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Disclaimer: The characters within belong to Pioneer and Harmony Gold.
No profit was made from this work of fiction
No Need For Protoculture
by Andrew Wilson
Chapter 19: School of Hard Knocks
[May 15th, 2016]
The observation lounge was crowded by the time Tenchi arrived. Not from
anyone waiting, and not from anyone he was supposed to meet. No, this
particular lounge was always crowded because it offered the best view of
the factory satellite's main construction dock. Tenchi paused as he
looked out the three-meter tall windows into the vacuum beyond. The
mile-long red bulk of the SDF-3 gave off an sense of might even in its
half-completed state. Priorities had changed in the years since
Khyron's destruction of the SDF-2 and Admiral Gloval's assassination.
Instead of overtures of peace, the Pioneer mission was going to war.
The SDF-3 was to be the flag ship of a mighty fleet that was to convey
the full might and anger of the human race to those who would have seen
it wiped out.
"Quite a sight, isn't it," said a familiar voice behind him.
Tenchi turned in surprise to see Ayeka standing there. More surprising
was the fact that she was wearing an REF uniform with a
lieutenant-commander's rank insignia.
"Ayeka?" Tenchi managed to stammer out. "When did you...how...why...huh?"
Ayeka smiled. "Admiral Hunter indicated that would be your reaction.
And is that all you have to say? We haven't seen each other in two
years, after all."
Tenchi nodded in shock. "But why did you join the military? I thought you-"
"I wanted to find a purpose in life," Ayeka interrupted. "And it was
about two years ago when Washu and Dr. Lang were trying to figure out a
central control system for the SDF-3."
Tenchi nodded. "That was one of the preliminary problems. They couldn't
figure out a way to keep all the systems coordinated."
Ayeka nodded as she slipped an arm through Tenchi's and led him out of
the lounge. "Well, I happened to hear about this problem and went to
Washu. I simply pointed out that a Juraian tree could solve all her
problems, especially if the tree didn't need it to provide power."
Tenchi stifled a groan. "And you just happened to also point out that
there was a sappling with no ship available."
Ayeka smiled again. "Oh, I might have mentioned that. Well, This was
before Admiral Fokker and Captain Grant left in the second colony wave,
so they thought it was a grand idea."
"Especially since you saved Claudia's life just a few months before."
"Oh, that might have had something to do with how quickly they approved
the idea," Ayeka almost giggled. "So, Ryu-oh is the central control
system of the SDF-3, and they put me through an accelerated training
program and several outer-system patrols in destroyers."
"Since you were obviously going to be the captain of the ship," Tenchi
finished. "Nice touch."
"Yes, it is." Ayeka stopped outside an office Tenchi recognized as
Rick's. "Admiral Hunter wanted to see you. I'll meet you afterwards."
Tenchi nodded and proceeded through the hatch. The yeoman waved him
through the outer office with barely a glance. "Admiral Hunter is waiting."
Rick was seated behind a slab-like desk that was covered with papers,
data disks, and other bureaucratic requirements. He did not look happy.
"Isn't all this crap something that I had you to take care of?" he muttered.
Tenchi smiled as he dropped into a chair across from the desk. "Sure,
boss. And now I have my own XO to dump it on. How does it feel?"
"Very funny," Rick replied. "I got a report last week that the
Neo-Soviets were up to something, can you shed any light on that?"
Tenchi shrugged. The Eastern Block Soviet Independant State was always
up to something, as were most of the splinter nations that had emerged
after Admiral Gloval's assasination. The one thing that was keeping the
states together was eliminated by a crazed assasin. "Oh, the usual.
Their semi-anual rant about how we were the real conspirators behind The
Admiral's death, and a bunch of groups back home screaming about how
they killed him just to give themselves an excuse to break away."
Rick snorted. "What do you know about the Indochina Quadrant?"
Unaffected by the change in subject, Tenchi thought back to the reports
that he occasionally received. "Lightly populated after the Rain of
Death and subsequent migrations. Third largest hotbed of Zentradi
Malcontent activity outside of South America and Africa. Why?"
Rick tossed a folder over and waited until Tenchi had opened it before
speaking. "Two months ago we started getting erratic reports from the
outposts there. We sent a Veritech squadron out there to reinforce the
bases and investigate the activities."
"And test those new mecha?" Tenchi idly asked. The new, smaller,
veritechs designed by Lang, Burke, and Washu were better than anything
Tenchi had ever flown before. But he would be sticking to his trusty
Vindicator for now. Especially since he didn't have anyone he trusted
enough to be his Beta pilot. But the Legios linkings of Alpha and Beta
Veritechs increased their flexibility beyond anything previously designed.
"Sure," Rick replied. "Problem is, the squadron vanished, and shortly
thereafter we started getting reports of new Zentradi mecha."
