Seasnake: In episode 298 of the anime we get to see Saburo and Fuyuki exploring a few alternate realities. Cannon prompts for AUs? How could I resist? Each chapter will be a different one shot about the AU. All chapters will be largely Saburo centered because episode 298 was. Will attempt timely updates.
K for world conquering. Characters have had different lives so might be slightly different from cannon. Most relationships are the same.
The Keronians are a warrior race with a habit of conquering worlds. They had quite a few races of sworn enemies and a handful of powerful allies as well. To be a Keronian ally a race had to be powerful otherwise the Keronians just enslaved them all. Perhaps their smartest alliance was with the Angol tribe. However, a more recent alliance was with the mighty Terrian race.
The race was from the planet Terra. The Keronians came to their solar system intent on conquer but quickly changed their plans. The Terrians were physically very strong, just as intelligent as Keronians, and had excellent technology. The only reason they hadn't expanded to space tyrants themselves was due to politics. There was a long standing religion on Terra that insisted the Gods didn't want them to venture into the heavens. The emperor of Terra was content with warding off the invaders and nothing more but the emperor's daughter and heir made a deal with the aliens. In exchange for help overthrowing her father, she would rule Terra and have the planet become a loyal ally and member of the Keronian's empire. It was an easier and more productive deal then fighting the entire planet so the Keronians agreed.
In short order, Terra had an empress and Terrians became integrated to Keronian society. Lower class Terrians live out their entire lives on Terra while the upper class citizens can get jobs in space or work with Keronians. A program is in place to collect promising Terrian youths and train them to take roles in Keronian society. It is considered an honor to be accepted into the Keronian army or government. Being the first member of his family line to be accepted into the program, made Saburo appreciate his station all that much more.
"They don't have a unified government so it is hard to predict how each societal group will react." Fuyuki spoke through the video communication link as he flipped through a thick book. "Even after initial invasion it seems unlikely that they will all band together. Some governments will but I doubt they all will."
"Anything else?" Saburo asked.
"A lot. They have a ton of history," Fuyuki sounded excited as he picked up a few more papers and shuffled through them. "You already know the location of established alien spaceports and markets. Oh, nobody has hard evidence but I think there might be a few ancient treasures buried there so keep an eye out for that."
"Alright, thank you for the update," Saburo could tell he wasn't going to say anything else useful so ended the communication. Fuyuki was technically still training to be a cultural specialist and not yet an actual employee of the Keronian government. But Saburo knew Fuyuki was competent at his work so he trusted his information. Besides, Fuyuki would be his in-law if he ended up getting married to his sister. Not a bad family to marry into considering they were a long line of powerful warriors. Their mother was currently a popular warrior with the Keronian public, especially the male Keronian public. Not to mention princess of Terra had an eye for Fuyuki.
Saburo walked to the nearest window and watched the stars move past. There wasn't much to see at the moment except for his reflection. Terrians had a much grander taste in fashion than their Keronian allies. Saburo's uniform was navy blue with gold trim and two gold and purple stripes down the front. He was on a mission to conquer sentient life forms so he also wore a purple cape with a red lining, matching applets, and a simple gold circlet. This was his first assignment as a commanding officer. He would get this right. He hadn't become a Second Lieutenant by fluke. The planet Pekpopon would be conquered quickly and efficiently under his command.
He felt the ship slow so he walked to the control room. He took his place standing in the center of the room on an elevated platform. Pekopon came into view on the main screen. It was a pretty planet but the dominate life form left much to be desired.
"Every ship is moving into position," one Keronian gave an update. Other then his command platform, the room was filled with Keronian minions sitting at computer monitors. Saburo had ordered the several vessels that had traveled with the mother ship to circle the planet and be on the look out for any surprises.
"No hostile ships in view, Sir," another Keronian at a computer reported.
"Do a full sweep. Vipers have been reported in this area," Saburo ordered then typed a command into his podium computer. "Tactical Expert, I need to own every satellite and anything that passes for a computer."
"Kuku, right away," he answered over the com link.
"Keep everything functional and do nothing except monitor communications until I say otherwise." Saburo ended that call and barked to the Keronians at the monitors, "landing status?"
"Target selected. All clear," came the report. Saburo nodded and opened another line.
"Sergeant Keroro, you know your orders, you're clear to depart."
"Sir, yes, Sir, preliminary landing party is go." A small pod ejected from the mother ship and shot towards the planet's surface. Keroro's platoon had a simple but important job, clear a small pre-selected area as a landing point and base of operations. Now there was a bit of waiting until the landing party reported back. Saburo stood still and tried not to look bored while they waited.
"Neutral merchant ship approaching the planet, Lieutenant," a Keronian reported.
"Redirect it. Make it clear what we're doing without saying so directly," Saburo ordered. He glanced at the clock. The landing party should be finished soon. A ping on his computer alerted him to a call from in-ship.
