Disclaimer: Bandai and Sunrise are the undisputed Tyrant rulers of Gundam, RISE UP AND FIGHT THE OPPRESSORS!
"Talking"
'Thinking'
"Radio"
"Alter Egos"
Lesson One - STAY AWAY FROM DYING STARS
Colony Ship Sanctuary
A lone ship sailed through the stars, any viewports it had were darkened, the barest of illuminations coming from automated consoles as the ship sailed through the darkness, its crew deep in a cryo induced slumber, dreamt peacefully.
As the crew slept a virtual ghost monitored their vital signs and made minor course calculations according to the star charts. "Log: Gravity and Radiation Anomaly Detected," a synthesized female voice rang out. "Cause Located: Uncharted Dying Star."
Nearby, a giant, majestic glowing red ball of fire was shrinking rapidly, even as it pulsed several times in response to its own gravity crushing it. Clouds of dust and plasma continually ejected from the core itself, as the core of the star contracted inwards, towards a solid core of iron so dense, it was barely managing to support itself. It didn't take much longer.
When the gravitational force exceeded the internal pressure of the iron core, the star began to eject its own mass in an increasing rate. With each pulse, the star began to grow hotter and hotter, changing from red to white, and then blue as its temperature increased drastically. As the star breathed its last, a massive explosion engulfed it, spreading out several times its own size and launching its plasma and dust particles even further outwards.
"Warning: Genetic Anomalies present in crew, documenting," the AI toned out to no one. "Graviton Anomaly increasing, unknown particle emission detected."
Moments later, the cloud of dust and plasma, cooled down just enough for the ship to survive, slammed into it, rocking it and throwing it away from the supernova. A few of the exterior sensors sparked and fizzled out, even as an odd silhouette appeared beside it in the cloud, also caught up in the blast.
"Temporal Anomaly, heading course changed, unknown destination," the AI warned out. "Distortions of time/space continuum detected. Error: Events have occurred outside of system jurisdiction. Error: Sensor failure, no input data received. Error: Atomic clock showing erratic behaviour. Disconnecting atomic temporal components from system operation and substituting with internal electronic temporal count. Shipwide time temporarily set to 12 am."
Inside the cold sleep module closest to the command center of the spacecraft, the circuitry began to fizzle and spark. The rest of the cold sleep modules stored in the 'residential' area of the craft also began to show similar signs.
"Warning: malfunctions detected within electronics of decks one through forty," the AI warned. "Initiating emergency thawing of all cryo pods for occupant safety, thawing underway."
The individual in the cryo pod closest to the command center was the first to take a deep breath subconsciously. Before he could do much more than that, another wave of matter caught the ship, tossing it aside like a boat caught in a storm. When his head banged against the wall of the pod, he immediately jerked awake, if a little sluggishly and blinked several times in an attempt to fight off the drowsiness.
The next toss of the ship threw his head against the glass cover of the pod and fully woke him up.
"Mother fucker!" the thirty-something year old man cursed as he rubbed his forehead. "Sigurd, report, what's happening?"
"Warning: Temporal Anomalies causing interior damage to Sanctuary, anomalies began shortly after the discovery of an unmapped dying star that bombarded the ship with unknown radiological waves that cause several genetic alteration within a number of the female crewmembers," the ship's AI, Sigurd, informed. "Captain Hisanaga, you have the bridge."
"Yeah, yeah," Captain Ryu Hisanaga grunted as he pulled the release lever for the cryo pod, cracking the seal and allowing it to swing open. He then pulled himself to his feet and gave himself a quick check over, standing at nearly 7' in height with a muscular build he cut an impressive figure with light brown, crew cut hair and dark green eyes.
Once he was sure there were no injuries on his person he quickly threw on a pair of sweats and made for the bridge. "As soon as the Anomaly is resolved, all genetically affected personnel are to be given examination by medical personnel, any wounded are to be treated first however," he commanded the AI. "What's our current position?"
"Position unknown, currently experiencing an unknown wormhole like effect within the immediate vicinity of Sanctuary," Sigurd reported. "Ship silhouette detected shortly before experiencing pseudo-wormhole event, suspected battleship-class ship."
"Just what we need," Ryu muttered to himself as he arrived on the bridge and began flipping every switch that he could reach, causing green and red lights to blink up all around him. "Ship status?"
"Operational, minor damage to circuitry forced the early release of Cryo Pods," Sigurd informed. "Further analysis shows minor hairline fractures on the hull, so far they are not compromising ship integrity."
"Say what you will about Savant Heavy Industries, but they build their ships to last, eh, captain," a new female voice asked as a woman in her late twenties stepped onto the bridge, making a beeline for the helm controls, she was around 5''5" with short cut blonde hair and sapphire colored eyes. "Thank the Goddess for that."
Ryu grunted in agreement as he reviewed what little sensor data they had. "We seem to be stable for the time being," he announced as more of the bridge crew slowly filtered in. "No telling about when we exit this wormhole."
"I think I got a concussion from that…" an Asian male standing about 6" tall muttered, walking in cradling his head in pain. He sported slightly long black hair, with brown eyes and glasses.
"Suck it up buttercup," another female shouted, her cherry red eyes flashing as he tossed some of her dark green, shoulderblade length hair over her shoulder, trying to intimidate him with her height of 5'1". "At least you didn't wake up finding some weird cosmic rays genetically altered you!"
The male blinked several times, rubbing his eyes as he turned to look at the verdette. "Who're you again?" he asked in no small amount of confusion.
"I'm Katrina you fucking dick!" Katrina Sanders shouted angrily punching the man in the arm. "Now you better remember that Leon or I'll fucking castrate you!"
"Enough, Katrina!" Ryu barked out, causing the woman to back down immediately, one thing everyone learned about their captain upon boarding, do not piss him off, he will hand your ass to you. "I need everyone at their best right now, we are in an emergency situation, personal grievance can wait."
"Yes sir!" Katrina replied instantly, placing her right fist over her heart in a salute. "Won't happen again, sir."
"In my defence, we did NOT have anyone running around with hair like that before we went into cold sleep…" Leon pointed out, rubbing his arm where he had been punched. "If it's as widespread as we think it is, this is going to be a slight shipwide issue before long."
Ryu nodded. "I know that Leon, needed to make sure comms were online first," he informed, pointing to the panel he was working at. "Attention crew of the Sanctuary, this is Captain Hisanaga, I know that you're all confused, and honestly, so am I, but rest assured, we will find some answers, I would like anyone who has been genetically altered to please report to the medical bay for an examination, speak with Sigurd if you have any questions, thank you."
"So any clue what's going on outside other than the whole being sucked into a wormhole thing?" the black-haired man asked, even as he floated into one of the chairs and began typing at the console.
"All we know for certain is that we were passing an uncharted dying star shortly before all this shit happened," Ryu informed plainly. "We also have a possible Battleship-class ship silhouette ahead of us as well."
Leon nearly fell out of his chair at the news. Even as he climbed back into it while adjusting his glasses, he began furtively typing at the console, his fingers flying across the keyboard in a flurry. "Sigurd, display unknown silhouette on the main screen," he ordered the AI.
"Affirmative," Sigurd responded, even as the main screen came to life with a low hum, flashing once as it fully booted up, before the image of the silhouette appeared on it.
"Enhance it," Leon added.
There was a short pause as a white line passed down the screen, increasing the resolution of the image as it passed. Leon took a moment to think as he scanned the image, zooming in on the still blurred out silhouette and checking it out where it very clearly had gun turrets.
