Eternal Heavens
Disclaimer: I'm poor, so don't bother sueing. I only own my
original characters. Hell, I don't even own some of them, heh.
I don't own any of the Tenchi, Pretty Sami, Tenchi Universe, or
Shin Tenchi characters that might make an appearance since AIC
laid them off. ^_^
Authors Forward: The Lord Of Destruction kicked ass!
I'd like to thank Sethra first off for her initial preread of
this chapter, as well as various others who've added their input
(and characters). And I'd also like to beg and beg shamelessly
for C&C of any type, oh PLEASE! Please FFML! I BEG OF YOU! >_>
<_< Anyway, before I get my ass killed by certain evil Commander
for gimmick infringement, I'd really like to point you to my email
addy: kthardin@yahoo.com so you can drop me a line and tell me
how really bad and terrible my fanfiction is if you really want
to (oh please?) ^_^
Gathering of the Children
-Unknown Conflict
<Opening Theme - Sweet Child o Mine - Guns and Roses>
<Excalibur - Richard Wagner>
He walked with the weight of several lifetimes bearing him
down. He'd seen countless battles in his time. He'd fought in
wars that had stretched from one end of his galaxy to the other
when his people were first establishing their place in the great
wheel of the universe. His fighting skills in the family he
hailed from were unmatched, save by his Lord, his Lady, and their
children. Because of his great experience and even greater
power, he had been given the great honor of instructing
generations of nobles from the family he served, until it was
time to for them to take their place in The Empire.
Because of this, it was he who was given the awesome task
to deliver the ultimatum.
The man exited the gates of the fortress carved within the
tallest of the peaks and looked about him at the range of snow
covered mountains and deep, seemingly bottomless, canyons that
all served as home for the family he was sworn to protect. The
Y'tack, an honorable and noble family stretching back into the
time before recorded history, when the clans of the Tetran were
young and struggling to survive on their homeworld. And
this...this was their very heart. Here the Lord and his Lady
resided with their children who would have one day grown up to
inherit the vast resources of their family.
It would be a miracle if they survived this day, he knew.
As the gates closed behind him, he looked back half in surprise,
and half in relief that they had done this. Now he could only
turn back, and resign himself to facing this destiny; hoping
those gates would hold back the darkness that rushed to face
them. If only for a little while.
So far the lone figure standing only meters away, who was
dressed in clothing that was so black it seemed to suck at the
very reality around him, had not moved. The being had just stood
there since delivering a fateful proclamation and subsequent act
of terminating all communications and traffic out of the Y'tack
star system. But if that lone figure made good on the threat
given....
"Cyraqs," he sighed, wondering who the hell he was kidding.
All of it was true. All the rumors and legends that their
race used to scare each their children into submission, and
frighten each other at night. Something had unleashed the only
thing those of the Tetran empire feared more than the Emperor
himself.
What could it have possibly been to set off this
monstrosity?
The being before the herald quirked a little grin and
looked at him over the top of sunglasses which revealed eyes of
infinite space and starry skies. He looked upon those strange
cold eyes, and knew right then just how small and insignificant
he really was in comparison to what was represented before him.
A light snow began to fall, obscuring the being's hair that
was snow white, spiked up, and curled straight backward though
kept rather short. This was odd, as most who sported such hair
tended to curl either toward the left or the right. Not in this
case, but then why should normal rules apply when nothing else
did to this nightmare brought to life before the man.
Even this being's physical size was a contradiction. What
the herald was looking at should have been gigantic...bigger than
a whole quasar and monstrous beyond all sanity. Not this
unassuming barely five foot tall humanoid.
The man took a deep breath, and prayed to the great lady
who pulled their race out nonexistence and raised them to
sentience. He had never done so before, but it was the only
comfort he could find now before he did what he knew he must.
"Mad One! The Family of Y'tack has existed since our race
came to be, and you'll not destroy us now! Remove your foul
presence from our Star System and withdraw your blockade! For we
will fight you to the death of every single one of us here! And
when this day comes to an end, it will be you, not us, that will
no longer be!"
"Enough," the Mad One whispered. Yet the force that word
carried shattered the herald's eardrums, echoing over the world
and into the stars beyond.
Not one bit of snow or rock moved.
The man who was the herald of the terms to the Mad One fell
to his knees clutching his slightly elongated ears, blood seeping
between his fingers. The Mad One actually waited 'til the herald
regained his feet and his eardrums had repaired themselves before
he spoke again. Not that the herald was expecting to have
survived, but then that was why this being -this dark god- was
called the Mad One. You never knew.
"I shall take your position...into consideration."
He almost sounded...sincere. In fact the Mad One looked to
be mulling it over with himself, talking to who-knew-what-force
raged chaotically in whatever it was that passed for his mind.
The snow stopped falling when the Mad One looked up again.
The wind, in fact all motion and sound had ceased. The herald
dared hope that they were to be spared when the Mad One smiled at
him suddenly.
The herald's shadow was permanently blasted into the
mountain that he had once been standing on.
"Well, it appears your terms...are not acceptable," he
chuckled softly, ever increasing in intensity until he was
laughing uncontrollably.
Still laughing the Mad One raised his hand.
Everything went white.
-----------------
<BGM - Enigma - MCMXC A.D.>
Waking up, after a period of prolonged hibernation is
generally a jarring, disorientating experience. The mind has
trouble shifting gears from processing information from the realm
of the subconscious to that of the conscious in the amount of
time given for this transition. Confusion results, as one minute
the person in question might have been making love with the most
awesome goddess the cosmos had ever created. The next, the
person is holding their pillow, wondering why they feel oddly
satisfied, yet wet and sticky between their legs. Confusion
subsides, reality sets in...then they look over and realize it
wasn't a pillow they were holding, but someone they met at the
bar last night. And unfortunately they had the beer goggles on,
because DAMN! WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?
