A Rank Exam

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2070 / 5000

Anastasia kicked down the door of one of the Port City Hargeon's tavern and shouted out.  “Suit up, boys!  We have a lead!”  she said, holding up a sheet of paper.  The men and everyone else in the tavern paused for a moment to look at Anastasia before the tavern erupted from all of the sky pirates shouting in fanfare.  Their arms raised in joy before running towards the door of the tavern, filtering out like grains of sand through an hourglass.  Anastasia took a step in and to the side of the door, watching the unfinished drinks left on the table.  A sigh spilled from her lips as she looked towards the bartender and mouthed out the words ~Put that on my tab~ she said.  The moment all of her men filtered out of the tavern, she walked out and closed the door behind her to see her men walking towards the SS Myrmidon, causing all sorts of ruckus on their way there.  

“Hopefully after the last botched chase, this one doesn't turn out the same,” she said in reference to chasing someone to Hargeon Town only to encounter the stow-away.  That's the reason why her and her crew were at Hargeon for the time being.  Looking out towards the ocean, Ana placed a hand upon her forehead to shield the sun from her eyes to look out over the water.  The seagulls flew in groups, crying before flying overhead.  Meeting her at the door of the tavern, Taliya slapped Ana on the back.  

“Oiy!  Finally got a job, huh?  What is it?” Taliya asked with a smirk upon her face.  Ana scratched the back of her head and chuckled a bit.  “Yeah.  It kinda fell into my lap actually.  I don't really know who  gave me the tip-off though,” Ana said as she opened the sheet of paper to reveal the cryptic writing.  While the tip-off was precise, everything else revolving around the client was thickly veiled in mystery.  All that was known was, after the cargo was retrieved, to bring it back to Talonia.  The haul for this job was an extremely high payload, so performing this job would bring in the wealth that her and her crew could use.

Clearing her throat, Anastasia turned her shoulders back towards the S.S. Myrmidon, flipping her hair off of her shoulders.  Most of her hair was pinned up, so there wasn't much sway.  Walking towards the Myrmidon, Ana was followed by her guardian, Taliya.  “Any idea on what the mark is?  I mean, are there going to be escorts?” she asked as she spun around Anastasia, orbiting her like a moon of sorts.  Ana shrugged her shoulders.  

“Who knows.  But we'll know it when we see it, I suppose,” Anastasia stated.  The seagulls cried overhead as they passed over while the two walked towards the massive cargo ship.  The men began loading up the ship with munitions hidden in wooden crates.  Another one of the men had a small metal container, clutching the case to his chest tightly.  The most important part of their job was in that man's hand.  She wouldn't be a legitimate pirate if she didn't fly the black flag.  It was, after all, the symbol of a pirate and it struck fear into the hearts of all who perused the sea or the skies.  

“Well, our signature has arrived to the Myrmidon,” Anastasia said as she placed her hands upon her hips and smiled, turning to look towards Taliya.  “Let's get this show on the road, shall we?”

“Where we going?”  Taliya simply asked.

“Sukai,” Ana said before folding the paper and placing it in her back pocket.

Upon the Myrmidon, Anastasia sat upon the captain's chair upon the bridge.  She knew how to navigate through the skies better than any of her men, capable of overcoming wind-sheer and defeating drift.  With help of the on-board computer, cutely named George by her teammate Almyra, the group found themselves just outside of a large warp ring at the Wakusei Portals.  The large ring was found high up in the sky, big enough to transport several ships concurrently through the ring towards their destination.  The large ring had a strange light blue glow in the center of the ring showing parts of Sukai like a reflection in the water's surface.  The Myrmidon hovered in place just outside of the portal.  

Inside, Anastasia stood up and called for her men upon the bridge of the ship.  After a moment to muster up the troops, she stood up and placed the helm behind her before speaking.  “Alright, boys.  We don't have any actual information in regards to the mark or it's escorts.  Though, from the information I have been given, we can expect at least 1 Berserker Class Destroyer, so we need to keep our eyes open and be light on our feet.  We might lose some of you on this job, so if any of you want to dismount, I can have you dropped off on land,” she simply stated to the men.  There was silence for a moment before chatter erupted through the cabin.

“Bullshit!  We're with you, Ana.”
“Hell yeah!  We won't abandon you!  We know you'll keep us safe from harm!”  Several men shouted out, giving Ana a warm and comfortable feeling surrounding her.  Nodding her head, she continued.  

