Now, some of you might be confused, and I can't blame you.

I'm going back on my chapters and editing them because I don't really edit before I post.

Some people are impatient and I want to be quick to please. But as most of us are aware, things get in our way and impede the time we have for certain things.

SO! Hope you look forward to cleaner versions of old chapters, with some new bits added in. And as of now, won't respond to people who have official profiles via my chapters. Gonna be sending PM's to y'all!

And don't worry, chapter 6 will still be worked on/

Tekkadan had dispersed now, and things felt so strange for Eugene.

Never again would he have a base of operation to reside in.

He would never again to get monthly missions, and never to be able to be hooked up to a ship via the Alaya-Vijnana system.

But most of all, he would never be able to see the faces of those he grew up and worked together with.

Biscuit died in their first battle on Earth.

Shino died in their second last battle against Gjallarhorn.

Orga died, soon after he announced that Tekkadan would end.

Akihiro died in Tekkadan's last battle ever.

And Mikazuki... died the same way.

...

At least that was what he thought at first.

"... How... there's no way... with so many numbers and the amount of Dainsleif's fired at them, they shouldn't have survived...!" denial was all that could be heard from Eugene while he sat on his bed, his thoughts running in random directions the more he thought about what was going on.

It was a few days since Tekkadan's final battle ended. Eugene had so much anticipation and fear welling up inside him, waiting to see the results of what happened. His fingers shook when he pressed the button to turn on the TV in the Hotel room he rented. As soon as the news channel came up, it was like his whole world paused.

And it ended as soon as he heard what the news lady said.

"The war involving Gjallarhorn versus the supposed traitor Mcgillis, leader of the Outer Earth Orbit Regulatory, as well as the terrorist organization known as Tekkadan, has officially come to a close. The number of casualties have not been confirmed yet as many have died in the battlefield."

He could feel his heart sink. He lost many comrades two years ago, all of which had their own dreams and wishes that they wanted to realize in the future. And now he lost many more comrades.

... But the news lady wasn't done yet.

"However, upon asking them a few questions within a recent interview, there is a possibility that all of the members of Tekkadan involved in the war are still alive."

...

...

...

What?!

"The head of the Elion family, Rustal Elion, made an honest announcement that after a thorough search for the remains of destroyed enemy Mobile Suits, they found nothing. Not a scrap of metal was found from any of the destroyed Mobile suit's and absolutely no pilot corpse's or their cockpits were found. How they all disappeared remains a mystery."

He felt tears come down from his eyes and he could feel his heart tighten, yet his mind couldn't comprehend what was going on.

Not a single scrap? How?!

He saw first hand how much destruction occurred during the first and last phase of the battle, and there was no way that pieces didn't fly everywhere. There had to be something there, otherwise he'd think that this was some fucked up dream, or he was losing it now.

He pinched himself a couple of times, and when that didn't work, he give himself a firm punch to the face.

But, he eventually accepted that this science-fictional news was true. None of the remains from his allies were found, somehow. And if that was so, then...

"Are you guys... still out there?"

Everything around him was completely silent for a few seconds. His cobalt blue eyes were closed, and he was holding in his breath for a little.

...

And in the blink of an eye, Barbatos took off.

"Emma! Warn the second troop to begin preparing for take off!" the sharp yell of Jill reached Emma's ears immediately, and the Officer went to the microphone.

The teeth of the black haired commander had been clenching as hard as they could. The sight of their strongest squad getting mauled by possibly more than fifty DRAGONs at this point was something she hasn't seen up until now, and seeing that they were struggling greatly was something that would leave her a bit paranoid should something like this happen again.

She was so focused on the screen that displayed the fight that she didn't even hear Emma as she made the announcement she ordered.

"GAH!" Zola's pained yell filled the speakers of the intercoms.

"Zola!" Jill let a sudden concerned cry for the mature blonde leave her mouth, and her eyes showed how she was beginning to give up on the idea on keeping those girls out there any longer.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

The roar of one of the Galleon-class DRAGONs rang in her ears, and the screen switched to view the rest of Zola's team being swarmed by Schooners, before a Brig came into the fray, forcing them to move to another area in the air. But they didn't get out of that tight spot unscathed, as the metal surface of their Para-mails made contact with the talons of the Schooners, forcing some of them to grunt audibly.

If this keeps up, then they will need to retreat, and the second troop will need to replace them. Still, the fact that the Brig's and the Galleon classes were still out there, plus the still many number of Schooners, means that they might as well be serving Eleanor and her girls on a silver platter.

But as of now, there was no other optio-

*Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep-Beep!*

Jill's eyes got so big to the point where veins were visible, "THE UNKNOWN HAS BEGUN MOVING AGAIN, AND FAST!" She ran to Oliver quickly, and as soon as she looked at the radar, the unknown signal was moving again, and just like Oliver said, it was fast!

"ZOLA! ZOLA CAN YOU HEAR ME?!"

"ZOLA!? ZOLA!"

The loud yell of Arzenal's commander may as well have been on mute. All Zola could see were the jaws of a Brig-class DRAGON slowly approaching her.

Her entire body was frozen because of the fear of death enveloping her.

She may have had impulsive tendencies and a care-free attitude, but that didn't mean she had common human fears. Despite being a Norma, she didn't want to do so soon.