"This is not going to end well is it?" Sanctuary's Helmswoman Wiess Gunther asked as she looked at the obviously heavily armed ship. "I mean, all we have are a single particle beam cannon and some anti-air defenses…"
"I'm still wondering how we haven't crashed into them yet," Leon muttered. "With our two ships in such close proximity, caught in a supernova like this, I'd have expected to get blown into them or something."
"We appear to be experiencing a parallel rift anomaly," Sigurd announced. "Warning: unable to theorize what may happen upon exiting the wormhole."
"Captain, should we try to open negotiations with that other ship once we clear this wormhole?" Leon spun his chair to face Ryu.
"Might be the best option," Ryu agreed as he frowned in concentration. "Even if its just to try and let them know we're not hostile."
"I guess we'll have to wait then. This wormhole's screwing with our comms too much," the male turned to look back up at the aggressive-looking silhouette displayed on the main screen. "I REALLY hope they're friendly."
Colony Ship Sanctuary, Residential Block B
The room was pitch black, all the lighting off to save energy during the long journey. The lights abruptly came on, responding to the shipboard AI's emergency protocols, even as loud warning klaxons resounded throughout the large room, although it would be more accurate to call it a hall. Scores upon scores of cryo pods rested within arranged neatly in rows going around the circumference of the circular block, each one filled with a prospecting colonist, refugee, whatever you wanted to call them.
The pods were filled with people from all walks of life, all professions, coming from all over the planet they once called home. Most were people searching for adventure, or a better life away from home. Some were following their parents, relatives, children. And each had been chosen by hand to enter the ship, to continue the legacy of the great human race on a different planet in a different part of the galaxy.
There were young people, some even as young as 4 years old. The oldest had been through 60 years of life. After all, the young ones still needed guidance from the old folk. They had slept for the past few decades, uninterrupted until now.
Each pod hissed as they released the preservatives that had kept their occupants in suspended animation, before the glass hatches popped and swung open to once more expose their occupants. At that moment, the ship shuddered, rocked by another wave of matter from the supernova nearby. It was enough to send a few people floating out of their pods in zero gravity, most of them still too groggy from their long hibernation to be really surprised.
"Mugyaaa~" a girl with knee-length wavy silver hair sporting bright green eyes yawned cutely as she drifted through the space inside the residential block, even as she turned around and stretched, feeling her muscles respond a little too sluggishly. "Eh… are we there yet…?"
"I'm more than a little surprised how well you were sleeping considering we're apparently going through a rather rough patch of space," another girl with long black hair done in a ponytail muttered, drifting beside her with her bright red eyes narrowed and her right hand massaging her temples. "I swear they need to put some better shock absorbers in those pods…"
Blinking a few times, the silverette looked at the other girl. "Who… who're you again?" she murmured, still not completely awake.
"Kaede Serizawa…" the black-haired girl sighed, before she grabbed the silverette by the shoulders and began shaking her violently. "Wake up already, Hanami-chan! Only one person I know yawns like that!"
By the time Hanami Yukikaze was completely awake, her vision was still spinning. "I'm awake, I'm awake already, Kaede-chan!" she protested, trying to make sense of the swirls of… things she was seeing.
"Even though your hair and eyes are completely different, you're still the same inside," Kaede sighed as she turned to look around her, unable to do much else until they hit a surface where they could use their magnetic boots.
"Eh?" Hanami blinked away the last vestiges of her grogginess and took a good look at the other girl. "Kaede-chan, when did you dye your hair black?"
"The thing is, I didn't," Kaede frowned, idly playing with her ponytail. "Last I remember stepping into the cryo pod I was still a brunette."
Something white floated across the corner of Hanami's vision, distracting her momentarily. It was then that she connected what had happened to Kaede with what she had said, and she pulled a few strands of her hair to the front. "Eeep?" she squeaked, realizing her own drastic change.
"Silver is most definitely not a natural hair colour either… unless you're really old," Kaede pointed out.
"Kaede-chan, you know I'm not THAT old!" Hanami protested weakly. She did feel a few decades older with what was going on with them though.
"Kyaa!" a feminine voice screamed out. "Why does it look like I dunked my hair in gold!?"
The two looked over ahead of them to see a literally golden haired young woman with almost black colored eyes and a lush figure. "And I thought I wasn't supposed to grow in cold sleep!" she cried out in a semi-panic.
"Don't see why you want to complain about that," Kaede blinked as the two of them drifted towards her.
The teen's eyes watered to a comedic level as she looked at the two of them. "But I didn't want implants!" she cried out. "Mom's going to kill me!"
Once they were close enough, Hanami and Kaede spun around to point their legs at the ground, landing beside the golden-haired girl and making sure they could hear the satisfying thunk of their magnetic boots locking onto the floor.
"This is so unfair," Kaede muttered, looking darkly at the girl's chest.
"Err… Kaede-chan, I think both of us… kind of grew as well," Hanami blushed in slight embarrassment when she realized exactly what else had changed on her. Now that her brain was back up to speed, she distinctly remembered walking into the cryo pod with a much smaller chest as well. Kaede had also definitely not been as big back then either.
"Attention: Any crew members who have experienced a change in their physiology are to report to the Medical Deck as soon as convenient for medical scanning," the ship's AI announced. "Please remain calm and answers will be found."
"I guess… that's us?" Kaede blinked.
"B-By the way, what's your name?" Hanami quickly asked, more to try and calm the golden-haired girl down.
"O-oh, right," the golden haired girl said in startlement before suddenly standing and giving a formal bow. "I'm Christina Jaeger, please, call me Chris! Nice to meet you!"
"I'm Hanami Yukikaze," Hanami introduced herself.
"And I'm Kaede Serizawa," Kaede nodded. "Pleased to meet you, Chris-san."
"So… umm… where's the medical bay?" Chris asked as she looked around. "Umm… cause… I don't remember…"
"W-Well… neither do I…" Hanami confessed, even as she looked around for a map of some sort. "I didn't really get to explore the ship that much before we got into the cryo pods…"
"Well, both of you are hopeless…" Kaede sighed, rubbing the back of her head. "I swear I saw a map around here somewhere…"
"Eheheheh," Chris chuckled nervously rubbing the back of her head. "Sorry~"
"You don't have any idea where it is either though…" Hanami pointed out, causing Kaede to freeze for a moment.
Chris peaked at the frozen Kaede, giggling at the sight of the bullet like sweat that was pouring off her. "Hey! Why are you trying to make me feel guilty for something that even you don't know?" she asked poutingly.
"Well, we could always just follow the crowd…" Hanami turned to look at the crowd that was forming near one of the exits, before she blinked in surprise. All of them were girls, sporting a wide variety of hair colours, some of which she had never ever seen before.
"It's like a rainbow," Kaede absentmindedly remarked, voicing out Hanami's thoughts by proxy as well.
Chris clasped her hands under her chin as she stared with sparkling eyes at the sight before them. "Pretty~" she squealed. "Oh I wish I had my camera~"
"You're into photography?" Hanami inquired curiously.
"Of course, a single picture can say a thousand words," Chris said cheerfully, even as the girls melded into the crowd, making sure to hold hands so they didn't get separated.
"Please tell me it's a DSLR and not one of those lousy compacts," Kaede pleaded. "And that you have extra lenses for it…"
Rolling her eyes at her friend's antics, Hanami explained, "Kaede-chan here was in our school's photography club prior to coming onboard this ship. She's really into photography too, but she didn't bring her camera onboard so she gets a little jumpy when someone starts talking about photography around her."
"I miss my camera!" Kaede wailed pitifully.
"I got a professional level DSLR," Chris informed. "In fact, I was going to be an intern for fashion shoots before being selected for the Colonization efforts."
