma cannons and machinegun cannons are stored in the arm units, and a pair of plasma blades have been installed in the hands. Large missiles were built into the Overboost thrusters on the back there, along with a pair of antimatter cannons."

"Overkill much?" Alasea muttered, staring at the beast. She felt something wrap around her leg, and looked down to see Ileyna, staring up at the Ultimate Nine-Ball, a look of apprehension on her face.

"What else can this thing do?" R.D. asked.

"The Ultimate Nine-Ball uses a special moveable frame that allows it to transform into a flight armor while in combat," Chico said. "In that form, its got unparalleled maneuverability, and it barely loses any of its combat capability in the process. Seriously, the other pilots tend to drool over this baby."

"Not to mention the H1 A.I. systems installed in it," Rodeo continued. "Not just one A.I., but two. The brains in here even think that its possible this thing can pilot itself if given the chance."

Matt balanced his arm on another, clamped his chin in thought. Yep. He didn't trust this at all. He knew about the movies with the sentient AI. Normally he wouldn't pay it as much heed, but seeing as how they were able to build it based on info from the Omega Essence...

Well, maybe a backup plan was a good idea.

"You do have safeguards on that, right?" Alasea asked, thinking along the same lines as Matt.

Ashley nodded. "The scientists did take Rampancy under consideration," she said. "The pilot will have full control of the Ultimate Nine-Ball, and we have separate, unconnected systems that can lock the machine up if both A.I.s go Rampant."

"Good thing, too, because we'd be screwed if this thing turned on us," Maria said, planting her hands on her hips. "No way I'd want to fight against this baby."

Why did that feel like foreshadowing?

Eh. He was just being paranoid.

"So... this is the kind of thing that gets made with the Omega Essence," R.D. stated slowly.

No wonder Father was so distressed about using this information, Alasea thought, feeling a bit chilly as she stared up at the Ultimate Nine-Ball.

Edited by RisingDragon on July 26, 2009 at 21:06:55.

"It's capable of a lot of stuff," Matt said. "Good and bad."

R.D. still didn't feel reassured with that statement. I guess the Child was correct in questioning whether or not we were ready for the mark the Omega Essence would leave on the Multiverse.

He took one more look up at the Ultimate Nine-Ball, once more feeling the menace harbored within the machine.

"Ah, Captain Maersk, you're here," came the voice of a scientist, walking up to them from another door set into the side of the elevator hanger. "And your team is here as well?"

"That's correct," Raven said with a nod. "What did you need me for?"

"We'll need to get you introduced with Hustler One and Lana," said the scientist. "Once we're done with that, we'll issue you the control key and initialization code for the Project."

The scientist paused as he spotted Matt and the others. He looked over at Razgriz Squadron questioningly, knowing that civilians, especially children civilians, weren't allowed down here.

"They're the kids Jared found in Japan, the ones with the fragment energies," Ashley explained. "And one of them pilots the mecha dragon that was in the last battle. He needs to know what he'll be fighting alongside."

The scientist slowly nodded at this. "Yes, yes, that would make sense," he said after a moment. "Well then, come along, Captain."

Raven nodded, then turned to the others. "You should get along with your tasks," he said to them. "Ashley, Rodeo, I want you both to accompany me. The rest, report to your Nine-Breaker hangers, see what you can do for them."

"Roger!" came the voices of his teammates simultaneously, all of them saluting Raven. Ashley and Rodeo both followed him and the scientist to the side hanger.

"Well, let's go see the General about the download," R.D. said as they followed the remainder of Razgriz Squadron back to the service elevator.

Edited by RisingDragon on August 3, 2009 at 2:23:41.

"I'll warn you now," Matt said. "If this download is done, then we might not stick around to help in the next battle."

"Well, that'd be a shame," Chico said. "Sure you can't stick around?"

"While Ziatoch's certainly a threat, it might not matter if Magister reconstructs the Omega Core. We'd all be screwed over then," R.D. said.

Matt made a two-handed gesture like he was bargaining. "Priorities, you know."

"I guess that makes sense," David said. Maria shrugged.

"Well, hopefully you can stick around for a little bit. Raven thinks we might have it worse this time, because of your robot, kid."

"You mean Tamaran?" R.D. asked. She nodded in confirmation.

"Every time we've fielded something new to overcome those bastards, they bust out something new of their own the next battle," she informed them.

"It's just one sick game of one-upmanship," Chico said. "And now that you used that mecha dragon of yours..."

R.D. nodded slowly. "Well, you do have the Ultimate Nine-Ball this time," he told them. "You shouldn't be too over your heads this time."

"You're right, kid," Leon said, clapping him on the shoulder and making him stagger with the strength. Ileyna giggled at the sudden face R.D. had made. "Either way, we'll give those bastards what's coming to them!"

"In the FACE!" Matt gibed, straining his voice.

Hugo sighed to himself.