-1-
In the medical room, Dr. Sado temporarily stopped treating the injured and looked at the 3D panel on the wall. The panel showed the Cosmo Tiger squadron departing from Yamato.
“Yuki, the Cosmo Tigers have launched!”
After administering first aid to the injured, Yuki looked toward the TV panel. The crew member she was treating had a serious injury to his shoulder and his eyes were shut in pain. The medical room was full of injured people.
“That’s good…” Yuki said with a sigh of relief as she looked at the TV panel. Then she noticed Sado was looking around the room, darting about.
“What’s wrong?”
“The boy’s not here.”
“Oh.” She also looked around the room.
“Where did he go? He’s such a troublemaker.” Sado muttered to himself.
“Shall I go look for him…?”
As soon as Yuki said that, a new wounded person was brought in, so she couldn’t leave.
“He’ll be back soon.” Sado told Yuki while examining the wounded.
The Cosmo Tigers rose once and then plummeted toward the deck.
“Attack the robot horses and the combat saucers!” Kato ordered.
The Cosmo Tigers strafed the enemy one after another with their 12.7mm solid shells. The robot horses fled in panic, and the soldiers fell. The saucers were also destroyed by the Cosmo Tigers and crashed.
On the deck, the crew of Yamato cheered for the Cosmo Tiger’s help. Of course, they continued to fight back with their cosmo guns. Attacks from both the air and the deck gradually drove the robot horses down to the ground.
Lugal’s horse was strafed by Kato’s Cosmo Tiger, and fell backward onto the deck. Lugal desperately held on to the control stick sticking out from its neck. After strafing Lugal, Kato’s Cosmo Tiger rose and attacked a combat saucer. Lugal looked up with a ferocious expression. Then, a Yamato crewman fired his cosmo gun from the deck, grazing his armored left shoulder.
Lugal quickly made his robot horse leap from the deck to the ground. One after another, the other horses jumped off the deck, as if being pushed away. Lugal glared at Yamato with a frustrated expression and then gave an order.
“Pull back!”
With that, his robot horses started to flee to the temple.
The Cosmo Tigers turned their attention to the enemy fighters approaching from above. Susumu’s Cosmo Zero was the only one engaging them with skillful acrobatics, preventing them from descending toward Yamato.
Almost all the robot horses had left the deck. The combat saucers also retreated. The crew members who had been on the deck took refuge back inside the ship.
The Cosmo Tigers rose and immediately began attacking the enemy fighters with pulse lasers. These fighters were no match, and were destroyed one by one. Susumu’s Cosmo Zero also shot down many more. The situation quickly reversed and the enemy fighters retreated.
Kato’s Cosmo Tiger lined up to the right of Susumu’s Cosmo Zero. Susumu noticed this and looked at Kato through the canopy. Kato raised his left hand to signal.
Susumu responded. “Kato! You did well to take off!”
Kato’s voice came back immediately. “It’s all thanks to Shima and Tokugawa!”
Susumu nodded. “You drove the enemy away in no time!”
“Of course! Compared to our skills, their planes are nothing.”
Susumu’s Cosmo Zero and Kato’s Cosmo Tiger circled the sky above Yamato. The other Cosmo Tigers were doing the same. Susumu glanced down at the deck.
“It seems the robot horses and combat saucers escaped, and the crew got back inside…”
He shifted back to combat mode “Kato, come on! Go straight for the command tower ahead!”
“Roger!”
Susumu’s Cosmo Zero and Kato’s Cosmo Tiger banked and headed toward the Presidential Palace.
Lugal, who had fled back to the Great Temple plaza on his robot horse, stopped and looked up toward the Imperial Palace. He saw Susumu’s Cosmo Zero and Kato’s Cosmo Tiger approaching the command tower.
He watched with devilish eyes, then slid off his robot horse and down to the ground. Then he turned with a flourish of his cloak and ran into the temple.
At that moment, someone popped their head out from the cliff below the temple plaza. There was nothing there but for the robot horse that Lugal had abandoned. The other horses and saucers had retreated into hangars to replenish their energy.
This observer was none other than the Dengil boy who had fled from Yamato‘s medical room. He desperately climbed the cliff and reached the plaza. He looked around carefully to see if anyone was watching, then ran after Lugal into the temple.
Susumu’s Cosmo Zero and Kato’s Cosmo Tiger hurtled toward the command tower.
“Let’s go, Kato!”
“Roger!”
Susumu dove and fired a concentrated pulse laser, then quickly turned and climbed. Next, Kato dove in and fired another pulse laser. Fire was returned from the base of the tower, but it couldn’t catch the Cosmo Zero or Cosmo Tiger. Susumu and Kato repeatedly perform the same attacks over and over again, almost to the point of being stubborn.
“Kato! Let’s dive and attack at the same time!”
“Right!”
The Cosmo Zero and Cosmo Tiger dove from the right and left, raising their energy to maximum and firing concentrated pulse lasers at the center of the tower. It burst into flames.
The Cosmo Zero and Cosmo Tiger crossed each others’ path, then rose. The same move was repeated several times. Finally, after the tower was destroyed in many places, it exploded. Orange flames blossomed upward and it was completely shattered. Debris flew in all directions and black smoke began to billow.
