The Kyutora Threat
By Zoram Selrof
Chapter 1: Alien skies
19:19 (Japan Time), Sunday December the 21st, 2011...
Hah! I laugh at that Sages' Council: forcibly sending men to a war they never wished to fight: those foolish Sages deluded by a Demon… A Demon which seeks to stain this land with blood and corpses!
"… So! Is there anyone worth it amongst you lot?"
"R-run!"
"You damned herd of cowards!"
"So! You shall be my opponent? Come. Meet your powerlessness in front of the Royal Family!"
"D-damn it!"
"Hah! Mere fools…"
I see them: soldiers ill-equipped with wooden shields with no decoration or frame, poor quality lances the metal of which easily breaks because it was not properly tempered, a blunt wooden helmet… And they have no armor: just their plain one-piece suits colored white which reach until the knees plus their own sandals… They obviously wanted to save up time and money: what foolish Sages!
"The enemy is running, my Son. See? I told you. They do not wish to die in vain because they have nothing to gain from this "war"… Or, rather, this foolish incursion into the On'Setsu Kingdom…"
"True, Father."
I see him: my father, the King… Clad with his golden suit of armor, wielding his lance the edge of which is clad in silver and his silver shield with our crest on it… The "Commanders" are but fools who try to look intimidating but are out of their league when faced with US…
"… Heh, heh, heh… Heh, heh, heh… Hah, hah, hah… At last…! I shall have this palace for me… And all riches shall be MINE!"
"Them! The Demon!"
"Step back, my Son."
"But…!"
"That's an order! This involves me and this Demon."
"… Roger. I shall lead the troops to expel the enemy from the city: most of them have already run and not dared to pillage."
I obey my Father. Yet! When I come back from the patrol, I will make sure to behead this Demon and put an end to the visceral fear creeping out of my heart…
"Let us go!"
"Roger!"
I run across the avenues of the city: they are clean: save for some dropped shield or lance out of fear: they wanted to lighten their escape. None have dared to pillage lest they invoke the anger of the Four Heavenly Kings and the High One… The High One! Its anger would flow through that whole citadel until no stone was left standing!
"… Too quiet…"
"Is something the matter, Prince?"
"… Nothing. Split into 5 men patrols."
"Roger!"
"I will go alone."
"Roger!"
I will just circle back to the outer yard of the palace… And I can still hear some clashing of metal and metal… Hmpf… So the Demon brought a sword worth it? Yet they surely will fall soon: they cannot break OUR armors!
"… Prince! Most of the patrols report that the enemy has totally fled the city and some can be seen disbanding: some of their commanders have been found slain by their own men."
"Hah! They surely whipped them to try to force them to march and now they had their revenge on those fools blinded by greed! They just wanted to spoil this city's riches!"
"Roger!"
"Bring them to the front of the graves and incinerate them all: we cannot let their bodies stain our lands!"
"Roger!"
I should hurry back… I do not fear Father losing but I would like to deliver the Heavenly Punishment to that Demon… That Demon with tanned brownish and black hair and skin and evil blue irises…! Let them be slain and then this Land shall have peace!
"… Son. Why did you return?"
"I just wanted to extinguish the ghost, Father."
"Hum. Alright. Go ahead. I shall ask the patrols if any of them dared to try to force their way into the inner courtyard."
Hah! I see. Their armor is but mere leather. Our "energy armors" cannot be harmed by blunt weapons! And we have something… Something which those fools would never be able to understand or destroy… Something which will ensure that our bloodline shall rise again after overcoming Time Eternal! This will be a glorious start to the 7th month of this year! The 1060th year since the foundation of the Kingdom! There! Their neck is cut: now they are slain and nothing will bring them back! Then we shall burn it along with the fools!
BLAM!
"What was that?"
BLAM!
"Who goes there? What are these beams of energy being shot from the skies? A new weapon…? Hah. Proxies?"
I see them… Simplistic machines! Soldier-like machines of a dull orange and gray color pattern! Their heads are shaped like cones the sides of which have patterns drawn into them! And they have some armor over the shoulders and the chest which protect their raw energy bodies: they hold shields and swords… HMPF! And instead of legs they have a "tail" of energy which allows them to hover over the ground protected by an armored spear…! Mere proxies!
BLAM!
"Hah! What poor aiming. Is that all you can do, machine? Come! Dexia Sword! Let the High One destroy this foolish machine which tries to imitate a soldier!"
SLASH!
"Hah! Their armor is nothing to my sword!"
BLAM!
"Green energy? Hmpf! I see. The Demon talked about the Four Heavenly Kings and they try to imitate their "element" or "attribute"… So there must be one of thunder, one of flame, one of water, one of grass and one which is not…"
SLASH! SLASH!
How frail. How weak. How idiotic. Did they really stake it all on these? I call it a foolish stake.