“Good, glad to have you all on-board.  So, once we enter the portal, expect to have very minimal visibility.  The strange land formations in the sky will force George to concentrate on terrain avoidance instead of target acquisition; so we will have to man the guns manually.  We will have no need to use 'The One' in this job, so please stay out of the preparation bay,” she said before eye-balling one of her men.  “I mean it, Frank!” she said with a stern look on her face.  Apparently, Frank had an itchy trigger finger when it came to dropping 'The One'.  

“We will also be fully utilizing the Grappler Arms for this operation.  As long as we stay close to Berserker Class ships, we should be able to take them down. I will Buddyquip weapons onto the Grappler Arms, so be sure to use them wisely, alright?” Anastasia said to the group responsible for maintaining and operating the grappler arms.  They merely responded with a nod and an “Aye”.

“Taliya and I will be leaving the ship to mount an advanced assault before the Myrmidon can swoop in and go for the grab.  Our job will be to clear out as many guns as possible to protect the Myrmidon.  We need the ship to transport the goods and protect the crew after all,” Ana said with a little wink to the men.  She didn't feel that way towards the men, however, this act merely solidifies the bond of friendship with her crew; giving them something to strive for.  Even if what they are striving for is forlorn and something that is only restricted to fanfiction.  

“So, are you guys ready?” Ana asked before hands raised with shouts of fanfare.  “Good.  Then have someone with the Black outside, ready to fly it,” she said as one of the higher ranking pirates pointed at one of the newer recruits and ordered him to get the Black Flag and go out towards the mast.  This was a particularly scary job as the flag is required to be hung out on-top of the float, which the climb up is particularly terrifying for those afraid of heights.  As the new recruit hesitated to go outside, he quickly ran out only for Ana to turn to look towards the command console.

“George, take us in through the Wakusei Portal slowly,” she said before the computer clicked and beeped.

“Compliance,” spoke out the on-board computer before slowly accelerating into the portal, vanishing from view of Earthland only to appear in a cloud-infested land filled with floating islands.

The Myrmidon penetrated through the Wakusei Portal only to find itself enveloped in clouds.  A loud siren could be heard coming from the main computer as it stated, “Brace for evasive maneuvers,” before jilting the ship to the side to evade one of the large floating islands on the planet.  This tossed the crew around to the floor, to include Anastasia.  Taliya, on the other hand, was unmoved due to the sheer mass of the gauntlets worn by her.  As the ship shifted, the pirate climbing his way up to the flag pole held on for dear life, valuing both himself and the Black Flag as if they were as important as his own.  The ship uprighted itself as it avoided the terrain, causing the stirred crew of the Myrmidon to shake off what just happened.  

Anastasia stood up and started to bark orders.  “You and you,” she said pointing at two of the pirates.  “Take a safety lanyard and go up to the Crow's Nest.  We need eyes to spot the mark,” she ordered before two pirates saluted and gathered up their safety equipment and made their way outside towards the Crow's Nest.  

“Everyone else, prepare the cannons!” she stated before the men started to get ready, disappearing blow the bridge to prepare the canons by loading up canon balls into them.  These weren't typical canon balls as they were all state-of-the-art railguns.  All they had to load were long ferrous rods into a tube.  They worked off of a similar design as Metal Storm weaponry, but single-shot unfortunately.  

“George, ascend to above these damn clouds.  The mark isn't dumb enough to traverse through these clouds and risk damaging their goods,” Ana commanded before the ship beeped and booped only to hear a loud roar coming from the floats.  It was a deafening sound that caused the man climbing up to the flag pole to stop his ascent to cover his ears.  This was the sound of air being forcefully injected into the floats to allow for the ship to rise high above the clouds.  Upon breaking through the clouds, the loud roar stopped with a call coming in from the crow's nest.

“We have 2 sails!  1 Behemoth Class and 1 Ghaleon Class!” one of the men shouted.  Ana simply responded with.  “Distance?”

“4 Nautical Miles!” one of the men shouted.  

“Raise the Black!” Ana responded.  The sound of Ana's voice rang in through the speaker at the Flag Pole.  However, the new pirate slowly made his way up to the pole.  

“Flag Bearer!  Did you hear me?  Raise the Black!”  Ana stated, once again not getting a response.  She called out once more to the Crow's nest only for them to respond with.  “He's having troubles ascending the ladder, Captain.  The winds are too strong here,” spoke one of the two men.  

Anastasia sucked air through her teeth only for a belated response from the flag pole.  “I'm here, Captain.  Sorry about the wait,” the man said before the sound of clinging could be heard as the man hoisted the black flag in the air.  “Black is up!”

Upon the Ghaleon Class cargo vessel, a man could be seen outside on the deck of the ship with binoculars.  “Crap, crap crap!” the older man said as he saw the Black Flag hoisted up.  “Pirates!” the man shouted, dropping the binoculars where he stood, only for his first mate to catch them before they shattered upon the floor of the ship.  “Send word to the Behemoth to take point and prepare the guns!” the captain of the cargo vessel stated before information was quickly distributed the information to the other ship.  This ship didn't have the niceties that the Myrmidon had with an intercom system.  

Noticing flashing lights, the man in the Crow's nest with the binoculars began to translate what was being said with signalling mirrors.  They were using Morse Code to communicate.  The other man in the Crow's nest slowly dictated what was being translated.

“Black Flag... has been flown...  Prepare your guns..  Bearing 160,” called over the intercom system.  

“Prepare for war, boys!” Anastasia shouted with a big grin on her face.  The grin quickly vanished once she disappeared into her thoughts for a moment.  “The information said there was a Berserker Class, but we encountered a Behemoth Class.  This isn't going to be easy,” she said to herself before turning to look towards Taliya.  “You ready?” Ana asked Taliya.

Tag

2477 / 5000

With a firm slap of her fists, Taliya nodded her head and shouted “Hell yeah!”  Turning her head to the rest of the crew.  “Remember what I said.  I'll give you a signal when to approach.  We have a Behemoth class, so yes, we'll be using 'The One',” she stated as the man with the itchy trigger finger shouted in joy before vanishing to the bombay.  He wanted to control it.  

“Beware and wait for my signal. We need to cripple this Behemoth Class ship before we consider boarding the Ghaleon.  Understood?”  She asked as another roar erupted.  “Be safe boys!” she said before turning and grabbing Taliya's hand, pulling the two of them towards the top deck of the ship.  After dragging Taliya to the outer deck of the ship, Ana took a deep breath in before exhaling.  “This is going to be your first time Buddyquipping.  Just pretend it's just like the practice runs we had before, alright?” Ana said with a smile upon her face.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah! Let's get to it!” Taliya said before Ana nodded her head and closed her eyes before a white glow surrounded Taliya as the Aero-Guardian Armor appeared from the blinding light with Taliya in the cockpit of the armor.  Another white light surrounded Taliya's armor's fists causing the fists to quickly flare up in ultra-powered heat equivalent to the sun.  After the fists heated up for a moment, they returned to being neutral temperature.  A thumbs up was given to Anastasia.

Smiling, Anastasia caused a blinding white light to envelope herself to appear within the Sentry Armor.  The Fire Moth appeared from out of nowhere to hover around her.  Another blinding white light summoned a clone of the Fire Moth to appear directly above her other shoulder.  Taliya quickly transformed the Aero-Guardian Armor into it's Fighter Configuration with Anastasia climbing on top of fight jet-like armor, being followed by large autonomous weapons.  “Alright, Taliya.  Let's go,” Ana said before keying her mic so her crew could hear over the intercommunication system.  

“Ana in the Sentry,” Ana said.

“Taliya in the Aero-Guardian,” Taliya said over the intercom.

“Launching!” the two of them stated in unison before Taliya ignited the engines of the hovering Aero-Guardian armor before propelling themselves forward towards the Dreadnaught, the Behemoth Class ship.  With another roar over the intercom from the pirates on the SS Myrmidon cheering their departure, the duo flew off to battle.

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2939 / 5000

“Now that we drew them in,” the Captain of the Ghaleon Class ship stated before throwing his arm out in front of him.  “Raise the Black!” the Captain said before a black flag was flown from both ships, showing a white falcon on the flag.  Ana's heads up display lit up at the changes in color, seeing the flag changing.  This caused Ana's jaw to drop.  “Holy shit!  The East Fiore Trading Company!” she stated.  

The East Fiore Trading Company was the cover name for the Pirate Company; Godhand.  The Godhand were terrifying pirates that didn't have any particular code.  They will do anything just for a score.  They will fly around from country to country, planet to planet, with the end-goal of lining their pockets.  They oppress anyone they come across, even resorting to outright executions and rape.  These were some bad people.