"I admit I don't have a lot of experience with fashion shooting…" Kaede scratched her head. "I'm more into landscape photography. Natural lighting has to be the best lighting ever, although it takes some tweaking and editing to get it to come out right."
Chris giggled in response as the crowd slowly filtered into a large white room. A rather sterile smell permeated the room, originating from the air purifiers mounted around the room. A large variety of medical apparatus was arranged neatly around the room, most of which the girls couldn't name. The only one that they knew for sure was the MRE machine.
"Man, with all the new natural hair colors, I'm excited to begin doing fashion shoots here!" Chris declared with a giggle.
"I wouldn't say they're natural…" Kaede sighed, watching as one of the girls was put through a cylindrical scanning machine. "Well, mine is, but most of the other colours normally don't go with hair."
"Don't make me feel old when I'm only 16," Hanami muttered.
"I think it's cute on you, Hanami!" Chris informed with a bright smile. "Silver is so your color."
"R-Really?" the silverette looked a little brighter at the compliment. "Thanks…"
"Mm, and when we get the chance I'm gonna dress you up like a doll to bring it out!" Chris continued pumping her fist into the air.
Hanami practically teleported behind Kaede, trying to use her as a shield between herself and Chris.
"She's a little scared of people getting too enthusiastic about dressing her up," Kaede explained, patting the silverette on the head softly.
"Don't worry Hanami… I'll be gentle." she informed, a shadow falling over her eyes as they seemed to glow yellow as a creepy smile worked its way onto her face.
"Eeeep!" Hanami squeaked and pulled Kaede closer, as if her increased proximity would better shield her from the fashion enthusiast.
"HANAMI YUKIKAZE!" A female doctor shouted out, reading off an electronic tablet. "Step forward for your examination please!"
"Uh, right!" Hanami quickly disappeared towards the source of the voice, leaving the other two girls behind. On the inside, she was grateful for the distraction…
"Please step onto the pad here please," the attending doctor, a blonde haired, veridian eyed woman wearing the same sweats as everyone else, only with a lab coat on overtop. "Hanami… Yukikaze, correct? Age Sixteen, female, and measurements taken on your boarding before cold sleep were 76/52/71," she looked up with a raised eyebrow and a quirked lip. "Obviously grown since then, and instead of black hair and brown eyes, silver hair and green eyes."
The doctor made a few notes on the tablet computer she was holding. "I'm Dr Wilson, a pleasure to meet you Miss Yukikaze," she said. "Now please stand still as the Nano-Scanner does its work."
Pressing a button, the pad that Hanami was standing on began to whir to life, a solid ring began to lift up, beams of red light emitting from it as it scanned every inch of her body. "Hmm… same as the others…" Dr. Wilson murmured to herself as she viewed the streaming data. "Well Miss Yukikaze, wish I could tell you more, but… all we know as of this moment is that whatever the genetic anomaly did to you - other than your physical changes - have cause you to start emitting some sort of energy within you, that, as of right now, doesn't seem harmful in nature."
"Some sort of… energy?" Hanami blinked in confusion, looking all around her as if expecting to find some sort of indication of said energy. She found none.
"It's the best way we can describe it at this moment," Wilson informed. "And right now it doesn't seem to be active, only… benign at the moment."
"I… I see…" the silverette muttered, not quite understanding what was going on.
"Now, I can understand if you are hesitant, but the Captain would like to have medical nanobots injected into those affected, as to monitor their vitals and to see if the genetic anomaly has any long term effects."
"Um, it's no problem," the silverette shook her head as she held out her arm. "So we're doing it now?"
Wilson nodded as she pulled out a syringe. "You will feel a slight pinch," she informed as she gently slid the needle into an artery. "And a brief moment of vertigo."
Hanami sat down for a moment, feeling the nanobots take hold in her blood. The vertigo was brief, but she knew that she would've stumbled if she had been standing. "Any idea how this genetic anomaly happened? Does it have anything to do with how the ship has been constantly shaking?" she asked.
"We have some theories, it appears that when we were in cold sleep we passed an uncharted dying star that bombarded us with an exoctic radiation that we've never seen before, we believe that is the cause of the genetic anomalies," Wilson informed as she tapped her chin in thought. "After that it seems that some sort of temporal event happened, dragging us into a wormhole."
"Wait, a wormhole?" Hanami did a double take, staring at the doctor incredulously. "I… Is the ship going to be alright?"
"She's holding together quite fine, the engineers of Savant Heavy Industries built this ship to survive in unknown conditions after all," the doctor said reassuringly. "And the bridge crew is doing everything they can to make sure it stays that way when we exit."
"That's a relief..." Hanami sighed, putting her hand on her chest and trying to ignore the new sensations that came with her increased... bulk.
"You're free to go," Wilson informed. "The Captain gave those who were… altered, clearance to take what they need for new clothing free of charge."
"Thank goodness," Hanami smiled. She didn't think the compression suit she was currently wearing would be able to take that much more abuse.
"I wish you a good day, Miss Yukikaze," Wilson informed with a slight bow of her head.
"You too, Wilson-san," Hanami bowed respectfully before she turned around and reentered the crowd, searching for the distinctive golden-haired girl in their recently-formed posse. Problem was, there were at least three other girls with a similar hair colour. It took her a few minutes, but she eventually found her way back.
Chris let out an excited squee as Hanami joined them. "Free shopping trip~!" she squealed in excitement. "Hanami, be my model!"
"Iyaaaa!" Hanami hurriedly ducked behind Kaede again.
"Please Hanami!" Chris begged. "My fashion advice is the best around!"
"Go easy on her, Chris-san…" Kaede sighed, pulling the distraught silverette out from behind her and pushing her out in front.
Chris grasped Hanami's hands with her own, her eyes gleaming. "I promise you Hanami, when we're done, you'll be the most drop dead gorgeous girl on this ship!" she swore.
"K-Kaede too!" Hanami grabbed onto the black-haired girl beside her.
"Leave me out of this!" Kaede complained, trying to get out of Hanami's grip.
"Of course she's coming!" Chris informed, her eyes glittering even more. "Let us go, FASHION AWAITS!"
"Traitor," Kaede muttered, giving up her resistance.
"You did it first, Kaede-chan," Hanami sighed.
Sanctuary - Bridge
"Warning! Wormhole collapse detected!" Sigurd informed the bridge crew. "Tee minus, one minute!"
Ryu slapped the general alarm. "All hands, secure yourselves!" he shouted out over the comm network. "Wormhole is collapsing!"
Leon quickly strapped himself securely into his seat, tightening the straps as much as he could. "So Sigurd, any idea what else we should do when a wormhole collapses?" he asked jokingly.
"I believe the proper phrase would be: 'tuck you head between your legs and kiss your ass goodbye'," Sigurd responded in the same toneless voice she always used.
Len blinked for a moment, before turning to the man sitting in the captain's chair. "Captain, did our ship's AI just sass me?" he asked, in a disbelieving tone.
Ryu chuckled humourously. "That I do believe it did," he answered, an all too wide grin on his face. "Twenty seconds people, got anything to get off your chest now is the time to say it!"
"I'm the one who painted the walls of Leon's quarters into Russian Flags!" Katerina shouted.
"I'm seriously afraid of carpets!"
"I'm really a dude!"
"Wait, are you serious?" Leon blinked at the last one, before what Katerina said registered in his head. "Katerina, I'm getting you back for that one!"
"If we live I will not argue!" Katrina countered as Sigurd began to countdown, the ship's shaking became lurches as the wormhole seemed to destabilize.