"Huh? Hah. They are coming for us. They don't waste time on the mere soldiers. Come, you proxy. You lapdog. Every time I pierce their energy cores they fall apart… They are intended to be easily made. I guess their so-called "God" is somehow related but… Bah! Our 3 artifacts sealed that damned "God"… Or, rather, their power… So there must be a limit of how many of these they can actually create!"
"Son. Are you alright?"
Father came back and it is no wonder. He must have heard the fighting sounds and someone must have reported.
"They are weak."
"That's the Son I know. Those fools stake it all on these? They have no mind, they move like wild animals. They are no better than tigers. No, I would rather say these are below tigers, even."
"Truly. Mere machines cannot match the intellect of the tigers. They are fierce hunters, they learn, they wait… These are blunt things."
"Yet! Their blades are energy and they could make it past our armors. Do not let them get too close to you, Son."
"Roger, Father. Aristeros Shield! Repel them!"
CLANG! SLASH!
"Truly. How frail. And no more are coming. There are just 4 left: they must have rushed these up and though than just… What, 10 of them? That they would suffice…"
SLASH! CLANG!
"Only 3 left."
"Hum. Good. I shall go check if they dared to send some inside of the palace."
SLASH! SLASH!
"Hmpf. 1 left. Huh? It's flying away…"
TCACH!
"D-damned proxies… From behind…! They hit from behind…! But! My consciousness… Shall overcome Time Eternal… And be revived! I am not dead yet! Eat sword! Die!"
The blackness is coming… The cold tendrils of death are pulling me into the Realm of the Dead…! But I am not afraid! I will rise! I shall overcome Time Eternal! Hah… You lowlifes lose… Mu Empire! HAH, HAH, HA~H!
20:04 PM (Japan Time)…
"… HUH!"
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"Huff, huff… A… dream…? W-where am I…? Who am I…?"
"Master. Thou have awakened."
A person was laying face-up inside of a cylindrical device somewhere.
This person could be close to a meter and eighty tall.
They wore a gray bodysuit which included black gloves and boots.
They also had a brown leather helmet on which included black thick shades over the eyes.
A respirator mask was set over his nose and mouth.
There was a small curved viewing slit made of glass which allowed for fluorescent light to come in.
The person had suddenly tried to rise but some restrains over their arms and legs had impeded them: they had some wires with round plastic membranes connected to various parts of the bodysuit and a pair of tubes with IVs on their end connected to their wrists.
A computer-generated voice had echoed inside of the helmet because it seemingly had a radio system built-in.
"Huh… What time is it?"
"20:08 PM, Japan Time, Sunday December the 21st, 2011…"
"WHAT? Wait a minute! I remember! This is the "Ark"!"
"Correct, Master."
"You're the onboard computer!"
"Correct, Master."
"What happened? The plan was for the trip to end TWO MONTHS AGO!"
"I shall offer no apologies, yet… There was an accident."
"What! What "accident"?"
"During our transit of the Jovian System… Some meteor fragments hit the SE and SW plasma engine sectors and pierced through the armor… Some systems were damaged and there were no means to repair it… Thus the Inertial Drive lost power and was unable to achieve the calculated speed even with Jupiter's "gravity boost"… It got cut down to about 50% so this is why the trip took double the scheduled time to end…"
"Fuck AND fuck."
"Master? Do calm down. You are waking up from a 4 month-long "cold sleep"… The nutrients have just been injected but you will feel weak and disoriented…"
"Huff. Did we reach Kyutora?"
"30 hours ago."
"Are we in orbit?"
"Correct. Our orbit ranges from 717 km at the highest point to 699 km at the lowest…"
"Huff. The base is running and can be inhabited?"
"Correct."
"The others are napping?"
"Correct."
"… Damn it. Two months of not showing our hide are passable. But four months… Those guys will soon realize that the "red herring" about the "doomsday orbital weapon" meant this… I should've tried to come up with an invisible "Dimensional Area" to protect us! I'm such a moron. My Father would be teaching me a lesson by now."
"Don't overstress yourself, Master."
"Huff. And what a lovely way to wake up…"
"Master?"
"Remembering what happened on July the 5th, 2033 BCE…"
"Do excuse me?"
"Don't mind me. Check on the others."
"Roger. The restrains will come off in 2 minutes."
"Damn it. Kuroban Howsad: what an idiot you've been. Really. And here I thought Gray was the one behaving like an idiot some months ago with that little incident…"
CLAC!
The restrains unlocked and there was a sound of pressure being equalized before another sound rang out: the person slowly took out the IVs along with the respirator and then tried to articulate their feet and hands: they groaned and then gripped a steel handle set in the inner side of the cover: they pushed it and the cover calmly swung to the left: the capsule got opened and the bleak steel ceiling with a pair of fluorescent tubes on it got exposed: the person lifted their waist and aimed their arms forward as if trying to get heated up: they then rotated to the right and leant their feet on the ground to stand up with help from the arms: they quickly leant on the wall in front of them and panted.
"Huff, huff… The computer wasn't kidding… Huh?"
They spotted a round view-window and they walked over to it to gasp and glue their face to it.