“Captain!” one of Anastasia's men came over the intercom.  

“Yeah, it's the Godhand,” she said over the intercom as a response.  “Prepare yourselves.  These asshole's reign of terror ends now.  We are forsaking the prize this time around boys.  We've come here to kill these bastards,” she said before the man on the other end response.

“We're with you on this one, Captain!” the man said over the intercom before the radio went silent.  A few of her crew-members were victims of the Godhand one-way or another.  They had lost family members or were even victims of their savage tendency towards rape.  Ana's look of determination changed to a look of anger.  

“Taliya, get us in there.  I want to crush their captain with my bare hands.”

“Easier said than done, Anastasia!  We have incoming!” Taliya responded before a hail of canon shells were launched in their way, forcing Taliya to take up evasive maneuvers.  Noticing the hail of rounds, their speed and trajectory, Ana spoke into her intercom back towards the Mymidon.  “Lift up!  I'm authorizing use of 'The One' on the Behemoth.”

“Aye aye!” the group stated before going silent once again.  Taliya took care of the evasive maneuvers, avoiding the near-impossible hail of cannon balls, only having a brief moment of reprieve between the time the other crew had to prepare the next shot.  It was during this time that Taliya ignited the engines of her armor to accelerate forward.  This process would repeat several times before Ana and Taliya got within range.  While they played in this dance with the cannon fire, the SS Myrmidon inflated it's balloons near their maximum capacity in order for them to raise even higher than they were earlier.  They had one chance to take out this Behemoth Class destroyer dreadnaught, and it required the use of the dumpster known as 'the one', 'the dragon slayer', or 'the legend'.

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3368 / 5000

"Change of plans, boys!" she shouted over the intercom system.  "Me and Taliya will escort the Myrmidon above the Behemoth Class ship for you to drop 'The One'," Anastasia commanded before the two found themselves in between the massive dreadnaught, a ship that is the size of 10 full-sized airships, and the flagship of the pirate crew.  The flag-ship ceased fire only to quickly elevate themselves upwards.  Nothing is worse than friendly fire.  Once the flag-ship lifted itself, the massive titan of a ship began it's assault once more.

Anastasia sent out her weapons to attack the canons, making full use of their high mobility.  Ana and Taliya separated only for Taliya to plunge her fists directly into one of the canons causing a massive explosion in the ship.  The problem with having such a massive ship is, that if you encounter them close enough, they won't have the defenses to protect themselves.  Anastasia and Taliya made quick work of the Behemoth Class's weaponry.  

What they originally thought the flag-ship was doing was to get out of the way happened to be the flag-ship on a collision course with the Myrmidon. "Crap!  Taliya!" Anastasia said as the Aero-Guardian armor that Taliya was piloting returned to it's Fighter Configuration and flew by Ana.  Ana jumped off of the dreadnaught and landed on the fighter as they made acrobatic maneuvers to get on the same level as the Godhand Flag-ship.  

"We must destroy the Myrmidon!  All hands, prepare the ship for the Fire-Ship configuration!" spoke the captain of the flag-ship.  The men saluted their captain and without another word, got right to work.  Their ship changed in appearance drastically from another airship to a large ball of fire.  Upon seeing the Flag-Ship change into a fireball, the crew of the Myrmidon gasped for a moment in awe and fear.  A lot of her crew had seen this monstrosity before in their past.

Panic started to set in on the crew as they saw a big ball of fire quickly approaching them.  A call came over both Ana's and Taliya's radio.  "Captain!  It's here!  The Wraith of Fire!  The creature of legends!" the men shouted before Ana responded.  

"Settle down!  It's only a fire-ship!  Take evasive maneuvers already!" Ana said before hearing the shouts of dread and fear amongst her men.  "Crap," she said to Taliya only.  "Taliya, hit the after burners.  We can't get that fire ship reach the Myrmidon," she said before Taliya responded with an "Aye aye!" before igniting the engines in her armor and propelling the two forward.    

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3816 / 5000

A howl came from the Fire Ship as it quickly closed the gap between itself and the Myrmidon.  The engines of the Aero-Guardian armor were being pushed to their limits just to catch up with the swift ship of fire only to eventually put the two between the Fire Ship and the Myrmidon.  Ana's crew noticed this and hollered in fanfare as Ana and Taliya were there to protect them.

