As Selphi from FF8 would say, Boyaka!
Hey everyone, how's it going?
Okay standard disclaimer. Starcraft is owned by Blizzard Entertainment, Ranma 1/2 is owned by Rumiko Takahashi, and X-Com is owned by Microprose. Everything is used without permission, and not for money. If anyone else says so, they're lying!
Now, non-standard disclaimer. This fanfic is somewhat dark, in keeping with the Starcraft Universe with Ranma humor thrown in at appropriate times. I STRONGLY encourage everyone to read up to and including Chapter 3, once I post it. If you still hate it after that, well, that's your problem! :) The chapters aren't too long (probably less than 30k), so it couldn't take too much time.
C&C is PLEADED for. I have been greatly helped by my friends E, and Ben Bradley in their contributions, but I am always seeking to get better. You can write to the list or to abrown@wwdb.org
Side note: Hearing "It was great, keep writing," is good, but something more detailed would be greatly appreciated. Don't let that stop you though! :)
Now, on with the show...
Chapter 1: Apocalypse
"Hey Jerry, get a look at this!"
Jerry Holas, an astronomer at S.E.T.I. or Search for Extra
Terrestrial Intelligence walked over to his colleague's workstation. He
was the picture of the perfect nerd. Thick glasses sat on a prominent
beak of a nose, covering part of his high-set cheekbones. His head was
small in proportion to the rest of his body, which was thin like a
scarecrow. He nodded to Paul, a fat man with dark hair and a thin beard.
"What is it?" he asked.
"We've got some sort of signal coming in."
"What kind of signal?"
"I don't know. It starting coming in about five minutes ago. It was
so weak at first that I though it was just background noise, but it's been
growing steadily louder."
"Is it radio, x-ray bursts, or what?"
"Like I said, I don't know. It has some properties of radio, but the
computer can't pick up very much. There are strange gaps in the signal.
I can't tell if they're gaps between words or signal loss or the computer
can't read those parts of the broadcast."
Jerry peered at the screen, trying to make sense of the strange
readings. "Have we got confirmation from other observatories?"
"One in Hawaii just starting picking it up just before I called you.
I've got a couple of telescopes trying to get a visual."
"Visual? How close is the signal?"
"I estimate about three hundred thousand kilometers."
"Three hundred thousand kilometers? How could something -" he was
interrupted by a beep from the console.
"That's our visual. Patching it through..." Another screen came to
life.
A huge vortex sat in a region of space near Earth. It spun around,
like a massive tornado, spewing matter and energy. It's green-yellow
coloring flashed and dimmed in random patterns. Occasionally, small
things would emerge from the vortex. Dots of purple and red and green
began to fill the empty space around the whirlpool.
"My God," whispered Jerry.
Suddenly, the other monitors went wild and Paul frantically tried to
bring some order to the chaos.
"What is it? What's going on?" Jerry demanded.
"I think...yes..." His voice became awed. "There's something else
happening, about four hundred thousand kilometers out. Feeding the
coordinates to the telescope in Arizona. We should be able to see what's
going on in a minute."
The second image was vastly different than the first. Where there had
once been a field of stars, there was now a dark hole in space.
Surrounding it was a ring of blue lightning, which waxed and waned around
it's circumference. Small yellow ships with splashes if blue or red were
coming through the hole.
"Two groups," said Jerry excitedly. "Not one, but two!" he laughed
ecstatically. "Paul, we finally know that we're not alone!" Jerry began
to do a comical caper around the room. Tears were pouring from his eyes.
He shouted with joy.
Paul was not given to such theatrics. He just sat in his chair with
a foolish grin on his face. "Shall we notify the President?"
"Yes! Tell him! Tell them all!"
"Ranma! Ranma wake up! Wake up, Ranma!"
Ranma jerked out of sleep and to full wakefulness. "Akane!
Don't...wha-"
"Ranma, I've been trying to wake you for five minutes! You're such
a jerk! We're missing the news!"
"If I had to wake up to your face every morning, I think I'd rather
be dead!" came the automatic retort. Then what she said sank in. "What's
so important on the news?"
"Aliens are coming! There's already one group in orbit and another
on the way! They were spotted last night by some American astronomers.
Ranma groaned. "You woke me up for a half baked story like that?
(Not that you could bake to save your life.) If I'd known that you
liked reading tabloids, I'd have bought you some. Leave me alone."
Ranma rolled over and went back to bed.
"Ranma get up! I'm serious!"
"Tell it to someone who's stupid enough to believe a story like that.
Maybe Kuno."
"RANMA!" Akane picked him up and threw him out the window.
Ranma-chan managed to extract herself from the pond fairly quickly.
"I hate this stupid curse," she muttered.
"Well, it's your own fault for getting cursed to turn into a girl,"
replied Akane, who had just come down the stairs.
Nabiki's mouth twitched. "She's kind of like instant ramen. Just
add water."
"Maybe I should throw you into the spring of drowned man so you can
change into a guy when splashed with cold water instead of a girl! How'd
you like that?"
Kasumi brought Ranma-chan a kettle of hot water. "All right. That's
enough you two. We're trying to watch the TV." Ranma-chan poured the hot
water on herself and changed back into a man.
"Our top story: Aliens have appeared and are in orbit around the
planet. A second group is close behind and should arrive within the hour.
Military forces have been mustered, and President Clinton is pleading for
the populace to be calm." The picture switched to President Clinton
talking to a large group of reporters.
"I strongly urge everyone to remain calm. Panic will not serve us
and can only do us harm. Every means of attempting to communicate with
the aliens is being attempted. Our military has been alerted and is ready
to counter any possible threat. We are at the beginning of the greatest
moment in the history of man as a species."
"Wow," said Ranma-chan. She looked at Akane. "You weren't kidding!"
"I told you so!"
"So what do we do now?" asked Kasumi.
"There's not much we can do," replied Nabiki, "except wait."
"This just in! The aliens are descending into our atmosphere. I
repeat, the aliens are entering Earth's atmosphere."
"Let's go outside to see if we can see them!" said Akane.
They went up to the roof and looked into the blue sky. Around them
several of their neighbors were doing the same. They waited.
Nabiki pointed up. "There! They're coming!"
Through the sky blue of the atmosphere, hordes of Mutalisks dove down
to the Earth. Their orange worm-like bodies had a pair of purple bat
wings growing out of either side. Right behind them were Guardians, large
purple aliens, followed closely by Overlords, which were shaped like purple
jellyfish, their tentacles twisting around underneath their bulbous bodies.
An interceptor flew in for a closer look, and was blasted to pieces
by the Mutalisks. An intense air war started, human planes fighting the
aliens. The interceptors were better armed and armored, but the Mutalisks
outnumbered them ten to one. While the Mutalisks and the humans fought,
the Guardians and Overlords moved past them towards the ground. All
around them Overlords landed, disgorging monsters that might have come
from a sci-fi horror movie. Overhead, Guardians blew buildings apart
with balls of acid.
"Uhh...guys, a plan would be a really great idea right about now!"
urged Nabiki.
"I know what we can do!" declared Soun. He and Genma prostrated
themselves before Happosai. "Master, we submit ourselves to your wisdom."
Nabiki rolled her eyes while Kasumi shook her head. "Dad! This is
serious!" yelled Akane angrily.
"Forget them, Akane," said Ranma. "Let's get out of here."
"But where are we going?"
"I know!" declared Happosai.
Before he could speak, however, a thunderous boom flattened them all.
It sounded like someone was tearing a hole in reality. When they recovered
they saw in the distance a blue energy field surrounding a building several
blocks north west of their current position. A Guardian approached to
investigate, and a bolt of lightening detached itself from the shield and
tore through the creature. Even from this distance they could hear the
thing's squeal of pain before it fell apart, cut in two. Ranma shook his
head in amazement.
"The Nekohanten."
They leapt from rooftop to rooftop, devouring the distance between
the Tendo compound and the Cat Cafe. Those who could not make the jumps
were carried, Kasumi by Soun, and Nabiki by Genma. They raced just barely
ahead of the main armada, which was also converging on the Nekohanten.
Acid balls hit buildings all around them, and a couple of times they just
barely managed to get off a roof before the building was blown out from
underneath them.
They dropped off a roof into an alley below. The Mutalisks flew past,
their shots ricocheting unpredictably.