And that still held true now, because she wasn't for it all to end. It felt too early, she still had a few things she wanted to do on her bucket list, and she still felt like there were things she needed to do.

Both for herself and for her squad.

But this was where things ended for her?! The day where her existence would become as good as an old memory? The day where she would stop flying...?

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

Her perception of time and her vision came back, as her eyes widened dramatically when catching the sight of the Brig's blood flying from its underbelly while it began to fall. And the reason for that was... not yet clear, as all she could see was some kind of dark grey mass embedding itself into the DRAGONs belly.

*PSSSCH!*

The sound of steam being released made her blink, and to her surprise, whatever was holding the grey mass used it to toss the Brig aside like it was no big deal. It was both an incredible and an unbelievable sight to behold.

When the Brig left her view, her saviour began to make themselves apparent.

The first thing she saw was that the grey mass was actually a mace attached to a long handle, and holding the handle was a machine.

A machine way bigger than any Para-mail she has ever seen.

The head of the robot was rigid and mean-looking and the only round surfaces were on the back of the head and the faceplate with two vents. It had a red chin, as well as four, imposing, golden horns placed on top of the forehead. To make the machine look even more intimidating, it had bright green monitors.

The boosters on the machine kept it suspended in the air when it stopped moving, and that was when she snapped out of her mesmerized state and remembered that she was in a battle field.

With other allies.

Panic filled her mind when she realized the situation she was in, and her machine turned to where her girls would be. She was beyond relieved to see them all there in the safe haven they made.

A thankful sigh came out of her mouth, and a smile to boot. She could feel tears licking her eyelids because of all the tension she built up.

SQUUUAAAK!

SQUAK! SQUAK!

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

But as of now, it looks like she wasn't going to be getting a longer break.

The giant DRAGON hit the surface of the ocean, and Mika's mace was left covered in its blood.

He sighed and had Barbatos' head tilt upward. He could see the swarm of small, red DRAGONS flying all over the place. He could also see another green one, and a bigger purple DRAGON flying outside of the swarm.

Normally, he would've just went into the fight, expecting things to be easy because of how easily the Green Dragon died.

But, there was a problem that kept Mika from going in all gung-ho.

His enemy lacked Ahab Reactors.

Since there wasn't any source of Ahab waves coming off of these guys, Mika wouldn't be able to react in time should an enemy attack any of his blind spots. So, he now needs to be more cautious because his visual awareness was limited.

His doubt was enough to make him stay in place for a bit. Though, thankfully, his companion wasn't going to leave him hanging on this one, "Schooner-class DRAGONs," Mika heard Orga begin to explain something, and he was caught off guard momentarily because of it, "the ones that are swarming are little fuckers who can't do much on their own, unless you're careless or they're working together." he stated to Mika.

Despite the sudden advice, Mika quickly began to mentally jot down his words.

"The Brig-Class, like the one you just killed, are a bit more dangerous, as they can make circles out of what I can assume to be Mana, and these circles can either act as a shield or can produce lighting that can be shot at its enemy." as Orga finished, the monitors tilted down so that Mika could get a view of the Brig that he just killed, and he was surprised to know that something that he killed so easily could do something that could be really dangerous to a machine.

The again, he did kill it while it wasn't aware that of his presence, and he rammed into it really hard, so maybe killing one again won't be so easy unless he can somehow repeat his sneak attack.

"And on the top of the food chain is the Galleon-class." the monitors averted to the purple DRAGON, the only one of it's kind so far, "That big guy is the strongest of all DRAGONS. It can take lots of punishment, and can create "Mana" circles just like the Brig-class. But, instead of shooting out lighting, this thing can fire... jewels. I think that was what it was called?"

"Huh?" blurted out Mika while raising an eyebrow.

Riches, excluding money, was a topic that Tekkadan didn't get too deep into. They couldn't comprehend what made shiny rocks so valuable, other than how rare and pretty they were. Using them as a means of ammunition didn't seem like a practical use.

"Don't get the wrong impression, though. These things can hit hard, and the Galleon class can produce lots of them."

Oh... nevermind.

So, be wary of the purple one, green one is mildly difficulty but not too hard, and little red's are as good as dead.

"Sounds like a plan..." right after tightening his grip on his controls, Mika smirked.

No one could comprehend what just happened. They were all stuck in place, amazed by what they saw and anxious as to what was going to come next.

Jill was doing her best to keep her cool, but she ended up looking as baffled as everyone else. And even though it was hard to detect, she looked fairly impressed at the same time.

Emma, Oliver, Hikaru, and Pamela were just the same as her, however, their expressions couldn't even begin to describe their shock, and their voices got caught in their throats.

And the first troop was very much the same. They along with their Para-mails were still, and for a few seconds, they forgot about the situation they were in.

SQUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!

The combined roars that were directed towards the white robot snapped everyone out of their awe, and Zola's squadron remebered that they were in a middle of a mission while surrounded by a hoard of Schooners.

Strangely, though, they weren't being attacked.

The attention of all of the Schooners were focused on the nameless robot, and each of them, if looked at closely enough, were glaring at it angrily.