"Returning to normal space in three… two… one… now." Sigurd announced seconds before the ship just seemed to slam to a stop, throwing most of the crew forward in their seats despite their restraints, a horrifying screeching sound echoing around them.
"Warning: Hull breach detected between residential blocks A and B. No atmospheric loss. Unknown cause," Sigurd reported.
"Dammit, get medical and security forces down there ASAP," Ryu ordered. "Give me information people!"
"Warning: Hull breach widening rapidly. Both residential blocks A and B are compromised. System intrusion detected, origin unknown. Coding language unknown. Error: Hull breach does not match expected parameters."
"Block all intrusions, lock down the main server!" Ryu ordered. "I need eyes people, security, what's your ETA?"
"SecCon to MainCon, team 2 is currently headed over to investigate," a voice came over the radio.
The ship was starting to tremble and shake violently at that point.
"Warning: Data transmission cables severed. Data transmission cables reconnected. Unknown cause. Detecting foreign operating system. Warning: All sectors reporting hull breach."
"What the hell is going on here!? I don't see any hull breach here!" Leon shouted.
"What do you mean Leon?" Ryu asked, looking over to the officer. "What are you seeing?"
"Shipwide cameras aren't seeing any hull breaches on the inside," Leon explained. "Exterior cameras are out of commission, but there are no damage signs. Instead, some of the corridors inside the ship are… shifting, and the exterior hull plating looks like it's being rearranged. Some of the corridors are linking to some others that I don't think I've ever seen before…"
"What?" Ryu asked incredulously as he brought the cameras up on his screen. "How in the hell?"
"Team 2 to MainCon, we've encountered unknowns!" a security guard shouted out. "They look human but their tech is different!"
"What is going on here…?" Leon whispered in shock.
"External sensors 20% restored. Beginning scan of surrounding space. No contacts detected on visual, thermal or laser sensors within a hundred light seconds."
"What?" Ryu nearly shouted, before his eyes widened. "Sigurd, run the probability of a wormhole event causing the merging to matter of two different ships!"
"Unknown. This particular field of physics has not been explored. Presence of new system hardware detected. Running language decryption and emulation protocols. Beginning assimilation of new hardware."
"Team two, this is MainCon, do not fire unless fired upon, what is the current situation?" Ryu asked.
"Very tense down here sir," Team two's leader informed. "We've basically got a Mexican standoff going on here."
"Sigurd, as soon as you have a translation patch, download it to the hardware of all security personnel, Team Two is Priority One."
"Verbal component of new language appears similar to the language 'English'. Building new character encoding algorithm, 10% complete," Sigurd reported.
"Does that mean we can speak English to them?" Leon blinked.
"Verbal communication to new species in English is not recommended. While verbal pronunciation appears similar, the meanings of some words are different."
"Sigurd, if you can find their command bridge, send them a text message saying that we do not want to fight them," Ryu ordered. "Team Two, have they taken any action?"
"Other than talking into their radios, no, I don't think they expected this any more than we did, sir," Team Two responded.
"Error: Unable to contact secondary command bridge. Firewall in place."
"Sir, why not just have team two relay the message?" Katerina questioned. "Have them write it out exactly as Sigurd says it and pass it off."
Ryu frowned as he was about to respond when a comm became active. "MainCon, this is Security Team Three, we have made contact with hostile forces!" a voice shouted out over the sound of gunfire. "We need backup now!"
"Team Two here, they are firing on us!"
"Hostile activities detected," Sigurd reported. "Self-defence hardware integration in process, unable to respond. Blast doors are not functional."
"Send two teams to reinforce Teams Two and Three, remaining Security teams are to defend the Residential Areas, civilians are to be given sidearms as per the self-defense protocols," Ryu ordered. "All bridge crew… grab a gun."
"Warning: Hostile presence detected in residential blocks A and B."
"Security teams, ResBlocks A and B, need immediate reinforcement, triple time it!" Ryu shouted over the radio. "Do not let them engage the civilians!"
"…Fuck." Leon quite aptly summarized the feelings of the rest of the bridge crew.
Colony Ship Sanctuary, Residential Block B
"Eh? What's going on now?" Hanami blinked in surprise, as the trio of girls headed for the repository to collect their new clothing.
Scant seconds after the general alarms had started blaring a massive tremor had overtaken the ship, throwing many people to the ground and as they recovered from the tremors their eyes widened as it looked like parts of the ship were being replaced with completely different sections of what looked to be a different ship. "I… I don't know…" Chris admitted nervously. "Does it have to do with the wormhole?"
"T-This is actually a little scary," Kaede muttered. On closer inspection, it was quite obvious that her hands were trembling.
"Attention all civilians," Sigurd's voice rang out over the intercom. "We are now at a Level One Emergency, please follow emergency protocols."
"K-Kaede-chan… I think you should remedy that to very scary," Hanami whispered, looking around her fearfully.
"Ye-Yeah…" the ponytailed girl muttered.
"Come on, we need to find a safe zone," Chris said shakily, remembering Level One Emergency protocols - which was used whenever there was a foreign invader on the ship. "We have to hurry."
"But then… what's safe and what's not?" Hanami pointed out, even as the corridor beside them opened up a new pathway into an area that shared design aesthetics with the others parts of the ship that had been replaced. "I mean… I get that we should avoid those new parts of the ship… but it looks like some of the corridors are closed off, or had those parts inserted in between…"
"I know, but we can't stay here," Chris pointed out. "Even if it's just a storage room, we need to hide."
"Well yeah… but I'm scared… If even the rooms are shifting around, wouldn't there be a chance of us walking into one of the rooms and coming out through the same door into a completely different area later?" Hanami shivered at the thought.
"Then we just better hope no one is there," Chris countered, even as she shook slightly. "It's better than doing nothing."
"I… guess so," Kaede sighed, reluctantly agreeing with the golden-haired girl even as she abruptly halted, tugging at the sleeves of the two other girls to stop them as well. "But then… what are we going to do about those people in front of us?"
"Huh?" Chris asked in confusion as she looked up and paled at the sight of two foreign-looking uniformed men who stared back at them in equal surprise. "Umm… unarmed?" she offered hesitantly.
The two foreigners raised their guns, strange, pointed ones that they had never seen before that hummed ominously and emitted an even more ominous green glow from what appeared to be vents on their sides.
"I don't think they care, Chris-san!" Kaede grabbed Chris by her hand, turned around and began to run.
Green bolts of wreathing energy flew past them and slammed into the corridor walls behind them, leaving behind blackened scorch marks and a hole or two.
"RUN!" Chris shouted as she started sprinting down a random corner, the other two hot on her heels. "They have man-portable laser weapons, I thought those were only on freaking ships!"
"I think they're aliens or something!" Hanami shouted, wondering why she was barely even feeling tired despite never being trained athletically. Plus she was running at a speed she was sure she had never reached before…
"They look human!" Kaede pointed out, ducking under another laser that had been aimed at her head, blinking when she realized she had done it on reflex.
"I never saw a uniform or weapons like that before!" Chris shouted as she bolted around a corner, the other two close behind, narrowly missing a bolt herself. "Dear god please don't let there be a dead end."
"Dammit Chris-san, don't invoke Murphy's Law!" Kaede groaned out loud.
Hanami skidded to a halt slightly further ahead, holding the other two back. "It's worse than a dead end…" she said in fear, pointing a shaking finger at four more of the men that had just rounded the corner ahead.
"Oh god," Chris whimpered as the three came to a jarring halt. "Why are you attacking us? We're just civilians!"
"I don't think they understand the idea of what a civilian is!" Hanami whispered, preparing herself for her imminent doom.
