VOTOMS Ep. 35: Deadline

Ypsilon attacks Chirico, and Chirico dodges and fires back his bazooka. Ypsilon knocks Chirico down, but Fyana attacks him. In space, the Teltain comes under heavy fire from the Balarant Leslion ships. Futtor calls Ypsilon and orders him to retreat because they are under attack. A group of Balarant space fighters enter the atmosphere and begin bombarding the area around the fortress. Gotho blames Zophie for forcing Chirico to go outside, and she tells him she can’t forgive the Red Shoulders. Chirico and Fyana retreat to avoid the bombardment. Ypsilon destroys several space fighters to create an opening to escape through. Chirico and Fyana load their Scopedog IIs into their truck and drive off. Zophie runs into the hangar and shoots at them before getting into a truck to chase them. Gotho, Vanilla and Coconna make a run for the freighter, but an explosion destroys the gangway and causes them to fall to the ground. They then jump into a large pipe to seek shelter underground as the area around them explodes. The Balarant ships land on Sunsa’s surface and deploy Scarab APCs to look for Chirico and the others. Fyana wonders if everyone else is safe, and Chirico believes the others are probably safer than they themselves are at this moment. Gotho, Vanilla and Coconna crawl out of the pipe and reach the surface. Coconna asks them if they plan to abandon Chirico, and Gotho says they have to make sure they’re all safe themselves before they search for Chirico. In the desert, Chirico gets out of the truck when a large piece of metal becomes jammed in one of the tires. He runs over to a ruined Scarab to search it for useful parts. He opens the cockpit and finds a corpse holding a military map. Someone fires at them from an unknown location. Fyana wonders if it’s the Balarant, but Chirico says they wouldn’t conceal their location. He tells her to grab the corpse and run away with it. More gunshots are fired as Fyana and the corpse go over the hill. Zophie approaches the Scarab, and Chirico knocks her down and draws his gun on her.

Zophie is tied up and held at gunpoint by Fyana. She says that Chirico and his Red Shoulder friends killed her husband and her sons. Chirico ignores her and uses his Scopedog II to pull the piece of metal out of the truck. She asks him if he’s going to kill her since he enjoys killing so much. Chirico says he’ll gladly oblige if she wants to die so badly. He puts her into the truck and says he’s driving her to her graveyard. After driving 40 miles, he sets her lose and tells her to walk back to her truck. She tells him that if he doesn’t kill her, she’ll follow him until she kills him. At night, Chirico sets up camp inside a ruined dome. He offers Fyana some roasted snake, but she asks him to hold her because she can’t stop shaking. He asks her if she needs jijirium, and she tells him that if she doesn’t get some soon her entire body will stiffen up. He asks her why she didn’t tell him, and she says there was no point because they don’t have any jijirium. Chirico pulls out the map he found and says it points to a secret unmanned supply base, which he thinks may have some jijirium. Outside, Zophie watches them and calls the Balarant from their truck. As Chirico prepares to set off, a Balarant ship approaches from above and drops seven Fattys. Chirico drives into them and heads out of the dome, but Zophie crashes into him head-on and fires her machine gun at him. Chirico and Fyana escape in their Scopedog IIs and attack the Fattys. Chirico destroys several Fattys, and Fyana’s Scopedog II is damaged. He destroys the remaining Fattys and runs to Fyana’s side. She tells him she can’t move anymore. Zophie gets into a headless Fatty and destroys Chirico’s Scopedog II. He hides behind a wall and shoots at her with his gun, but she fires back and destroys the wall. Fyana manages to move enough to fire and blow off one of the Fatty’s legs. Zophie asks Chirico to shoot her, but he says shooting women isn’t his style. Fyana asks Chirico to leave her behind, but he says he’ll take care of everything. He uses scavenged parts to build a backpack so that he can carry Fyana. As he walks away, Zophie vows that she will kill him.