Ranma 1/2 Independence Day: Chapter 4 They Arrive
Set during the middle of Ranma 1/2 before Ranma's mom finds out about the
truth of his curse.
Based on the film "Independence Day" By Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich and
Ranma 1/2 by Rumiko Takahashi
By Bill Heineman
I don't own these characters. Please don't sue me, kill me or take away my
precious. You hobbits can't have my precious!
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July 2nd, morning...
========================================
General Grey put down the phone handset after his conversation with the
Secretary of Defense. He wasn't thrilled about the meeting with the
president he was ordered to arrive at in an hour. He sighed in contemplation
as he mentally prepared himself to bark out his orders in answer to the most
unusual threat he had ever faced. "Amanda." His assistant stood at attention
by his side. "I need a car outside in fifteen minutes to take me and several
men to the White House. Major, I need you to collect all information you can
about whatever this thing is and feed me the information when I call you.
Colonel, assign some men to meet me at the White House in a hour with every
scrap of intelligence we've got no matter how trivial it may appear. I'll be
briefing the president on this situation and I want the most up to date
information I can give him."
Major Danowitz nodded to acknowledge his orders. "I'm on it." He walked off
to check on the fax machine for more recent news from NASA or NORAD.
Colonel Richardson stared at the lit table the men had their meeting around
to brief the General on what amounted to an alien visitation. He shook his
head at the sheer insanity that he was witness to. "I can't believe this is
happening."
Grey mocked him since he was going to present the president with what
amounted to the plot of a sci-fi novel. "You can't believe this? Heh, I'm
going before president Whitmore, telling him effectively that Marvin the
Martian is paying us a visit and I'll look like a total idiot if this turns
out to be an elaborate hoax. Mark my words men, if this is someone's sick
idea of a joke, I'm personally locking up the bastard responsible for this
for the rest of his miserable life."
Richardson kept his eyes glued to the picture of the sphere floating near
the moon. "And if this isn't a hoax? What do we do then?"
General Grey stood at attention then dropped his gaze to the pictures on the
table. He wordlessly collected the 8x10 slides and slid them into a manilla
envelope. He without uttering an answer, turned to leave the building to go
to his meeting with the president of the United States of America.
The Colonel watched his commanding officer walk away and disappear around a
corner with his assistants in tow. "That's what I figured."
========================================
They strapped themselves into deep cushioned chairs for the final leg of
their journey. Alerts were sent throughout the ship as the aliens prepared
for the shock and heat of aerobraking though the atmosphere of their new
home. The entire bottom of the ship was painstakingly covered with a thin
material that would protect the belly of the city sized ship and allow it to
survive the friction of entry until it was safely over the landing area.
Contact was made with the upper atmosphere with the flat bottom of the craft
bursting into a huge ball of smoke and flame. The ship gave a shudder as
millions of cubic meters of air was displaced and the ship lost velocity.
All over the earth, streaks of what looked like doomsday comets were seen
hurling across the sky from the dozens of saucers arriving. Soon their true
nature would be known to the population of the Earth.
========================================
Captain Garret took a sip of his coffee during his pre-dawn break as he
stared into the computer display of his 757 jet liner. He looked out the
front window at the endless darkness as his plane flew on auto-pilot toward
the city of Tokyo Japan from San Francisco California. He sat down his mug
into the cup holder and turned the page of his magazine.
Commander Jacobson, the copilot, noticed the sky was brightening above them.
"Captain, there's something odd going on outside." He checked his watch.
"It's not time yet for the sun to come up." He put down his logbook then
visually scanned the horizon for the source of the orange glow.
"Hmm?" Garret glanced at the gauges again and the main computer display for
any sign of trouble. "Don't see anything wrong with the systems." He flicked
a switch. "Radar's clear."
The aircraft gently shuddered and the outside grew brighter. The Commander
checked his seat belt. "What the hell? There's something above us."
The Captain kicked in his years of training and took the controls. "Tokyo
control. This is Freedom Air Flight 121. Inbound Tokyo. We are seeing a...
Uh..." An orange glow came from the sky above deep within a massive
billowing black cloud. "Meteor?" The cloud was getting closer making the jet
lurch sideways from the air pressure. "Tower, I'm declaring an emergency.