That is, until-

With no warning, the thrusters on the legs and the back of Barbatos erupted and Mikazuki began to propel towards the Schooner-class DRAGONs. His ruthlessness represented by his now cold expression.

Despite not being able to pick up any Ahab waves, he could still see and hear the red lizards, the following of which had began to truly acknowledge him as an enemy, and began to charge towards him. The majority of the Schooners had all dismissed the Para-mails as if they were chew toys that they tossed aside for a new one-

-him.

And itt wasn't just the little guys.

The big ones were paying attention to him, too. Being able to murder one of their own kind with just one slam was enough to put the other Brig-class and the Galleon-class on edge, and their eyes were set on Barbatos now.

The 200mm gun mounted on Barbatos' left arm popped out. Mika's finger pulled the trigger on the controls, and the bullets began to fly.

*BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!*

Multiple shots were fired and the 200mm rounds shot right through the soft flesh of the Schooners, leaving behind gaping holes in random areas of their bodies. Some of the bullets shot through multiple DRAGONs at once.

The other Schooners weren't deterred and they descended towards Mikazuki quickly.

And they met a quick end as well.

The mace held in Barbatos' right manipulator was brought forward with a strong swing, and the top of the crown was thrusted forward. Many Schooners were skewered in a second.

Mika kept the mace facing forward when he maximizes the output of all his thruster's. He propelled forward and blood splattered everywhere as Barbatos' mace tore apart every bit of flesh it came in contact with. Soon, the white devil got out of the storm of DRAGONs that came after him, and looking back at the results, he could see tons of blood everywhere in the sky, along with the bodies of the Schooners he instantly killed.

Or at least... what was left of their bodies.

Some did survive, and half of those survivors either backed away or continued their pursuit.

Mika stored the giant mace on the backskirts of Barbatos and the 200mm guns popped out on both arms.

*BANG! BANG! BANG! BNAG! BANG!

Several of the approaching DRAGONs become nothing but torn apart bags of blood that fell to the sea. And the ones who got into closer ange were just sliced apart as Barbatos' clawed manipulators sliced them into pieces.

The amount of DRAGON bodies, plus the blood they spilled created an incredibly gory sight. It was made even more disturbing upon looking at all the blood and bodies floating or falling into the ocean. The lifeless corpses, the severed limbs, and the many bodies of Schooners and the one Brig-class all made the ocean look like a sea made in hell.

A majority of the DRAGONs have forgotten about her girls now, because they were all focusing a bigger threat now. Her team was in the middle of picking off a smaller wave of Schooners.

Meanwhile, the white machine was eviscerating Schooners left and right. Size didn't mean squat, because despite the robots heavy appearance, it wasn't slow and whoever was piloting it wasn't simple minded.

The one behind the "mask" was great at avoiding most of the attacks that headed their way, and they little guys weren't getting to many scratches on it.

... But, she did notice one problem.

His directional control was off. Gravity on Earth was a problem, but it wasn't a so detrimental to him since he didn't engage an enemy in air combat. It was how he was able to handle most of his enemies efficiently and quickly.

But now, even though he was able to kill off most of his enemies, due to how gravity greatly affected his movements, he was hit more than a couple of times. And he experienced gravity pulling him down when he didn't put in enough output on a specific thruster. This problem wasn't so big when carrying the babies to Arzenal, since he only needed to focus on a specific direction and thus specific thrusters.

*WHAM!*

*SCREEECH!*

"Geh!" Mika grunted upon the impact of DRAGON talons scraping across Barbatos' armor. Leaving behind scratch marks and dents.

He made a low growl when realizing that the next batch of Schooners were already prepared for another assault, indicated by the group that formed in order to persecute him.

He pulled out his mace again and the handle extended, weighing him down as the weight of it pulled on the Barbatos' arm. It wasn't enough to weigh him down fully since his thrusters could keep him up with the right amount of propellent, but that meant his supplies are draining faster.

He increased the output of the thrusters on Barbatos' back and legs and boosted towards the soon to be dead meat. He flew by them and swatted them with his mace so quickly that the corpses that he created may as well have been bullets when they were whacked into the water

*SPLASH!*

Once the bodies hit the ocean, Mikazuki pushed the pedal on the leg thrusters to boost himself up. Upon reaching a higher point in the atmosphere, he took a moment to examine the things below him.

Turns out, the Brig was done watching, and decided that it wanted in on the "fun". It began to fly towards him and it let out a roar as loud as the other Brig that he had killed minutes ago.

And the purple one wasn't about to remain docile either. It wanted a piece of him too.

It's eyes were now focused on him, seeing as he was a bigger threat now, and it wasn't going to waste time. It's wings wrapped around it's own body and a "mana" circle was formed under its feet before it moved up and enveloped it's body, leaving behind the "jewels" that Orga mentioned on all over its body.

It's wings spread out once the magic circle disappeared, and both of the wings swung forward to send the crystals flying towards him.

His immediate response was to shorten the handle of his mace and them move backwards with a short but powerful burst from his backpack, the following he achieved by tilting Barbatos' torso back a bit before activating his boosters on his backpack. He avoided the barrage of crystals and stopped to look at them immediately. To his surprise, they turned around to lock onto him again, as if they were miniscule heat seeking missiles. Barbatos flew forward with a speed slightly faster than the crystal "bullets" so that propellent was saved, and then he changed directions so that he was nose diving towards the ocean.