"Ana," Taliya said over the radio.  
"Yeah?"
"I'm going to go for it.  That thing is made of fire and I'm going to turn it's fire against it," she said in reference to her Flare Blitz skill which envelopes her entire body into flames and results in her tackling the target.  However, with the Plasma Graspers in her hands, she is capable of ignoring armor and will be able to penetrate through it with ease.  

"I just need you to back me up and catch the ship if it doesn't work," Taliya said before she ignites the Aero-Guardian armor on fire.  Anastasia reached out to try to stop Taliya to no avail.  As she reached out, the Aero-Guardian Armor took-off towards the Fire Ship.  "What the hell, Taliya!" Anastasia shouted out.

"Don't worry!  I'll be just fine!" Taliya said before closing her communication channel.  After picking up enough speed, Taliya transformed the Aero-Guardian Armor into it's Walker form, extending it's arm outwards before touching the skin of the fire-ship, quickly melting the skin of the ship and moving through the ship.  Screams of terror could be heard before stopping int he middle of the ship.  Taliya's impact on the ship jarred the Fire-Ship.  While within the ship, Taliya put her hands together to gather a large ball of plasma before shooting a massive beam out of the rear of the ship, causing the Fire Ship to fall.  

As the ship continued it's approach, the Fire Ship started to angle itself downwards, barely missing the SS Myrmidon as it started to sink.  As the ship started to sink, Taliya popped out of the rear of the ship from the hole she blew out, almost unscathed.  The loud sounds of hotting and hollering could be heard from inside of the Myrmidon.  A smile was across Ana's face as she let out a sigh.  

"Well, looks like we have one more objective left!  Time to sink that Behemoth!" she said as she pointed her finger towards the massive ship.  The Myrmidon, Taliya, and Ana made their way towards the massive ship.  Upon reaching the massive ship, the Mymidon started to raise up higher and higher before the bomb-bay opened up, dropping a massive green dumpster onto the ship, causing utter destruction.  

Tag

4719 / 5000

As the massive behemoth began exploding everywhere, the cargo door of the massive ship opened up before spitting out another massive ship, roughly half the size of the Behemoth Class out from it's maw.  A third ship!  The information given to Anastasia was correct as this was the Berserker Class ship that she had gained intelligence on.  There was a droning sound coming from the Berserker Class ship before a communication line was created between the massive ship to Anastasia.  Upon receiving this, Anastasia forwarded this conversation with Taliya and the rest of her crew.  Upon the other end of the line, the face of a man that many of her crew had seen before appeared.  A man with a distinguished beard appeared on the screen.

"So, it is Captain Isayev of the SS Myrmidon, I see," the man said with a thick Russian accent.  He stroked his beard.  

"Captain Chernoff," she said with disdain in her voice.  "Who would have thought you were the leader of the Godhand," she stated.  She knew this man from past dealings in the sky pirate industry.  He had problems with the Fiore world government, thus resorted to piracy over in different planets.  In essence, Captain Chernoff was her teacher for everything she knew about the art of sky pirating.  

"It's been 5 years, hasn't it, Captain?" she asked.  This caught her own men off-guard, questioning if she was now working with Captain Chernoff, the terror that ruined many of their lives.  

"Indeed it has.  I did have quite the armada for Operation Celestia, but it seems you put a stop to it," the Captain stated.

"Of course I would!  You're a monster!  You have hurt so many people, that's why I left 5 years ago!  You didn't care about anyone's feelings!  You didn't care about anyone's lives or their well-being!  You even destroyed the lives of many of my men, why would I let Operation Celestia go through?" she said out of anger and frustration.  Just seeing the man made her blood boil.  Her men, however, sighed in relief. They knew their captain wouldn't betray them, even if what they just saw made them question their beliefs.  

"Well, I have been called that and other things, Anastasia.  Come.  Join me in fulfilling Operation Celestia.  We can be the new king and queen of Earthland," the Captain said once again, trying to sway Ana's opinion.  Without hesitation, Ana simply replied with "Screw you!"

A little chuckle came from Captain Chernoff before he gave Anastasia a little salute, disappearing from the communication channel. The ship, then, vanished into thin air.  This left Anastasia and the Myrmidon speechless.  Taliya came in over an open communication channel and shouted to Ana.  "What the hell was that?  He just disappeared!"

"No..." Ana said in disbelief.  She didn't know that kind of technology was even possible.  