Dropping to ten thousand feet. We have some sort of atmospheric disturbance
coming from directly above our position." He turned to his copilot. "We're
clear below right?"
The copilot scanned the displays for other aircraft. "I've got nothing below
us. We're clear."
"Good. Hit the signs and send the call." He pushed the controls forward to
put the plane into a dive.
The copilot turned on the 'fasten seatbelt' lights. He called over the
stewardess in the first class section over. "We have a code five. Please get
the passengers into their seats." She nodded, then went to alert the crew
that the plane could violently pitch.
The Captain turned on the intercom. "This is your Captain speaking. We are
experiencing unexpected turbulence and request that you return to your seats
and fasten your seatbelts. Flight crew, we're at code five. Thank you." He
shut off the mike and muttered. "That bull should take care of them for a
while. Descending to ten thousand feet."
The plane began a rapid descent while the clouds below reflected the eerie
orange glow from above. A shockwave slammed the aircraft causing it to lurch
to the right. Commander Jacobson turned on his radio mike. "Tokyo control,
this is Freedom Air 121, we've hit turbulence and are losing control." He
grabbed a map as the aircraft shook more violently. "Crap. The closest
airport is Tokyo International."
The speaker cracked out a reply from Japan. "Say again 121. Your signal's
breaking up."
The pilot pushed the yoke forward to drop the plane faster as a loud
rumbling filled the plane that was not coming from inside the craft. "I
think we're going to ditch. Alert the crew."
"God damn..." Jacobson stared out the front window as the entire sky was
filled with fire and smoke directly above and in front of their plane. The
cloud was moving faster then they were and overtook their craft leaving them
behind.
"I think I've got it." The plane stopped shuddering as they reached fourteen
thousand feet and were under the wake of the object. "We're stable." The
Captain let out his breath that he held as he was fighting the aircraft for
control. "Just what is that thing?"
"Tokyo control. This is flight 121, there is some kind of storm cloud or
meteor or something heading to Tokyo."
"121, we have it on radar. What do you see?"
"It's big, orange and made of smoke. Looks like a giant meteor."
The two pilots sat watching the phenomenon in awe totally forgetting the
panicked stewardess behind them. A full minute passed as the pilots simply
sat in their seats watching the object fly away from them. The radio came
back to life. "All inbound aircraft to Tokyo and Yokohama airports are to
immediately divert to Okinawa. Do not attempt a landing in the Tokyo or
Yokohama airports. All craft are to divert..."
The pilots stared at each other in dismay. "Well, there goes Tokyo."
========================================
"How much longer?" Daisuke lay upon Hiroshi's bed while his friend tinkered
with his pirate satellite decoder box.
"Just another minute. I think I've figured out a way to filter out this
jamming." Hiroshi flicked the switch and the Playboy channel came on his TV
set with vertical bars of distortion still present and blocking his view of
female flesh. "Argh! I thought I had it too."
Daisuke flipped the Dragonball Z manga he was reading to the next page. It
was far more interesting than watching Hiroshi accomplish nothing for the
last few hours. "It's a good thing Ranma bailed on us. He had the right
idea."
"Shut up. I know what I'm doing." He traced out the schematic diagram again.
"Maybe I need a new ROM. Yeah, that's it, I need the latest version of the
decoding software. I know just the guy who can give it to me." He pushed his
chair from his makeshift workbench next to the TV and wheeled over to his
HAM radio set. "Martin over in Auckland has a working box and I'll ask him
what he did." He turned on the power supply to his antenna.
"New Zealand? Don't you know that it's... Oh no! It's past four in the
morning! You had me stay up until four in the morning!" Daisuke tossed aside
the manga. "Miss Hinako is going to suck us dry in class for this."
"Ok! Ok! It'll be worth it I'm telling ya." Hiroshi turned on his radio and
the speaker immediately filled the room with chatter. Someone speaking in
Russian came on the line speaking a kilometer a minute in an obvious panic.
Someone else speaking in Hindu came on then someone spoke in French.
A man with a Hawaiian accent came on the speakers. He didn't sound nearly as
bad as Principal Kuno. "It's completely covering the sky! Jesus Christ it's
huge. This is Honolulu Hawaii reporting a meteor westbound across the
pacific. The wake is still... Oh dear god. There's another one going east
bound."
