Editing Vandread Volume 1 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 4===


"IKAZUCHI! IKAZUCHI! IKAZUCHI! IKAZUCHI!"

The excitement in the plaza facing the multi-monitors had reached its climax, the men calling out the name 'Ikazuchi' with raised fists.

Whether because he was pleased with the shout that had spread throughout the ceremony grounds, or whether it was because he found the speech tiresome, the Prime Minister faced the camera, his grim voice overpowering the chant.

"The voices of you gentlemen have reached us! The time is upon us, our desire is boiling already in anticipation of the instant in which we set sail! Is that not the case gentlemen!?"

The Prime Minister added more force into his tightly clenched fist, and in that overbearing situation raised it high over his head. The graduates in the venue seemed to mimic him as they raised their fists overhead with a shout.

"UOOOOOOH!!"

From the view of an outsider this was a speech of  a reliable leader who understood human nature, but one's whose eyes opened in astonishment were the noncommissioned officers who had boarded the Ikazuchi.

"Crap!"

"As of yet, it's still two hours early!"

As all of those that had been lined up before the monitors at every station simultaneously became disturbed, excited voices were emitted from the speakers with the official announcement.

'A-all hands to your stations!'

That popular voice caused the crew to scatter like spider children as they all started running to their posts. However, their innermost thoughts were dripping with disatisfaction.

"KAH! He's always like this!"

"Geez, the Prime Minister is beyond unreasonable!!"

This Prime Minister, it would appear, had not properly spoken with the rest of his subordinates.



Together with a shocking noise that was reminiscent of a major impact, the cable-like pipes that were attached to the exterior of the Ikazuchi were blown in succession. The mooring mechanisms that were supporting it were also slowly withdrawn, as the launch preparation program was being executed far earlier than had been planned.

A piercing siren resounded throughout the plaza, the orchestra's fanfare and the people's shouting noticeably swelled but the Ikazuchi was even more violent as it spouted steam from below, and the enormous hull slowly was elevated towards space.



Finding himself in circumstances beyond his expectations, Hibiki was bewildered by the interior of the hanger he had finally managed to reach. There was much lighting at the moment but it should be larger than a gymnasium. Moreover there were the Bangata that were stationed in matching armor like the corridor of an old castle, with dozens of them being stored to both his left and right.

Under the assumption that they would be battling in the weightlessness of outer space, catapults had been installed on both the top and bottom, so if one looked up at the ceiling there were Bangata lined up as though waiting their turn. It was a near impossible task to find the one affixed with the 'ヒ' character from among all of the ones that were cleaned to pass quality examinations and to meet the standards.

"Alright……now then. Where is it?"

Nevertheless Hibiki desperately strained his eyes in the darkness as he carefully examined them one by one, and before he knew it he had drawn close to the end of the line of Bangatas. Gradually Hibiki began to become anxious.

"……Not this one either……risky……could they have rejected it because the scratch was too openly visible……?"

Within the darkness, his face quickly becoming stiff as he focused his eyes, in the next moment Hibiki's gaze suddenly stopped.

"!?"

Rushing forward as though drawn by what was before his eyes, Hibiki instinctually gasped at the single Bangata before him. At the very end of the row, right between the legs of the Bangata that was standing there erect no different from the others, the clearly recognizable character 'ヒ' was right there.

"There you are, partner. So you were hiding out in this kind of place……"

Even though his eyes teared up from excessive emotion, this was Hibiki's first time seeing it with his own eyes so he made sure to gaze at the 'Bangata Bokugekiki' from every angle. There was a reason he called that machine 'partner'. Before the argument, Hibiki who had meager cooperativeness was predictably unable to make friends, after that reaction from being labeled a liar, had been working silently, and towards the reliable machine that was the outcome, a certain kind feeling of trust and fellowship had come into being.



'That' was an approximately five meter tall humanoid called a powered suit. Installed in the head were the external sensors and the large mono eye camera, which was fixedly gazing into empty space. The power gripping of the three-fingered arm was designed to be capable of delicate movement.

The parts that Hibiki had manufactured had been the connector cables for the external mounted support weaponry. However, those parts were affixed to the humanoid's groin, and therefore there was pathetically little about it that was impressive.

Nevertheless, for Hibiki for whom this was his first time seeing the workmanship of the completed Bangata, such things were truly not a problem. Completely similar to looking at a lover, Hibiki's eyes stared unblinkingly at it as he got excessively emotional, to the point that he had already shed a single tear.

