This is a story that I wrote on my tumblr account, but I decided to publish it here as well. It's not complete, but I think I finished writing it at a good point. It's ten chapters long, including this prologue, so it's not incredibly long. I'll try and update once every few days if people like it. Reviews and feedback and greatly appreciated. Thanks :D


Chapter 1: Prologue

"Adios, mamá!" Tasnia shouted as she walked out the door of her home. With her backpack slung over her shoulder, and her fiction novel in hand, Tasnia Mercardo journeyed outside the sanctity of her home and headed in the direction of her school. Tasnia attended the local high school...in fact...it was the only high school for miles! She lived in city of Uxmal, Mérida, a small city that was isolated from the rest of the cities in Mexico. Once upon a time there were cities near-by, but over the years, those cities and their people slowly started to grow smaller and smaller. Either that or they would become controlled by robots. How Uxmal, out of all of them, stayed alive for this long, nobody knew. At least 18 years

However, the fact that Uxmal was a small, traditional town didn't mean the city was necessarily safe. The Robot Wars were raging, and since Uxmal was still an "un-modernized" city, it was a perfect target for the Robot Armies. In the past fifteen years, the robots had attacked so many times, people had started to lose track! These attacks, then lead to the men stationed every 10 feet or so, with their cameo attire and big, black zappers.

The G.L.E.E had been stationing Starship Rangers around Uxmal for as long as Tasnia could remember. She saw them every day when she walked to and from school, as well as when her mamá sent her to do the errands. However, none of them stayed for long; they either got reassigned because their talent could be better used elsewhere or they died in one of the Robot invasions. The longest Tasnia had ever seen a Starship Ranger in Uxmal was for a year and a half. But then came Lieutenant Up.

Everyone knew about Lieutenant Up before he came to Uxmal. At age 20 he was a the youngest person ever to become a Starship Ranger and he was known throughout the galaxy for his toughness and his great victories over the robots in Tokyo, London, Moscow, and some small town in the middle of North America that nobody knew the name of. Tasnia had done her research when she first heard that the Lieutenant Up was bringing a group of 100 men to Uxmal, and honestly had no idea why the G.L.E.E had assigned him to the small town. From what she read, it seemed obvious to her that his great abilities would be more needed on the battlefield, not guarding the public bathrooms.

Tasnia saw Lieutenant Up every day on the way to school. He was stationed on top of a hill that overlooked her small family farm. In fact, she could see him from her room if she so chose. Not that she did, of course, but every once in a while she'd look out her window to see what the young Starship Ranger was up to. Usually, he was just sitting underneath the tree on top of the hill, reading a book or staring off into nothingness. Tasnia couldn't help but feel a bit bad for him. Ever since he came to Uxmal (when she was 13) the robot attacks had been fewer, and less destructive. She would wave up to Lieutenant Up every time she passed, just to be nice, but she never had the courage to go up the hill to talk to him.

Today was just the same; Tasnia passed Up's hill to get to school. However, as she looked towards Lieutenant Up to wave hello, she saw that he was looking down the hill at her as well. She grinned and waved to him cheerfully. Tasnia saw Lieutenant Up smile back, and give her a small wave. With a new spring in her step, Tasnia adjusted the position of the backpack on her shoulder and headed off to school.

XxXxXxXxX

Lieutenant Up was having a dull day, as usual. The reason why he got stationed in this small town was beyond him, but the logic behind it made some sort of sense. Apparently, Dr. Space-Claw thought that if Up, the most feared Lieutenant in all the galaxy, was stationed in this highly attacked town, then the robots wouldn't attack Uxmal. However, that did mean that Up would suffer long, boring, and quite hot days under the blazing sun, possibly until the Robot Wars were over.

His new life in Uxmal was, as said before, dull, and uneventful. All Up did was sit on top of a hill and watch over the small village. Occasionally, one of his men would come and give a report, but because nothing eventful ever happened, he barely got reports. There was something, however, that Up did enjoy about his new position. It just so happened that the hill where he was stationed overlooked a small, family farm. The couple who lived there was middle aged, and they had a daughter who was in her early teens.