Truly the god of alcohol has an odd sense of humor.
Still, as disconcerting as that would be, Kiyone would have
preferred something of that nature compared to the mind trip she
was experiencing after her prolonged trip through hyperspace.
"Two days?" she asked herself once her balance returned
somewhat. She checked the chronometer on the portable scanner
strapped to her wrist a second time just to be sure. "Ugh. Two
days."
She hated that. She so hated her current hyperspace travel
abilities. They were as much a curse as a blessing to her
present state of being. True, she was far faster than even the
most advanced of the Galaxy Police ships, even Mihoshi's ship the
Yagami and her brother's ship the Midorishu. However, the
queasiness and disorientation she experienced shifting to the
state of energy required for hyperspace travel was not
comfortable to say the least. Coming out of hyperspace was far
worse.
She shook what passed for her head quickly, trying to shake
out the vestiges of her vertigo.
"I have got to figure out how to quit doing this!"
The lab techs assured her she'd likely get used to the fact
her mind slipped into a different state of existence while
traveling through that other dimension. In truth that part
didn't bug her so much. What caused her this amount of
discomfort was when she arrived at her destination. She
automatically ejected herself from hyperspace, converted her
energy back to its original form, and shifted her consciousness
back to the state in which she used for analytical thought
processes. All at once, no time to adjust.
This hurt. A lot.
She glanced back at the scanner on her wrist, and noted it
was still on the last page of the Quantum Destabilizer's user
manual. She'd actually managed to read its entirety before she
'fell asleep' in hyperspace, while absently wondering why
everything had to have a set of instructions that read in the
most monotone and lackluster way imaginable. Rather like the
teacher she and Seion had when they were in midschool.
A grin crossed her face when she remembered him for a
fleeting instant; recalling what a truly useless individual that
particular educator was.
She waved her hand once over the scanner, and a small solid-
light control panel appeared above it. Tapping a couple of
buttons, a map of the star system she was presently floating
opened up above the panel, with a red dot blinking in the
unmistakable manner of 'you are here, moron!'
Something occurred to her. "What star system is this?"
She grinned as names were added to the five planets of the system
as well as the medium sized yellow star they were orbiting.
"Seion, I could kiss you!"
The scanner had the capability of picking up and
interpreting the low level radio waves she was speaking with
while in the cold depths of space. It had been an easy fix to
the software, but most scanners still hadn't been upgraded with
the ability to interpret her 'voice' in space as anything other
than background radio noise. Seion had obviously remembered to
do this for her...it had completely slipped her mind. She
frowned at that, but it wasn't like it was a necessity she had
forgotten, only a convenience. After all, the thing still had
buttons that could be pushed.
She groaned a bit when a wave of weakness washed over her
suddenly and her green radiance dimmed in response.
"Mmmm...yeah, I guess I used up a bit of energy going all
the way across the galaxy." She chuckled and looked toward the
star of this system. "Ah...Sentinel Prime. You'll do."
Kiyone unstrapped the scanner from her wrist, and unbuckled
the pack around her shoulders and waist. Then, using a small
amount of her power, she moved it a few feet away and prevented
the pack from drifting further. The woman of green energy wasted
no time in stretching out as if to embrace the light streaming
toward her. Immediately points of emerald light began shimmering
all over her...around her...in her glittering and twinkling in
patterns all their own.
"Mmm...yummy!"
Some used to go to the beach to get a tan. Now she'd go to
get a bite to eat.
Odd that.
------------
Seion walked through the double doors of the Section X's
hangar bay - Level Twelve. Hardly noting the Space Craft of
various design docked around him, he made his way to the back end
where he knew his ship, the Midorishu, resided. Hopefully she
wasn't busy with one of her...pursuits. She would be a total
bitch for days afterwards...or at least 'til she could find a
nice new computer to...
"Gd'Ay Mate!"
His thoughts interrupted, Seion took note of the mammalian
biped, which spoke from a perch atop his ship. Without further
ado it jumped from the top of Midori and landed right in front of
the worried teal haired spy for a more. Aside from his utility
jacket, it was dressed only in its fur, which was presently
covered in grease and other more exotic lubricants.
"I'd shake yer hand, but I doubt ya'd really want to be
covered in all the muck I've been wading through...crimeny! That
shit reeks!"
Seion shrugged, "Hey, you're the best there is at this,
Wallabee. You probably get paid more than I do. What the hell
are you complaining about?"
Wallabee considered that while he scratched his muzzle with
the impact hammer he'd been carrying. This only served to add a
few more stripes of muck to his face.
"Aye Mate, I do at that," he finally agreed. "But what
good does it do me, if I'm sucking ex'aust from warp cores all
the freaking time, eh?"
"Not too much."
"And then ya just got to come down here and rub in the fact
that yer fucking tha big boss..."
"Is she ready?" Seion interrupted.
"Keep yer pants on, mate. You know she's ALWAYS ready."
Wallabee chuckled as Seion leveled him a sidelong knowing smirk,
"Don't worry. She's ready to fly far and fast. Hopefully fast
enough to keep the Major's cute butt from getting fried before
her time is up."
"I wouldn't be so worried if her old partner were with
her," Seion told him, "but since she's here at Section X and
Mihoshi's been assigned to the wayward children of the Jurai
Royal Family..."
Wallabee nodded in understanding, "Aye, it's not often you
get your own..." Seion glanced at him a slight warning in his
eyes, "...devoted friend," Seion rolled his eyes while Wallabee
winked, "to look after you."
"Right. Devoted friend. You're going to get me in trouble
with the powers that be yet Wallabee."
The furred mechanic bowed, the motion for which started
where his hips connected to his legs, which were far better
suited for jumping, and causing his entire upper body to pivot
toward the ground. "Always aiming to please, mate. Anyway, you
best get going. The Chief's waiting for ya too."
Seion turned and sighed, "Great. Just great. Thanks..."
Seion watched the furry mechanic jump over him and then land on
top of another ship in the hangar "...Wallabee. Fucking Roo."
<I Want Your Sex - George Michael>
He crossed the remaining distance to the Midorishu, noting
that indeed, the Chief was waiting for him, an amused smirk on
her pretty face.
"Chief! What can I do you for?"
She gave him a once over with her eyes, "You? Shit boy!
You're someone else's property at the moment. I don't dare do
what I'd LIKE to do with you now."
Seion groaned and rubbed his head, "Does everyone around
here know about that?"
"You forget where you are."
Actually he hadn't, but was truly hoping that certain
details had not gotten out. But did whoever find out have to
spread it to EVERYONE!? Even Wallabee, the guy who, in his own
words, had his head constantly in a warp core, knew!
"Can we just get this over with? Kiyone's going to be
going soon and..."
"You're the one who became her top man, Major." He ignored
what she was implying and tried to move past her. She moved
quickly to impede him. "Ah, Seion, you have no idea how much
trouble you cause me do you?"
Seion picked her up, and moved her from in front of his
ship's entrance. Quickly he walked up, and turned back, not
being able to resist a final parting shot as he closed the door,
"You're her favorite cousin Ramia, I was ordered to give you a
hard time."
Her eyes twinkling merrily she asked, "As hard as you're
giving her?" If only he could have heard it.
Inside the ship, he made his way to the bridge.
"Midorishu!" He called. "Midori!"
"Mmmm..." A voice slowly hummed out all around him.
"mmmm...yes that's it..."
Aligning the nanites in his body, he sent a signal to the
station computer to terminate all active connections with his
ship. The effect was similar to the time when he was a teenager
and he was pulled roughly from between his girl-friends legs by
his hair and sent flying across the room. Just after he impacted
an adjacent wall, he was to be greeted by the angry face of her
father. Still couldn't figure out how he survived that one. Oh
yeah, running. Lots of running.
"HEY!" She protested.
A digitized image of an achingly beautiful and very nude
woman, colored in nothing but shades of green, appeared on the
main screen.
"Get the engines online Midori. We need to lift off two
hours ago."
"ooohhh..." she complained, "The main computer was sharing
ALL his new information with me!" Her hands began to rove over
her over abundant breasts, and down her digital torso between her
high-resolution legs, "He has such a large bandwidth since the
upgrade. I could have interfaced with him for hours and hours,
while he pushed his files in me and..."
"Midori..."
"Hey you're awful tense cutie! Why not connect up to an
interface port and I'll make sure you get serviced far better
than that Juraian..."
"Don't go there." He warned.
She stuck her tongue at him, and licked sensuously once.
Turning over, she cupped her hands under her chin as if propped
up on the ground. The effect was totally given over to something
a mite surreal as her large bosoms floated freely in the space
beneath her, swaying as an algorithm mimicked breathing. "My
engines are all warm lubricated dear. You have only to give the
word, and I'll take you to heaven!"
Seion couldn't help but chuckle. Trust his girl to put him
in a good mood.
"Then gimme some sugar baby!"
Midori squealed with delight. "Aye Aye Captain! I'm
getting off now!"
--------------
There was no way. There was no way in Hell that the
scanner's readings of the planet Primus were accurate.
"Nothing." She tapped it experimentally. No
change...these things were nearly indestructible, so it was
unlikely to be a glitch, but still..."No plants, no animals, no
people. Not even any bacteria or other microbes."
How was that possible? And if it wasn't some sort of
jamming (which she hadn't ruled out) and the scanner wasn't on
the fritz, what could make this possible?
Briefly she considered calling for backup. She shook her
head in exasperation when she realized what she was thinking.
Old habits died hard. Even though she'd been on several
assignments with Section X, the urge to 'call for backup' when
something out of the ordinary popped up still figured largely in
her original training. That's what Section X, the division that
sent her out here, dealt with; so it rather defeated the intent
of the mission. That and the fact that it would take at least
three days for someone to get here made the idea somewhat
impractical.
Still, of all the really whacked out things she'd scouted
out so far in her current job, this rated really high up there on
the weird-shit-o-meter. Even watching time stop around her when
Kain broke free at Seventh Headquarters didn't give her the
creeps nearly as bad as a planet, once teeming with life and over
a billion sentients, all of the sudden being as dead as the moons
surrounding it.
"Resume."
The scanner obediently continued its sensor sweep of the
planet, the readout appearing in the holoscreen projected above
her wrist. Her glowing green eyes narrowed as the text began to
scroll by.
"You didn't go down without a fight, did you?"
Battle damage. Radiation, indicative of nuclear and other,
far more deadly, weapons employed, were present all over the
planet. Hard to see with all the dust in the air, but then
that's what happens when big holes are blown in a world.
What would possibly scare them so badly they'd use weapons
of mass destruction on their own planet? She was sure only the
Terrans, and maybe the Tetranians, were that psychotic.
"Strange."
The radiation levels were decreasing a phenomenal rate, far
faster than they should be. Almost as if something were sucking
away the alphas, betas, and high-energy gammas.
Aside from that, there was no trace of anything that could
be causing this. Or wiped out all life from the face of the
planet for that matter.
She wondered if the other planets of this system shared the
same fate. "Are we in range to scan Prima and Prime Nova?" A
green holographic 'yes' appeared next to the screen. "Do so."
She shook her head regretfully as the readings came up.
They were identical to the readings on Primus. She was hoping
for something more, something that would tell her what happened.
Something that would tell her that all life in this star
system wasn't just snuffed out.
<Crush - Brian Luzietti (Descent II Soundtrack)>
Realizing that little more information would be gained from
space, she willed her energy form to move toward the planet where
the scanner indicated the capital city of Primus should be.