Another voice came on while the first was still talking. "I'm in Okinawa
Japan. My dad just got called to base. I think they went to Defcon three or
something. What's happening to my daddy?"
The TV's picture blanked out with a picture of the American Emergency
Broadcast system on the screen. The two Furinkan students were in shock as
to what was going on. A newscaster came on the tube. "This is CNN reporting.
We've just gotten word that an asteroid is flying over the republic of
Russia. Here's a live feed."
The picture changed to a camera in St. Petersburg with the sky lit up with a
slow moving fireball lazily arching across the sky. A news reporter spoke in
Russian with an English translator. "The object appears to be a comet or
meteor but is moving too..."
Bzzzz. Hiroshi changed the channel.
A picture of an American newscaster was on with the caption live from
Honolulu HI. "... can see, the object is moving west toward Asia. All
flights have been grounded and we've got..."
Bzzzz. Hiroshi changed the channel.
",.. the coast of Japan. We're awaiting word from NASA ..."
Bzzzz. Hiroshi changed the channel.
"Megaman! I shall defeat you!" Cried out the enemy of the saviour of the
world. Megaman stood in all his glory to face his opponent when the TV
changed to a scene in a news room. "We interrupt this program with an
important bulletin."
Daisuke looked at Hiroshi with a look of sadness. "I guess we're not going
to watch the Playboy channel tonight. Are we?"
========================================
Cologne was sleeping in her futon when she shot awake. She sat up in
complete trepidation and suspicion. "Hmm... Something's not right." She
stared out the window at the rustling tree branches. She saw nor heard
anything out of the ordinary but every fiber of her being told her that
danger was coming. "I must consult the elders." She reached over to her
dresser drawer and got out her little black book. The amazons may have been
married to three thousand years of history and culture. But they had
telephones and an Internet connection in the village in China. They weren't
stupid.
========================================
Ukyou slept like a log dreaming of serving okonomiyaki to a customer with
Ranma by her side. It was another wonderful dream for another wonderful
night. She turned onto her side to get comfortable as the room vibrated. She
popped her eyes open and bolted upright. "Oh great, an earthquake." She
waited until the shaking stopped before she got out of bed. She knew the
earthquake safety procedures so she put on some slippers and went downstairs
to check on the gas line. She spent two minutes checking and smelling for
any gas leaks then went outside to check the mains.
Ukyou went over to the gas gauge and shone her flashlight at it. There was
no odor or any unusual noise like gas flowing though a pipe. Satisfied that
her restaurant was safe she took a look around the alley and heard a
helicopter fly overhead. She watched the chopper cross the sky and saw a
circle of blackness where stars were supposed to be.
She squinted her eyes and realized what she was looking at. She ran inside
to her bedroom to turn on the TV to figure out what she just saw. She
watched TV for an hour then packed a bag and headed to the Tendo Dojo.
========================================
Ranko slept like a log mumbling in her sleep. "Mom, pantyhose can be manly."
The room vibrated as a deep bass rumbling filled the air. Shortly the
microquake stopped.
Mr. Panda snorted and growlfed.
Mrs. Saotome who stayed the night opened her eyes then looked around. "Hmm.
I must of been dreaming." She turned to see Ranko sound asleep and smiled at
the young girl. She pulled up the blankets to cover the red head. "Don't
worry Ranko, Auntie's here for you." Nodoka lay back down to catch some
sleep.
Nabiki stared out the window of her room. She woke to the vibrations and was
about to check the house for earthquake damage when she saw the cloud fly in
from the east and a sight that she would never forget in her life appeared
before her.
A city sized spacecraft emerged from the cloud and was now hovering directly
above downtown Tokyo. The ship was so large that she couldn't see from one
side to another. Nabiki had her headphones on and was intently listening to
the news on the radio. She meticulously took notes, listing all the cities
that these things were arriving at. She already had listed Los Angeles,
Washington DC, London, Moscow, Beijing and Berlin. The night was young.
========================================
Ranko's eye's fluttered open since her sleep was interrupted by a strange
noise. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and yawned to greet a new day.
Ranko examined her bedroll for any signs of her mother who wasn't anywhere
in sight. "Hey, pops. Last one out gets to make the bed." She darted out the
window to take her position on the roof to do her daily beating of her
father.