Up saw this girl every day, whether she was going to school or running into the main part of the village for something. He'd also seen her when she was working in the fields behind her house, that is, if you could call it working. Every day, this girl would run into the field as a completely different person. She no longer wore the sundress and sandals that he saw her in as she walked to school. Instead, she was dressed in a pair of cameo shorts and a simple white tank-top with combat boots. Her long, flowing black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she wore a black sweatband to keep her bangs out of her eyes. But what interest him most were the training exercises this girl did—the ones that Starship Rangers in training did back on base.

She practiced them every day, and Up watched her progress for almost two years now. To say she was good was an understatement. For never being in a Starship base in her life, any onlooker would mistake her as a Starship Ranger. Up himself even did the first time he saw her in the fields. She was focused, had sharp movements, and never gave up. These were qualities that the G.L.E.E was looking for in new recruits.

And so, Up waved to the girl every day as she passed by his hill on her way to school. Except today, he let a small smile by at the sight of her enthusiastic attitude. Even though he had never met the girl, she always had a way of cheering him up.

"Lieutenant Up," spoke a stern voice from behind him.

Up turned on his heel, his smile disappearing instantly, and looked at the man in front of him. He was much older than Up. He had grey hair and a wrinkly face that looked like it was out in the sun way too much, but he had sharp eyes that showed no sign of weariness. His name was Keevers; Lieutenant-Commander Benjamin Keevers, who was in charge of the protection mission. Up straightened his posture and gave a salute to his boss.

"At ease, Ranger," said Keevers gruffly.

Up relaxed slightly and lowered his solute, but he let his eyes wander over his shoulder. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the girl who had just waved to him; enter to main part of Uxmal. He tried to make it so that Lieutenant-Commander Keevers wouldn't notice; however, the old man's sharp eyes never missed a single detail.

"Lieutenant!" Keevers snapped. Up snapped his head straight forward once more and looked straight at his boss. He didn't necessarily looked angry, just annoyed. Up didn't dare look Keevers in the eye, he wasn't in the mood to go there. "Lieutenant Up, I expected better from you. You are the last person I would ever expect to allow your guard down to a civilian—a teenage girl, even. Now, I would have expected that from one of the Cadets here, but no sir, not from you. What's the matter? Going soft are we?"

Up's eyes met Keevers' in rage. Everyone on the Starship knew that Up was just the opposite of "soft" as Keevers put it. The last unfortunate Ranger who called Lieutenant Up "soft" was thrown head first into a toilet, just after being pummeled during a training session by Up himself. Of course, Up couldn't do that to his boss; he'd get stripped of his rank on the spot.

"Why would you suppose that?" Up asked as calmly as he could make himself sound. "I was simply observing the girl. I've been watching her for about two years now, you see, and for a specific reason too. You see, Commander, I believe that that young lady could make a fine Starship Ranger one day."

Keevers took a glance over Up's shoulder and studied the girl for a bit. After a few seconds, however, Keevers started to laugh aloud.

"Oh, Up, and this is why you don't work in the Administration office," Keevers chuckled. "How do you think can a girl like that become a Starship Ranger? One: she's probably just five foot. Two: she doesn't look like she could ever hurt a fly, and three: "she" is a girl! My goodness Up, and this from the man who has kicked men out of the Academy because they didn't have what it takes?"

"You haven't seen her fight," Up argued, anger boiling in his chest.

"And you have?" questioned Keevers.

"Do you not know—" Lieutenant Up challenged, but got cut off by Keevers before he could finish his sentence.

"Let me remind you that Javier Mercardo was one of my teachers, as well as Juan Mercardo in my last year at the academy—I even worked with Juan! So yes, Lieutenant, I do know," Lieutenant-Commander Keevers said darkly.

Up didn't know how to respond to this. No, he hadn't actually seen the girl in a fight, but he had seen her do…other stuff. Up sighed in defeat. There was no point in convincing Lieutenant-Commander Keevers once the man made up his mind. But this didn't stop Up from hoping. For some reason, he knew that this girl would grow up and make a fine Starship Ranger.