There the back of many Schooners were exposed, and his output decreased so that he could let gravity do its job. As soon as the Schooners looked up to see him, they also saw the barrage of crystals coming down and let out multiple screeches before Barbatos zoomed past them. As a result, even more DRAGON bodies were falling to the sea, only now they were shredded by the attack of one of their own.

Mika immediately tilted Barbatos' waist and increased the output of the thruster on his backpack and the ones below the torso, allowing him to change directions from vertically to horizontally.

As it turns out, the crystal barrage didn't cease. There were still a lot of them remaining after tearing through the Schooner DRAGONs.

"Doesn't look like they're going to stop chasing me. Guess that means I need to destroy them all." Mika says to himself, looking back at the crystals that were on his tail.

"Either that, or you go for the one that's controlling them." said Orga, making Mika change the focus of the monitors from the crystals behind him to the Galleon DRAGON.

But another problem arose before he could even think about his next course of action. He heard screeches above him, and his MS's head tilted up to see Schooners diving towards him. A couple of them broke away from the diving pack and flew down diagonally so that they could get in front of him. As soon as the new pack were on the same level of air with Mika, they immediately stopped diving and then flew towards him. It was a three way pincer attack with the crystal barrage behind him and two Schooner bunches flying above and towards him.

"Tch..." his teeth clenched as his mind began to race, to think of a way out of this with the least amount of damage taken.

*BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!*

The purple and orange Para-mail's shot at the Schooner's in front of him. The shots weren't just to kill off the Schooners either.

This gave him some relief seeing more of the other little guys die off faster, and at the same time it helped to assure him that these guys were his allies... for now.

As he was still maneuvering in the air to avoid the crystals and whatever Schooners that were after him, a voice spoke through the speakers of the purple machine.

"You! In the giant, white machine!"

He turned the monitors towards the speaker and the purple machine was looking right at him, "I don't know and let alone care who you are, but it seems like you aren't our enemy right now. So will you help us?!" oddly, the adult women, he assumed because of how mature her voice was, sounded both assertive but at the same time... desperate?

Regardless of her tone of voice, she was right.

He wasn't her enemy, and... regardless of whether he truly decided that he wanted to help them or not, he was doing them a favour by killing of these DRAGONs. So why not?

His hands pressed the button to enable his speakers, "Well... I'm not your enemy, that I can say for sure, so let's work together for now."

Relief spread all over her body as he heard the voice of the guy behind the wheel. Her muscles and her mind lost all the tension she stored in them. Knowing that the person behind the wheel of the white machine was going to help them allowed her to breathe again, and she was able to relax now that no DRAGONs were targeting her, and focusing on the dude-

...

...

... Wait...

A DUDE?!

The rest of team Zola was shaken. It was already hard enough to comprehend the fact that an unknown machine appeared out of absolutely nowhere and killed as many, if not more DRAGONs than they. But the fact they the pilot was a MALE, the one thing that has never been present in Arzenal since the day it came into existence, just made them freeze even more.

But Zola wouldn't let herself stay put, it wasn't the time to be spacing out because of another surprise.

Her composure returned, and she screamed into the intercoms, "GIRLS! LISTEN UP!"

Zola's commanding voice reached the ears of all of the members of first troop, and they responded as quickly as they could to her command.

All of them needed a moment to collect themselves after all that has happened, but eventually the entire squad regrouped with each other. When all of them grouped up, Zola spoke again, "I get that a lot is going on right now and I get that it's all hard to take in for now. Heck, I'm having a hard time believing what I'm seeing and hearing! But we can focus on it all later, right now we've got a mission we've got to complete-" Zola briefly stopped her command to look at the white devil again, and she saw that it was shooting down more DRAGONs and some of the crystals that were fired off from the Galleon-class, "and we have a new ally to help us. So until this is all over, WE ARE TO COOPERATE WITH THE UNKNOWN UNIT!"

While it may have been a sudden and somewhat irrational order to give under these circumstances, it was an order nonetheless and it was justified by the fact that the white machines was killing other DRAGONs for them.

So with the bare minimum of hesitation, every Para-mail raised their arms and flew towards their enemy.

"YES MA'AM!"

*BANG-BANG*

Mika shot down two more Schooners, and then the tail on Barbatos' backpack bursted out and stabbed another one next to him. To follow it up, Barbatos swiveled to the left and brought up it's mace, smashing it into two Schooners on the opposite side of the other one he just killed.

The assault on him didn't come to a halt, though, because another from above was coming down to him. He was about to kill it off with another bullet, but before he even raised Barbatos' arm-

*Clang!*

"Ngh!" a DRAGON from behind tackled him, stopping him from firing a round.

Mika's teeth grinded his teeth, irritated that he was blindsided from behind. He was getting pushed back by the Schooner behind him, and that was leaving him open to the attack above.

SQUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAA-

*BANG-BANG-BANG!*

Gun shots from multiple rifles eliminated both the DRAGON above him and the one pushing him.

"Wha-?!" Mika's surprise didn't last long after two Para-mail's surrounded him, their backs facing him. Guarding his back was the green one that housed two cannons on it's back, and the one holding the rifle and occupying his front view was the red machine of the group.