Ranko started a simple warm up kata totally oblivious to the black saucer
directly to the south. She stretched and shifted getting her muscles warmed
up. She ducked as a bear claw came down where her head was. "Too slow pops."
She jumped aside to return a blow to the panda's midsection that was blocked
by a furry arm.
"Ha! Can't catch me!" She taunted her father by performing a back flip then
reversed direction to leap and land behind the bear. Mr. Panda turned around
to perform an overhead strike when he froze in alarm. Ranko seized the
opening to slam a kick to knock the bear off the roof and onto the grass
below. "C'mon, you can do better than that. What's gotten into you?" Ranko
stood at the roof's edge looking down at her unconscious furry father. She
noticed the yard was darker than normal so she turned around to see what was
casting the shadow.
Ranko's eye grew the size of saucers as she saw for the first time the thing
that distracted her father. Ukyou stood on the roof walking calmly to Ranko.
"Yeah sugar. These things are all over the world. That's all they're talking
about on the news."
Ranko weakly pointed her finger to the black metallic disc that slowly
rotated over the center of Tokyo. "Ucchan, what is that?"
Ukyou stood next to her fiancee focusing her gaze to the south. "We've been
invaded honey. Pretty impressive isn't it?"
"When? How? Why?" Ranko stuttered as she remembered what happened yesterday.
"Ah man, I had to ask how things could get worse didn't I?"
"Yeah sugar, this is pretty high on the worse scale I think. Let's go
downstairs, the Emperor is supposed to make a speech in an hour. Maybe he's
got a clue because I sure don't."
"Oh, Ucchan, my mom's here so if you don't mind, could ya please call me
Ranko today."
"Sure honey." She gave a knowing smile.
========================================
The Tendos and the Saotomes watched TV with shock and just a hint of fear.
News kept coming in from all over the world that city sized spacecraft had
parked themselves over thirty major cities all over the world. Nabiki sat
off to the side with a map of the world and stuck thumbtacks where ships
were confirmed to be hovering over.
Kasumi came from the kitchen holding a tray of drinks. "Here you go
everyone."
Nabiki sniped. "Sis, how can you be so chipper?"
"Why shouldn't I be? We've got guests and I'm certain they'll be bringing
gifts."
Nabiki stared at her map. "I wouldn't be so sure."
"You've got to look with better eyes little sister." Kasumi smiled that
special smile she reserved for weddings and birthdays. "Imagine what they
could teach us."
Akane refused to take her eyes away from the TV. "I wonder if they study
martial arts. Maybe they'd might want to learn Anything Goes?"
Nodoka wanted to be happy but couldn't find the strength. "They might. I'm
certain my son would make an excellent teacher."
Ranko sulked.
Akane stared at Ranko and gritted her teeth as Ukyou held Ranko's shoulders
in a gesture of friendship and support. "I don't know. I don't think he's
taught anyone the art yet."
Ukyou took offense to the stab at Ranma's character. "Hey, Ranma honey's
going to be a great teacher. I don't know where you get off saying something
like that in front of his mother."
"Have you seen my son?" Nodoka held out a faint glimmer of hope. "Do you
know where he is?"
Ukyou glanced at Ranko and felt bad lying to her potential mother-in-law. "I
hadn't seen him recently."
"But you've seen him? Tell me? Is he strong?"
Ukyou glowed at the images of Ranma as her husband floated in her
imagination. "Oh yes." She held her hands together under one cheek swooning.
"He's perfect." She reclined into Ranko's lap resting her head on her legs.
"He's so dreamy." She stared into Ranko's eyes as Ranko turned away and
tried to slide backward.
Nodoka got weirded out by Ukyou's display of affection that seemed to be
directed at another girl, namely Ranko. The elder turned to Akane who was
glowing a very bright blue and shaking in anger. "Akane, what's the matter
dear?"
Akane dropped her battle aura smiling a cute child like smile. "Why nothing
at all Auntie. She looked at the TV again. "Well, maybe something."
As Nodoka was distracted, Ranko gently shoved Ukyou off her lap and
whispered into her ear. "Ukyou, be careful around my mom, if she finds out I
turn into a girl, it's off with my head. Do you understand?"