"We can't stay up on the roofs," said Ranma. "We're too open."
"We'll have to use the streets then," replied Genma.
The streets were no safer than the skies. Aliens swarmed through the
city, tearing through buildings and killing the inhabitants.
"Ranma, look!" bellowed Genma.
Fifty yards in front of them, an Overlord landed and released six
Hydralisks. Their bottom half was shaped like a snake, a writhing mass
of slimy tissue. Their top grew outward into a bony exoskeleton, with
skull like faces. They formed a line and advanced, slithering towards them
quickly. Once in range, they spat venomous spines at their targets. The
assembled martial artists leapt above the lethal barrage. A low cry of
pain revealed that not all of them had managed to evade the attack. Ranma
looked back and saw Soun fall to the ground, Kasumi tumbling from his arms.
"Daddy!" cried Akane. She landed and rushed the aliens. Rolling
under another volley, she rammed both her fists into one of the aliens.
Both fists punched through the creature's exoskeleton, and with a jerk,
she tore the creature in two.
Ranma followed her up by attacking two of the aliens simultaneously.
Unleashing the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken, he quickly broke through the
monsters armor, and tore their soft flesh into a pulpy mass.
Genma, in the meantime, dropped Nabiki so she could help her older
sister drag their disabled father from the fray. Crushing the skull of one
alien with a jump kick, he sent another crashing through a stone wall with
a viscous backhanded punch.
Happosai watched calmly as the remaining alien approached him. Eyeing
it thoughtfully, he then threw his pipe, not at the creature, but at the
stone wall beside them. It bounced off the wall and hit the monster,
burying itself in its head.
"Well, that wasn't so hard, now was it?" said Ranma.
"Don't be so quick to boast, youngster," retorted Happosai grimly. The
battle with the aliens gave time for the air support to catch up with
the fleeing martial artists. Their shots bounced around the tiny
alley, ricocheting off walls, forcing the martial artists to scatter.
One ball hit a house and flew towards Kasumi, Nabiki, and an unconscious
Soun. Both sisters fell to the ground, and the ball broke through the
wall, bringing it down on top of the helpless trio.
Ranma appeared as though he had been teleported. He stopped a
section of wall from falling on the girls, by catching a large stone
slab and using it like a small roof to cover them. He strained against
the massive weight, his entire body shaking with the effort.
"C'mon, get out of there!" cried Ranma.
There was some movement in the darkness. "Kasumi and dad are stuck!
They can't get out!" replied Nabiki.
"Ranma!" Akane called. "In front!"
Ranma looked up. Three Guardians were flying towards them. He
watched as their acid sacks bulged in preparation for an attack. He could
not wait any longer. With one hand, he held the concrete wall up. With
the other he grabbed Nabiki by the arm and pulled her out of the hole.
Unable to hold the wall up with only one hand, he was forced to drop it.
Pulling Nabiki into his arms, he leapt up and back, moments ahead of the
acid balls that splashed into the ground. Ranma's nerves chilled to ice
as he heard a female shriek of pain below him. He landed and looked at
the source of the sound. What he saw filled him with horror.
Akane had run to Ranma and her sister's aid, and had been caught by
the acid balls. Her body smoked and her clothes were burning and falling
off revealing melting flesh beneath. By the way she moved, Ranma could
tell she could not see. She was stumbling about, blinded by the acid and
the pain. Her hair was mostly eaten away. Akane fell to her knees,
screaming.
Ranma went beserk.
Forming a blue energy ball in his hands, he hurled it at one of the
aliens. It did not even scream as it broke apart into a shower of flesh
and blood. A part of Ranma's mind noted that Happosai and Genma were
dealing with the other two.
Ranma ran towards Akane. His shoes began to smoke and wither
away as he ran over the acid on the ground, but he did not care. All he
wanted to do was to get to Akane.
Halfway there, the street collapsed.
Ranma reflexively leapt up out of the hole. Twisting around, he
landed on the opposite side of the pit, facing Nabiki, who had just reached
the opposite edge.
"Akane!" screamed Nabiki. She danced almost comically at the edge,
physically unable to do what she most wanted, which was to jump in the
hole after her sister. She looked frantically at Ranma. "Help her!