"Hey... boy!" the voice came from the red Para-mail in front of him, and the one speaking stammered slightly before she called him out as a male, "Regardless of why you gave us a hand and whether or not you're gonna be an enemy later, we're gonna return the favour!"

Despite the girls words, however, the red Para-mail turned around and aimed it's rifle at him, "Try anything funny, though, and that things fancy paint job isn't the only thing that you'll need to worry about!" as a way to ensure Mika that she wasn't messing with him, the machine flew closer to him and held the rifle right in front of Barbatos' head, while making sure that the machines finger was pulling on the trigger without firing it.

It was an appropriate threat, given the circumstances, and it was well justified considering Mika was a stranger who just so happened to show up just in time to save them when defeat looked to be certain.

Mika stayed silent for a while, calmly gazing into the barrel of the rifle since he knew she wasn't going to fire it, and answered to her threat, "... Fair enough." he said, as if he didn't care that a rifle was right in front of his face.

Hilda became even more skeptical after hearing the pilots voice once more. She just couldn't bring herself to fully believe that a boy came to Arzenal. She knew that males were real, but to see one here of all the places made her wonder; was this guy aware of Arzenal's rules and still charged in, or wasn't and just blindly went into this fight without knowing the consequences he would face for him just being here.

Shaking her head to remove the thoughts out of her head, she moved the barrel of the rifle away from the giant machine, and looked back at her real enemy.

To her and the rest of the teams surprise, while they were all being dunderheads and their attention was focused on the unknown, this guy took out just as much, if not possibly more DRAGONs than all of them combined. Only so many remained and excluding the Galleon and Brig DRAGON, their numbers looked much smaller compared to when this mission started.

And their numbers were still dropping. Thanks to the new guy, not only did they have much more space to breath, the space that they have know makes it much easier to pick off Schooners. At this rate it would only take a couple of minutes to deal with the lower class DRAGONS before they had to deal with the Birg and Galleon-class!

And begged the question, 'Just how strong is this thing?!' though Hilda, looking back at the machine behind her which-

It was already engaging the other Brig class?!

Mika had no plans on waiting on the other machines that were with him. The rest of the team that he saved were back in action and he had no reason to stop moving like they did.

Since the small DRAGONS were the least of his concerns now, he decided to advance onto the next Brig class. And thankfully, he was saved some more trouble since the green DRAGON had plans on facing him too.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!

Mika wasted no time after marking his target. Barbatos held it's mace in a tight grip as it flew towards the Brig-class, and in an instant it brought up the mace and attempted to swat the DRAGON out of the air like a fly.

But this DRAGON wasn't the same as the last Brig, it was prepared this time, and it created a magic circle to block the swing.

*BANG!*

The sound of the rebound rang through the air and Mika flew away from the Brig when his attack was blocked. However, he noticed that the shield did not block his attack entirely.

There was a visible crack on the circle that was made by his attack, and it showed that the shield had a definite breaking point, "So I just need to hit harder, huh?" he said while backing away from his enemy.

WWWWWOOOOOAAAAAHHHHH!

His opponent, on the other hand, did not want him get away, and the circle that he made a dent in released electricity, just as Orga warned him about. The crackling of the thunder was louder than when he attacked the DRAGON with his mace, and the electricity ripped through the air instantly.

Mika avoided the attack by deactivating his thrusters momentarily, causing Barbatos to drop for a few seconds. He dodged the lightning and then started up his thrusters again. He didn't reengage though. Instead, he flew away from the Brig-class and as fast as he could.

"Vivian! To your right!" Zola's warning reached the young pilot almost immediately, and the latter avoided a surprise attack before she shot down the Schooner.

"And down she goes!" said the smallest troop member with a strange amount of enthusiasm despite the events that occured.

But her excitement was short lived as soon as she noticed their new ally fighting the other Brig-class. Turns out, he was beginning to retreat from his battle, which confused Vivian greatly.

The new guy was able to kill the last Brig with the utmost of ease, but now he was running away from this one? Did his machine get weaker somehow?

She looked at the Brig class and realized why the white machine was backing away. The shield was up, and it was cracked, indicating that the giant machine made an attempt to strike the green DRAGON, only to be blocked by the magic circle.

Looks like they would need to assist him- wait a minute?

The output of the thrusters on the white monstrosity increased suddenly and in only a few seconds the distance between the Brig and the newcomer was lengthened greatly.

But immediately, the distanced was shortened when the big machine started up its thrusters again, and this time the output was greater. It's massive weapon was brought forward before it accelerated towards towards the Brig DRAGON.

The shield was still put up, but it very foolishly decided to meet the attack head on.

Both attacks reached each other, and ultimately-

*CRASH!*

"Woah!"

The white devil broke through the magic circle and lodged it's mace into the head of the DRAGON, crushing it's eyes and making it's brain cave in. Since it was an instant death, it didn't take long for the Brig's body to fall to down to the ocean like the last one did.

But just to make sure, the machine's tail popped out of its backpack and stabbed the DRAGON's neck.

"DAMN! That's some serious power!" she said, admiring the strength that was just presented to her.