"So this is Kyutora… Welcome to the alien sky, I'd rather say."
It was clear now that this room was part of a large construct orbiting a planet from close by: it had some large land-locked frozen water masses and plenty of permafrost and ice on the caps.
"Hum… Let's see… If memory serves the base was built close to the larger frozen lake. Yeah. But I can't see it while it's on the daylight side…"
"Status report: all others will awake in 1 hour 30 minutes."
"Alright. I'll make my way to the cargo bays and try to get some food to thaw and eat before I get into the command bridge."
The person, Kuroban, removed the helmet and left it atop a table.
"Huff!"
Kuroban was a man on his mid-twenties.
He had neatly combed blackish hair and his eyes' irises were red in color.
He had no trace of a beard or moustache so he still retained a youthful appearance.
"I'll engage my "Denpa – Henkan" form later on… Let's just bring out the "Ultimate Orb" to check on it… Ultimate Orb: Materialize!"
Some data began to materialize in the air and then formed an orb-like shape which dropped atop the table.
This "Ultimate Orb" was made of circuitry boards covered by a transparent plastic-like material: it included two bands colored black and white spanning through it from pole to pole and another band which surely was the Equator: its four corners had pieces of armor colored in red, green, blue and purple colors.
"Start system check: I'll come fetch you later."
Kuroban stepped out through an armored door which automatically arched outwards into a window-less cylindrical corridor lit by fluorescent tubes in the ceiling: the south end of this cylinder had a large hatch and the north end had a door: six identical doors were set across its length and he calmly began to head north while sighing.
"Huff! I'm an idiot. I just know it. I had plenty of months to build this station and plan this and I forgot all about the stuff crossing through the Solar System. Luckily there was no gigantic monolith to swallow us and send us close to the core of the Milky Way Galaxy. The god part is that the portal machines can't be activated from Earth. You need to engage them from here, from Kyutora… This planet in another area of the Mily Way, accessed through an "entrance" past Pluto, deep in the Kuiper Belt…"
The door at the north end opened and he ended up in a circular corridor circling one round central body: the central body had four doors on the SW, SE, NW and NE corners while the circling corridor had another three doors set on the west, east and north sides.
"Any of the main body doors leads to the stairs up to the central command bridge where the computer is located at… The west and east corridors are the cargo bays… South and north have the hibernation capsules… There are six per corridor, a total of twelve… And since we're a total of 10 humans and 1 Navi… Close! There's only one spare. Heh. Had we been 12 then we'd be enough to form a self-appointed jury… Like in Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express…"
He headed left and entered another corridor: this one had only four doors on it and he opened the first one after interacting with a control panel: the insides were an industrial-scale freezer with some boxes stored there: he opened one and took out a frozen cheese and ham pizza: he headed out after locking the door.
"Phew."
His next step was to return to the main nexus and open one of the main body's doors: he entered an ascending spiral staircase and reached the main room.
"Well, well."
This room contained a small dome with eight triangle-shaped view windows set on its walls: eight straight lines spread across the upper surface and were covered in a metallic grid.
The main room contained several chairs set in a circle so that the view from the view windows could be enjoyed: two curved stairs climbed along the column to the top of the room where a command metallic cushioned armchair was placed: several graphs and holographic screen floated around it.
"And there's the alien sky again."
He looked on through the dome at the planet and then sat down in a chair.
"Let's thaw this."
He headed for a common microwave heater and placed the pizza inside after taking it out the plastic case: it began to hum and he opened a drawer in the wall to pick a plastic dish, a plastic cup and plastic knife and fork: he left those in the ground and headed for a small water fountain like those in offices: he served some water at room temperature and slowly drank it while pausing to humidify his mouth for one or two seconds before swallowing.
PING!
"Ah. It's completed. Good, good."
He took out the pizza and calmly began to eat it: he distractedly glanced at some images of some installation being displayed on-screen.
"What time is it? 20:39, Japan Time… Our base was in an island close to Philippines so it was an hour earlier… This new base has these "portal" machines which generate a tunnel through Time-Space and allow us to reach Earth in a record time of just a few seconds… We should carry a portable oxygen respirator just in case…"
He finished eating the pizza so he threw the plastic into a garbage bin and then stretched as he climbed up into the seat and began to interact with some holographic screens.
"I can't get any news from Earth from here. We'll need to physically get there and update our PET software with the latest update. 10 days left to the year 2011… We'll need to train to get back to action… Golden Star mustn't have been sitting idle… Or, rather… Uncle Moran. Heh. The Net Police is Uncle Merton and we're Uncle Moriarty. Superintendent Oda's nicknames are somewhat ironic… Gray had a good idea when he thought to go by them… Hmpf… Guess we'll eventually figure out if there'll be a Pocket Monsters Gray or not. That'd be ironic... Or maybe not? I must admit that "Platinum" wasn't easy to guess, though. Bah."
He formed a smug smile and chuckled under his breath.
The Kyutora Threat has just begun… Golden Star! We shall clash again!