You've got to help her!"
Just as Ranma was about to comply, a small horde of Zerglings
climbed over the remains of the wall and charged Nabiki. Ranma jumped
up over the pit again, lashing out with his Moko Takabisha attack. He
cut a semi-circle section of the street around where Nabiki was standing,
causing the section of road she was standing on to fall.
Nabiki's shriek of terror was cut short as Ranma grabbed her with one
hand, and the lip of the hole with the other. Pulling himself up, he
repeated his first jump back to where he started, away from the monsters.
The Zerglings pulled up short, looking at the two almost curiously.
What kind of creature could do this? They looked around at each other,
as though conferring. Apparently coming to a decision, they were about
to charge around the pit, when two large blue and gold spaceships came
down from the sky and hovered over the group. Ranma and Nabiki clung to
each other in frozen horror, the disturbances caused by their thrusters
blowing bits of debris around them.
The Zerglings, however, were acting very agitated. They hissed up
at the strange crafts, and swiped at it with their claws as though they
could scare away the hateful objects.
Blue white energy flared into existence beside the pit, between the
two humans and the Zerglings. An alien figure, wearing gold body armor
with blue trim appeared from within the small energy storm. Ranma's
eyes watered as he watched the figure materialize. It appeared to be
surrounded by some sort of energy field, which caused its form to distort
slightly. Similar electrical disturbances appeared around the pit. Eight
Protoss Zealots materialized four on each side of the pit.
The zerglings hissed louder, their actions becoming more agitated.
They backed away from the armored figures, and the zealots activated their
psi-blades, blue psionic energy extending from their forearms.
The zerglings charged. Zerglings and zealots tore into each other,
the Protoss doing most of the damage, their psi-blades cutting through
flesh and bone with ease. The zergling's strikes, more often than not,
bounced off the zealot's energy shields. But like a wave, more and more
of them came over the ruins of the wall. The shuttles turned and flew
away, presumably for reinforcements.
Just before it looked as though the Zealots were going to be overcome,
large armored humans broke through from a side alley and began firing
their weapons into the Zerglings. The tide was held back, as Zerg
casualties mounted. One man disengaged and moved to the stunned couple.
Pressing a button, his faceplate slid back into his armor.
"My name's Col. Mumuro Takagi. I have orders to evacuate any
civilians. Come with me," he ordered.
"But my sister's down there!" cried Nabiki.
Takagi's faceplate covered his face again, and Nabiki and Ranma could
see lights flashing against the inside. Genma and Happosai returned,
having finished fighting the Guardians.
"The only humans I'm reading are you four and two buried underneath
the wall."
"Sir! We have another group coming!" said on of the soldiers.
"Prepare to fall back!" Takagi ordered. "Let's go," he said to the
others.
"No! We're not leaving!" cried Ranma. He moved to engage the Zerg
horde, but Happosai touched him on the back of the neck. Ranma's eyes
glazed over, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.
Nabiki ran to Ranma's side. "How could you?" she demanded. "He
could have saved them!"
"And the rest of us would have died in the process, trying to save
him," responded Takagi. Removing a small pole from his suit, he touched
Nabiki. There was a flash, and Nabiki collapsed on top of Ranma.
Picking her up, he ordered his men to retreat. He looked at Genma, who
had picked up Ranma. "I'm sorry. Were they family?"
Genma, tears in his eyes, said, "No. We'd hoped...but, no they
weren't family. Just close friends."
The remaining soldiers fell back to a shuttle in a field a short
distance away. They took off, leaving the ruined city behind them.
"Who are you guys anyway?" asked Genma.
"We're X-Com: Japan division. We're a paramilitary organization
set up by the UN Security Council to deal with the growing UFO incursions."
"You knew about all this!"
"We weren't expecting an invasion! Up till now the aliens were merely
probing our defenses. We thought we were keeping them at bay but..." Takagi
sighed. "I guess we were wrong."
Happosai looked down at the burning city below. Crying, he said
"I-I'll never get to see Akane in a bra ever again!"
Enraged, Genma bellowed, "Don't you think about *anything* else?!"
Genma kicked him out of the shuttle, back into the arms of the Zerg.
End Chapter 1