A/N: So... Chapter I of Fugazi. Woefully short, but it makes me think I shouldn't have deleted it. Hibiki becoming Emperor of Tarak was, perhaps, one of my best and most plausible ideas.

/strokes ego/

Chapter I: Trudging Through the Ashes

Two years later…

Moon SV-426, military colony of Imperial Tarak…

A lone figure walked through the wreckage that composed the remains of the colony of SV-426.

His clothing was mostly black, but he was also clad with a brown leather trenchcoat, ripped on many places. His face was covered in dirt, blood, and grime – the escape pod that had brought him here had malfunctioned and its landing had been… less than pleasant.

He looked around, observing the wasteland created when the women bombarded the moon, only a few weeks ago.

His name was Hibiki Tokai.

Hibiki sighed. He had wandered the dead colony for a day, finding nothing that could get him off it and back into space.

Still, there was hope. Though Imperial Tarak’s flagship, the Aleksander, had certainly been destroyed, the same could not be said for the fighting force that had been engaging the women. As he recalled, they were overwhelmingly superior in number to the female fleet they had been engaging. Indeed, it had probably defeated them, or at least survived, and was looking for him. He would soon be rescued.

‘Don’t be foolish. After the Aleksander was hit they are certain to have followed the orders you set in place – to retreat in order to minimize the losses a sudden lack of leadership can incur. They probably think you’re dead. You’re stranded here.’

Hibiki sighed. It was the Voice again. It had started talking to him around the middle of the first year of the war, and had not stopped since then. While Hibiki had shrugged off the fact that this probably meant he was going insane, he found that the Voice’s brutally honest comments could certainly be… annoying. And at this point, he was really not in the mood.

‘Shut up you damn ghost. They’ll come. I know they will. Their loyalty to me is unfailing.’

He heard the voice chuckle in his head.

‘My… my… my… aren’t you just like your father? I can only imagine what he thought of the loyalty of the People’s Militia, and… ooops, now he’s dead.’

‘Fuck off! My father made a mistake, yes, but this is different. My warriors have proven themselves time and again-‘

‘And yet their loyalty probably dissipated as soon as they saw the Aleksander being hit. Don’t be foolish.’

“Argh!”

In anger and frustration, with the Voice and with himself, Hibiki kicked a nearby piece of rubble. The thing flew off into the distance, but his foot hurt. A lot.

“Fuck!”

‘For such a good strategist, your actions appear to be very predictable. Now calm yourself, and look around… do you see anything that may help us get out of this Godforsaken rock?’

Hibiki took a few deep breaths, and then looked around, observing his surroundings. There were many things that could have helped, but most of them were unusable thanks to the women’s massive bombardment.

‘Nothing… there’s nothing. We’re stuck here.’

Silence. Then…

‘Well, it had to happen someday…’

“Huh?”

‘That stupid decision you made two years ago, when you let your pride overrule your judgment, has finally brought about your end. When the few food pills you carry with you are finally consumed, it’ll be over for you… for us.’

Hibiki could not think of anything to argue against that. The Voice was right. He might as well accept his mistake.

‘Perhaps… there is nothing I can do, however. I made a choice and stuck by it. It turned out to be the wrong one, and now I’m suffering the consequences. I hope tha-’

‘Wait! Look up at the sky!’

Hibiki did, seeing nothing at first, but then noticing a small dot, rapidly approaching and growing larger and larger by the second.

‘Yes! I told you they would come! I – oh… oh shit… oh shit… ohshit.’

The approaching ship was finally coming into view.

‘Well, I’ll be damned…’

It was the Nirvana.