"We're with you, Captain!  That's the guy that ruined our lives!  We need to take him down once and for all," the men said over the open communication channel.  Ana simply grasped the sides of her head and started to curl up into a ball.  Captain Chernoff had teleportation technology?  She knew where he was going but she feared she wouldn't be able to catch up.  

"Captain!  Captain!  What's Operation Celestia?  Captain?" the men from the Myrmidon asked before Anastasia regained her composure.  She had a plan.  Grabbing the sticks that controlled her armor, she cleared her throat.  

"Men and women of the SS Myrmidon.  I want you all," she said as her voice shook in fear.  "I want you all to remain here and salvage the wreckage of the two ships here.  Me and Taliya will go alone and destroy Captain Chernoff," she simply stated.  Of course, she was met with bitter protest.  There was a lot of chatter over the open air waves.

"Shut up and listen to me!  The SS Myrmidon can't travel to Capital Crocus fast enough to stop Captain Chernoff.  He plans on ousting the King and Queen and becoming the new king of Fiore.  The Myrmidon isn't fast enough to make it there in time.  The Aero-Guardian Armor, however, is fast enough to get there before too much damage has been caused.  Just do as I say and I'll bring that bastard's head back as a trophy.  Do you all understand?" she stated with a quivering voice.  There was silence.  

"Aye, Captain!  We'll meet you in the Neutral Grounds after completion," said one of her men.  "Get that sunovabitch good, Captain!"
"Yeah!  Kill that fucker good!"
The silence erupted into support for Anastasia and Taliya.  As they hooted and hollered, they took out the grappler arms of the ship and started to descend to recover 'The One' and to begin salvaging operations.  As they were busy with that, Anastasia turned her suit's head to look towards Taliya.  

"You ready?  He's probably there by now, which gives him a 1 hour head-start.  We need to cook it over there if we want to defeat him.  Are you ready, Taliya?" she asked before Taliya responded with, "You know I am!  Let's go smash this guy's head in!" she said before returning to the Fighter Configuration, with Anastasia mounting on top of the fighter jet.  "Let's go head-hunting," she said before the fighter ignited it's after-burners and took off in the direction of the Wakusei Portal, then in the direction of the Capital.

Tag

5699 / 5000

Sirens blared in the Capital City in the middle of the night.  Mages were outside flinging spells at the massive airship, only for the spells to completely bounce off of the hull of the ship.  Bullets rained down from the ship to the ground, causing massive amounts of chaos and destruction.  "You all sit here comfortably with the aristocrats and bureaucrats while people in the real world are suffering!  You all sit here and do nothing!  You just watch as the rest of the world burns!" Captain Chernoff said over an open channel; a loud-speaker so the entirety of Crocus could hear the ravings of a mad-man.  While a lot of people may agree with his sentiments, it is his methods that are terrifying.  A group of mages floated in the air just in front of the massive ship and began to form a massive Unison Raid, only for the spell to evaporate on the skin of the airship and bullets to penetrate their bodies in a heavy hail, turning their bodies into lifeless sacks of unrecognizable meat.  

"Nothing we do has any effect on this ship!  What's going on!?" one of the mages standing at ground level shouted before the sound of distant thunder could be heard.  Anastasia's Sentry Armor can be seen riding upon the Aero-Guardian Armor directly into battle.  As Chernoff was too busy tearing up the town, he didn't have the attention span to notice that Anastasia and Taliya had made their way.  Standing up upon a single knee, Anastasia sprung herself off of the Aeroguardian armor and thrusted her suit onto the skin of the large ship.  Taliya quickly maneuvered the Aeroguardian armor out of the way of the massive ship before converting to the Walker Configuration.

Unlike the Behemoth, this ship had their guns on a 180 degree swivel.  One of the massive guns shot into Anastasia, forcing her to quickly heal her unit.  Afterward, The Fire Moth and it's clone took a pot-shot directly at the canon that shot her, instantly destroying it.  She forced one of the weapons over towards her and she shoved the nozzle of the clone directly into the ship and forced it to fire.  

"Chernoff!  You bastard!" she said in an open channel for the whole city to hear.  Everyone watching had their attention on Anastasia and the massive Berserker Class ship.  "You went ahead and carried on with it?  You know how many people you have killed?!"

"I haven't killed enough!  The more people that die here, the more things can change!  You know this well enough!"

