Disclaimer Ranma Saotome belongs to Rumiko Takahashi
The settings of They belongs to Chad Oliver and is taken from the short story of Transfusion published within AnAlog's Golden Anniverseary Anthology, published 1980.
Ranma looked down at his gauntleted hands; the blue metal alloy reflected his face back at him. He had been a knight for almost ten years now; he was one of the oldest 'originals' surviving. The war seemed to be almost over, They, the enemy who had no name, had been pushed back over three hundred light years.
He still remembered when those of Earth had discovered just who Humanity was… A broken remainder who had once been a mighty interstellar empire, broken by them. Four starships had scattered across the universe when humanity had realized that they could not win against them, Humanity needed a new way of thinking, but this would not work if a large section of the culture was just transplanted… what humanity had need to fight against them was a complete transfusion. The surviving humans had undergone total brain erasure, they had been dropped on earth by the starship crew and built a civilization that was totally different from the star spanning original.
The crew had remained on the ship, and some few thousand years later, the last of their descendants was beyond child bearing age and childless when time travel was invented. The history department of America, eager for more information on Humanities past had sent three people back into the past, the time of pre-humans…. And found nothing… No humans, No homo erectus and no cro magnon, nothing... everything else was there, but there was nothing of humanity. The trio had bounced forward to the time of the oldest known written records, and then, they had bounced back deeper into the past… and deeper... Until they pinpointed the very day the paintings on the walls and the bones of humanity had appeared.
They arrived that day, and checked the cave, they were arguing over the missing link when they heard a rumble unlike thunder... they ran and hid in their time capsule, covered by pouring rain and a tarpaulin. What came next astounded them, and then later the world. The spaceship landed, several robots disembarked and trundled into that cave… they carried within their metal arms bones… and other odd equipment. The spaceship meanwhile was not idle, out of the huge opening humans were lead, their was no children among them, but thirty or more people dressed in skins and similar... One man dressed in a uniform concurrent of the 1990 military watched them disembark.
The travelers returned to their own time.
Their one of them believed that humans on earth had been an experiment, and traveled to the one person who he thought was the observer... he was correct in his belief of observer, but wrong, oh so wrong, in his belief of experiment. At the house he was transported elsewhere, to the very same starship that dumped humans onto earth he was taken. There he met the elderly observer and his wife, the last of the crew. There was explained the hope of the long fallen and ruined empire, the hope of new thoughts made from a new culture... The hope of being able to destroy them with those new thoughts of the new culture.
People had been recruited and cloned people from across time, Ranma himself had been born one hundred and fifty years before humanity had discovered time travel, great generals were cloned, complete with memories, by force if need be! Great scientists were cloned and their clones brought to the future to examine the spaceship and to think of new ideas. Within fifty years earth was ready for battle. Heroes and mighty men from across time were ready; anyone who had ever even said they were the best had been brought forward! Ranma snorted, his metal battle suit shifting slightly. Those who displayed beyond normal fighting ability had been tested and tested again; over a hundred clones of him had been destroyed in testing, and near a thousand clones of Saffron had died in the tests for him.
It had not been pretty, but humanity when prompted remembered Them, They whose mere memories made children cry at night, They who were remembered as demons and devil and dragons and serpents… and things without name... They who had slaughtered the human empire, They who had matched every new thought and idea that that ancient empire could make, They who had survived the years…
"It's almost Time to Move out, I hope you're ready to Kick Their Asses!!" Ranma looked up; one of the commanders was up and preparing his troops. Looking around at his own battle suited soldiers Ranma sighed, how much he wished that you could have more than one clone alive at a time! How much easier would this war be if there was a thousand Ranma's ready to fight… A thousand people who would never lose as long as blood passed through their veins. He, Just a single Ranma, had turned the tide of countless battles, and in the ten years, he had not died once… unlike many other heroes...
"Prepare yourself." Ranma said calmly as he stood, he brought up his plasma cannon. The troop deck of the battle cruiser almost unanimously cheered as the infamous Saotome prepared him self for battle. Several other commanders smiled as their troops took on his troops high morale, Ranma Saotome was the best, he never lost!
Ranma's distinctive solid blue armor shone bright at the head of the squad. His soldier's standard white and red powered armor clanged as they saluted him proudly as one. It was touching, but Ranma did not care, he didn't even know most of their names… probably half or more would be dead by the end of the battle today, and their clones would be in another squad anyway.
The battle ship shuddered as it passed through the atmosphere; it shook heavily as the planetary defenses shot at the invading fleet. Ranma ignored it… he just waited, memories of better times coursing through his head. He had checked the records while on earth, the original Ranma Saotome had married Akane Tendo at age 19, and died three years later.
"Forward." Ranma hissed over the com link as he powered up his heavy plasma rifle, its barrel was almost as large as both his legs together; Ranma smirked as he moved forward and out the door onto the blue landscape under its green sky and red sun. Their base was almost thirty kilometers away, but they were not ones to attack from a distance, they liked to see the terror and liked to eat the fallen, so they would be on their way, the advance guard would be at their position within minutes.
"All ready for the challenge Commander Saotome?" one of the other commanders asked. Ranma nodded slightly, they liked to have their duels, and they would stop an entire army in its tracks if someone challenged one of them. And they'd watch it, and they never used their heaviest weapons except when a challenge went ignored or someone fired during the challenge.
They were odd like that, they'd wait for the challenge, and then continue fighting like nothing had happened once it was finished, there were no rules to it that humans could think of. Ranma smiled as he saw the first of the vanguard arrive and conceal itself, he had one chance to challenge them and he would take it. Walking forward the man waved his blue armored arm and hit a button on his belt. From the speakers in the back of his suit bellowed out a deep bass collection of sounds, the vanguard finished arriving and sat in wait, neither sides firing, nor would they until the challenge was finished… the sounds that still echoed across the soon to be battlefield were roughly translated to 'I challenge your Strategy!' the one of them who would answer that challenge was the strategist of the battle, the general, but his death would not faze them, they hunted more than fought, and it was hard to demoralise hunters.
An odd looking beast moved from the opposing horde, it was roughly twenty feet long and had four monstrously huge fur covered legs, two thick scale clad arms, two thin leathery wings and over a dozen eyes on the draconic head, the battle armour that covered it was un-powered, as all of their armour was. It carried a plasma rifle that was twice the size of Saotome's and a large sword. Ranma smirked, it was stupid to meet a challenge from a human, but they fired on their own when they did not answer the challenge, well, that had ever only happened once in the entire war, but that was the theory.
It attacked first, shooting a bolt of plasma that exploded where Ranma had been standing mere moments ago. Ranma smirked, this wouldn't take long at all.