Tenchi's head snapped up. That was something he didn't expect.
Zentradi mecha had been largely unchanged over the centuries. The RDF
researchers were designing new, more powerful models for the Pioneer
mission, but none of those were past the prototype stage.
"It gets worse," Rick continued. "There are reports of a new leader in
the area that's uniting the malcontent gangs. We need you to go in
there and stop her before we have a full-blown war."
"Her?" Tenchi asked as he flipped through the folder. There was some
mention of a leader, but nothing beyond an individual appearing in
modified Quadrono power armor. He came upon an intercepted transmission
and the report on the voices in it and suddenly froze. "Oh no."
"Yeah," Rick sighed. "It's Zaria. That's why we need you, Tenchi. You
taught her everything. You should know how she thinks."
Tenchi looked at the analysis again. It was Zaria. Not just the voice
print data, but the language used. For two years they had served
together and Tenchi knew her (and Ernest Montoya, who was in command of
Diamondback squadron) almost as well as he knew Ryoko or Ayeka. Finally
he nodded. "Hurricane isn't fit for this. They're not ready."
"I know," Rick replied. "You're not going down there as a squadron
commander. You're there as a mission commander. You'll have command of
the squadrons on the ground, and support from any vessels which might be
in orbit above the area."
"What's there can't me much help, given what you've said." Tenchi paused
for a moment. "Who are you sending with me?"
"Someone else that knows how an ex-Quadrono thinks," Rick replied.
Tenchi considered that tidbit for a few moments. There were essentially
three types of Zentradi. The first were the 'grunts', who were
unfortunately bread to have little more intelligence than what was
required to shoot their weapons. The second were the 'officers' like
Breetai; stronger, smarter, and placed in more important stations than
their less-developed cousins. The third group was an anomaly, the
'aces', mostly due to the fact that they were the only female Zentradi
in existence. Less than two-score Zentradi had been accepted as part of
the RDF mecha forces, almost all of them were from the 'ace' breed (the
officers tended to stick to fleet positions).
A few notes came together in Tenchi's mind as he looked at Rick. "No."
Rick nodded. "Skull and Hurricane are training together for the next
couple months. I figured one officer missing from each wouldn't be
noticed by too many."
Tenchi sighed. "Right. Where?"
"Yellowstone. Max is breaking the bad news right now. He wanted me to
give you a message, too. He said 'make sure Masaki knows to keep his
hands off my wife this time.'"
"That was an accident!" Tenchi insisted.
Rick simply smirked. "I should note he was joking. Anyway, you'll be
meeting Miriya in Yellowstone. She'll also be providing the mecha."
Tenchi nodded. "Right. And the reason you dragged me up to orbit to
tell all this?"
Rick sighed and walked over to his office veiwport. Like the lounge
Tenchi had been waiting it, this also faced into the main drydock.
Tenchi knew for a fact that Lisa Hayes' own office faced outward, with a
view of Earth, but Rick had chosen this location. "Parinoia, Tenchi. I
talked to Max over a secure link to Brazillia base, but I don't trust
any links into North America."
"Leonard?" Tenchi asked.
"Right. Him and Edwards. I can't say why, but I don't trust either of
them."
Tenchi nodded. "Right. I'll be heading back as soon as my Vindicator is
serviced."
*******
Ayeka was waiting outside, and whatever cheerful comment she was going
to make died when she saw the look on Tenchi's face. She had never seen
such a combination of rage, grief and dread before, and seeing it on
Tenchi's face frozer her blood.
"What happened?" she asked tentitively as they walked toward the docking
bay.
"I can't talk about it," Tenchi replied. Ayeka flinched at his voice,
and he relaxed slightly. "I'm sorry. I don't know what's going to
happen in the next couple of weeks. Do yo have another patrol coming up?"
Ayeka nodded. "Orbital clean-up. Hunting down some scavengers in the
debris field."
Tenchi nodded. "Be careful. Rick's not telling me something, and I
think there's more going on than my intel brief's say."
Ayeka gave Tenchi's hand a squeeze. "Be well, Tenchi."
"I will."
*******
Tenchi gave thanks to whatever deity might be listening that Lang
managed to adapt Juraian and Galactic inertialess drive technology to
Terran and Zentradi technology. If nothing else, it cut the time from
Lunar orbit to Earth in half with his Vindicator. Though he couldn't
ramp the drive up to full this close to his destination, in open space
or in a furball he could turn and burn (to use the old fashioned terms)
at over a third of light speed. In Guardian mode the speed was cut to
.25c, and slowed to a crawl in Battleoid due to the physics, but those
modes weren't totally fit for space combat in any case. Capital ships
had to plod along at .2c at the most. The new Beta Veritechs, when
using their overdrive boosters, could burn along at close to half of
light speed for a few minutes. Easily enough to evade pursuit.