"VIVIAN! Don't get sidetracked!" the loud scream of her commander brought the young girls attention back to the mission at hand, and she looked away from the white robot, "We still have one last big one to worry about..."

Vivian knew exactly about what her captain was speaking of and averted her eyes to the only Galleon class and the few remaining Schooners. Victory was well within their grasp now, and they just needed to be cautious to ensure that there would be no casualties in the end.

"Sigh..."

To his surprise, it wasn't as hard as he expected to kill off that DRAGON. It made some sense that it died easily, considering it didn't seem that smart, and it probably wasn't expecting him to break its shield so easily.

Yet despite those facts, his victory felt underwhelming.

"You might not need to worry about that." Orga spoke up after he picked up on Mika's disappointment, and the following acknowledged his mind reading partner with a quirked eyebrow, "You have an unfinished fight to attend to, don't you?"

At first, he didn't know what Orga was referring to, but it didn't take long for him to realise what he was talking about. The monitors turned, and they viewed the final colossal DRAGON.

The Galleon-class.

"You don't necessarily need to do anything. The thing is easy to take care of as long as the Para-mail team handles it consciously and intricately." because of that fact, Orga made it sound as if the DRAGON wasn't going to be cause any kind of trouble, despite telling Mika that it was the most dangerous DRAGON among the three common types.

So all he had to do was sit back now, huh? Well, if he didn't need to stand in, then sure, he could leave it up to the Para-mail pilots.

...

...

...

But, "It's time to be honest with yourself, starting now." those words hung in his mind, and no matter what he told himself, Mika still brought himself back to what Orga said to him.

He wasn't sure if there was ever a time when he went against his orders. Aside from the battle with the Mobile Armour, he didn't act on his own without his guidance. He didn't see it as necessary because he viewed Orga as the one who would be his beacon.

But if he was encouraging the the idea of him becoming capable of being more decisive, then...

"I don't want to make this place my home without leaving some sort of impression on the residents." said Mika, his eyes set on his new target.

He heard Orga snigger a little, which he didn't find as annoying as before. But it was the next thing that he said that caught him off guard, "Not bad. Just make sure to do more of that when this is all over." said Orga, clearly smirking despite being invisible to Mika's eyes.

At that time, Mika allowed one proud smile to crawl onto his face.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRR!

Another barrage of crystals were sent out towards Hilda and Salia, and while they were shooting down and avoiding the gems sent towards them, Chris and Ersha maneuvered around the barrage before unleashing a single round from each of the cannons mounted on their Hauser's back.

The Galleon defended itself by blocking the shots with its wings and it immediately responded to it's attackers with another barrage of crystals. The storm was bigger in comparison to the last when it was released, and despite the troop's effort to avoid and destroy the storm, they were still hit numerous times, and their Para-mails suffered a good amount of damage.

Hilda and Salia got out of the storm, with the armour of their Para-mails dented and cracked, "Geh! This one's stronger compared to the ones we've faced before!" said Hilda through her clenched teeth.

"We just got out of a situation where death was next to imminent, so let's handle this last stage of the battle cautiously!" yelled Zola to all of her other comrades, "Vivian, Rosalie, Ersha! The three of you will be responsible for picking off the remaining Schooner-classes! I'm counting on you three to keep our backs covered!"

Her orders were loud and clear, and in return the three girls that she was trusting responded with an immediate "ROGER!" with the same level of volume.

"The rest of you," Zola's Para-mail flew towards the Galleon, put stopped and transformed into destroyer mode when it was in the same vicinity of Salia and Hilda's machines, "you're with me! We're taking down this ugly son of a bitch!"

Just like the previous team members, Salia, Hilda and Chris responded assertively, "Hai!"

While the three that were instructed to pick off the remaining Schooners flew off to do their job, Chris joined the group responsible for eliminating the Galleon.

"Now, commence fir-!"

Her command was interrupted by a sudden shadow looming over them. Within an instant, the white machine appeared in her view, and she was silenced as well as her other troop members.

"W-wha- wait!" she tired to prevent the machine from engaging by shouting into microphone, but her warning fell on death ears, for the unknown was all ready close to the Galleon class.

Instantly, the Galleon created a magic circle which ran down it's body, causing more crystals to appear all over it's form. They were released and sent towards the white devil. In response to it's attack, the unknown pilot tilted the machine upwards and increased the output of the thrusters on the machine's legs. Even though the storm missed, the crystals were redirected and they continued to follow the machine, slowly catching up to it.

After realising that the crystal storm would eventually catch up to the male pilot, she changed her orders, "C-change of plans!"

This form of attack was starting to get annoying. Effective, but definitely annoying. Mika had to use her thrusters sparingly, since using them at a pace higher than now would drain it too fast.

18% was all he had now, so he had to finish this battle soon.

But things are taking a turn for the worst now. If he didn't increase the output, he would get caught up in another crystal storm, so he either had to deal with having his machine damaged even further, which would be troubling since there wouldn't be any replacement parts anytime soon, or he would need to sacrifice more propellant and risk swimming with the DRAGON corpses in the ocean.

In terms of compromises, the second option seemed to be the best right now.

Arzenal wouldn't be able to replace any damaged parts, and thus he wouldn't be able to fight once more since Barbatos' condition would only worsen.