"I have their satellites. The rest will take a minute longer," reported the head technology specialist.
"Turn over control of the captured assets to the rest of the technical team and send me the concise list."
"Done. Kukuku." Saburo quickly read through the list and memorized the number of communication and weaponized satellites for future use.
"Mother Ship, come in. This is preliminary invasion leader Sergeant Keroro." The report came in through the main speakers. "Landing site secure. Ready for primary invasion force."
"Message received," a Keronian at a monitor responded then glanced to Saburo. The Terrian gave a nod.
Most invasion leaders liked to charge into the field, lead their troops by example, and shout orders over the chaos of battle. Saburo took a different approach. He stayed aboard the mothership as the invasion began. He focused on monitoring enemy movements and communications. He ordered troops about on a planetary scale to destroy the Pekoponian forces before they could get their bearings. His priority was to crush any potential counter attacks and personally handle the communication misdirection. He kept all lines of communication open but monitored their every transmission. Every important message was collected, rewritten, and rebroadcast without the receiver noticing the difference.
29% of the planet's population was locked inside special security domes by the time Saburo started to feel the least bit tired.
"It seems they're starting to figure it out." The lead tactical expert called while he was injecting himself with stimulants to stay awake. He was not about to head to bed and share the credit for this invasion with his second in command. "They're starting to disconnect from the 'internet' and use radios."
"Shortwave radios, Sir," a frog at a monitor elaborated.
"Flood their atmosphere with static."
"Sir, that might disrupt our communications, as well," the frog at the computer desk pointed out.
"We have their satellites don't we? Make sure those remain operational."
"Yes, Sir."
"Tactical expert, prepare to go into the field. It's time for stage three of the invasion."
"Roger that, kuku."
"Remote communications check," Saburo tapped the ear piece he wore.
"Functioning." One of his minions acknowledged.
"Continue communication misdirection and begin stage three," he instructed as he pressed a button that dramatically lowered his platform down to the docking bay. As per Keronian custom he had to go into battle at least a little bit. His command platform came to a stop inside the Doom Ship.
"All systems are go, Lieutenant," the yellow technology expert was already in his seat. Saburo sat down in his designated chair before giving the order to launch.
The Doom Ship's construction had cost a large chunk of the invasion budget. It had no combative capabilities because its function was to cover the planet in waves of hopelessness. Thus, lowering moral and encouraging the Pekoponians to surrender. They detached from the mother ship and hovered over a heavily populated area.
"Start electrical waves," Saburo ordered.
"Clicky," the tactical expert made a sound effect as he pushed the button. Specially designed electrical waves came out of the ship's transmitters and started to blanket the planet in the desire to surrender.
"Mother Ship, report," Saburo demanded from his earpiece.
"All clear, Lieutenant. The dampeners are working, none of our troops are affected."
"Keep me updated." Saburo checked the numbers being collected to make sure it was all within parameters. He also checked in with the mother ship to see how scrambling their radios was going.
"Enemy aircraft incoming," a Keronian alerted. Saburo hit a button on his chair and dropped from the ship. He fell for only a moment before his battle suit unfolded. Keronians were very proud of their battle suit technology and Terrians were famous for being excellent combatants, so he had to show off if he wanted a promotion. Not that this wasn't fun, it very much was. He made sure to destroy the small attacking aircraft with an impressive explosion. These Pekoponian aircraft had decent offensive capabilities but couldn't take a hit.
He defended the Doom Ship until the hopeless waves were at sufficient levels and all Pekoponian government had been crushed. He then ordered the Doom Ship to hover low to the ground over the city they had decided to make the HQ for the invasion and maintain hopeless levels through intermittent bursts.
Saburo took a quick break from the invasion to make sure to get the appropriate propaganda shots of Pekoponians fleeing in terror, their weapons being destroyed, and him standing triumphantly over the ruined city. Just another duty of being in charge.
It was now stage four of the invasion. All powerful assets of Pekopon were captured but there was still a lot of land to cover. Most of the invasion force split into small groups and dispersed to collect all natives left free. The hopeless waves made most of them very easy to capture and lock away in one of the landfills. There wasn't any reason to stay at HQ so he took part in the world wide manhunt.
Saburo hovered over a beach where they had found a camp of Pekoponians hiding. He watched as Coporal Giroro tied them together and called a transport to come pick them up. Giroro was the younger brother of Lieutenant Garuru, a very powerful and popular solider who defiantly had potential to become an admiral. Although less experienced than his brother, Giroro was defiantly going places in life. Saburo had made sure to make Giroro part of the primary invasion force because it was defiantly good politics to be on friendly terms with his family. Saburo watched him set the landing beacon for the transport. There was a rumor floating around that Giroro had once expressed interest in perusing Hinata, Fuyuki's older sister. Another reason for Saburo to keep an eye on him. It might end up being more politically beneficial for him to set up Hinata with Giroro and marry someone else. He had plenty of options. For example that Terrian named Koyuki who would soon finish her assassin training. She had trained under Zeroro, who also happened to be in this invasion force.