"Hehe……. Geez……all that time I spent……. Just you wait, I'll take you home right now……"

Saying that, Hibiki leapt forward to touch his beloved Bangata with his fingertips, and then it happened. Together with a thunderous roar the wheels of fate that surrounded Hibiki slowly started to turn.



"Launch the Ikazuchi!!"

The Prime Minister gave out the order with a grand wave of his arm.

'DOKADOKADOKADOKA! GUWAAAAAAA!!'

Violent flames were sprout forth from hundreds of nozzles that had been installed surrounding the Ikazuchi, the force from which violently increased even more as from within the smoke Ikazuchi slowly emerged, its grandeur floating up into the vast sky.

"UWOOOOO∼∼∼∼!!"

The thunderous roar which drowned out even the scream of the masses caused shaking, not just in Taraak's urban areas, but even the red soil was vibrating as the Ikazuchi slowly ascended into outer space.



"!?"

At just that moment when Hibiki's fingertips how come within mere millimeters of the Bangata, the ground became greatly inclined. Suddenly struck by the force of several Gs, far from embracing the Bangata, Hibiki's body was blown off in the opposite direction.

"Wha, what is this!?"

It was only natural that Hibiki had shouted. It was still two hours before the originally scheduled departure time of the Ikazuchi. His original goal having been to operate the Bangata during that time, after which he expected to calmly leave the ship behind. For the sake of that when the time came he had stuffed a Banagta operation manual he had acquired secretly from the factory workers into his satchel.

What should have been the perfect plan had been shattered like glass by the whims of one man, the Prime Minister.



"It's taken off just now."

The close aide was kneeling before the man on the far side of the bamboo screen as he delivered his report. Acknowledging this, "……Umu", the man gave small nod; the founding father of this Taraak Empire Gran Pa who had been extolled not too long ago, that was this man. Though he had deep dried wrinkles befitting a man of his age, the sharp glint in his eye as he stared at the Ikazuchi displayed on the monitor in his hand was the opposite of his outward appearance, as they were filled with a tenaciousness that was unmatched.

Given that he was by all rights the founder of the empire it would be expected that he would be pleased with the Ikazuchi's moment of triumph, however little it might be, but as he started at the monitor his facial expression did not display any level of pleasure.

"……"

Letting out a sign of what sounded like deep despair, the body of the man referred to by everyone as 'Founding Father' sank deep into his throne.



'Bon, bobon, bon……'

The sound of a large explosion spread through the thin atmosphere that clung to the dry canyon. From the cannons installed on either side of the canyon a gun salute was being raised. Exploding in the atmosphere, the shells released small clumps of white smoke that filled the air to adorn the passage of the Ikazuchi. The shells were manufactured to follow the orbital path of the Ikazuchi's silhouette from below the layer of atmosphere. The clouds that formed were like a giant whale rising towards sea level, thereby revealing its figure.

Having been unseen thus far due to being hidden by the steam, the Ikazuchi's elliptical shape began to become visible on either side as it drew closer, and as the center travelled over the large trench below, the glimpse one got through the atmosphere showed that its exterior was clearly built into a different shape than that of the the 'Old Ship Section'. Due to there being at the present a large hull below with boosters attached for the purpose of cruising within the atmosphere, its appearance was like that of a large scale model of the brain.



As the Ikazuchi was slowly ascending towards space, there was one man staring up from the barren red soil. His many years appeared to have easily exceeded seventy years of age. However, from looking at the wounds cultivated on his arms and his thick chest, it was clear that he was no ordinary elderly person.

He was holding something like handmade farming equipment. In reality, the soil he was standing was only the outskirts of that which he was leveling. His goal was to eventually turn this dry barren soil into green earth.

His hands stopped, and in complete silence, his sharp gaze peered up at the Ikazuchi from beneath an ancient straw hat.



As for Hibiki himself, he was fighting the heavy G forces that had suddenly been born from the Ikazuchi's act of ascension, and was finally able to reach a window and get a glance of the outside.

He stretched his body out as much as possible to peek through the window. The sight that met Hibiki's eyes was one in which the red soil of Taraak, which he was seeing for the first time, was growing further away.

"Shit! I-it's flying……h-how am I going to get back down safely?"

As Hibiki's eyes being widened with shock at the situation he was in, the boosters for atmospheric flight detached from the Ikazuchi, which continued its flight towards space.