Given her body was presently a glowing green mass of articulate
UEM based photons, she little more than blinked and found herself
perched on top of what used to be the wall of a sky scraper.
Light Speed (or very near it) she found very useful.
The wall, however, was laying over the rubble of a few
dozen lesser buildings. Its only purpose now was as a diving
board into a sea of nuclear glass that used to be central park.
Her eyes grew dim as she considered what she was standing on.
Youma technology was biologically based; every single bit of it
was alive and worked in harmony with the Youma and the world
itself. Now...all that was left was a dried up shell amidst the
ruined husk that used to be a living city on a now dead world.
Putting a foot before her, it seemed she stepped out of a
skin of emerald green light that quickly dissipated. Aside from
her weapons and the scanner, this left her completely without
clothing. She paused for one brief moment to run her fingers
through her long teal colored hair.
"Battle gear."
Electricity ran over her body from head to foot. Where it
passed it left her clothed from neck down in a skintight blue
body suit with black ankle length boots designed for the most
rugged of terrain. Only her hands and face were left bare and
the scanner changed form to a more combat oriented device. Now
it curved around the back of her head and around her ears,
looking very much like a hair clip. A small piece of pink
colored glass sprang out from the side of the device, covering
her left eye and listing tactical data derived from its
continuous scan of the surrounding area. She adjusted it
absently and checked the placement of her weapons and pack to
ensure both a snug fit and quick access should it be needed.
"Where is the capitol building?"
If anything had been recorded, she figured it would likely
be there behind heavily shielded archives. It was fortunate, she
noted, that there had been enough information on the Youma
refugee ships that maps had been acquired for most of the worlds
in their protectorate.
An arrow pointing to her left appeared on the pink screen.
She turned to that direction, and resigned herself to flying.
Keeping to the ground, and avoiding possible aerial detection was
not an option with all the debris in her way. Phasing herself
through objects was also not an option; her computers and various
other gear would not be able to accompany her through solid
matter.
A pulsing green aura of power appeared around her as she
sprang into the air leaving behind an emerald colored vapor
trail. She flew slowly at first, surveying the destruction first
hand, and giving her scanner time to record the extent of the
devastation. Also she hoped to find some possible clues that
might shed some light on the situation.
Nothing, she concluded. This place is as dead as the
scanner says it is. Better to just get to the capitol building
and get the information first hand. Poking around in these ruins
won't get me what I'm pretty sure will be there.
Unless, she grimaced to herself, whatever hit this place
thought of that too? Still, it's a better lead than poking
aimlessly around this junkyard.
With that in mind she increased her speed until she felt
herself breaking the sound barrier on this world. While her
equipment and clothing was built to handle such stress, it would
still create a rather noticeable sonic boom, and she'd rather not
draw any more attention to herself than she probably had at this
point (if there was anything to draw attention to, she added).
She wasn't willing to take more chances than she had to, and
besides...
This place was really making her wish she was not there.
She arrived at the building in a few galactic standard
minutes, or at least what was left of it. It had once been a
proud structure of metal, and gold colored synthetics, standing
at least a couple of kilometers wide and many thousands of meters
high. Now, it looked barely habitable for those annoying Mon
things the kids over the cosmos were collecting.
"Where was the main server?" An arrow pointing down
appeared on her view screen. "Of course. Silly me." She
hovered over the rubble looking for an access point of any type.
She considered phasing, but she'd need the scanner with her...an
interesting dilemma.
"Is there a stairway? Turbo lift shaft? Ventilation?
Anything leading down there?"
A schematic of what the building used to look like was
pulled up on the screen. Many glowing dots, denoting all the
requested access points blinked on the screen. She smiled,
according to the data one of the main access lifts was not far
from her present position. She just hoped luck was on her side,
and it wasn't caved in to the point she couldn't at the very
most, blast her way through.
-------------------
<Funeral for a Friend - Elton John>
"Now what did you want me to see again?"
The man smoothed back his shock of bright red brown hair
and gestured to the world below them in space, "Take a look."
The other lifted his reed boshi and did as he was bid.
"Strange," he said after a moment, "I've heard from a few
of the others that they've seen similar occurrences across the
cosmos, but their investigations turned up absolutely
nothing...except a lot of blown up shit." His eyes narrowed,
"This one is far more recent, however. Perhaps only a few days
old."
"Yes," the one with the red hair agreed, "I was about to
check it out, but considering you have a certain...interest in
the Youma, I figured you'd want to see this too."
The other man chuckled slightly, "Thanks." His eyes
narrowed suddenly, "Rumia?"
"Yes?"
The one in the reed boshi nodded toward part of the planet,
"What is that?"
"That, master?" Rumia looked. "Oh. Her." Rumia's
companion raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, I noticed her the second she
came out of hyperspace. She speaks in radio if you can believe
that. I think she's a member of the GP."
He considered this new information for a brief moment,
"Major Kiyone?"
Rumia nodded, "Yeah, I think so. She's the only one I know
of whose description fits. Haven't hacked their files in a month
or so; so I don't know if they've 'acquired' any other operatives
like her."
"So, the GP know." the one Rumia called master surmised.
"Is the rest of the Youma space like this?"
"Haven't had the time to check, but whatever hit them, ran
over them like they were nothing, so I expect so. What I don't
get is why they were limited to planetary defenses. Where are
their warships? Their planet killers?" He gestured to the space
around them, "This place should be littered with bodies!"
The master shrugged, "I know. This looks more like the
galactic middle finger raised in the Ultimate Last Great Act of
Defiance(tm)." He rubbed his eyes under his sunglasses and
sighed again, "What I don't get is how this is happening right
under our noses. I mean did you feeling anything?"
"Other than that weird sense of something coming we've all
been getting?" The master nodded, "Nope. Not even a billion
billion voices crying out and suddenly being silenced. That kind
of thing tends to draw attention...you alright?"
Red energy had slowly begun leaking out from the master's
eyes and was progressively growing darker.