Ukyou blushed at the thought of what Mrs. Saotome could have thought by her
show of affection to her Ranchan. "Sorry."
Akane waved to everyone in the room. "Quiet! The Emperor is coming on."
Nabiki grew even colder in her quest for information. She was writing notes
on a pad of paper that was rapidly running out of empty space.
The TV showed a podium with a caption saying that it was live from the
Imperial Palace. The Emperor of Japan approached the mike and gently tapped
it to make sure it was working. He gave a very light bow to the camera.
"My people. It is a great day for Japan. We have been honored to have been
selected as one of the hosts for a race of beings who have travelled the
stars to visit our world. I humbly request that we welcome these travelers
with open arms and open homes. I expect that we will in the coming days
share our wealth of history, culture and knowledge as they will do the same
for us."
Nabiki muttered. "Presumptuous isn't he?"
Akane held her finger to her mouth. "Shhh..."
A small picture in a picture appeared with the Emperor being in the larger
picture and a camera scene from outside the Imperial Palace where the ship
was directly overhead was in the little one. "Directly above my home, sits a
testament to a people who have achieved what we on Earth have been trying to
achieve for almost a century. They can travel across the stars." He had a
look of awe and paused dramatically for effect. "Due to the circumstances of
today, I must make these general announcements. All schools and public
buildings will be closed for today and vehicle travel through downtown Tokyo
will be suspended. All rail service will stay in operation and I request
that my people do not crowd around my palace. We need to make our new
friends comfortable. We shall show them our unique way of life and
hospitality befitting a most honored guest. Thank you my people for hearing
my words and showing our new friends that we are worthy of their respect and
kindness."
He took a step back and gave a gentle bow to the camera. The signal changed
to the main newsroom. "That concludes the Emperor's speech. Here are
excerpts from the United States President's..."
Akane hit the mute button. "Well that didn't say anything."
Kasumi picked up the empty tea cups. "What do you mean?"
"Well, what to they look like? Do they look like E.T.? Mr. Spock?"
Ukyou laughed. "I know, it's a race of purpled haired Amazons!"
Ranko raised her arms in shock and sheer terror. "Don't you even joke about
that!"
Akane glanced out the back door that had an excellent view of the ship. "I
wonder if they could teach me the Vulcan nerve pinch?"
Ranko went back to her usual cocky self now that martial arts was the topic
of conversation instead of something useless like alien visitors. "Heh, like
you'd be able to master that pressure point technique."
Akane huffed. "What? You know how to knock someone out by squeezing their
neck?"
Ranko crossed her arms while puffing out her chest like a typical male. It
was a rather stupid pose for a buxom female. "Akane, watcha gotta do is
strike the nerve clusters to knock someone out, not mimic somethin' out of a
dumb TV show."
"Well excuse me Miss I know everything."
Nabiki slammed a book down on the floor. "Will you two macho chicks shut up
for a minute. I'm trying to think over here."
Nodoka fingered her katana in case Nabiki decided to continue her assault on
helpless books and move on to other targets. "What are you thinking about?"
Nabiki held her face in her hands. "They're not here to be our friends." She
tossed her pad of notes aside. "It's no different than a hostile corporate
takeover."
Kasumi kneeled next to her sister. "No, they're here to be our friends."
Nabiki turned into her Ice Queen persona. "No they're not. They wouldn't do
a show of force, they'd radio the world leaders and appear on TV in a tiny
craft or even just a TV broadcast." She looked at the TV which showed a
picture of a ship over the Empire State Building in New York City. "They're
showing us that we don't matter one bit." She collected her things around
her end of the table. "I'm leaving town. If any of you wish to join me, pack
now." She walked towards the stairway.
Soun cried like a baby pouring a fountain of tears. "Don't leave us! Daddy
needs you!"
"Then Dad, pack your bags and travel light. Only bring food, batteries and
two changes of clothes." She surveyed the people in the room. "They're going
to take over and make us all slaves or food or something that I don't want
to think about. They're not here to exchange fashion tips." She ran up to
her room. She had to put her plan into motion if she was going to survive.
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Author's Notes: Please review my story. It makes me feel oh so happy and
I'll stop nailing little paper dolls on your backyard fence.
Bill Heineman
March 6th, 2003
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burger@contrabandent.com
http://www.contrabandent.com/burgerbill
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