Fuck it... option two is a go-

*BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!*

As if his problems were spoken aloud, there was a sudden burst of bullets that shot down a good amount of the jewels that were chasing him. He made Barbatos look down, and saw the blue, red, and purple Para-mail covering him by shooting at the crystal storm seeking him out. They flew towards him and they faced the storm coming for him.

With both their rifles and their swords, they cut through the many crystals.

"We'll be covering for you, so take care of that Galleon!" he heard the woman in the purple Para-mail call out to him.

"Alright." he responded blankly.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

His attention was averted to the Galleon he was left to finish off. Already, magic circles were covering each part of its body, barely leaving any hollow space that would allow for an attack. Strangely, it was going gung-ho now, and was rushing towards him while keeping its barriers up.

Despite it's odd way of being offensive while putting up defense, Mika figured it would be like with the Brig-class.

Hit the shield with just enough force, and it would collapse.

With that thought in mind, Barbatos rushed towards the Galleon, holding it's mace in front of it while charging with the same amount of speed it used to break through the previous Brig's shield. Mika was aiming for the shields that were hovering over the DRAGON's head, and he was expecting a similar result, seeing as how he believed a Galleon might as well be a glorified Brig-class.

But-

*CRASH!*

He wasn't expecting the shield to remain in tact. Despite putting roughly the same amount of force into his attack like las time, it only served to push back the Galleon. It only made a few scratches in the barrier it hit, and because of the force of impact, his Gundam was sent backwards, leaving him open for a follow up attack.

Being the most intelligent of the three DRAGOn classes, the Galleon dropped the barriers it put up, stunning Mika while he was still leaving himself vulnerable, and it did a full 360 while put it's tail out. The tail was whipped Barbatos' arm and it hit both the armour and the exposed frame. The attack dented the armour and almost dislocated the joints in the frame.

"Ack!" Mika grunted as the force of the tail whip sent Barbatos downwards. Because of the shockwave caused by DRAGON's tail whip and gravity making him fall even faster, the cockpit shook violently, making Mika struggle to recover from the impact, "Grrr...!" he growled while he gripped his controls as tight as he could while he put in as much effort as he could give to adjust Barbato's position while it was falling.

Right before it was about to hit the ocean, the thrusters kicked up again and Barbatos flew forward, making the water right below it splash. Now that he regained a steady pace of flight, Mika took some time to take some breaths.

He looked to the indicators for his fuel tanks, and to his dismay, "Damn, only 12% left now?!" he said somewhat panickedly before he tilted the monitors up to see the purple DRAGON reading another crystal storm, which made him clench his jaw even more.

*BANG!*

All of a sudden, explosions rang in the air and the crystals on it's body began to disappear. In Mika's view was now the three Para-mails that went off to finish off the smaller DRAGONs have returned to join in the fight.

Unfortunately, it looked as if some of them all ran out of ammo now, because the green one that shot the shells that hit the Galleon was backing off, leaving the yellow one, with a sword in hand, and the orange one on their own. The purple and red Para-mail joined them too since they also had swords ready.

The Galleon put it's shields up again, and while it did block some of the sword swipes, it's back was exposed, and the team did not waste that exploit. The Para-mails that did run out of ammo, if Mika was not mistaken, flew behind the Galleon and they readied some kind of green spike protruding from their arms, which peaked his curiosity greatly.

And if he had blinked, he would have missed what just happened. The green spikes flew out of the manipulators of the Para-mails, and the spikes flew at insanely quick speeds, faster than any bullet that he ever saw fly. The spikes were embedded into the Galleons back, and in moments, ice was produced from the areas that the spikes struck, amazing and baffling Mika and making the DRAGON roar with pain.

He didn't stay in awe, though, because he saw that the shields dropped when the ice broke off of the Galleon.

He saw a brief opportunity, and Barbatos adjusted its thrusters, and with maximum output, flew upwards.

"GIRLS! ONE MORE TIME, LOAD YOUR FREEZING BULLETS!" With all the yelling going on, Zola's lungs were starting to feel raw. But it didn't make her commands any less powerful, as Hilda, Ersha, and Rosalie readied their respective freezing bullets and the arms on all of their Para-mails reeled back, "FIRE!"

As they planned, the girls who ran out of ammo snuck away from the battle temporarily to get the jump on the Galleon with a barrage of freezing bullets. Now they were left to execute the plan.

The four pilots who remained in battle fired, and ice erupted from the areas where their bullets hit, causing another roar of agony to be released from the purple DRAGON.

They were so close now! Just a few stabs and a couple of bullets and they could go home and relax. She could care about the issue of the unknown pilot, and she definitely didn't care about the money at this point. She just wanted this all to be over, both for her own sake and for the sake of her team

"Alright, let's finish this off! Attack-!"

Though, it would seem that she and her girls would not be the ones wrapping things up. Because the male piloting the demonic robot was caught in her perspective, and she saw that it was coming towards them, and fast.

*BAM!*

The mace that the machine wielded rammed into the under belly of the DRAGON, and an even louder screech from said DRAGON rang in their ears. Because of the machine's sudden appearance, everyone backed away from it and the Galleon, and that allowed them to see the final fight commence.

