Over the Sky | Image Gallery | Artbooks | Fam Aerial Log | 060
Those three escort aircrafts did not allow one shot to Mad-Thane's aircraft, at first. Four starfish were downed despite their numerical inferiority, due to their their skill in maneuvering to dodge their shots.
... Until the shining white vanship appeared.
"Wow~!"
"The sky isn't visible." Dunya's little brother and little sister stared up, wide-eyed. They were standing beneath the Exile, which seemed to cover the entire sky, and were gathered to see Claus off on his journey.
"Sorry, Claus, though we wish we could come with you ... there's important things we have to take care of here. Gah!" Mullin was elbowed in the side by both Lavie and his bride, Dunya, Dunya blushing as she did so. Claus didn't quite understand what he meant by that.
"When you arrive, you'll be able to speak to us with this." Alvis fastened a small, important communication pendant around Claus' neck; a gift given to her by Lucciola.
"Can you please give this to father?" asked Holly Mad-Thane, and just like she had done when they first met, held out a cylindrical tube with a shy look.
"Ten stars?" Lavie laughed next to her.
Holly's tube bounced around on the floor beneath the navi seat. The glass of his windshield shook and vibrated dangerously as he tried to speed toward the vibrant, pure white vanship as it quickly downed two of Anatoray's machines.
"Quickly, I have to get there quickly." Claus felt a rush of urgency. And although he pulled full on the throttle, his speed was not gaining.
Lavie, Lavie, why aren't you here?
If she were there with him, she would have been able to keep up and help him a great deal, without a doubt.
"This is the end." Moving his thumb to the joystick, the boy gently pulled the trigger. An array of gunfire shot at the approaching unit and hit it in a briefly targetable weak spot on its side. Its duralumin airframe tore, the claudia engine that was set within the metal tubing of the framework began to fall apart. Shards of iron flew and liquid Claudia began to splatter out of the engine like blood, but the boy dodged it all gracefully.
With the final escort aircraft downed, Mad-Thane lost all of his shields. Waspishly speeding to its now defenseless main target, the Guild machine drove a bullet into the heavy cargo.
"Holly, my love, is the wheat growing well?"
On the mother planet, in the wheat fields that spread toward the horizon, the young people were smiling. Holly stood with them, her expression just as wide and joyous. With sharp, wind-like noises, one of the attacking starfish shot its needle gun and pierced Mad-Thane's heart and collar bone.
"To the young people who will carry our future, I wish you luck..."
Holding tightly onto that hopeful thought until his very last moment of life, David Mad-Thane slowly slipped into darkness.
The aircraft hit the sandy ground and slid down a sloping hill, skidding a few hundred meters before eventually finally halting. Thin beams of light shone through the countless bulletholes and cracks as Claus advanced toward the downed heavy cargo ship, his shoes quickly stepping across the sand.
Mad-Thane's face still held the the ghost of his last smile. Claus placed Holly's request tube into his hands, and then disappeared.
Chapter 4
In the jagged mountains of the Dragon's Fangs, several types of starfish units were moving beneath the clouds around the fifteenth tusk if one counted along on the surface. Beneath a cleft in the tusk-shaped rock beneath the clouds stood a enormous, crimson, cross-shaped structure. Countless anchors and chains held a Guild ship within the Dragon's Fangs, keeping it in place. These "white terrorists" were the cause of the disruptions of the migration preparations of Anatoray-Disith.
I am always by Lord Dio's side.
Within that Guild ship, in a bridge made out of glass, a lone figure sat on a single leather-upholstered sofa. Delicate fingertips stroked the hair of a beautiful boy who was resting with his head on her lap. The girl had long been at a loss for words, so used the movements of her hands and fingers to express her feelings and thoughts to the boy.
"...Lucciola." The boy opened his eyes and looked up at the {girl}.
"Ah..." Words attempted to be spoken were lost in her throat.
"It's okay, Lucciola. I understand what you're thinking, even without words." Resting on her lap, Dio moved his hand up to {Lucciola's} neck as light flooded in through the clouds and wrapped the two delicate forms in warmth.