"No, I'm not 'alright.' Let's get a move on and check out
the rest of the..."
"Hey. Listen, I think we should wait here awhile," Rumia
raised his hands defensively as the master's eyes turned toward
him in a sooty red glare of rage.
The red energy leaking from the master's eyes ceased
instantly, and his brow furrowed as he regarded Rumia. He turned
and glided closer to Primus, putting himself in a geosyncronous
orbit above what used to be the capitol, Rumia quickly following
"You're right, of course. If there is anything anywhere
around here, there's a good chance Ms. Bright, Green, and Glowing
down there will draw it out."
"There are two of us. You or I could still..." the master
shook his head at the suggestion, "naah, you're right. Better
not chance it."
"Exactly."
"Hey, look at it this way..." One of the master's eyes
quirked up questioningly.
"If something does pop up you'll get to do the lightning
and thunder thing you get SUCH a kick out of..."
"Yes," the master said as his war hammer returned to his
hand, "Silence is certainly an improvement." As an afterthought
the master grabbed the stunned Rumia before he could drift into
the atmosphere.
-------------------------
Kiyone slowly drifted down the final few feet of the turbo-
lift shaft that led to the main server room. She had been
fortunate in that she had first found a clear stairway that,
while blocked off after about half a kilometer down, led to a
junction in the main ventilation shafts. After that, it had been
a bit of trial and error, but with her scanner and ability to
control most of the electromagnetic spectrum (including X-rays)
she had managed to see her way through to a relatively clear path
via the ventilation, turbo lifts, and stair wells.
Now she was almost to her destination. The closer she got,
the more intense the cold feeling that ran up and down what now
passed for her skin. Something was just not right about this
place...other than the obvious lack of anything living.
Her weapon had been drawn a long time ago, and she readied
it as she touched down. Quickly she covered the area: An open
doorway, a hall with is varied defenses opened and seemingly
spent, and the gateway to her goal standing ajar.
She bit back an expletive, and hoped something in that room
survived whatever hit this planet. Her gun still at the ready,
she proceeded onward staying close to the wall. Though now
immune to most standard energy and projectile weapons, there were
still quite a number (two of which were presently on her person)
that could tear her apart. She wasn't willing to take the chance
that anything that might be on the other side of that door wasn't
carrying such a device.
After clearing the hallway and securing the room, she
holstered her weapon, but left it unclasped for quick access.
Now her job was to take stock of whatever information she could
salvage from this mess of...
"Fuck."
The server was dead. It's once bright green vines, firm
branches, and crisp leaves were shriveled and dry. No life
pulsed in what used to be the very brain and heart of the
information system of this world. It was already beginning to
turn to dust as if it had been left derelict for years. The rest
of the place was similarly drained, the various terminals and
control points that once pulsed with bio energy surrounded by
teams of technicians...all decaying. She supposed it was
fortunate whatever organic materials these buildings were made of
was made of sterner stuff. If this server were any indication,
the buildings wouldn't last more than maybe a month. Two at the
most. It also explained why she had found no bodies. Such
deterioration would have taken them and anything similarly 'soft'
within hours of what could have done this.
What COULD have done this, she wondered again.
Her shoulders slumped, and she let herself relax against
the wall.
NOTHING! She despaired silently. There's no way I can
extract anything from these living computers! Even their backups
were organic based, and whatever hit this place sucked every bit
of bio energy from the planet! And the degradation is...
Her musings cut short when her scanner clicked on. Her
hand strayed toward her gun before she realized it was trying to
lead her to a terminal on the other side of the room. The AI in
the scanners was relatively primitive in comparison to a ship's,
but given a mission statement it would help their users in many
innocuous ways.
"What is it?"
"Standard ISCS output data crystal." Now that it was out of
the vacuum of space, it could vocalize its output if it found it
necessary to do so.
"WHAT?" She shot up in surprise and rushed over to the
station in question. "How..?" She scanned the output device for
some means of ejecting it. Finding none (she absently noted it
was most likely absorbed into the system and regurgitated later,
which was an impossibility now), she smashed the area indicated
by the scanner. Withdrawing a whole mass of carbonized organic
parts, she sifted through it. Within moments she withdrew what
could have been the Holy Grail, judging by the look of elation
upon her face.
A crystal, no bigger than a child's fingernail, glinted off
the emerald illumination she was emitting.
Did they expect someone like me to find it, she wondered.
Quickly she pulled off her scanner and inserted the gem into the
port in back of the earpiece. She could barely wait 'til it had
scanned the data encoded upon it as she put it back around her
head.
The scanner clicked on immediately.
A set of tentacles suddenly impacted where she'd been
kneeling on the floor.
"The hell?" she mumbled from her position on the ceiling on
the other side of the room, gun at the ready. Good thing her
scanner was quite adept at detecting motion around her.
A pair of red glowing orbs turned to regard her from the
entrance, becoming slits of bloody light as its appendages pulled
back into its body.
---------------------
Rumia rubbed the back of his head where the war hammer had
impacted and complained, "Ah man...did you have to hit me so
hard, old timer?" Expecting some sort of sarcastic rejoinder
Rumia was surprised when the one Rumia named as 'master' made
ready hammer and began gathering his energies.
"Huh? What are you..?" Rumia's gaze flew down to the
planet, and without skipping a beat pulled a staff with an
elongated blade on each end out of hyperspace.
"Ah shit! Here we go!" He didn't even try to keep the
elation out of his voice. Finally, some action.
---------------------
Kiyone dimmed her radiance and flashed over to the other
side of the room. The appendages of the thing she dodged a
second ago slammed into her former place on the ceiling. A
second set of tentacles slashed next to her, prompting her to
move again.
Whatever it is, it's fast! I can't get a good shot at it.
But...she noted, it's staying in one place, maybe I can...
Her hand waved out wildly as she dodged another attack,
sending out a wave of green energy at the ceiling above her
opponent. A couple of tons of rock and organic debris
immediately crushing the tentacled being. The room shook
violently, but somehow held; in retrospect she considered that
might not have been one of her brighter ideas. She nearly
brought the entire place down around her ears, and tunneling out
was going to be a bitch.
The debris blew outward as the thing broke free. It
probably would have been a more dramatic reemergence, if not for
the fact this blast DID start bringing the whole place down.
Kiyone quickly considered her options. This probably
wouldn't hurt her, but the scanner and the crystal needed to get
back to Section X in relatively one piece...and even its durable
construction wouldn't survive a whole cave in. On the other hand
she didn't have to be careful of possibly harming any more
information, and her life was in relative danger.
She extended her hands above her and flew up, emitting a
continuous stream of energy that disintegrated everything above
her. At the speed she was going it acted like the shield she
didn't dare extend from her body for fear of what it would do to
the scanner.
Within moments she blasted from the building, like a green
planet killing super laser. She stopped almost a mile above the
imploding capitol building, and hovered.
"Did you get a good look at what that thing was?" Kiyone
asked the scanner.
"Negative."
It was the answer she was expecting, but she was hoping the
device had managed a visual on the thing. It would give an
identity to those responsible for what happened here, or at the
very least a good lead. Too bad it had buried itself in rubble,
and given its destructive capability she wasn't about to start
digging for it either. She had the feeling though, that if it
did survive, she'd know soon enough.
In this she was not disappointed. As she had done before,
the thing itself blasted its way out of the newly collapsed
rubble and debris. On the upside, now she'd probably get a good
scan of it. The downside, however, was she'd probably have to
try to fight it before she'd gained enough data on this being
that she could try to lose it and hyper-space outta this system.
Maybe not such a down side, she thought with a smirk. It
had been awhile since she had seen any action...and she had been
itching to try out her powers for real. It was irresponsible in
one way of looking at things, but she needed to give her scanner
time to make some recordings, and Seion's ill-gotten gun would
end it far too quickly. She reached down and tapped both the
sidearm and the knife on her thighs, ensuring they were still
there and ready for action. Still, she might need them if things
went beyond what she could handle; and survival was still
paramount in this game.
Gently she glided down nearly a block away from the entity
that had been scanning the area for her, presumably. Once she
got close enough, the thing immediately turned toward her, and
she got her first good look of what 'it' was.
<Iron Man - Black Sabbath>
"Great Goddess, have mercy," she uttered.
How could this be?! That's a Youma male, she realized in
disbelief.
Mostly humanoid mammal in appearance, 'he' had the
prerequisite bipedal appearance with two arms and two legs and
facial features typical of that sort of creature. After that
they got a bit different. The hands and feet of the males
sported six digits with an extra joint each giving them a far
greater scope of manipulation most races had to use mechanical
assistance to achieve. To further their manipulatory
superiority, their backs sported a number of extra muscles that
connected to six 'tentacles' of additional extendable muscle that
weaved and bobbed in the wind when not in use. In this case they
were tense and jutted out at all sides.
Those are what he used to attack me with, she realized, but
there is no way they could have extended as far as they did. And
those energy blasts are at a level way beyond the current
capabilities of their race. How did this guy get so much power?
That's when it hit her. He looked a bit off before, but
now as she got closer she saw that this was actually little more
than a parody of what used to be a Youma man. What she saw was
completely metallic, possibly technorganic, but regardless this
was not what it appeared to be at first glace.
"Scanner block," her scanner announced, "In-depth scans
impossible." Which explains why it didn't pick anything up down
here. So far she'd only seen one of...whatever this thing really
was, but there was no telling how many more there MIGHT be.
Suddenly blasting this thing with the Quantum Destabilizer seemed
like a better option than before. Still...a measurement of this
thing's capabilities would prove to be an incredible tactical
advantage if and/or when it came time to fight these things.
The chief was going to lighten her ass a few pounds when
she got back to HQ.
So far 'he' had yet to make any movement, hostile or
otherwise, in her direction. Well, let no one say I didn't at
least try to be civil, she smirked.
"Oi! Any particular reason you're trying to kill me? If
it's about the computer, sorry about that, but even you gotta
admit it was due for upgrade anyway!" She barely managed to
dodge the answering energy blast.
Quickly she returned fire in the form of a stream of pure
UEM force hitting it dead center in an explosion of emerald fire.
This had the added effect of further hastening the inward
collapse of the capitol building, and kicking up an enormous
amount of dust. As if there wasn't enough in the air already.
"Well, that wasn't too terribly difficult," she remarked as
the dust settled.
There at the epicenter, the only thing left of 'him' was a
disjointed mass of body parts spread over the landscape.
She frowned. True, pure UEM was incredibly hard to shield
against, and that's what she just sent his direction, but still,
this should not have been so simple. There was no way something
as easily destroyed could have been what took this place out...
"Oh." The parts turned into an amorphous amoebic substance
and converged on a central point, gaining more and more mass,
'til finally a figure began to ooze up from the growing pool of
liquid metal returning to its previous form.
And it was not looking very happy.
Nonchalantly, she pulled her side arm and shot it.
She decided there was a certain morbid fascination involved
in watching the golden beam strike and envelope the object of her
ire, scattering its presence on every plane of existence half way
across the galaxy. Not even a temporal shadow would bring this
thing back. Of course, the technology for that particular trick
was something Seion had told her about in passing as being so
tightly controlled by the Juraians and the Galaxy Academy that
even the mere idea it could be done was discouraged.
Holstering her weapon she turned and walked right into the
business end of a group of high-speed tentacles.
--------------------
"How long?" Seion asked.
All traces of her playful flirting gone, Midorishu replied,
"At least a couple of more hours."
Seion glanced at her engine indicators and snorted in
disdain. He was already pushing his girl way beyond her rated
tolerances and didn't dare ask her to warp hyperspace any
further.
DAMN! DAMN! DAMN! Why doesn't she ever listen to me!?
"I'd expect that's because she's related to you. Stubborn,
but loveable."
He glanced to his side, noting that she had chosen to go
with her holographic presentation vice her digital representation
on the view screen. For a change she was actually clothed in a
modest white house robe over her green 'skin.' He still didn't
get why she was wearing old style glasses. Nor had he realized
he'd said the last aloud. Regardless, he took Midorishu's
comment in the manner it was intended.
"Thanks beautiful."
She smiled whimsically and cursed she couldn't hug him.
"At least you had the foresight to tell her scanner to report
back to us. The time delay is nonexistent as close as we are."
"For all the good it does me now. She's bitten off more
than she can chew."
"She's strong. Like you."
"Yeah."
You better survive sis.
-----------------------------
<Paranoid - Black Sabbath
STUPID! I AM STUPID!
Self-remonstrations aside Kiyone also found herself
propelled through the air. Not to mention through what used to
be a skyscraper and quite a number of other buildings before she
managed to stop herself.
Another of those Youma looking things had taken her by
surprise and she walked right into his attack.
Not this time. She barely had herself righted when it came
screaming in her direction, only to fly into an energy-enhanced
uppercut that ripped it messily in twain. The Quantum
Destabilizer found its way back to her waiting hand, and two
shots were fired at the pieces fast enough to make one doubt
there was only the single weapon.
She tried to take to the air with the intention of escaping
the planet's gravity well. Before the thought was translated
into motion, another tentacle had wrapped around her and slammed
her roughly into the junk around her.
So far she hadn't actually been hurt, but she was expending
energy. Far more than the weak rays of the sun were able to
replenish. It would only be a matter of time before she'd go
insubstantial weather she wanted to or not, and she didn't dare
let that happen. Not with the cargo she was carrying around her
head.
Unfortunately, though it had not managed to disarm her, it
had her well and truly pinned.
She had lost strength, but nowhere near the point where she
shouldn't have been able to overpower this thing. Were they able
to adapt to the threats they faced, she wondered.
If so, the implications of what they had just done to the
Youma did not bode well for the rest of the galaxy, and certainly
not very well for her right at this moment.
The tentacle around her torso began to writhe around her
moving its tip up between her breasts and, "Hey, what are
you...HEY!"
Visions of that animated feature she and a few of her
friends had smuggled from Earth and watched completely blitz
drunk bubbled up in her mind as it slipped its appendage down her
collar and between her breasts.
"Oh no, you ARE NOT DOING THAT!" She dropped the gun and
began shooting it with her resident power. But for whatever
reason, be it her reduced energy state, their seeming ability to
adapt, or her distraction via the tentacle wiggling around her
pulchritude, it was just not doing the job.
Suddenly it stopped, and she felt the tentacle change and
split apart. Thousands of other smaller probes that began to
wriggle and squirm around her chest like a billion little worms
poking and prodding her. If 'he' actually had facial
expressions, she could have sworn he looked...puzzled.
"Warning, nano invasion detected." Nano invasion? "Your
energy signature is uncompromised. Hypothesis: Nanites appear
to be bio-energy collectors. It is trying to assimilate your
bioenergy, but it cannot adjust itself to your UEM base."
Energy assimilation? So these WERE to blame for what
happened here! Or at the very least were the weapons of those
responsible!
THIS IS WHAT DESTROYED THE YOUMA!
Her eyes narrowed and she concentrated every last bit of
energy she dared muster into a single blast of bright green rage.
Admittedly not quite as precise as the QD, but the
resulting explosion and termination of that nanotech monster was
far more satisfying.
She slid to the ground in exhaustion. Ruthlessly she
crushed the urge to discorporate; she was not going to lose
control of her scanner for any reason.
Especially not with the veritable army of those beings
popping up from the ruins around her.
She fingered her gun, and then shook her head. Kiyone
realized if she wanted to survive she probably didn't have a
choice but to drop everything and 'go ghost'. She pulled her
scanner off, hoping against all odds that she'd be able to come
back for it. Then she started discorporating, only to find that
she had somehow traveled about a kilometer in the air instantly.
"That wasn't very nice of them, was it? Molesting a pretty
little energy girl like you without permission is quite rude. At
the very least they could have ensured you'd enjoy it."
And she was being held...by a Juraian?!
"How do Major? Run into a bit of a problem did you?"
"Who..?"
"Name's Rumia. I haven't qualified as 'Juraian' for
centuries, so get that thought out of your head."
"How..?"
"None of your concern, pretty girl." He cocked a
mischievous grin at her, "Course if you see your brother before
we do, tell him I'll pay him that twenty I owe him in a couple of
weeks, eh?"
She suddenly found herself, still in Rumia's arms, in
orbit. "What..?"
"Had to get you out of there. Didn't want to confuse you
too badly, being who you are and all. I'd like to continue to
discuss a possible business deal with you, but I'm afraid the old
man will vaporize all the nifty nano-warriors down there, and we
need at least one still intact." He shook his head, muttering
something about senile old geezers as he set her adrift, "In any
case you wait here, and suck up cosmic rays. Oh and..." He set
her scanner a few feet away from her. "Try not to lose that eh?
We'd all LOVE to see what's on it later!"
"The hell just happened?" she mumbled as she lost
consciousness and physical cohesion.
-----------------------
<Long Way Down - Goo Goo Dolls>
Rumia appeared on the surface close to where he had found
the weakened Major. He lifted his arm to his side and casually
caught one of the flying nano-tech warriors being forcibly
propelled his direction. He glanced at it, shrugged and
enveloped it in a field of blue energy, causing it to vanish a
moment later.
