Challenge #02372-F182: The Marvellous Six
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Q3i5w6-Ug
(Also, Why isn't this a legit anime!!!!) -- Anon Guest
[AN: Well, I made it 181 days without using anyone else's IP. Can't get any money from the anthology of this year now. Sigh. Oh well. Totes worth it for this one]
Reach for the stars, Yukanna... Their power is our power. If you can feel them... you will never fail. Grandfather had said that, when he had taken Yukanna to see the ribbon lights for the first time. He had reached out, then, and watched the Tetragonai steal the stars. Ever since then, the world had been dark, cold, and dying.
They had clustered together on their dying world, hopeless and withering, until a shooting star split the sky with its light. Grandfather, eaten by fear, had told Yukanna not to investigate. It would be worse than death. It had to be a Tetragonai attack... but Yukanna couldn't let hope die just like that. He still had the starlight in his heart, and it had never left. He had to follow hope.
So he left. He left with tears in his eyes. He left with hope in his heart. He left to find... whatever it was. Destiny or death or both. He had to persevere. He had to hope that this was a way to win the stars back. There was more than a moment of trepidation when he discovered it was a crashed Tetragonai guardian, but the eye was dark and the smooth, reflective surface felt... dead. Yukanna reached out...
...and felt himself pulled inside! A moment of darkness and terror, but the light of hope was with him always. For a moment he saw... hideous spiky shapes that could not ever be comfortable, and then... the machinery changed! It became familiar. Like the technology his people had had before everything had grown cold and dark, even his own people's hearts. He reached out... and the ship came alive. It was with him, it was him, it bent and shaped itself to what he knew. Yukanna didn't hesitate. Didn't say goodbye. He simply stretched forward to reach for the stars that were no longer there.
Past the atmosphere. Past the wreckage of a fleet he had never seen and couldn't recognise. Past the asteroids. Up and out until it was nothing but the clear black. Clear black and the screen of an incoming call.
The person at the other end of the signal had a wide, mischievous grin and a thick moustache. His helm went beyond the vid pickup, but that didn't seem to worry him. "On your left," he said.
Yukanna looked, and that was how he met Kuchihige, a space warrior with an ego as large as his vessel. There were four others: Kamen, a methane-breather who never left their environment suit; Shishi, the leonine battle-master; Kikai, the robotic miner-mechanic; and finally Kuro, the space ninja.
All six of them, together, were chosen. The combined forces of the resistance had been able to infect six of the Tetragonai guardian vessels with a virus. They would perish in the act of finding one special pirate with the heart and spirit to fight back... and Yukanna was the last. Together, the six of them travelled to the mothership Murasaki, there to plan battles and tactics with Fleet Admiral Tomoe.
This effort, all those sacrifices, had been for this one last, best hope. If they lost, then all was lost. The universe was doomed to a cold and desperately dark death.
"But, you know, no pressure," joked Shishi.
Thanks to the virus, one Tetragonai vessel was left with two guardians. It would be relatively weak, but they should not expect an easy fight. Just one Tetragonai guardian was enough to decimate the rebel fleet. Two... well. Yukanna had seen the devastation. The Tetragonai mothership that had laid so much waste had shielding, but it was vulnerable to a ramming attack. After that, they had to get inside and figure out how to release the stars.
"A direct attack at their weakest point," said Kuro.
"Poison their atmosphere and corrode their technology," said Kamen.
"Infect their core systems with a malevolent virus," suggested Kikai.
Yukanna was just about to suggest reaching for a star within the mothership and using its power against them, when the Tetragonai attacked. They had found the Murasaki! There was no more time to plan! They had to scramble!
For the Murasaki. For his home. For Grandfather, even though he had lost his hope. For his people. For his new friends. He had to try.
Six new friends launched, sailing out into the night. Six tiny ships against the might of the Tetragonai. Six, chosen for their tenacity, reflexes, and skill. Six, who had made their ships to suit themselves, just like Yukanna had.
They shouldn't have been able to stand a chance, yet they managed to avoid the worst of the Tetragonai weapons, they managed to fight back with their own. They discovered that the mothership could spawn more guardians, but that did not stop them! They were determined! They had to win!
Six ships got past all the defences to ram the shields. Any second, now, and those shields would crack. They fired their boosters...
...and a single shot from a guardian caught Yukanna's right wing. The explosion rocked him. His injuries weren't severe, but they were enough to stab him through and through with terror. His systems were fading. His viewscreen was going black...
Just like the sky had gone black
In front of him was a field of stars. So close, he could almost feel them.
Reach for the stars, Yukanna...
He tried. He reached so desperately. He needed just one star, but they were fading. Fading like his strength. Fading like the light. Fading... like his hope...
Yukanna fell into the darkness. Back through a life without stars in the sky. Back to a time when all was happiness and joy.
Reach for the stars...
It had once been so easy, to hold up his hand and feel them. To reach out, not quite touching, and let the power tickle his soul. Could it still be that easy?
Reach...
He stretched out his hand, feeling just one star. Feeling the life of it. The light of it. The joy of it.
He closed his fingers.
The light was inside him! Powering his resolve. Powering his ship. Bringing everything he needed right back to his fingertips. He couldn't remember standing up, but now he stood tall, soul blazing with the power of a single star! Thrusters on full, this time Yukanna cracked the shield.
He was not alone, any more. He had his friends with him, and together, they shared the power to breach the Tetragonai shields!
Closer and closer, they came to the black, featureless plane of the Tetragonai mothership. The stars were in there, Yukanna could feel them.
"We're going to crash," warned Kikai.
"No," said Yukanna. "We're going inside. Like we went inside the dead guardians. We can do this! Together!"
"Together!" They chorused.
A brief moment, in which Yukanna faced his own reflection. A young man, barely past boyhood. Silver hair streaming with the power of the stars. They didn't crash, but flew inside. Just like they had entered their own vessel at first.
Just like that first time, they were surrounded by blackness. Just like that first time, they had a hint of a power beyond their reckoning.
"Anomalous power spike," said Kikai.
"Ai! It's all through my fur," complained Shishi.
"I can barely control my rig," said Kamen.
"Don't fight it," said Yukanna. "Be the power. Use it. Fight with it, not against it. Take it and make it yours!"
"We've got this, team," cheered Kuchihige. "Let's show them what we can do!"
"Star Light Cosmic Poweeerrrrr!"
They could hold it no more, and released it all in one concussive blast. They flew free in a rainbow of light and watched in joy as the Tetragonai mothership exploded, taking all the guardians with her.
The stars flew out around them, returning to their homes. Returning light, love, and hope to the universe. They had fought and they had won. They were heroes! They were...
The Starlight Brigade.
[Image (c) TWRP care of the video linked above, all rights reserved. Please don't sue me, I'm broke]
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