Nadesico Episode 4

Episode: 4 Episode Title: Charmed by aqua space

Episode 4

Date: September 2196

The pilot Jiro Yamada dies of his wounds but only AKito appears to be upset, everybody else gets on with their duties onboard.

The Nadesico approaches a Nergal space colony to take on the rest of its compliment of pilots, but as they approach the colony is destroyed, not expecting an attack the Nadesico had lowered its shields and was preparing to dock, the ship is struck by debris and its shield generators are destroyed.

Sensors detect that an intruder has border the ship and the crew are put on alert.

While Akito is sitting watching one of Jiro's Anime shows he is interrupted by a strange and remarkably hot young woman who falls through the ventilation duct in his ceiling, she is wearing a pilots suit.

The woman introduces herself as Hikaru Amano, an Aestavalis pilot who like stale crackers and writes her own comic book (of the smutty, two men and not many women, variety)

As Hikaru is introducing herself the crew is put on alert as an unknown Aestavalis approaches, Yurika allows it to enter the hanger and the pilot, another remarkably hot young woman introduces herself by declaring that she smells and needs to have a shower.

Hikaru introduces herself to the new comer Ryoko Subaru, and another pilot (though not hot) emerges dramatically from a cargo crate that was being towed by Ryoko's Aestavalis. Seeing that her comrades are alive, Ryoko promptly goes nuts, ignoring Hikaru and trying to put Izumi Maki back into the (air tight) cargo container.

Akito becomes friends with Megami Reinard who encourages him to fight for Earth, they share their sorrow over the death of Jiro and of the colonists.

Akito and the pilots are dispatched to recover the fourth Aestavalis from the Space colony (Ryoko flew one Aestavalis and towed a further two to the Nadesico shortly after the destruction of the colony), Akito is not used to flying in space and is sent outside to watch the operation after exhausting his power supply on entering the colony. It is revealed that the Nadesico's graviton power beam cannot penetrate the walls of the colony, and that the pilots must use a low power mode to operate inside an enemy  vessel or a building.

The fourth Aestavalis has been taken over by the Jovians, several insects have attached themselves to the robot and are controlling its onboard computer, the pilots try to fight the robot, but the combined power of the Aestavalis and half a dozen Jiro robots is too much. The robot forces the pilots to use their batteries to generate a shield and escapes by bursting through the colonies wall towards the defenseless Nadesico (its shields are still damaged and cannot be activated), the only chance of stopping the combined Aestavalis and Jiro machine is Akito, who can barely maneuver in space.

Imitating a character from Jiro's anime, Akito uses his distortion field to generate a "flair attack" (the Aestavalis's distortion field is concentrated in a single location and impacted on an enemies shield, the higher concentration of the Aestavalis's shield acts like the blade of a knife and is able to penetrate a far more powerful field that is spread over a wider area, this attack is one of the most effective ways that an Aestavalis has of destroying a capital-ship).

Welcomed back onboard as a hero, Akito kisses Megumi, right in front of Yurika.