At that moment, the ship began shaking again, even as the corridor wall beside them opened up, revealing a pathway to another part of the ship. The silverette wasted no time pulling them into it, while the ominous glow of green laser bolts bathed the corridor behind them.
"What the hell is going on!" Chris shouted desperately as they sprinted through the hallways. "I don't know if these suddenly appearing hallways are good or bad!
"I say they're good if we can keep running!" Kaede shot back.
They sprinted into a large room with a series of connected pipes all leading to a spherical, ice blue, glowing ball that just radiated energy. "Is… is this their engine?" Chris asked in shock.
"I… I think it is…" Hanami continued running past it. "W-We need to hide!"
Chris nodded in agreement as they searched for a hiding place. A short while later she found a dark corner behind a cluster of coolant pipes. The three girls dove into it just as the squad of soldiers ran in. "Don't see us, don't see us," Chris whispered, barely able to hear herself, pleadingly.
"Er… they're making a beeline for us…" Hanami whispered, barely able to believe how fast they had been discovered.
"Probably thermal scans or something…" Kaede muttered.
The soldiers shouted something that sounded vaguely like English even as they pointed their guns towards the hidden girls.
"What are they saying?" Kaede turned to look at the other two girls, still not leaving their hiding spots despite already having been found out.
Chris just shook her head in confusion. "I… I don't know..." she whispered as she shook fearfully. "Hanami, Kaede, I… I'm gonna distract them… run."
"You know they'll track us just as easily with whatever sights they have, right? A distraction won't really work, especially in this confined space…" Kaede pointed out, looking at the soldiers that appeared to be wearing some strange goggles of some kind.
Chris smiled weakly. "Each second counts… right?" she asked feebly, and before either of the two could stop her she charged out of the hiding place with a yell that was equal parts frustration and fear and she tackled one of the soldiers with a strength she didn't even know she had, causing the rifle he was holding to go off, slamming into a conduit pipe.
"That idiot!" Kaede seethed, before she turned to look at Hanami, who was trembling in fear. "Come on, we need to help her!" Then her eyes widened as she caught sight of another squad of soldiers that had been in the room already preparing to open fire on the two girls still in the hiding spot. "HANAMI, GET DOWN!"
"Eh…?" Hanami blinked slowly as she turned to look at where Kaede was looking. Her face paled visibly, but the soldiers were already squeezing the triggers on their weapons. Almost in slow motion, she watched as the laser bolt flew towards her, the ominous green glow filling her vision.
Time stood stock still for several moments, as Hanami's life flashed before her eyes. 'Is it… the end…?' she thought to herself. 'I came on the ship to look for adventure… well, this technically is one, but did I ask for too much? Otou-san… oka-san…'
…
"IYAAAAAAAAAAA!" Hanami screamed, bringing up her arm as if it would help stop the laser bolt and closing her eyes on reflex. For a moment before she did, she felt electricity course through her raised arm, even as it was engulfed in a silvery glow… wait, that laser bolt was green, not silver…
There was the sound of fabric ripping, and she could only feel a minor heated sensation on her arm…
"Ha-Hanami, you…" Kaede whispered in shock.
The silverette slowly opened her eyes, her eyes widening when she realized what had happened - her arm below her elbow was now covered in what appeared to be a thick, white boxy armoured gauntlet. She realized she could barely feel the weight, even as she flexed her fingers which were also covered in the same armour. There was a strange rectangular frame or holder or something on the outside of the gauntlet as well, although she didn't know what it was for…
…
"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS THIS!?" Hanami yelled, even as the silvery glow spread to cover her whole body. Her compression suit, already stretched to its limits, groaned as it was stretched even further before it completely burst off of her, revealing that armour of a similar design was appearing all over her. A white, boxy frame with a protruding section in the center appeared over her chest, exposing her underbust. A white boxy crotch guard appeared as well over black spandex-like panties, together with a set of white plates that seemed to be a skirt.
She stumbled backwards slightly as a black backpack formed out of the glow, with a pair of thruster ports clearly visible sticking out of the bottom. Large, boxy shoulder pauldrons covered her shoulders, even as long white boots made of armour plating materialized around her legs from her knees downwards, with the same rectangular holders from her gauntlets appearing on the knees. To top it all off, a circlet appeared going around her head, with a single long, white horn protruding from her forehead.
Only after that did the glow die down, leaving Hanami standing there looking like a girl cosplaying in a very much modified and revealing mecha costume. The silverette stood there blinking for a moment before she dropped into a crouch with a loud shriek, wrapping her armoured arms around her chest. "Don't look!"
It only drew attention to the crack of her butt showing between the armoured skirt plating on her back.
The room was silent as everyone stared at her sudden transformation. "Ha… nami?" Chris asked slowly, even as she still somehow pinned the soldier down.
"What just happened…?" Kaede blinked, staring at the transformed Hanami incredulously.
"I-I don't know!" Hanami gasped, staring at the gauntlet where the laser bolt had apparently harmlessly splashed across it.
The soldiers said something to each other in their pseudo-english speak before they raised their rifles again and opened fire on Hanami, the bolts of energy splashing against her.
"St-Stop that!" Hanami brought her left arm around, gasping once more in surprise when she felt that sense of electricity running through her arm once again before a large white shield almost as tall as herself appeared on it. She raised it in the way of the laser bolts as she got back up to her feet, using it to block the laser bolts instead.
They shouted something at each other as they slowly began to back up, their firing becoming less accurate as they kept the automatic fire going, several of the shots pinging the coolant pipes causing a hissing sounds to be heard.
"Uh oh," Chris said as jets of coolant began to spring up from the lines.
"I said stop that!" Hanami shouted out, ducking low and jumping forward at the soldiers, her backpack thrusters suddenly firing up and slightly unbalancing her. Nonetheless, she brought her shield up in front of her and shield bashed three of the soldiers that had been dumb enough to stand there firing, sending them flying into the wall, although she did end up tumbling to the ground as well, not used to a jetpack-assisted rush.
Kaede gaped at the scene unfolding before her even as some of the soldiers behind them recovered. Apparently deciding it was pointless to shoot the armoured girl punching holes in their formations, they trained their guns on her instead, squeezing off several laser bolts that splashed on her back and sent her sprawling.
"Ow, that hurt!" Kaede grumbled as she climbed to her feet, only for the sound of ripping fabric to resound through the room once again. She froze, feeling her compression suit slide off her, at the same time electricity coursed throughout her. "W-Wait, don't tell me…"
A black aura spread around Kaede, wrapping around her. It quickly solidified into boxy chunks of armour of the exact same design as Hanami's, except it was black coloured instead of white. The only difference seemed to be in the circlet around her head, as the horn that sprouted from her forehead wasn't singular, but instead had several extra sub-horns that grew upwards from the main one.
"Ah!" Chris shouted as she was thrown off and shot at with the soldier's side arm, the bolts splashing against her making her shout in pain as a golden aura flared about her, causing her suit to be ripped into shreds, the aura forming into a golden version of Hanami's and Kaede's armour, her singular horn seemed to be like three jutting out from her forehead. "Whoa… this… feels weird…"
"Tell me about it…" Kaede blinked, examining her own armour. "What the heck is going on here?"
"This armour is so indecent!" Hanami wailed, getting up and making sure to keep an arm wrapped around her underbust to hide it. Her shield lay forgotten on the ground, near the three men she had knocked unconscious.
"Where did it come from?" Chris asked as she looked down at herself. "Is… is this caused by that genetic anomaly?"
"I… I don't know, but I think it's the only explanation that makes sense now…" Kaede whispered, joining the other two and completely ignoring the remaining soldiers. "I can barely feel the weight from all this, even though it looks so heavy…"
"B-But at least we're safe now, right?" Hanami squirmed uncomfortably, still trying to hide her more… exposed parts. "I mean… they can't hurt us like this…"
"But… what about everyone else?" Chris asked in concern. "Will they be able to fight them off?"
"Ah! We need to help them!" Hanami gasped, before a flying laser bolt, this one larger than before, connected with the back of her head, sending her sprawling again.
Kaede quickly raised an arm, trying to summon a shield like Hanami had done earlier. She was pleasantly surprised when it did appear, and quickly ran in front of the group to deflect more laser bolts. It seemed that some of the men had grabbed their fallen comrades' weapons and had somehow locked them together to create a much larger gun…
"Ow, that hurt!" Hanami squeaked, clutching the back of her head in pain as she teared up slightly.
"DON'T HURT MY FRIENDS!" Chris shouted angrily, a desperate need to fight rising up within her as she ran forward, what looked to be hilts flipping forward from the gauntlets on her arm with blades of energy flashing to life as she struck at one of the soldier's guns, slicing through the weapon with ease.
"Oh," Kaede stared dumbly at Chris, before she looked at her gauntlet. The beam sword hilt slid forward and the blade formed with a low hum as well. "At least these are something!" she charged at the soldiers, using her shield for cover in the meantime.
"M-Me too!" Hanami got back up and rushed the soldiers as well. Her thrusters came to life again, but this time she was ready for it.
The fight that followed was short lived as the three girls destroyed the soldiers' weapons before managing to knock them out. "This… this is amazing," Chris breathed as she looked over the 'battlefield'. "Such… power…"
"That being said… all those stray rounds did a lot of damage to the room…" Kaede forced a bit of a laugh as she surveyed the damaged room. The coolant pipe that had been struck earlier was already empty, and one of her own missed slashes had cut what seemed to be a very important series of cables…
"Er… ooops?" Hanami offered weakly.
"Where should we go now?" Chris asked as she looked around. "We need to stop these guys from hurting more people!"
"For now, I think we should make our way back to the residential blocks. We don't know how many more of them got in there…" Kaede suggested, looking back in the direction they had come from.
Chris nodded in agreement. "Let's go!" she shouted out before taking off with a shout.
Bridge
"Fuck. Your. FACE!" Ryu shouted as with each word he punched one of the unknowns into a wall before finishing him with a haymaker. "I may be retired, but once a Space Marine, always a Space Marine!"
"What a way to begin negotiations…" Leon rolled his eyes, leaning out of cover to fire a shot at one of the interlopers from his handgun before retreating, not caring to know whether he hit or not.
"Back off, creepo!" Katrina shouted angrily as she slammed an armored fist into a soldier's face - her sudden transformation when the bridge had been breached shocked everyone, but it was quickly proving to be an asset as she took the blasts from the energy weapons with ease. "I've had enough of your shit!"
Her transformation had been predated by the shredding of her compression suit, shortly followed by a dark green aura enveloping her when she had emerged from the aura she was wearing a set of dark green bulky leg armor that went up to just above her knees leading up to an armored green plate skirt that barely hid a pair of black panties from view, covering her torso was a black chestguard that revealed a good bit of her 'enhanced' cleavage with a strange sort of bird symbol on it along with elbow length gauntlets and a set of pauldrons that looked like they were missing something.
"Captain, what do you think of Katrina's transformation?" Leon frowned. It looked damn familiar to him, but he couldn't quite place where it had come from…
"Right now, it is damn fucking useful," Ryu informed as he picked up his discarded rifle before reloading it with practiced ease. "Leon, if there is one thing I learned as a Space Marine before coming into command of this expedition, you never look a gift horse in the mouth, else it may disappear."
"Sure, but does it look familiar to you or is it just me?" Leon scratched his head. "I feel like I'm forgetting something here."
"Think on it later," Ryu ordered as he stacked up against the doorway, hearing more booted feet coming in. "Katrina, hit 'em hard."
"With pleasure sir!" Katrina shouted eagerly as she snatched a pair of hilts off her waist, a pair of energy blade - one purple and one green - flashing into life before she charged out the door and into the approaching enemy squad. "Suck it, you fucking fruities!"
"Still as vulgar as usual…" Leon absentmindedly remarked, lowering his gun slightly.
"Warning: Engine room 2 is damaged. Engine temperatures rising, initiating automatic shutdown. Error: Data cables severed, engine not accepting shutdown orders," Sigurd warned over the radio. "Engine core overheating, meltdown imminent."
"SON OF A PROTESTANT WHORE!" Ryu cursed. "Katrina, get them out of the way, we need Engineers down at the core YESTERDAY!"
"We don't have a goddamned engine room 2!" Leon pointed out. "It's probably the one from the other ship that we just merged with! Our engineers aren't going to be able to do anything about that!"
"Goddammit!" Ryu shouted. "Sigurd, start shouting it in their butchered english over all channels ASAP!"
"Warning, language decryption incomplete. Proceed anyway?"
"YES!" Ryu shouted. "We need them to ensure we all don't blow to hell!"
"Affirmative. Alerting hostile forces on all channels. Error: Hostile forces do not appear to use any system of communication similar to ours. Recommend personal contact."
Ryu cursed. "Dammit, and of course, my combat suit is on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FUCKING SHIP!" he shouted angrily. "What about speakers, can you use them to alert the bogies?"
"Affirmative," Sigurd reported back. Moments later, the speakers blared to life as the AI attempted to make contact with their enemies in the butchered version of English they used.
"You fucking dickless assholes!" Katrina yelled as she bisected several rifles, the soldiers backing off a bit before leaping away as a spherical object was thrown at her. "Oh… fuck."
Leon barely had time to yell out a warning for all the other fighters to grab onto something before the object exploded, ripping open a hole in the hull. Almost immediately, air began to leak from the hole, even as the rest of the crew held on to whatever they could to avoid being sucked out into open space. Katrina, being near the center of the explosion, had no such luck as she was launched out the hole.
"Warning: Hull breach detected. Deploying emergency self-sealing gel."
The hole was quickly sealed over by a gel that rapidly spread across the gap and hardened, locking the atmosphere in and allowing the crew to relax their grips, their faces pale from their close call with death.
"Bunch of idiots!" Leon roared, firing back with his handgun and nailing the grenade thrower. "They got Katrina!"
"DAMMIT!" Ryu cursed as he sprayed blindly around the corner before moving to the viewports. "Kat… rina?"
Instead of the lifeless corpse they had expected drifting outside, the girl in her new dark green armour was still looking around animatedly in confusion. Noticing Ryu's face in the viewport, the thrusters on her back fired and sent her flying towards it. When she was sure she had his attention, she tried talking, only to realize there was no sound coming out from her mouth due to the vacuum not having anything to transmit sound with.
"Captain, it's… vacuum out there. How is she still alive?" Leon gaped at the very strange sight. He could even feel part of his mind breaking from the logic-defying sight he was witnessing.
"I… have no clue," Ryu admitted, his eyes wide in shock. "Pass me a notepad and pen!"
"I can hear you guys, you know…" Katrina's voice came over the radio as she rolled her eyes, although she didn't seem to be opening her mouth outside the ship.
"Well, that works, head for the… deck two airlock," Ryu informed. "I'll make my way there and open it."
"Wait, did you just hear me thinking?" Katrina's eyes widened.
"Looks like you have a minor form of telepathy," Ryu muttered his eyes narrowing in thought. "Useful, can you tell me what the outside of the ship looks like?"
Katrina looked away from the viewport for a moment as she used her thrusters to put some distance between herself and the ship. "Definitely doesn't look like the Sanctuary anymore, Captain," she said over the radio. "It looks like that other ship we saw merged with it all right. We've got more guns and even a few missile launchers I think, if what I'm seeing is correct."
Ryu nodded. "Right then, I'll meet you on deck two Katrina," he informed before looking out the bridge door. "Looks like they pulled back for now, Leon, you're on my six."
"Am I dreaming?" Leon wondered out loud, following behind Ryu.
"I think its related to that 'energy' Dr Wilson was talking about," Ryu suggested as they moved through the semi-familiar halls of the ship. "Whatever that radiation was, it somehow gave some people… superpowers… what is this, a comic book?"
"My brain hurts," the black-haired male muttered, cradling his head. "First we get caught in a supernova blast, sucked into a wormhole, then our ship merges with an alien craft and then this happens… ugh."
"Hostile forces are continuing aggressions. They appear to be attempting to take hostages in the residential blocks," Sigurd reported. "Analysis of their 'radio' chatter suggests they are attempting to gain leverage on us for future negotiations."
Ryu growled angrily in response. "What I wouldn't give for a squad of Space Marines right now," he muttered. "Leon, continue to deck two and let Katrina in, I'm heading for the Residential Blocks."
"Got it!" Leon nodded as he headed off down the corridor at a brisk pace. "Stay safe, Captain!"
"Fighting has broken out in residential block B between the civilians and the hostile forces. Among the civilians are several of those who have had their genetic code modified. They appear to have undergone transformations similar to that of Miss Sanders," Sigurd reported.
"Sigurd, has the armory lockup been moved at all?" Ryu asked as he ran through the corridors.
"One moment: Analysing ship structure..." Sigurd paused for a moment before replying, "Armory has been moved, down one deck, three meters ahead."
"Thank the virgin mother for small miracles, at least I'll have my combat suit."
Residential Block B
"I wonder if anyone else has figured out what they can do yet?" Hanami wondered out loud, slicing another rifle in half with an energy sword, before she bashed the wielder in the face with her shield, knocking him out.
"I hope so…" Chris murmured, as she kicked another soldier, sending him flying into a prefab unit, crumpling the wall as he impacted against it. "But these guys just need to give up."
"I'm getting tired of not having a gun though," Kaede grumbled, picking up a piece of debris and throwing it at another soldier fast enough that it conked him on the head and knocked him out instantly. "We're immune to their guns, yes, but getting shot at and not being able to shoot back is very nerve wracking!"
"Why don't we just take theirs, then?" Chris asked, pointing out the rather… obvious option.
There was a short, pregnant pause as the other two froze in their tracks.
"Why didn't we think of that earlier!?" Hanami made a motion as if smacking her forehead, before she remembered she had a horn that would probably hurt herself even more. Lowering it, she sighed as she rushed another soldier down, yanking his gun out of his hands forcefully and throwing him aside.
"There! That's…" the silverette's eyes widened as the gun was suddenly enveloped in the same silver glow that had covered her during her initial transformation, before it shifted and transformed in her hands to become a completely different gun, which had a relatively long barrel and what appeared to be a green targeting sensor above it. And it even came with a reticle that popped up in her vision indicating where she was aiming! She dropped it with a surprised squeak, causing it to clatter to the ground.
"Huh?" Chris asked in shock as she looked at the new weapon. "It became something different?"
"Me too!" Kaede grinned, picking up a fallen gun from the ground. It transformed as well, becoming an identical gun to Hanami's.
Before she could fire it at an approaching enemy though, Hanami hurriedly stopped her with a loud yell. "Kaede-chan, don't use that gun unless you want to blow a giant hole in the side of the ship!"
"Huh, what do you mean, Hanami?" Chris asked in confusion as she quickly disarmed a soldier of his weapon, it shifting into one like the others.
"I don't know… but remember that electric feeling running through your body when you first transformed?" Hanami said, making everyone recall the feeling. "It was… really strong when the gun transformed. I think that means it's really powerful…"
"Oh… yeah… good thinking Hanami!" Chris said brightly. "But… what should we do in the meantime?"
"Umm… just keep rushing and shield bashing them?" Hanami suggested weakly.
"Then what was the point of all this!?" Kaede grumbled, placing the rifle on her rear skirt armour. "In the end all we can do is eat their ranged attacks while we get in range to melee them! This sucks."
"Ahahahah… hang in there, Kaede-chan…" Hanami laughed sheepishly.
"I think they're thinning out at least," Chris offered weakly as she punched another soldier. "Umm… I think."
"Thinking isn't enough!" Kaede yelled. "Ugh, this is so frustrating!" she glared at an approaching soldier, before, as if responding to her intent, gunfire burst forward from two holes in her circlet on either side of her horn. The soldier quickly ran for cover, not wanting to get turned into a beehive.
"Oh that's cool!" Chris shouted as she concentrated, gunfire of her own shooting from the circlet much like Kaede's. "Now we can shoot without damaging the ship!"
"That works," Hanami blinked, before she tested out the newly-discovered guns on the box the soldier was hiding behind. The muzzle flash disoriented her slightly, since it came from just above her eyes, but she quickly adjusted to it. "At least we can take them out more easily when they have hostages now…"
"How rude of them, taking hostages like that," Chris pouted, puffing out a cheek as she fired some more rounds as she charged, using her jet pack to quickly boost around the cover before severing the soldier's weapon and knocking him out.
"Is that all of them?" Hanami scanned the area, jumping slightly when a computer-like HUD appeared superimposed over her vision before she started seeing everything in infrared. "Wow. I'm seeing in blue and red," she muttered, sweeping across the area. Finding no one that looked hostile, she sighed in relief and relaxed, letting her infrared vision fade although the HUD remained.
"Wow~ these powers are so cool~" Chris squealed as she did a little dance. "I wonder if I can fly now?"
"Last I checked, we don't have wings," Kaede pointed out. "And I don't think our thrusters are powerful enough to fly unassisted in gravity… They're only working so well for us now because we're in space."
"Aww…" Chris pouted, puffing out her cheeks again.
"Looks like I wasn't needed here after all," a male voice called out as a man clad in conforming black combat armor with a ceramic chest plate wearing a helmet with a polarized lens covering where his face would be and carrying an assortment of weapons on his person. "So… looks like Katrina isn't the only one to get that armor… although… yours are a different model…"
Hanami stared at the obvious male for several moments before she dropped into a crouch, covering her exposed underbust. "D-D-D-Don't look!" she whimpered in shame, still not comfortable with how skimpy the armour was.
The man didn't really seem to respond to her actions. "Sigurd, residential block B is secured, what's the status on block A?" he questioned to seemingly thin air.
"Block A is secure. More people with similar armour have appeared and are easily holding off the hostiles. All personnel accounted for," a synthesized female voice spoke out of nowhere, seemingly coming from inside the girls' own heads as well, causing them to jump in surprise and look around in confusion.
"Relax, Sigurd is using my armors speakers to communicate," the man informed, his viewplate depolarizing to show himself to be Ryu Hisanaga, the ship's captain. "Some captain I turned out to be, chosen to protect everyone else… only for those people to be forced protect themselves…"
"Er, I heard it in my head…" Hanami blinked, tapping her temples. "Does it work like some kind of radio?"
"It does," Ryu confirmed. "Hmm… could the partial telepathy function via radio waves?"
"I guess so…" Kaede said thoughtfully, before her mind caught up with what the man had said. "Wait, you're the captain!?"
Ryu nodded in confirmation. "Our security forces are all tied up all over the ship, which has apparently fused with the unknown ship that was in the wormhole with us," he informed as he started looking over the unconscious soldiers, patting some of them down as he seemed to be looking for something. "When I heard the Residential blocks were under attack I came as soon as I could, picking up my combat suit on the way."
"Engine room 2, engine core has been manually shut down. Thrusters still inoperational. Warning: Approaching unknown Earth-type planet. Insufficient power to achieve escape velocity once caught in gravitational field. Warning: Reentry angle too steep."
"Er… what does that mean, Captain?" Hanami asked curiously. "It doesn't sound good…"
"It means we're crash landing," Ryu informed grimly. "Sigurd, sound the warning alarms, everyone it grab onto something sturdy and are not to let go!"
"Affirmative," they could all hear the alarms going off around them even louder this time. "Attention all personnel. Brace for crash landing. Brace for crash landing. T-minus 30 minutes to impact."
"We're CRASH landing!?" Kaede gasped in horror.
"Yup," Ryu drawled as he grabbed the scruff of one of the soldiers and proceeded to slap him awake. "Sigurd, translate as best you can, alright?"
"Ready, Captain Hisanaga," Sigurd replied.
"Listen to me, this ship is crashing, I don't know how you guys communicate, but unless you tell whoever is in charge that the ship is crashing on an unknown planet, and that we should focus on surviving rather than shooting each other, or we all are going to die, understand?"
After Sigurd translated it, the soldier paled even further and began nodding frantically even as he reached for a device on his ear.
Ryu let him go as he began to look around him. "Dammit, we need to find the most durable point in here and secure ourselves there," he informed. "There!" he pointed to a series of metal pipes. "Those are probably the most secured anchor points in this block, get yourselves strapped on, Sigurd, relay that to the soldiers as well."
"R-Right!" the girls exclaimed as one, even as they rushed for the pipes and looked around for things they could use to secure themselves with. Eventually Hanami rushed over with a length of carbon nanotube wire that they quickly cut up with their energy swords to use between the four of them.
"Right, we're secured, Sigurd, time till impact?" he questioned.
"T-minus Ten Minutes," Sigurd responded. "Hostiles have ceased all attacks and are assisting civilians in securing for crash landing."
"Well, that's a good sign," Ryu muttered to himself as he let out a sigh. "Here's hoping we can actually sit down and talk this out like adults."
"Ahahah… if it helps, we tried not to kill any of them…" Hanami forced a bit of laughter, even as she felt gravity take hold, although it wasn't very noticeable yet.
"Probably does," he informed as the gravity slowly but steadily increased. "I just hope our casualties aren't that bad..."
"All personnel are accounted for. No casualties, Captain, but there are 26 injured," Sigurd reported. "They are being taken care of, and will survive the crash land."
"Good," Ryu responded in relief as he closed his eyes briefly. "Never did get your girls' names."
"A-Ah, I'm Hanami Yukikaze!" Hanami quickly spoke up.
"Kaede Serizawa! I hope we survive this!" Kaede threw in, bracing herself.
"I'm Christina Jaeger, just call me Chris though!" Christina responded cheerfully.
"Pleasure to meet you girls," Ryu returned with a smile. "Thank you for all your hard work."
"Well, it's no problem…" Hanami blushed at the praise. Odd, she was expecting to feel blood rushing to her head from the G forces she was experiencing...
"After all, we're super heroines now!" Chris shouted as she threw her arms into the air. "It's our duty!"
"You're being too enthusiastic about this, Chris-san!" Kaede complained, closing her eyes.
Ryu chuckled slightly. "Man, descending onto an unknown planet on a crashing ship going at.. what, Mach 5?" he asked to Sigurd, even as the ship's trembling grew a lot stronger.
"Rapid deceleration due to atmospheric friction in progress. Warning: Hull temperature rising."
"Yeah, thought so, this brings back memories," he reminisced aloud. "Although, that time it was intentional to burn the space bugs off our ship."
"Reentry final phase in progress. Deploying parachutes. Warning: Parachute weight limit exceeded. Parachutes purged. Recalculating time to impact. T-minus 1 minute to impact."
"That's bad, isn't it, Captain!?" Hanami stared wide-eyed at the male in the combat armour strapped to the pipe beside them.
"Kinda, kinda," Ryu admitted. "Let's hope the other ship can match up with Savant Heavy Industries' Armor, else the ship might scatter into pieces."
"Why are you being so nonchalant about this!?" Kaede groaned, resisting the urge to smack her forehead owing to the horn on it.
"Trust me, when you go through a dozen or so near death experiences, you tend to greet the Grim Reaper by his first name as he passes by," Ryu joked. "'Sides, with things out of our hands like this, losing my cool would not be the best idea."
"This is scary!" Hanami closed her eyes, curling up into a ball as best as she could.
"Yeah, the first time is always the hardest," Ryu agreed as the timer on his hud entered into the seconds. "Brace yourselves, we're crashing in ten… nine… eight… seven… six… five… four… three… two… one… HITTING DIRT!"
The hull of the ship came to an abrupt stop as everyone on it felt the ship slam heavily into the ground. The structure groaned and creaked ominously even as the less-restrained objects inside the ship were thrown about violently - Kaede had to reach out to slap a flying crate away even while she was screaming hysterically, much the same as what Hanami and Chris were doing. It took at least a minute for the dust and debris to properly settle.
It took another half a minute for the three girls to stop screaming.
"Congratulations, you have just made your first crash onto an unknown planet," Ryu announced as he undid the carbon fibre tube and fell to the ceiling of the ship, which had now become the floor instead. Previously they had been strapped to the sides. "Just a heads up, it tends to go all downhill from here."
"W-Wait, it's going to get even worse!?" Hanami gasped, her throat slightly hoarse from all the screaming.
"In my past experience, yes, yes it does," Ryu informed. "But… here's hoping its not another fight with the unknown people on this ship, let's just hope it's like… rain or something."
"That was… nerve wracking…" Kaede panted, even as she fired her thrusters to ease her own landing, only to stumble forward on landing as her large assets unbalanced her. "Ugh. I think I might start hating gravity soon."
"U-Uwaaah!" Hanami screamed as she landed in the exact same way and ended up stumbling into Ryu. "S-Sorry!"
Ryu chuckled. "Quite alright, Miss Yukikaze," he assured as he helped steady her. "It can take some time to adjust, I know."
"Whee!" Chris cried out as she dropped down, flaring her thrusters at the last second only for her to slip and fall on her butt. "Owie!"
"So… what now?" Hanami quickly gathered herself and turned to survey the damage to the ship. A gaping hole had opened up in the side, and sunlight was filtering in.
Ryu let out a sigh. "Now? Now we play the most dangerous game in existence," he informed with a depressed tone.
"What game?" Kaede asked.
Ryu turned to face the one of the unknowns that was approaching without a weapon, his hands held up in a clear message of peace. "Diplomacy," he answered grimly. "With a mix of survival thrown in for shits and giggles."
END CHAPTER!
DragonKnightRyu: Hello everyone! World's biggest pervert here and with a new and (hopefully) original story featuring MS Girls, but I am not alone, Astral XYZ is with me and Takeshi Yamato will be joining in later, so be sure to Follow for the latest!
AstralXYZ: Yep, hopefully original and hopefully unique enough to pique your interest - I don't think there are a lot of MS Girl fanfics out there, are there?
DragonKnightRyu: None that I'm aware of, so please, review and let us know what you think! We hope to produce more for you soon and your encouragement helps us out! Also, please put up who you think each MS girl is based off, we'll answer you next chapter!
AstralXYZ: And we'd also like to know what other MS Girls you'd like to see in this fanfic! Drop us a few ideas, and hopefully we can do something about it!