The Cosmo Zero and Cosmo Tiger quickly rose to avoid the explosion.
“The attack was successful!” Kato cheered. “Combat Chief, we did it!”
“Yeah…”
Susumu looked down from the cockpit at the burning tower below. At that moment, Yamato contacted him.
“The energy beam that was being emitted from Uruk to Aquarius has disappeared!”
“Roger!” Susumu replied.
Aquarius was now unable to warp. Susumu nodded with satisfaction.
-2-
On the first bridge, the crew members clapped each other on the shoulders and were filled with joy.
“Kodai and the others did it!” Aihara said loudly as soon as he finished announcing the deactivation of Uruk’s energy beam.
Sanada nodded happily. “Now Aquarius can no longer warp. It can only move at half the speed of light.”
“What does that mean?” Aihara asked.
“That means it will take three hundred years to reach Earth.”
“If we have three hundred years to spare, we’ll be fine!”
“Yes.”
Captain Okita was sitting in the captain’s seat with satisfaction.
But Shima was pale-faced and leaning halfway over the control stick. Not only was he in pain in his right chest, he was so dizzy he couldn’t move. He shook his head from side to side. Looking at his chest, he saw a tiny bit of blood oozing out like a stain. Perhaps a blood vessel had burst inside.
It’s about time I went to the infirmary, Shima thought hazily. Since we prevented Aquarius from warping, there’s no need for me to force myself to stay at the controls. Someone else can handle the rest…
Shima tried to rise, but found no strength in his body. His vision was blurred. No one paid any attention to him, sitting in the helmsman’s seat with his back to everyone, his right arm covering his chest.
Yuki was busy in the medical room treating those injured in the battle with the robot horses, and had not yet returned.
At that moment, Ota, who was looking at the radar panel, opened his eyes wide. Then he shouted loudly, “Energy radiation toward Aquarius has started again!”
For a moment, the first bridge was silent, as if time had stopped.
“What?” Aihara asked.
“Energy radiation from Uruk toward Aquarius has started again!”
“What…”
The crew members looked at each other in disbelief. Captain Okita’s expression tightened. He looked at Sanada.
“Sanada, what does this mean?”
Sanada thought for a moment, then answered. “There must be a sub-control somewhere…”
“Where is it?” Captain Okita asked.
The crew all looked at Sanada as he stared out the window.
“This city satellite is centered around a temple. This is just my hunch, but I think the second control system is inside that temple.”
Everyone looked out the window and saw a pyramid-shaped temple. Captain Okita also looked at it, then turned to Sanada again.
“Tell Kodai to head to that temple!”
“Yes, sir!”
Within the cockpit of his Cosmo Zero, Susumu was stunned to realize that Aquarius’ energy radiation had restarted. Sanada’s voice came over the communicator.
“This is Sanada. Kodai, respond.”
“This is Cosmo Zero, Kodai.”
“I think there’s a sub-control system inside the temple. It’s probably controlling the energy beam from there.”
Susumu listened to Sanada’s transmission and gazed at the pyramid-shaped temple that loomed ahead.
“Damn…”
“This is just a guess. But my confidence is at 90 percent.”
“Got it! We’re heading to the temple!”
“I’ll leave it to you!”
Susumu cut off communication with Yamato and hailed the Cosmo Tigers.
“All planes, head to the temple ahead!”
The Cosmo Zeros and all the Cosmo Tigers headed for the temple. Soon the Great Temple of Uruk filled their view. Susumu looked down from the cockpit and contacted Kato.
“I can see a wilderness-like area below the temple.”
“Yes,” Kato replied.
“We’ll land there!”
“Got it!”
Susumu lowered the nose of the Cosmo Zero. Watching the green glowing lines on the cockpit display, he prepared the plane for landing. At that moment, the squadron was fired upon from around the temple.
“They’re attacking!” Kato shouted.
“It doesn’t matter! Just land somehow!”
Looking at the ground through the canopy, Susumu caught a glimpse of Dengil soldiers firing laser guns from behind cover. The Cosmo Zero and Cosmo Tigers landed one after another, weaving between the lasers.
As soon as they landed, Susumu and the others leap out of their cockpits onto the ground. Susumu fired his cosmo gun at the soldiers on his right, then yelled at the Cosmo Tiger team members.
“Run to the temple!”
An enemy laser beam flashed past Susumu’s left shoulder. He fired his cosmo gun in that direction. The Dengil soldier was shot through the chest and fell back. Susumu ran up the wide stone steps to the temple, firing his cosmo gun left and right. The others followed, firing their own guns. Three pilots were hit and fell. Susumu ran as fast as he could. A beam hit the ground right at his feet, causing a small explosion.
In space, the energy radiation from Uruk grew stronger and Aquarius began to glow all over. It was accelerating from sublight speed closer to the speed of light.
The video panel on Yamato‘s first bridge showed Aquarius gradually beginning to glow. The crew remained silent, looking up at Aquarius on the video panel.
“We have about 20 minutes left until final warp…” Ota said.
Captain Okita’s expression remained fixed as he stared intently at Aquarius.
