Space Pirate Captain Harlock Page #3

---

Multiple enemies detected, 36 AUs straight ahead.

They've taken positions on the Solar System Defense Line!

More blips detected to the rear, distance 64 million.

Rapidly approaching at 0.24 semi-lightspeed.

Damn, they've got us cornered!

Should we change course, sir?

All ahead full!

They're in my way.

Roger!

Dark matter engine, full power!

Crew, prepare torpedoes.

Activate main gun and anti-aircraft systems!

This is quite a welcome.

We have the Arcadia in our sights.

It's on a course straight for the Solar System Defense Line.

They're going to smash straight through!

Dark matter shields detected.

All ships, target the Arcadia with all main guns!

Admiral, requesting firing orders!

Hold on.

Let him come closer.

Ezra...

Now!

All ships, fire at will!

Multiple hits on our vessels!

Cease fire! Cease fire!

We are being hit by a friendly fire! What the hell happened?

A hologram?

Why does this not surprise me?

The Arcadia detected at the orbit over Saturn.

Commander!

Right.

Second fleet:
IN-Skip!

136 enemy ships have materialized over a radius of 7400!

They're practically on top of us!

They knew we were coming.

They're not as dumb as we thought.

Your move...

Sir, we're getting a signal from the Arcadia,

using Gaia Legion encryption!

Put it through.

Ezra...

I see you're still alive and well.

Call off the fleet.

Harlock poses no threat to the universe.

The council only tells half the story.

Is that all you have to say?

You disappoint me.

Cut the line.

Ezra!

Configure the Photon Converger Matrix!

The Con verger harnesses

the photon energy of compressed neutron stars.

A single concentrated beam,

and the Arcadia will be wiped out.

Second fleet deployed around Arcadia at 84 through 93.

Time to end the hundred-year reign of this phantom ship!

4 enormous gravity fields detected outside the ship!

Why?

An enormous...force...projected onto us!

Critical radiance!

Fire!

Debris incoming!

Deploy shields at full strength!

Long-range sensors inoperable; heavy electromagnetic interference.

Estimated recovery time: 2 minutes!

Get a visual reading, anything, dammit!

No sign of the Arcadia, sir!

What the hell is going on?

I don't know, sir. It's like they were never there!

Was it another hologram?

Impossible!

How could they have known?

Sir, it's the Arcadia!

What?

We don't have time to put up our shields!

Heavy cruiser Neraid is down!

Ares is critical!

Regroup all functional vessels!

Fill in the gaps!

The Arcadia! Brace for impact!

The Arcadia...is heading towards us!

Logan!

97% of the fleet destroyed or immobilized!

Only 17 vessels are functional!

Our defense line cannot hold any longer!

Engines 1 and 3 immobilized!

Ezra...

It's no use resisting.

You've humiliated the flagship of the Gaia Legion.

Why not just put it out of its misery?

Nice try,

but we need the Oceanus on display

to show that we have hostages.

Behold the strategist.

You were a good teacher.

But you were never that good a student.

Certainly not one to know how to access information

about our location or the battle plan.

So, it was Nami.

She's not to blame.

Harlock is the best shot we have.

If the Nodes of Time are unwound,

humankind will have a second chance.

Then, all of us, we can...

A second chance?

You believe whatever you're told.

Approaching Earth space.

Entering the Sanctified Zone.

Awesome...

It's so beautiful.

One hundred years...

The Earth, our home...

and also the last Node of Time.

We can finally start over.

But...

If we detonate the warhead here,

there may not be much of a planet left to go home to.

Has the captain ever steered us wrong before?

He must have a plan.

Harlock has deceived you, every last one of you.

No matter, we've almost reached the Sanctified Zone.

You'll see for yourself.

Wh-What's happneing?

A hologram!

The Earth's an illusion?

What...what the...

What...is this?

This is Harlock's legacy.

The Earth was a satellite-projected hologram?

Captain?

100 years ago...

Humans began their journey back to Earth.

And a war erupted over the privilege to return home.

The Homecoming War...

But the slaughter caused disillusion,

and the teachings of the Gaia Communion emerged

as a unifying force to end the conflict.

"Earth is our holy land, and no one shall desecrate the planet."

During the war, an elite wing of the Gaia Legion was

tasked with defending the Earth:

the Deathshadow Martyr Fleet, led by Harlock.

Harlock?

There were four Deathshadow-class ships with dark matter engines,

an unstoppable flotilla.

The lost alien technology was rediscovered

by Sheffield, a Gaia Legion engineer.

Sheffield was Harlock's closest, some say only, friend.

Sheffield did all he could to save my endangered race.

We returned the favor by sharing our technology.

Harlock defended the Earth with his life,

however...

The final peace accord allowed only the diplomatic elite and

high planetary officials to immigrate.

These were the terms of the peace agreement.

Wars do not end without ~compromise'.

But...

Harlock was enraged.

"Earth is our holy land..."

Harlock fought for this very principle,

so he rose up against the Gaia Communion's hypocrisy.

Sheffield!

And the Gaia Communion wanted to punish Harlock's treason.

Sheffield!

With his back against the wall, outgunned and overwhelmed...

He ordered me to release of the dark matter,

to form a layer around the Earth,

and create a true Sanctified Zone.

But the risk was too great.

I should have stopped him.

The dark matter was an uncontrollable force,

beyond Harlock's imagination.

It ended up consuming Earth in fire and darkness.

It was over.

Or so they thought...

But...

Harlock was resurrected,

as an immortal monster hexed by dark matter.

With his transformed ship that imprisoned the Niflung and

Sheffield in its black machinery.

5 years after the war,

Harlock raided the Gaia Communion,

plundered 100 dimensional oscillators, and disappeared.

An ancient Niflung myth revealed what Harlock was planning:

the destruction of the Nodes of Time.

Even the Gaia Communion could see it coming.

The burden of his sins has taken its toll.

Harlock wants to end everything.

Is that what you want too?

What will happen to the cosmos if we unravel the Nodes of Time?

The universe is an ever-expanding balloon,

and the Nodes of Time are its plugs.

Remove the plugs, and it will return to nothingness...

to be born again.

We'll all die? This is what you mean by starting over'?

There is no other way.

Man is nothing but a quick spark that will fade away in space.

That we exist...

That we existed...

None of this will matter once we are gone.

Once humans realized their fate,

they tried to rush back to Mother Earth,

wanting to return to a place and time that

seemed to offer infinite hope and possibilities.

But Earth as we knew it, doesn't exist anymore.

We have to start over.

It's why I was granted this haunted ship

and this accursed immortal flesh.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes