Revenge Wars

Part IV

"Revenge's End"


Section II


***


Dawn. Two figures stood in a field at the edge of the Fred main 
compound, facing one another, staffs held at the ready. One wore blue 
body armor, the other wore a similar suit, but red with maroon highlights. 
Both waited for some intangible signal to begin.


"You can back out anytime." The scarlet-clad combatant called to his 
opponent, twirling his staff expertly. "I'm better than you, and you know it."


"I wouldn't be too sure about that." The fighter in blue replied, holding his 
stance.


The waited for a few seconds more, then simultaneously rushed each 
other. They closed the distance rapidly, and their staffs met with a crack.


Webdragon backed off a little, then threw a flurry of simple strikes and 
jabs at his opponent. Prime blocked them all, and responded with a few 
of his own, which Webdragon easily countered.


<You've been practicing!> Webdragon thought. <I guess you can handle 
the basics now, lets see what you can do with something more 
advanced...> Webdragon spun into a sudden roundhouse kick, catching 
Prime off guard. Prime managed to block with his staff, but left himself 
open to a subsequent strike to the ribs by the butt of Webdragon's 
weapon. Prime staggered back, clutching the right side of his chest. 
Webdragon saw his opening and charged, staff raised high for the 
finishing blow.


It was a mistake. Prime suddenly ducked under Webdragon's arms, 
ramming the end of his staff into Webdragon's stomach. Webdragon 
staggered, and was caught under the chin as Prime's staff swept 
upwards. He was sent sprawling onto his back.


It was a stupid mistake, and Webdragon knew it; Prime's armor probably 
absorbed most of the impact, and he had faked the rest. But that 
knowledge didn't assuage his anger any, and as he stood up, he felt 
something release inside him, freeing a dark, alien rage. He looked upon 
his opponent and saw only the bloody, broken corpse that would remain 
when he was finished.


Prime was unaware of his friend's change. "Gee, Webby, that was 
pathetic! _Gosunkugi_ wouldn't fall for that! You must be getting senile." 
He said, grinning.


Webdragon didn't reply. Instead, he charged his foe, staff raised. Prime 
raised his weapon, expecting another sparring match.


He was mistaken. Webdragon attacked with a speed and ferocity that 
was totally unlike him, almost inhuman. Prime struggled to keep up, but 
blow after blow landed. Something screamed at Webdragon that this was 
wrong, but he was too far gone in the bloodlust to hear it.


Prime dropped to one knee, battered and bruised, head down. 
Webdragon brought his staff up, ready to strike the killing blow. Then 
Prime raised his head.


For an instant Webdragon saw hurt, fear and betrayal in his friend's blue 
eyes, which caused him to pause for a split second. Then he saw 
something else. A flash.


Something slammed into Webdragon, like a pro football front line, 
knocking him back. His staff arced upwards and shattered like a dry twig. 
The surprise, coupled with the realization of what he was about to do 
dissolved the dark rage coating Webdragon's mind. He got to his knees 
and looked at his friend, feeling only concern, and a lot of puzzlement.


An expression of shock was frozen on Prime face. He slowly looked at 
Webdragon. "Webby... what the hell just happened?"


Webdragon struggled to his feet. "I don't know. No, wait, I do know; 
Nothing. Nothing happened. Not a damned thing."


Prime got up. He looked at his staff for a second, then tossed it away. "I 
think that's enough practicing for one day." He said quietly.


***


A young man stood just outside the portal access building, hands 
jammed into his jacket pockets, the wind whipping his shoulder-length 
black hair across his face. He had given up brushing it away nearly a 
half-hour ago.


<Where is she?> Ranchan thought, rolling the 'package' around in his 
jacket pocket, feeling the tube's irregularities with his fingers. <I've got a 
veritech simulator booked twenty minutes from now! If I keep missing my 
simulator time I'll never get off reservist status!>


Suddenly his ears perked up and he narrowed his eyes. Dropping his 
hand to the weapon clipped to his belt he spun to face... nothing. 
<Sombody's here, I know it!> "Okay, I know you're out there. Show 
yourself."


"Sorry to keep you waiting, sugar." Ukyou said as she jumped down from 
a nearby rooftop. "How'd you know I was there anyways? I know I didn't 
make any noise."


"I'm... hard to sneak up on." Ranchan said, boasting a little. He purposely 
ignored the fact that she could have nailed him with every spatula in her 
bandolier by the time he would have spotted her.


"I see." Ukyou replied. She noticed the bulge in his pocket. <Either he's 
happy to see me, or...> "Did you get it?" She asked.


Ranchan pulled out the cylinder. "Yeah. Ukyou, I'm flattered you asked 
me to get this for you, but I'm curious why you didn't go to Erin yourself."


"Mills-san and I have some... bad blood between us."


Ranchan silently cursed himself for forgetting. "Oh, yeah, right. 
Ukklones." He mumbled. He handed over the tube.


Ukyou examined the device, then secreted it into the folds of her 
Okonomyaki Chef's outfit. "Thank you, Lucas." She said, smiling a little.


"Uh... y-y-yeah, no-no problem." Ranchan stuttered.


Ukyou turned to leave. "Wait, Ukyou!" Ranchan said.


Ukyou turned. "Yes?"


"Umm, not to pry or anything, but what exactly do you need with one of 
those? I mean, you're already pretty kick-ass with your spatulas..." 
Ranchan trailed off, unsure whether he should have kept his mouth shut.


Ukyou shrugged. "I don't know. I've just got a hunch that I'll need more 
than kitchen utensils in the near future, and I generally trust my hunches. 
Besides, I loved the movie." 


"Maybe we can spar sometime?" He asked, almost pleadingly, gesturing 
to the identical device clipped to his belt.


"Maybe." She replied, favouring him with a tight smile. She turned to 
leave, but stopped and turned back. "Lucas?"


"Yes?" He replied hopefully, not caring how pathetic he sounded.


"I'll have your tapes back by to you by next week."


For only the second time since entering Fred Ranchan did something he 
would never have believed possible before the start of the Revenges.


He facefaulted.


Ukyou giggled and leapt onto the roof of a nearby building and 
disappeared.


Ranchan watched her go, then got up and dusted himself off. <I was so 
close...> He raised his arms skyward and screamed "JONE I'M GONNA 
KILL YOU!!" Then he turned and headed off to the training complex, 
thinking about the scenario he was going to fly, and hoping his wingman 
wasn't a total loss like last time.


Somewhere, sitting in a _very_ small universe that closely resembled a 
small gray room, Eric Jones sneezed violently. "Uh oh."


*** 


Zen staggered into the dorm common room, looking battered. Strewn 
about the room were the still-living carcasses of his dorm mates, all 
thoroughly trashed.


"And Zen thought 3WA was bad." Zen groaned and collapsed onto the 
nearby couch. The couch protested, and it took a moment for Zen to 
realize that he was sitting on Webdragon. "Sorry."


"I warned you, didn't I?" A greasy spot on the far side of the room that 
resembled the Prime Sagittarian said. "I went through this when I joined 
MONforce."


"I wish we'd go already so that Washuu can kill us and put us out of our 
misery." Kyone-chan moaned. She was in her Magic Knight mode, but 
her outfit was badly tattered and scorched.


"If it means we can find that jackass (?), the it's worth it!" Ukyou said, 
although she didn't look totally convinced herself.


"Ukyou's right!" Priss said. "A little discomfort is worth it if we get a shot at 
the head honcho, right?"


"Speak for yourself." Nene groaned. "Right now all I want to do is raid a 
sweets shop, then sleep for a year."


"*Mind if I join you?*" The happyface on the T.V. screen said. He was 
immediately pelted by a phalanx of pillows. "*Hey, I didn't mean it that 
way!*"


"That would be a first." Prime said.


"*Do you know what Wyrm-chan has had me do for the past week? 
Simulations inside MON's computer system. She's had Tycho, Leela and 
Durandal triple-teaming me the entire time!!*"


"Got vaped, huh?" Webdragon said.


"*<Grumble grumble> Well I wouldn't have if Leela hadn't cheated!*"


"Exactly how did she cheat?" Prime asked.


"*Well, she kinda... well...*" To everyone's surprise, the little HentA.I. 
actually blushed. "*... Offered to kiss me. THEN she vaped me.*"


Silence reigned for a few seconds, then everyone burst out laughing.


"You... <snicker> you actually FELL for that?!" Prime asked, in between 
bouts of laughter.


"*HEY! It could happen.*" Alpha's response elicited another round of 
helpless laughter.


Wyrm-chan strode into the room, looking disgustingly energetic. "What's 
so funny?"


"Uhh, nothing, nothing!" Prime replied, wiping the tears from his eyes. 
"Just a joke, that's all." He smirked at Alpha. "A reeealllly big joke."


Wyrm-chan shook her head, realizing that they would never tell her, and 
that she was probably better off not knowing. "Look you guys, I think 
we're ready to go. If we wait much longer, Wyrm-sama will catch on and 
shut us down."


"Have you solved the portal problem?" Prime asked. "I mean, 
theoretically Alpha and I could hijack a Plot Hole, but Wyrm would 
probably shut us down before we got far."


Wyrm-chan's eyes narrowed. "Oh, if it came to that I think I could handle 
Mr. Jeffreys."


"*She's just pissed because Wyrm kicked her out of his bed again last 
night.*" Alpha quipped.


"_That_ is none of your business!" Wyrm-chan shot back. "As for the 
portal problem, Stargazer has agreed to help us. Everyone just get some 
sleep, we've got a big day ahead of us tomorrow."


"No kidding!" Zen replied. Everyone began to file off to their respective 
rooms, but before Zen could leave Ukyou placed a hand on his shoulder.


"Zen, could I talk to you for a minute?"


Zen blinked. "S-sure, Ukyou."


Ukyou waited until everyone left. Prime paused for a moment and gave 
Zen a look that he couldn't read, then shrugged and left, leaving them 
alone.


"Zen," Ukyou said after another moments silence. "Why did you volunteer 
for this mission?"


"T-to help in the fight against (?), of course."


Ukyou frowned. "Don't lie to me Zen, you're not very good at it. You're not 
one to jump off a bridge just because everyone else does. You don't 
believe that we'll find the information we need at Washuu's lab, do you?"


Zen sighed. "No, not really. I think Wyrm-chan is jumping to conclusions. 
Dangerous ones. But I _do_ agree its the best chance we have at the 
moment. That doesn't mean it's a good one, though."


"So why? One person isn't going to make a lot of difference in a mission 
like this. If Prime can't find (?)'s hiding place within a few minutes, an 
ARMY won't save us. Why tag along?"


<Because I don't want to see you get hurt Ucchan, not if I can help it!> 
"For... personal reasons."


Ukyou didn't look happy with his answer, but finally nodded. "Goodnight, 
Zen-san. Sleep well."


"Uh, hai." Zen watched her leave, then slowly got to his feet and went off 
to bed, suddenly not feeling quite as tired as he had a moment ago.


***


Webdragon knocked on the door to Prime's quarters. He couldn't stop 
thinking about what he had almost done. <I almost killed him today. If he 
hadn't... done whatever it was he did, I would have. He deserves to know 
why.>


"It's open." Prime replied. Webdragon opened the door and stepped in to 
see Prime sitting on his bunk, polishing the blade of an ornate sword.


"Where did you get _that_?" Webdragon asked, momentarily forgetting 
what he had come for.


Prime didn't look up. "Believe it or not, its a family heirloom. It belonged to 
my Great-great grandfather, Benjamin Galusha Jones."


"Galusha?" Webdragon replied, cocking an eyebrow.


Prime nodded, still polishing the blade. "It's some kind of ceremonial 
sword, but for what no one in my family will tell me. Strangely enough its 
the only family heirloom I feel any connection with. I insisted that Wyrm let 
me bring it along when I joined MONforce." Prime carefully resheathed 
the sword in its bronze scabbard. He finally looked up at Webdragon. 
"What did you want to talk to me about?"


Webdragon cleared his throat. "It's about this morning... about what 
happened..."


Prime shrugged. "It's okay. We both got a little carried away." Prime 
looked at the floor. <That telekinetic burst... if I had aimed a little lower, at 
his head instead of the staff...>


"No!" Webdragon exclaimed, surprising Prime. "It's not okay! Look, there's 
something going on with me... I haven't told anyone yet, and I'm not going 
to... but after what happened I figure you deserve to know." Webdragon 
sighed and sat down in a nearby chair. "Look, when I got my Jusenkyo 
curse, all I could think about was finding a cure. When Frosty offered the 
chance to come here, to Fred, I had already looked into potential cures. 
One of them involved a small quantity of Dragon's Blood."


Prime raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Where did you manage to find 
Dragon's Blood?"


"It's a long story." Webdragon said. "And not terribly relevant. Suffice it to 
say I had it when Wyrm sent a plot hole to pick me up. When I passed 
through, I was still thinking about the dragon's blood, and I idly wondered 
what it would be like to actually BE a Chinese dragon. When I passed 
through the hole, I felt something... I dunno, _change_ inside me. When I 
got to the other side, the dragon's blood was gone. At first I figured I just 
lost it, but now..." He looked haunted. "I don't know if this is possible, but I 
think in the plot hole the dragon's blood and I somehow... merged. Is that 
possible?"


An expression of horror passed over Prime's face as he mentally ran 
through what he knew of plot holes. It was easily possible, where plot 
holes were concerned. Wyrm had gone through something similar during 
an emergency transit that Alpha Centauri had conducted, taking on the 
physiology and memories of Wyrm of Gallifrey. "Yeah, I'm afraid so." What 
the eventual result would be in Webdragon's case was anyone's guess. 
"Webdragon, you need to go see Wyrm, _now_! If you let this thing go..."


"NO!" Webdragon cut him off, standing. "No, Prime, this is my problem, 
and I'll deal with it. I just thought you deserved to know. Now that I know 
for sure, it won't happen again." Webdragon flashed his friend a weak 
smile. "I can handle it, don't worry." He left Prime's quarters, closing the 
door behind him.


<I hope you can.> Prime thought. He mentally reminded himself to look 
up everything on Chinese dragons in Fred's database, including any 
potential weaknesses. Just in case.


Webdragon walked back to his own quarters, wondering if he really 
could handle things on his own. Belatedly he realized he never asked 
Prime exactly what kind of weapon he had used to shatter the staff like 
that.


***


A sign hung on the door to the engineering department of Fred's 
Command and Control center which said "If it was Easy, Anyone could do 
it!", and slightly below that "Knock before entering! This Means YOU!" As 
many of the unwary had discovered, challenging either through word or 
act was not conductive to general good health.


Inside the department, the main area was taken up by two large 
holographic CAD workstations. There were schematics of Fred pinned up 
on the walls, along with a few of the SDF 1, _Yamato_ and UFDS 
_Marathon_. Next to them was a large flat screen displaying a Gantt chart 
of the Fred rebuild project.


One of the workstations, currently unoccupied, was surrounded by piles 
of paper and print outs. There was a large jar of tea bags, a hot water urn, 
a bar fridge and a selection of mugs within reach. The computer had a 
Fluffy Teddy Bear.


Sitting at the other CAD station was a slightly bedraggled young man 
with short, dark hair. The display changed as his fingers danced. Next to 
him was a coffee machine and a fume extractor.


At a third desk, supporting a standard computer (well, standard for Fred) 
an older woman with purple hair sat. As she worked, the Gantt chart 
changed subtly, reflecting changing data, project progress, boxes being 
filled, tasks completed.


A figure in a set of oil stained coveralls with 'I'm an Engie, not a....' 
stencilled on the back came in; Tall, red gold hair and hazel eyes. He 
threw a pair of gauntlets onto the desk, and took off a bat-belt of tools and 
gadgets which he draped over the back of the seat of the unoccupied 
workstation.


" Deeeep Yogurt time! We need a new batch of fluidic couplings, the last 
lot just failed QC and we're bouncing 'em back."


"Different supplier?" asked Madigan.


"Certainly not going with those turkeys again. Schedule is going to be 
shot to hell. Opinions: Can we do an alternate?"


Mackie spoke. "It would be better to standardize on one control system 
type. We'd lose more on installation and interfacing than we'd *Yawn* 
gain on delivery time."


Kate frowned at the display. "Let me have a look, we may be able to 
gazump someone else."


Barry put a hand on Mackie's shoulder. "Did you pull another all-nighter, 
kid?"


"Uhh, kinda." Mackie said, sheepishly. "But I'm fine."


Barry could tell he was lying, just from his bloodshot eyes. "Yeah. Right. 
Go to bed, Mackie. I'd rather have you wide awake and alert in five hours 
than have you half asleep and making mistakes now.  Pace yourself."


"But you don't.."  Mackie tried to protest, but Barry tightened his grip, 
cutting him off. Reluctantly, Mackie got up and headed out. "You shouldn't 
let him do that, Kate." Barry said, sliding into Mackie's station, checking 
what he'd been working on. The kid did do good work, that was for 
certain.


Madigan shrugged. "I'm not his mother. He's a big boy, and can take care 
of himself. And you're a fine one to talk about sleep."  


There was another pair of signs above the unoccupied workstation...


"Sleep .. isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for Caffeine?"


"When in trouble or in doubt, Run in circles, scream and shout!"


Barry snorted. "I've known a lot of 'big boys' who thought that... they're 
called Burn Outs. Especially not after what happened to Sylia. Now about 
this supplier, can we try the same one in a different reality? One with 
better quality assurance?"


"The time it would take to find that particular reality would be prohibitive." 
Madigan replied. "Besides, Frosty has declared that portal use is to be 
kept to a minimum. We're supposed to keep our suppliers limited to one 
particular reality. Also, setting up dummy corporations each time is time-
consuming and difficult."


Barry sighed. "Figures. We finally have the _perfect_ supplier base, and 
we can't take advantage of it. Oh, by the way, has Stargazer talked to you 
about those power couplings?"


"He was supposed to come in today. I wonder where he is?"


***


The engineer in question was just outside the main Fred compound, 
along with Wyrm-chan's small band. He looked somewhat 
uncomfortable, as did most of the others. Wyrm-chan was garbed in her 
usual Mantis armor, with an M-113 rifle/grenade launcher slung over her 
back, and a Zeus-class fusion pistol in the holster on her hip (what she 
called traveling light). Prime was adjusting his wrist bracers nervously, 
periodically shifting the plasma rifle on his back and hefting a small, box-
shaped electronic device. Kyone-chan was wearing her Magic Knight 
garb, sword strapped to her back. Webdragon was brushing some lint off 
the shoulder of his armor, occasionally glancing at Prime. Nene and Priss 
were fully suited, their armor glinting in the morning sun. Kei and Yuri 
were in standard 3WA issue battle bikinis, with the standard array of 
weapons. Zen was wearing his 3WA jumpsuit and a utility belt identical to 
Kei and Yuri's. Ukyou was in her usual blue Okonomyaki Chef's outfit, 
with her trusty megaspatula strapped to her back.


"Just for the record, I don't particularly like going over Frosty's head on 
this." Stargazer said. "I'm doing this because I agree its the only way to 
get to (?)." He looked at Wyrm-chan. "There are a few important things 
you have to remember. First, we only got one set of specific coordinates 
for Washuu's lab. They _should_ set you down in one of the main 
computer nodes, but I have no idea what you'll find when you get there. 
Second, I'm going to need precise coordinates to pull you back out. 
Either that, or you'll have to use one of Washuu's transporters."


"That's out." Wyrm-chan said. "If we do that, we might as well erect a big 
neon sign saying 'This way to Fred, all battlefleets please keep right.'"


Stargazer nodded, and cleared his throat.


"Zen has a baaaad feeling about this." Zen muttered.


"Join the club." Prime replied. The box under his arm protested, but he 
ignored it.


"And thirdly," Stargazer continued. "This mode of teleportation isn't terribly 
subtle. It's not as bad as a plot hole, but it'll probably set off every alarm 
Washuu has, so she'll know you're there. The upside is that she won't 
know until _after_ the 'port is complete, and it'll take her a little while to 
lock down your positions. Hopefully that'll be enough."


Kyone raised her hand. "Excuse me, but is it too late to just try dialing 
information?"


"I think we all understand the risks." Wyrm-chan said. Ukyou, Priss, Kei 
and Yuri all nodded immediately. The rest weren't quite so enthusiastic.


"Let's go already, before I completely psych myself out." Prime 
complained. Patience was not one of his virtues.


Stargazer nodded and raised his small black 'porter. "If you survive this, 
I'll buy you all a drink."


"And Zen was afraid he'd have nothing to come back to." Zen quipped. 
He walked over to stand with Wyrm-chan, Ukyou, Yuri and Priss.


Kei looked back at Prime. "Well? Are you going or not? This whole party 
depends on your worthless butt!"


"Gee, Kei, I didn't know you cared." Prime grumbled. He, Kei and Nene 
joined the group.


"Well," Kyone said to Webdragon, her long green hair billowing in the 
wind. "I guess I'll see you in Valhalla."


"You first!" Webdragon replied, and they both joined the group. 


Stargazer set his 'porter. "Good luck." He said and initiated the transport.


***


Wyrm-chan knew something was wrong as soon as the dizziness 
induced by transport faded. They had appeared in what seemed to be a 
large biology lab. The lighting was dim, most of the illumination coming 
from large fluid-filled cylinders containing various strange creatures. 
"Where's Zen and Ukyou?" she asked, already knowing that the answer 
wasn't good.


"No one was here when we came through!" Yuri replied. She pulled out a 
small scanner and did a sweep of the area. The red glow from the 
scanner illuminated her face. "And they're not anywhere nearby, either."


"I don't like this!" Priss said, snapping open the flechette ports on her gun 
arm. She immediately switched her hardsuit's sensors to nighscope 
mode.


Wyrm-chan was about to agree when she heard a distinctive chitter. The 
hair along the back of her neck stood on end; She knew that sound well. 
"It's a trap!!"


There was only a second's pause before one of the nearby doors slid 
open, spilling light into the lab. Silhoutted in the doorway were dozens of 
tall, anorexic-looking green aliens, wearing light armor of various colors 
and carrying long staves which crackled as they moved. The Pfhor. 
Wyrm-chan activated her Mantis armor and unslung her M-113, silently 
wishing that she had brought more grenade rounds. Then the Pfhor 
pounced.


***


Stargazer lowered his arm as the group disappeared. With Fred's 
accelerated time, it would be awhile before he heard from them again. 
He almost didn't notice the flashing light on his 'porter.


He quickly punched up the readout on the little display. His blood went 
cold. The transport had been blocked.


More correctly, someone had _tried_ to block the transport. But it hadn't 
worked for some reason. After a little examination, he discovered what 
had happened; He had set his 'porter to compensate for Fred's 
accelerated temporal state, relative to Washuu's lab. However, according 
to his readout, washuu's lab was now operating on the same time scale 
as Fred. The error should have aborted the 'port. But someone had tried 
to block the transport, and the combination of the attempted block and 
Stargazer's unnecessary compensation had somehow disrupted the 
subspace carrier wave, scattering the group throughout Washuu's lab.


Stargazer immediately tried to transport himself to the lab so he could 
pull everyone out, but Washuu had already put up barriers to his form of 
transport. There was probably only one way to get them out now, and that 
meant spilling the beans to Wyrm.


He turned and ran for the compound, hoping that Wyrm-chan and the 
others could hold out until he got to a comm terminal. In the back of his 
mind another, darker thought was forming:


How could Washuu have blocked the transport, if she didn't know they 
were coming?


***


Zen popped into existence right next to Ukyou. He was relieved she was 
alright, and immediately looked around for the others. But there was no 
one else.


"Wha...?! Zen thought we were coming through together!"


Ukyou looked around nervously. "I don't like this."


"That makes two of us." Zen replied. Actually, he wished it made more of 
them, but it seemed that for the moment two would have to do. He studied 
their surroundings carefully.


They were in some sort of arboretum or aviary. There seemed to be blue 
sky above them, but if he squinted he could see the metal ducting behind 
the hologram. It appeared to be deserted.


"Do you suppose this is Washuu's garden?" Ukyou said.


"Well, I suppose Washuu would do some extensive research on plants 
and animals." Zen replied. "Although these seem a little... well, 
_normal_."


Abruptly a nearby shrub's roots erupted from the ground, snaking around 
Ukyou's waist, pinning her arms, and ensnaring Zen's leg, throwing him 
to the ground.


Ukyou struggled futily, trying to free an arm so she could throw some of 
her mini-spatulas. Slowly the shrub began to draw her towards its base, 
where a mouth with more than its fair allocation of teeth had appeared.


Zen's arms, however, were still free. He flicked his wrist, dropping a small 
playing-card shaped object from his sleeve into his hand. He drew back 
and let it fly.


The Bloody Card first sliced through the tendrils binding Ukyou, freeing 
her. Then it arced around and amputated the remainder of the roots, 
which all began spurting green ooze. The shrub screamed and retracted 
it's injured appendages.


Zen stood and caught the card as it returned. He noticed he had to reach 
for it a bit, and made a mental note to work on his aim when he got back. 
"I take it back. But why did it have to be tentacles? Zen HATES tentacles!"


"It is a little overdone." Ukyou agreed, removing root fragments from her 
clothes. "By the way sugar, nice trick. Maybe I should introduce you to a 
certain poker player who has given me trouble."


Zen noticed some of the other plants beginning to stir. "Maybe we should 
leave now."


***


*SPLASH*


Prime-chan's head broke the surface of the filthy water, and she 
immediately drew in a grateful breath. There were two more spalshed 
nearby. Prime-chan blinked. <Since when are there pools of dirty water in 
Computer Control Nodes?>


She looked around. Kei's head had just emerged, and Nene was already 
holding onto some floating debris to help support herself in the chest-
deep water. Piles of garbage were heaped everywhere, creating islands 
of scrap in the ocean of waste water.


<Garbage... waste water...>


Prime-chan wanted to scream. <A garbage bay. That _moron_ Stargazer 
set us down in a GARBAGE BAY!>


Kei picked bits of trash out of her hair. "Oh, this is just perfect! What the 
hell happened?"


"Eewwww!" Nene said, pulling an unidentifiable stringy object off one of 
her sensor wings.


"At least you have that helmet filtering out the smell!" Kei said.


Prime-chan scowled. "When we get out of here and back to Fred, 
Stargazer is a DEAD man!"


***


Ranchan slid into the simulator cockpit and snapped on the flight 
harness. "Who's my flight this time?" He asked the technician on duty.


"Robin Smith, Ken Arromdee and Nabiki Tendo." The tech replied, 
closing the simulator canopy.


"Wait! Nabiki...!" The canopy snapped shut before Ranchan could finish 
his sentence. He sighed and took a hold of the controls as the flat grey 
canopy dissolved into a simulated starfield. <Nabiki Tendo is a first line 
cadet. She outranks me by several orders of magnitude, why the hell isn't 
she in command of the flight?> Ranchan ran through a quick systems 
check. Things were supposed to be all green, but sometimes the techs 
liked to throw the pilots a curve ball to keep things interesting. Not that 
this particular scenario wasn't hard enough already. "Green flight, this is 
Green leader. All ships check in."


"<Green four, check.>"


"<Green three, I want a raise.>"


"<Green two, Roger>" Nabiki's voice came over the speakers, cold as ice.


Ranchan reviewed the scenario in his head. It was called "Grand Canyon 
Raid", but everyone simply called it the Death Star Trench Run. 
Essentially they were to strike an enemy staging point on an unidentified 
planet.


"<Green Leader, are we doing this by the book, or are we going to try 
something fancy?>" Nabiki asked over the comm. Ranchan sighed.


'By the Book' meant following the standard strategy for the scenario. The 
enemy base was _very_ well defended, so much so that the chances of 
getting close to it were virtually nil. But there was a way around the 
defenses. A narrow canyon ran near the base, originating well out of gun 
range. The standard procedure was to fly along the canyon until they got 
close to the base, pop up and dump as much ordinance as they could 
into the installation, then pull the nose up and burn for open space. Two 
fighters would drop into the trench, while the other two kept the enemy 
battlepods busy. Of course, it wasn't as easy as it sounded.


First off, the space in the trench could get very tight, very fast, so 
maneuvering was a problem. Secondly, the builders of the base knew of 
the problem, and had loaded down the canyon with hidden turrets, booby 
traps and sensor spoofers. Essentially you were flying blind, and a well-
placed bomb could drop the entire cliff wall on top of you at any time. 
Secondly, the two Valkyries left behind weren't going to be able to hold off 
the battlepods for long, and they would soon begin dropping into the 
trench to pursue. This meant that unless the pilot wanted to get 
sandwiched between a rockslide and a battlepod, he would have to run 
the trench at extremely high speed.


Ranchan sghed mentally. Of course, any other way would ensure that the 
fighters would get blown to bits long before they even got within sight of 
the base. "By the book, Two, unless they've invented a better way to do 
it?"


"<Not that I've heard of.>" Nabiki replied.


"That's what I was afraid of." Ranchan said. He brought the nose of his 
fighter around until the blue-green planet was visible. "Okay, standard 
combat re-entry dive. Deflectors full front, safeties off." That was one 
advantage they had: Stargazer's engineers had retrofitted the Super 
Valkyries used by the FDF with shields and hyperdrive units lifted straight 
out of X-Wing fighters, which vastly improved combat survivability. The 
main weapons had been upgraded too, trading the main depleted-
uranium chaingun for a plasma pulse cannon, and the standard 'Pepsi-
can' missiles for more powerful proton torpedoes. Still, shields weren't 
going to save you from bouncing off a rock wall at nearly supersonic 
speeds.


<I HATE this scenario!> Ranchan thought as they dove towards the 
planet.


***


"Anything?" Kyone-chan asked nervously, keeping watch as Webdragon 
fiddled with a small computer terminal. The corridor was clear, for now.


"Nada." Webdragon replied. "Prime or Nene or one of the other techies 
would probably do better. This stuff makes the system on Fred look like it 
was cobbled together out of vacuum tubes and typewriter parts!"


"So there's no way to know whether or not anyone else made it through, 
huh?"


Webdragon paused, stretching his arms from their cramped position. 
"You're the Magic Knight, isn't there a spell or something you can use to 
find them?"


Kyone-chan thought for a moment. "I dunno. I'm still a beginner at that 
sort of thing. They DID teach me a basic tracking spell, but it's not terribly 
reliable. It works best when you're looking for a person or object who 
radiates a fair amount of power, to distinguish them from the 
background."


Webdragon thought for a moment. "Well, Wyrm-chan certainly qualifies."


"Washuu might also detect me using the magic and home in on us."


Webdragon shrugged. "This place comprises five planets worth of space. 
We aren't going to find them any other way. Besides, if Washuu's home is 
this badly guarded, she obviously doesn't take defending her territory 
seriously."


Kyone-chan frowned a bit at that last comment, but Webdragon was right. 
The lab WAS poorly defended. "Okay, here goes..."


Her long green hair rippled, then flowed upwards, as if caught in an 
updraft. Kyone-chan closed her eyes and concentrated, taking on a slight 
glow as she did.


Webdragon shuddered, fighting off an instinctive urge to lash out at the 
source of alien magic. He clutched his head and forced the urges down, 
but it was getting harder each time. It was only a matter of time before he 
lost it completely. Luckily Kyone-chan was too absorbed in the spell to 
notice. Webdragon only hoped he could hold on until the end of this 
mission.


"There are four sources of power." Kyone-chan said as the spell faded. 
"The strongest is obviously Washuu. One of them is us, although I didn't 
think I put out that much power. The third is the second strongest, and is 
probably Wyrm-chan. But there's a fourth one, a lot weaker than the rest, 
but still there."


Webdragon frowned. "Is it one of us?"


"I'm not sure. I think so."


Webdragon shrugged. "Well, keep it in mind. For now we should go find 
Wyrm-chan." He indicated that the Magic Knight should precede him. 
"Lead on, MacDuff."


***


After blasting the exit to the garbage bay (and discovering it was 
magnetically sealed), Prime-chan had set to work bypassing the lock. It 
took her a few minutes, in which Kei started seriously considering using 
him as a battering ram. Finally it slid open.


"Gotcha!" Prime-chan grinned and pulled herself out through the door.


Kei and Nene followed, relieved to finally be out of the stinking soup. Kei 
slung Prime-chan's rifle (which she had confiscated after his bonehead 
stunt with the door) across her back. "Okay, now what?"


Prime-chan lifted her left forearm, focusing her attention on her keytool. 
"Glitch, map. Present position and intended destination."


The little device whirred as it reconfigured itself. A holographic map 
appeared in front of them, filling the entire corridor. Two dots appeared, 
one red, one green. They were quite far apart.


"This is good." Prime-chan said, sarcasm dripping from her voice. "We're 
only about an entire _planet_ off course! I thought Stargazer knew what 
he was doing! Even ALPHA could screw up a 'port THIS badly!"


"*Hey!*" a muffled voice from the box under Prime-chan's right arm said.


Prime-chan ignored the voice and continued examining the map. "Glitch, 
known transporter locations." The map was suddenly speckled with small 
white dots. "Whoa!"


"What good will the transporters do us?" Nene asked. "I thought we 
couldn't use them to get home!"


"Maybe not." Prime-chan replied. "But we can use them to get around, 
maybe find the others."


"Site-to-site transporting?" Kei said. "Isn't that a little dangerous? Are you 
sure you know how to operate one of those things?"


"Trust me!" Prime-chan replied, giving them the thumbs up.


"I've heard _that_ before." Kei replied. She pointed to the box under 
Prime-chan's arm. "What about the virus? Are we gonna haul his useless 
butt around with us?"


"*Hey, I am NOT a virus, you protoplasmic sack of goo!*" the box replied.


"Well, I guess we can plug him into the nearest data terminal and let him 
loose in the system." Prime-chan replied. "He might even be able to run 
interference for us."


"*Never mind that you're a cute redhaired protoplasmic sack of goo...*" 
Alpha continued. Prime-chan extended a cable from the side of the box 
and plugged it in. She tapped in the download sequence on a small 
keypad on the box, transferring the little HentA.I. into Washuu's computer 
system. The computer screen lit up, displaying a 3-D happyface, which 
didn't seem very happy at the moment. "*I couldn't move in there! First 
you kidnap me, then you stuff me into that tiny thing! What, you wanna 
smother me?!*"


"It was the largest portable data unit Wyrm had!" Prime-chan shot  back 
"You've just gotten fat!"


"*I am NOT fat! I'm just... big baud.*"


"Riiiight." Prime-chan snorted. "Look, we'll get to a transporter and try and 
track down Wyrm-chan and the others. You just blitz around and try and 
keep Washuu distracted, okay?"


"*Yeah, sure, give me the easy job.*" The HentA.I. grumbled, and 
disappeared.


"Okay, he's in." Prime-chan said. "Now what?"


Kei folded her arms across her chest (which Prime-chan found 
distracting, for a moment. But only a moment. Really!) "I thought YOU 
were running this show."


Prime-chan shrugged. "I know zilch about tactics. I know where we have 
to go, but I haven't a clue about the best way to get there. YOU'RE the 
trained trouble consultant!"


"Well in that case..." Kei began, but stopped as she heard a kind of 
chittering noise. "What was that?"


"My sensors are picking up numerous life-signs moving in this direction!" 
Nene said. "Non-human!"


This time Prime-chan heard the chittering too, and shuddered. She had 
only heard it in the simulators before, but it was Not a pleasant sound. 
"Like I said, I don't know anything about tactics, but if I might suggest a 
rapid tactical withdrawl?"


No one argued. They all ran in a direction that they hoped would take 
them far away from the Pfhor. Unnoticed by them and their alien pursuers 
was a small data storage unit, left lying on the floor next to a data input 
jack.


***


Stargazer reached the Engineering department of Fred exhausted and 
out of breath. He staggered through the door, to the surprise of Barry 
Cadwgan and Kate Madigan.


"Stargazer?" Barry said, steadying the other engineer as he staggered a 
little. "You look like you just ran across the entire damned compound!"


"I... <gasp> DID!" Stargazer replied, shaking off Barry's support. "I need 
<pant> a direct line to Wyrm... ASAP!"


"A little pushy considering you're late for your appointment." Madigan 
said coldly.


"Kate, something's wrong." Barry replied. "Get Wyrm on the horn. What 
the hell happened, Wayne?"


Stargazer paused to catch his breath. "I screwed up. WE screwed up. 
Wyrm-chan decided to make a raid on Washuu's lab, and I agreed to 
help her..."


"Aww, Bloody Hell!" Barry swore. "Stargazer, what were you..."


"LET ME FINISH!!" Stargazer roared, silencing the red haired engineer. "I 
agreed to help them by 'porting them over. But there were two problems. 
One, Washuu's lab has been time-accelerated. It's running as fast as Fred 
now."


"Damn." Barry swore quietly. Fred's time dilation was their biggest asset. 
Without it... well, time was no longer on their side.


"And two," Stargazer continued. "They knew we were coming. They 
fucking _knew_! Washuu tried to block, but the combination of the time 
dilation and her block messed up the 'port somehow, scattered them all 
over the lab. I couldn't get them back, and I'm blocked from going there 
myself."


"Wyrm's on." Madigan said, handing over the handset of a cordless 
vidphone. Barry handed the device to Stargazer. "Here, tell Wyrm what 
you told me. Kate, tell Frosty to put the compound on alert. And wake up 
all my engineers and tell 'em we're pulling double shifts from now on! 
Mads..." Madigan winced slightly. "... Start slashing. Anything non-
essential just got cancelled, and grab a set of overalls for yourself too. I'll 
wake up Mackie."


Barry paused for a moment, then tapped Stargazer on the shoulder. 
"Uhh, just out of curiosity, is there anything wrong with your 'porter?"


"No," Stargazer replied, confused. "Why?"


"Then why didn't you just 'port here, intead of running across half the 
compound?"


Stargazer winced. "D'OH!"


***


Prime flattened himself against the wall next to the entrance to a large 
cargo room, Glitch in pulse blaster mode. Nene was beside him. Kei 
hefted the plasma rifle she had 'liberated' from Prime. First rule of combat 
tactics: Even if you're not going to enter a room, you have to check it out, 
first.


"On three." Kei said, and slowly ticked off three fingers. "Now!"


Kei and Prime stuck their heads around the corner, weapons ready. The 
huge cargo bay was echoingly empty.


"Clear." Kei said, relaxing.


"Told you." Nene chided.


"We can't take the chance that Washuu has started spoofing your 
sensors." Prime replied, allowing Glitch to revert to its neutral form.


"It's lucky she hadn't started messing with Yuri's transponder signal." Kei 
said. She, Yuri and Zen had subdermal transponder implants, standard 
issue for 3WA. It was what they were using to track down the others. 
Prime had wanted to find Zen first, but Kei had practically threatened to 
shoot him if they didn't go after Yuri first.


"Actually," Prime replied. "I can't understand why she hasn't done either 
already. She's more than capable of it."


At that moment a number of wall panels in the storage area blew off, 
revealing a number of Phfor. Prime and Kei jerked back behind the wall 
as energy blasts from the Phfor's staves screamed through the doorway.


"You just hadda open your big mouth, didn't you?" Kei grumbled. She 
leaned around the doorframe and returned fire.


"At least the automated defenses haven't kicked in." Prime replied. 
"Glitch, pulse-blaster!" He leaned around the doorway to fire and nearly 
had his head seared off for his troubles.


There was a soft whirr, and a small weapon dropped from the ceiling 
behind them and began chopping at them. All three dived behind some 
boxes along the wall for cover.


"Will you shut UP!" Kei screamed at Prime.


"Don't worry, I'll take care of the cannon." Prime replied. He concentrated, 
trying to contact his HentA.I. counterpart.<Alpha, we need your help...>


<Alpha?>


Nothing. He couldn't sense the artificial intelligence at all.<ALPHA!>


<*I'm... little busy...*>Finally came a weak reply. Prime barely caught it.


"Alpha can't help us." Prime said, an edge of fear creeping into his voice. 
He had done simple stuff, like request information from MON's database, 
but he had never tried to hack something without Alpha.


"I'll do it." Nene said. She started her suit on establishing a direct link with 
the automated defense system, while she scrambled the turret's 
targetting scanners. The turret became sluggish, but kept firing. Her suit 
established contact, and she began to hack into the security system.


<There's what I want! Now to change these values... Just a little more...>


The Phfor erupted from the doorway, spilling into the corridor. Kei and 
Prime sniped at them, but the defense cannon made things difficult.


<... come on... come on...>


Abruptly the little turret swivelled and started firing at the Phfor.


<GOTCHA!>


Caught off guard, the aliens were chopped to bits by fire from the turret, 
Kei and Prime. As the last Phfor fell, the turret retracted back into the 
ceiling.


"What did you do?" Kei asked, lowering her weapon


"I did a little rewrite of the security system code." Nene replied, practically 
glowing with pride. "I simple switched our classification with the Phfor's, 
so that they became the hostiles, and we were the friendlies."


"Uh, I coulda done that." Prime said.


"You wish!"


The lights started to flicker, and some of the nearby video displays which 
hadn't been destroyed started to go haywire.


"What the hell?" Kei said, bringing her rifle to bear.


Prime smiled.<So THAT'S what he was up to!>"I think our little virus just 
kicked into high gear."


In cyberspace, a small yellow happyface skimmed the massive data lake 
that comprised Washuu's computer system, in between the massive 
program stacks, causing as many disruptions as he possibly could. 
Trailing behind were the computer's security programs (Which were 
considerably thinned out).


"*I am the greatest!*" The HentA.I. cried. "*I am the greatest!! I am the 
greatest!!! I AM THE GREATEST!!!!*"


***


Contributors/Stars:


Zen

Gary Kleppe

Ranchan

Eric Jones

Robin Smith

Belgaren

BobKat

Stargazer

Ken Arromdee

Webdragon

Numbski

Frosty-usa

Jeremy T. Walker

Henry J. Cobb

Nightelf

David Row

Erin Mills

Megane 6.7

Magic Knight Kyone

Scriviner

J. D. Farber

Barry Cadwgan

Thomas R. Jeffrys (Wyrm)

Neil Carlberg

Ekisya

James Allen

And of course, The Prime Sagittarian, Alpha Centauri


AuthorÕs Notes: The response and support IÕve received for this project is 
staggering, especially considering this wasnÕt intended to be a serious 
project. Oh well, so much for that idea! This fic is now consuming every 
bit of free time I have, and I wouldnÕt have it any other way. IÕm having 
FUN!

Section III will soon be ready to go through my pre-readers. Oh, and if 
anyone else really wants to get in on this, e-mail me, and if IÕm in a good 
mood IÕll show you the secret handshake.


The Prime Sagittarian,

Alpha Centauri


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