"Okay, sample acquired. Now," His dual bladed staff
appeared in his hand and glee in his eyes, "let's blow things
up!" Glee that turned to consternation when he found himself
struck from behind and sent through a few hundred tons of
carbonized organic building material.
Not being one to be discouraged for such a trivial thing,
he allowed the debris to slow him down. Arching to the ground,
he planned on bouncing back toward his current opponent, through
the rubble, in a wave of purple fiery death to which nothing
would escape. When he found his face in the dirt again from an
opportunistic tentacle that had sprung from the ground he was
still not discouraged. No, now his current state was one of mild
annoyance.
Creating his own tunnel through the ground, he found the
annoying Youma looking Nano-warrior and sliced it from bow to
stern. The landscape from there to the horizon sported a two
dimensional vertical slice.
The would be tentacle monster fell into its component
quarks.
Turning quickly, he opted to phase his body through vice
tunneling. He raised his dual bladed staff in preparation to
attack; a singular blade rose from the ground and wove its way to
its mark at near the speed of light.
Rumia flowed from the ground, leaving ripples in his wake,
and cut down his first attacker.
His brow furrowed when he spied the master in a canyon that
had just not been there before, nearly a block away.
The old warrior seemed surrounded. Yet as the many around
him struck and blasted at him in a concerted effort only
networked computers or telepaths with gestalt capabilities could
accomplish, it became obvious who had who surrounded.
His body surrounded by writhing blue lightning, he dodged
and weaved around their tentacles, limbs, and energy attacks with
laughable ease. Each time he drew near one, his hammer or fist
struck leaving nothing but blue electric death behind him.
Coming to his final enemy, he opted instead to grab this
one by its neck, and lift it from the ground. The living power
around him danced from his form into the Youma mockery before
him. The rubble in their battleground was channeled away from
the excess power that was discharged from both their bodies.
Proving to be a fatal attack, nothing remained of the being
before the master; not even a dimensional after image.
He raised his hands joyously; sending a blast of pure
electron might into the atmosphere. The thunder struck every
plain of existence, deafening everything around Sentinel Prime.
His victory was short lived. Hundreds began popping up
from the ruins around them both.
"Hey, don't kill em all now! Leave a few for me!" Rumia
cried from his perch on the artificial cliff.
Before he moved to join in the mayhem, all the creatures
ceased any other motion, and looked up.
Noticing they had a new preoccupation - something one does
not get in battle without a REALLY good reason - the master
ceased what was turning into a wholesale slaughter of their
forces. His gaze wandered up to where those beings had focused
their attention and tried to discern what the hell they were
looking at.
"Hey! Old Guy! Look at Sentinel Prime!"
He did as Rumia suggested (making a mental note to thump
him harder next time for the old guy cracks), looking deep within
the sun to see what it was that had his former student so
disconcerted. Absently he noted the beings around him turning to
liquid metal and flowing underground.
"Well. That certainly looks ominous doesn't it?"
"Oh yeah. Someone just dropped a space-time disruption
into said ball of gaseous fusion."
The older one nodded thoughtfully, "Yes. Makes you
completely untraceable, even to us. I suppose we should go and
round up the cute Major then. We'd easily survive this, but I
doubt she'd be able to."
Rumia nodded, "Yeah, and we should probably wait on Major
Seion and see he doesn't get turned into his component particles
before his time."
As they both shifted their importance in the cosmos to the
orbit of the planet they'd been standing on, the master raised an
eyebrow at him, in an unmistakable question of what Rumia was
talking about.
"Her brother bugged her scanner, it's been sending a
continuous live feed of info to him as he trucks merrily away
through hyperspace at redline." Rumia expounded.
Rumia's companion gathered the nebulous green form of
Kiyone into his arms. For a moment he too glowed green and
seemingly pushing that emerald aura into the insubstantial Major.
This had the effect of restoring to the girl a measure of
cohesion, so that in his arms a sleeping, yet very nude and
beautiful woman had materialized.
Rumia patiently drew her backpack, knife, QD, and scanner
to himself; the latter he waved gently to his companion, "Nifty
device. It can morph into a couple of useable forms to be
strapped to your wrist or around your head like it is now."
Mostly because he was uninterested in the tech specs of
recent toys, the master replied condescendingly, "So, you want to
warn Seion what he's about to fly into," To emphasize his point,
he nodded in the direction of the sun. It was beginning to erupt
violently around its outer edge in colors that walked their way
around the entire electromagnetic spectrum and beyond.
"Yeah, suppose I better." Rumia tapped a couple of times on
the scanner, "Yo Seion! I'm making myself audible to you now, so
don't worry that the thing is reporting that we're in deep space.
Go ahead and talk freely, I'm sure you've figured out right at
this moment who's talking to you."
A bit of static and a moment later, a slightly grainy tenor
voice replied, "Oh man! Not you guys! Why oh why are you
getting involved?" A pause, "Is my sister okay?"
"She's fine," the older one holding the major assured him.
"Cool, cool." Another pause, "Why are you all involved in
this situation? What's so important in the Sentinel Prime star
system to get not one, but two of you out there?"
Rumia hedged, "Well uhh...about that."
"Yeah?"
"Well, for one, I think you should quit talking about
Sentinel Prime."
"Why's that?"
Kiyone was waking up under extreme duress, but something
was telling her in no uncertain terms to come to, right NOW. As
she regained her senses, she noted she was both nude and in the
depths. She noted next she was being cradled like a baby and was
far too tired to do anything about it. Finally she realized that
there was someone next to her shouting into her scanner...and for
some reason she could hear him.
"Because..."
Kiyone was then treated to a scene she'd see in many a
nightmare to come, as the sun was sliced open by the forces
raging inside of it, to spew its cosmic guts all over creation.
Thankfully consciousness left her in short order when the
enormity of what just happened washed over her.
"...it's just not there anymore."
<End Theme - Dreams - Van Halen>
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