The inertialess drive wasn't the only improvement to his trusty
Vindicator. The armor was thicker, the gun pods were more powerful, and
the missiles had both longer range and more powerful warheads. It was
almost too bad that the old girl was obsolete. The Vindicator models
had been in general use for less than four years, yet they were about to
go the way of the Valkyrie. A few would be going on the Pioneer
mission, but if the new designs kept giving results like they had been
for the past six months, then most of the Veritechs in the SDF-3's
compliment would be Alpha and Beta models.
Tenchi was broken out of his reverie when the navigational computer
reported that he was entering Earth's atmosphere. The main drive
automatically switched off and the turbines spun up to life as they
finally had air to bite into. After a few minutes, he activated his
communications system.
"Yellowstone control, this is Hurricane lead. Requesting landing
clearance."
"Hurricane lead," the flight controller replied in his usual cool tone,
"you are cleared for hanger Epsilon."
Tenchi guided his Veritech in for a landing and handed it over to the
ground crews with a nod. Normally he spent more time with the people
that kept his mecha functioning, but he had something to do first.
*******
"That was quick," Ryoko commented from her desk.
Tenchi smiled as he stepped through the door of their small house.
Ryoko hadn't even looked up from her desk, or turned to face the
doorway. "What is it this time? Hyperspace physics? Calculating folds
without a navigational computer?"
Ryoko shuddered. "No, power levels and acceptable flux within a reflex
furnace."
Tenchi shared that shudder. Ryoko had her own ways of keeping busy,
without causing massive destruction across the planet. Rather than be
dragged into some auxiliary service of the RDF using Ryo-Ohki, she had
approached Washu about bringing her education up to levels that Washu
wouldn't describe as 'remedial'. Of course, the accelerated courses in
mathematics, chemistry, biology, and dozens of other subjects were
eating up her time.
Then again, they were *supposed* to eat up her time.
"I can't stay long. I wanted to let you know I'll be in Indochina for a
while."
Ryoko looked at Tenchi. "Spit it out."
"What?" Tenchi asked.
"You look worse than when your father told you he was leaving on a
colony mission," Ryoko replied.
Tenchi sighed and dropped onto the couch. "I really shouldn't tell you
this-"
"When's that stopped you?" Ryoko said with a smirk.
"Remember Zaria?" Tenchi asked.
Ryoko paused for a moment. "Tall woman? Violet hair? Face looks like
it would break if she smiled?"
"Yeah, that's her."
"I liked her," Ryoko said. "So what's she up to?"
"Leading an alliance of bandits," Tenchi sighed.
"Impossible," Ryoko stated. "She was too loyal to you, Breetai, and the
RDF. In that order, I might add."
"I know," Tenchi replied. "It's...I don't know. Something about this
had been bugging me."
Ryoko leaned over and kissed Tenchi on the cheek. "Just get going. Find
out what's bugging you, and kill it. Easy as that!"
Tenchi smiled. "If only it was that easy."
*******
"Just in time, Tenchi."
Tenchi turned toward the new voice in the Yellowstone hanger. "Of
course, Mrs. Sterling."
"Stop that," Lieutenant Commander Miriya Sterling admonished as she fell
in step beside Tenchi. "Calling me that makes me feel...old."
"Oh really." Tenchi gave Miriya a sideways glance. "Last I checked, you
stepped out of the cloning chambers about thirty years ago. That makes
you older than any of us."
Miriya blushed. "I don't know what you're talking about."
Tenchi let it go. "Well, Commander, the Admiral said you had the
transportation."
"Right over there." Miriya pointed across the hanger, and Tenchi stopped
short.
"I'm not qualified on either of those," he said slowly.
"What? You must be kidding."
Tenchi shook his head as he approached the sleek form of a Legios unit.
"I did a few test runs a year ago, but I've never been able to study
either the Alpha or Beta units."
Which was true. He had done a few test runs when the VAF-6 and VBF-1
were still in the prototype stage. The controls differed from the
Vindicator and Valkyrie, just enough that Tenchi was sure he wouldn't be
comfortable with either without a couple months practice. He wanted to
get the practice in - they were great mecha - but he didn't have the
time to break for training like the Skulls had a few months before.
"In that case," Miriya commented after a moment, "you better take the
Beta, Captain."
"Right," Tenchi sighed as he walked toward the waiting Veritech.
End Chapter 19
I was going to do something completely different with this arc, but at
the last minute I scrapped it for something I think works a little better.
For those who are wondering, the situation mentioned in this and
upcoming chapters is based on the RPG supplement Strike Force, by Wayne
Beraux Jr.
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