"Don't feed me that bullshit, Chernoff," Ana said as she used the hands of her armor to start to tear off the armor plating on the ship.  It had a strange magic resistant coating.  Thankfully, there was nothing magical about her equipment other than the casting.  "If you wanted to change things, you don't have to kill people!" she said as she continued to tear off parts of the ship's armor.  The weapon she injected into the ship was starting to tear it apart from the inside.  

"Don't you want change?"

"This isn't the way to do it!" she said before tearing open a hole big enough for her to walk into.  All of a sudden, the ship stopped moving.  

"Holy shit, Anastasia!  Make it quick!  There's a large energy source coming from the front of the ship!  And it's pointed," Taliya said with a pause.  "Straight at the castle!  Hurry the hell up, Anastasia!"

The Fire Moth followed her through the hole that she made in the ship and she tore the clone that she stuck into the ship through the hole, allowing them to float beside her.  A hole was shot through the ship once more before exposing the cockpit of the ship, where the weapons computer was also exposed.  The Captain can be seen with a trigger in his hand and a grin on his face.  "Too late, Anastasia," he said before pressing the button.  Before this happened, Anastasia shouted out, "Taliya, now!"

The man pressed the button before sending off a massive beam towards the castle, destroying one of the turrets.  However, everything started to contort once Taliya could be seen above the ship, creating a black hole, creating just enough gravity for the massive ship and the beam to point upwards, missing the majority of the castle.  With a look of confusion, the man turned to look at Anastasia before a massive mobile suit's fist turned the captain into a blood stain.  Taliya let the gravity go once the beam was raised directly upwards with the ship starting to explode from the stress of the beam on the ship.  

A ship this size exploding will completely level the town.  Flying towards the command console, which she thankfully didn't destroy with that punch, Anastasia removed herself from the armor and started to fiddle with the command console while everything was exploding.  She couldn't hear anything from Taliya as she didn't have a means of communication.  She started to manually access the computer only to find the warp core within the ship.  She started typing frantically before setting a timer of 10 seconds.  This would be just before the ship makes land-fall.  With that, Anastasia took a deep breath and ran her way back out the way she came and jumped into the air, trying to create enough drag with her body to fall slightly slower than the massive ship.

During her fall, Taliya reached out and grabbed Anastasia before the ship instantly vanished, taking it's explosion with it.  The AeroGuardian Armor took a slow descent towards the ground and vanishing, allowing Ana and Taliya to float gently to the ground.

People began to gather up to thank and congratulate Anastasia and Taliya for eliminating the threat.  A smile came across Anastasia's face before she passes out.

Tag

6068 / 5000

The sun started to peek out over the horizon as Taliya had an unconscious Anastasia in her arms with a collection of people surrounding the two sky pirates.  They looked on for a moment with Taliya shaking Anastasia to make sure she was alive.  After a brief moment, Anastasia opened her eyes to see a bunch of people gathered around her before taking a sigh of relief.  The fact that these people are calm enough to be able to stand around and look at Anastasia means that Captain Chernoff wasn't around to cause chaos.  

As Anastasia opened her eyes, the crowd began to clap and cheer for her.  Anastasia cleared her throat and everyone hushed for a moment.  "I'm hungry," she said before the crowd laughed and continued their fanfare for Anastasia and Taliya's work.

Later on...
Anastasia arrived at the Neutral Grounds looking like absolute crap.  She was completely drained of her mana and had to take the train over to the Neutral Grounds.  Upon entering the pub at the Neutral Grounds, everything in the pub stopped once they saw Taliya carrying Anastasia inside of the pub.  A thumbs up and a smile was given to her men that were in the pub and the bar erupted in shouts of joy!  

"The Captain did it!  She killed Chernoff, the Terror!" one of the men said merrily.

"And we pulled in a HELLUVA haul, Captain!"

"To commemorate this day, the day we can leave our past behind us, drinks are on me," Anastasia said weakly before the men rushed to the bar to get drinks.  While they did this, Taliya walked the two of them inside and set Anastasia on a chair.  "Well, seems like that was a rough day, huh, Ana?" Taliya asked.

"Yeah, you can say that.  But let's not worry about that.  We had a great haul and we killed a really bad guy.  We ought to celebrate," she said, causing Taliya to pause for a moment.  That's the first time Taliya had seen Anastasia in such a joyous mood.  With a grin, Taliya nodded and rushed over to the bar to grab a few shots for Ana and herself.

[End]