THE BLACK VERITECH
Capítulo 10: Bitter goodbye
Knight was writing the letters of condolence he would give to Shiru and Hyoga's relatives, when suddenly someone was knocking on his door very loudly.
“Max, Ben..... Why do you knock so loudly?" said Knight, who was surprised to see the broken faces of his friends.
“Knight, it's terrible... Roy died," said Max.
“Roy died... explain yourself!”
“Roy died," said Ben, "they took him to the operating room, but they couldn't save him, now Claudia is in the hospital watching his body. “
“What!.... But how did this happen, if he was okay a moment ago!” shouted Knight.
“Apparently he was wounded in the battle and then collapsed in Claudia's room, then they took him to the hospital, but he had already lost a lot of blood," Max reported.
“What? No.... don't fuck around, Max, that's so weird, why didn't he go to the hospital after he landed?” he asked in anguish.
“Nobody knows Knight and now... now Roy is dead” said Ben.
“...And Rick already knows that," Knight asked broken down.
“Lisa went to tell him," Max said.
“Oh fuck, shit...” Knight cursed.
The pilots went to the hospital and tried to comfort Claudia without any success, then left Lisa to take care of her friend and headed for Rick's room.
“It doesn't make any sense, it doesn't make any sense at all.” said Rick.
Knight decided to stay with Rick and accompany him all night as he wanted to go see Roy's corpse but the doctors forbade him to move from his bed until he was healed of his wounds.
“I don't explain it to myself either, brother, this shouldn't have happened, at least not in this way.... Poor Claudia, how's she doing?”
Friends remained silent most of the night, except to mourn for Claudia.
.
.
Rick recovered for Roy's funeral, the whole sky was clear and the weather was so nice, Knight could not believe that the weather was not accompanying the sad feelings that fell throughout the ship, at least in the military personnel Roy was known to everyone.
“It's so strange.... So different from how it looks in the movies or on TV” Knight watched the sky.
“You know Knight," said Rick at the time, "this weather was Roy's favourite, he said it was the best for flying and acrobatics.....”
“You're right, Rick... you're right, I don't think Roy would have liked tears to be shed at his funeral, maybe that's why he sent this beautiful day to all of us," Knight admitted in a broken voice.
“So long, brother," whispered Rick saying goodbye to Roy Fokker.
.
.
After the attack, the captain understood that he could no longer keep the civilians inside the ship, Roy's death affected the pilots' morale, so he considered that somehow he should have some city receive the civilians.
The captain received threats from the military high command that they would attack the ship in case it went ashore, but he knew that the politicians of the United Earth government would not give any orders to fire on the ship.
“No politician has the guts to give an order that would involve political suicide," Global explained to the girls on the bridge.
The captain flew the ship in its modular transformation across American soil. On the journey, he ordered the fort's pilots to remain inside SDF-1 so that there would be no confrontation with the RDF forces.
The communications were censored from the first day the SDF-1 flew over the continent, however, several people questioned the explanation given by the military or their politicians.
“Hey, isn't SDF-1 supposed to have been destroyed by a terrorist attack?”
“And why does it have the shape of a robot?”
These and other questions were all over cyberspace, and the situation was very tense for the leaders of the RDF and the United Earth Government.
Unaware of all these problems, Rick found himself on the lookout-café of the ship contemplating the landscape.
“Enjoying the scenery, Rick?” Knight asked him.
“Hi Knight, I was just looking around, it's a change from always watching the emptiness of space.”
“You're right Rick, how I'd like to find the Hollywood guys who brainwashed us with the idea that in outer space you can see all the stars and in HD, blueray or whatever... I'd love to shoot them.”
“Thanks Knight, I needed that” Rick laughed at his friend's occurrence.
“You're welcome, brother, that's what friends are for," Knight replied, and the two friends looked out over the barren landscape in front of them.
“Is Claudia still mad at you?” asked Rick after a while.
“I'm exhausted," Knight sighed, "all the other pilots are at rest except me, Claudia has me as her errand boy, I have to go back and forth on the ship delivering reports and so forth to all the ship's commanders including Captain Global, my feet are screaming right now.”
“No wonder you take turns picking up one foot and then the other, wouldn't it be better to sit down?”
“No, it's better this way, otherwise it would hurt when I got up.”
“You shouldn't have challenged Claudia and kissed Sammie in front of her.”
“You didn't see Sammie? She's cute!”
“Oh, Knight, but look at you now, you're pale.”
“It was worth it, Rick.”
“Did you really kiss her not only in front of Claudia but also in front of the other girls?”
“Yes, even Diana, one of the people in charge of the pinpoint barrier, saw me.”
“I don't know her.”
“Really? Well, she has long, light blonde hair and is very pretty.... Speaking of which, I hear Dr. Lang is developing some sort of barrier that this time will cover the entire ship.”
“How do you know that?”
“It's because of the work Claudia gives me, I listen to many important conversations and even ask some questions.”
“I don't know whether to be jealous or not, I find myself very bored with nothing to do.”
“And of course you can't talk to Minmei because of her career and now you can't talk to that obnoxious Kyle who plays the watchdog," Knight pointed out, and Rick sighed in frustration.
"Global isn't too happy with that asshole, did you know he's encouraging civilians to rebel?”
“It's my fault, I should never have been convinced by Minmei to come with us to the ship.”
“Hey brother.... you shouldn't think about her anymore," he said, and Rick looked at her angrily.
“Please Rick! When she came to visit you at the hospital she didn't even ask about your health, she talked about her problems and she fell asleep.... you told me!... Lisa, on the other hand, brought you flowers and cared a lot about you.... In fact, just now she asked me about you, you know, about Roy.”
“I'm fine, you don't have to worry.”
“Roy was very good.... He always cared about you, too bad he was different with Claudia.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well...” Knight swallowed spit, “you know, he might as well have gone to the hospital, but, but he went to Claudia's room like it was nothing.”
“Roy knew there was nothing to do.....”
“That's not true, Rick! And you know it, I talked to the doctor and he told me that Roy could have been saved if he had gone to the hospital..... He, he.... he didn't care, he didn't care about anybody, he gave up.”
“Don't say that!”
“It's true Rick, he gave up! He didn't care about anything else anymore, except running away, he told everyone to go to hell, he told us to go to hell, just like Claudia, he didn't give a damn about her feelings,” Knight couldn't go on because Rick punched him in the face that made him fall.
“Lieutenant Hunter!” Claudia shouted as she approached Knight to give him another assignment and listened to the whole conversation without the two pilots noticing.
“Rick... Knight is right," said Claudia and Rick turned his face as he trembled, clenching his fists, but then calmed down.
Knight stood up, but his eyes were fixed on the ground.
“Knight, forgive me, I didn't mean to....”
“Don't worry, Rick, I understand you, but.... WHY THE HELL HE HAD TO DIE!” Knight suddenly shouted looking at Rick as tears streamed down his face.
The ship left the desert landscape and approached a city.
.
.
Global's pleas were heard when the Ontario sector in North America agreed to shelter the ship's civilians.
“Will you eat all that?” Max asked Ben at a restaurant on the ship.
“I always ask for one more," said Ben, as he gave his cheerful laughter.
“Really? I always repeat myself, too," Knight said gladly, when the ship's alarms sounded.
“Cof... Why do they always.... call when I'm eating," said Knight as he rushed a glass of water and hit his chest as he was drowning.
When the boys left the ship in their veritechs, they didn't like what they saw at all. A group of zentraedi mother ships stood in front of the space fortress, several combat pods came out of these and went to repel the enemy.
The enemy's mother ships were firing at SDF-1, but the ship activated its omni-directional barrier, which completely protected the ship, but the drawback was that it could not fire its main weapon.
The situation was desperate, Lisa told the pilots that the shield was overheating and asked them to go where the zentraedi ships were and to destroy the enemy laser turrets.
Rick, Max, Ben and Knight (who offered to accompany Rick) went on the mission.
“This is crazy, brother, this is a lot of turrets and missile launchers," Knight said, "we won't be able to finish them all off, not even with just one ship!”
“We have to do it somehow, Knight.”
“Rick, you've got to get out of there," said Lisa frightened, "the shield will explode at any moment.”
The pilots watched the tele-communicator in their cockpits in fear and switched from batloid mode to guard as quickly as they could and then to fighter, there was no time to lose, in fact there was no time at all since at that moment the shield exploded disintegrating several zentraedi ships.
“Rick, I'm not gonna make it! Arrrgh” shouted Ben who was hit by the energy of the explosion and his veritech was destroyed on the spot.
“Ben...” Knight whispered incredulously, refusing to believe his friend's fate.
.
.
The Ontario disaster was lapidary for the fate of the ship and the civilians aboard it, the ship was saved, but the Earth city and an area of 25 square miles was devastated in the explosion. Now Global had no choice, he had to go to the ocean and wait to be refueled, this time the threats that they would attack the ship for sure would come true.
Rick, Max and Knight were on one of the ship's outer decks overlooking the ocean when a military helicopter from the mainland landed on the ship and intimidating-looking military personnel descended and headed inside the fortress.
“Well, apparently the rumors are true," said Knight, "they will surely order us to leave immediately.”
“The high command doesn't have much love for us," said Max saddened.
“All we have left is the SDF-1, yes, from now on this will be our home," said Rick, and the three pilots watched a wonderful sunset, the last one they would see before the Earth turned into hell.
CONTINUARÁ...
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