"Mika's teeth grinded even more when his mace was deep into the Galleon's skin.

He would've removed it immediately, but it proved somewhat difficult because of how hard he rammed it into its underbelly. And thus he was stuck for the moment.

The DRAGONs wailing continued until its wings came in, and it's claws latched onto Barbatos' armour, causing his cockpit to shake. The Galleon stopped it's roaring for a moment, and it's eye bore down on Barbatos before it's jaw opened.

With full intent on crushing Barbatos' head, the purple DRAGON brought its head closer to Barbatos.

But Mika wasn't letting that happen. The arm that was damaged by the Galleons tail whip was brought in front of Barbatos, and it substituted for his Gundams head.

*CLANG!*

He felt his entire Mobile Suit shook again as the DRAGON bit down hard. It left a massive dent in his armour and more force was still being applied, slowly crushing the armour that it was biting.

He had enough. He was getting tired of the struggles he was getting into and he was in the position to end it all, regardless of which one would be falling to the ocean. Mika made Barbatos' let go of the mace and swing its arm up so that it would deliver a powerful punch to the Galleons eyes.

It didn't let go of Barbatos arm, so he activated Barbatos' tail and kept on hitting and whipping it again and again. After a fourth punch, THe pain was unbearable, and the Galleon was forced to let go of Barbatos' arm.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

He didn't waste the opportunity he was given when the Galleon released Barbatos' damaged arm and began to fall. Quickly, Mika pulled the mace out of the Galleons underbelly by pulling on it and used the maximum output of all of his thrusters.

Blood gushed out of the giant wound, making the DRAGONs scream even louder.

Mika brought the mace up and brought it behind him, and with all the force that Barbatos had, brought it down and slammed it into the Galleons neck, breaking tons of bones and and making more blood gush out of the skin.

In climatic fashion, the Galleon died, and like the other DRAGONs, it slowly fell to the sea.

It's corpse made the biggest splash out of them all.

The women in the command center were viewing the blood filled battle. Each one of them were on the edge of their seats with much anticipation with how the fight would end.

Well, almost everyone.

Emma had thrown up multiple times because of the many deaths of the DRAGONs and the sight of the sea being filled with the many corpses and the blood of Arzenal's consistent enemies.

The three operator girls shared similar thoughts with Emma, but weren't as weak willed as she was, and were able to take in the sight that was presented before them.

Jill released a long held breathe and sunk into her chair. Her mind was keeping the third troop in regard, but her main focus was both the Galleon and the new machine.

The way it performed, while not flawless since she could detect the small errors that the boy made, was amazing. Considering its size and weight, she would have expected it to be slow and tanky. But no, it was as fast, if not faster than the Para-mails that they had. Not only that, but it was leagues stronger than any of the machines that they produced.

Wanting to take her mind off of the battle for a second, she pulled out her lighter and another cigarette.

'That's better...' she said internally while looking at the trail of smoke flying up in the air.

Now that the battle was over, the next problem came in, and that was the machine and its pilot.

Regardless of how much that boy helped, he was still a stranger, and thus couldn't be trusted yet. So be it by force, which she hoped would not be necessary after witnessing how the machine preformed, or by negotiation, the machine will need to return to base with Zola's team and the pilot will be taken in for questioning.

Or, to be executed.

But until then, she will appreciate the small break she's getting since Emma was busy emptying her stomach.

Mikazuki took in deep and long breathes in order slow down the pace of his heartbeat. It slowly returned to a steady pace, and Mika's back hit his seat.

"A job well done once again, Mika." said Orga, pride oozing out of his praise, which was a good enough reward for Mika despite all the things that just happened.

Hel let himself put on a small smile, but it quickly vanished when he realised the problems that are going to follow up with this fight.

He still had to deal with the compromises that came with helping these people, and he wasn't looking forward to it. Not only was it going to be a bother, their was the problem with how suspicious he made himself.

That, and he knew that no replacement parts will be waiting for him, so that means we won't be fighting again for quite a while.

Mika checked his fuel tanks. Despite his use of them in his last fight, the tanks were left 5% full. Enough for him to fly back to the kids and bring them in, but not even close to enough for a second fight.

He sighed, and Barbatos swiveled to let him see his new home, from the he assumed.

"So... what now?" he asks Orga exhaustedly.

At first, he only got silence as his reply. Orga was keeping to himself, and by the second, Mika's anxiousness grew.

However, once again he is reminded-

"That's for you to decide."

Here's an interesting question which I came up with after going over my last 4 chapters: Mika is a character that I knew for a while needed more character development. As much as I love him as well as his development in the anime, I can agree with the people that say that he could've used more development as a character, reasons of course being that he's IBO's protagonist.

My goal here that some of you may have noticed is to humanize him to the point where he can understand what's it's like to be more "normal" thus making him easy to relate with a bit more. And of course I gonna need to add in MAJOR moments both outside and inside the battlefield in order to do so.

So my question to you all is what kind of person would you want Mika to become, and how would you develop him to become that kind of person while keeping his core personality (somewhat).

Also, be sure to look back at some of my chapters, because one day, they will be edited.

Now if you will excuse me, back to torturing myself with writing up C6!

Mission status: Complete

Returning to base...