A noise from the direction of the ocean caught Saburo's attention. The tactical expert's yellow combat vessel flew towards them over the water. He wasn't needed to monitor the hopeless waves so he too was in the field having some fun. There was nothing interesting so Saburo was about to fly off when he noticed movement under the water. What looked like giant tentacles suddenly shot out of the ocean. With impressive aim, they wrapped around the tactical expert's machine. Before anyone could react they yanked it below the surface. Saburo didn't hesitate for a second and dove into the ocean after it.
"Huh?" Giroro missed the whole thing. He looked up just in time to see Saburo rocket back out of the water carrying the yellow Keronian in both arms. He barely cleared the water when two missiles were fired at him from the ocean. It wasn't hard for him to dodge both the projectiles but more were coming from the water even as he retreated. Giroro joined him in the air and fired at the missiles to explode them.
"What the Hell is going on?" The red Keronian voiced the general thought. They flew up farther and the missiles stopped, at least now they knew their range. A giant squid rose from the water and looked up at them with angry eyes. It still held the yellow combat vessel in its tentacles.
"Kuku, it seems there's another sentient race on this planet. Clicky." The technology specialist pulled out a remote and pushed a button. His machine exploded and sent bits of squid flying everywhere. Saburo flew carefully inland. None of the creatures from the water followed.
"Keep watch here, I'm going to find out more about this," he instructed Giroro.
"Yes Sir."
"I guess I'm coming with you," the technology expert commented as Saburo carried him away from the water and back to HQ.
"Warn all troops about the new threat. Tell everyone to travel in teams of two or more until we know if these things can survive out of the water or not." Saburo ordered. He stood in the control room and watched his minions complete his commands.
"Hey, Saburo," Fuyuki reappeared on the private channel Saburo had opened. "I think I found something." He held a folder that looked like an old mission report. "The first few explorations of Pekopon call the natives 'Nantoma' instead of 'Pekoponians'. From the descriptions it sounds like the Nantoma are a completely different race and they're probably far older than the Pekoponians."
"Does it say if they can live on land?"
"Sorry, all the more recent reports don't mention them. They must have gone into hiding when the Pekoponians became the dominate species."
"Thanks anyway. I'll call you if I need anything else." Saburo ended the communication.
"No reports of the enemy leaving the water, Sir," a Keronian at a monitor supplied.
"One troop reports seeing Pekoponians escape into the ocean."
"They're probably sympathetic to the Pekoponains. Place guards on the beaches we control. If the Pekoponians can now flee into the oceans we'll have to redouble our efforts to collect them all. Send out more slave transports. And make sure anything traveling near the water is armored."
"Right away."
The Nantoma threw a wrench into things. It turned out that they could survive outside of the water. Fortunately, they only had the capabilities of Pekoponians when on land. Their technology had decent fire power but poor range when fired through the air. Saburo ordered the hopeless waves turned to maximum. At that level prolonged exposure could cause brain damage to infants and young children but that was very far down on the list of concerns at the moment. The hopeless waves successfully kept the Nantoma bunkered down in the water and off the offensive. That would have to do for now. Saburo focused on rounding up the rest of the Pekoponains and just monitoring the shorelines for now.
Roughly three days had past and 90% of the planet's Pekoponian population was dealt with by the time Saburo needed to rest. He had practiced staying up this long at an earlier date so he recognized the feeling right away. He excused himself form the control room at HQ and went to a room where he could lie down for a few hours.
"Lieutenant," Saburo made it to the doorway before someone stopped him. He looked over his shoulder to see the tactical expert.
"Do you need something?" he asked.
"Kuku, I owe you one, so here." He held out a small glass vial. "This will help lessen your impending crash form those stimulants you've been taking." Saburo blinked then grinned.
"Thanks." He accepted the gift.
"This is why I'd never want to lead an invasion. I get to sleep at regular intervals."
"Yeah," Saburo slipped the vial into his pocket before anyone could see it. "Keep the idiots in line for a few hours, Sergeant Major."
"Kululu."
"Saburo," he exchanged then went into his room.
After a bit of sleep, Saburo returned to work. How to kill the Nantoma was being discussed when he entered the command room.
"Can't we just take the fight to them?"
"We have no estimate of their population and they know these waters better than we do, we'd loose half the attack force."
"Let's poison them."
"Most of this planet is ocean, that would be a lot of poison." The minions chattered amongst themselves. Kululu sat with his back to them, facing a computer screen.
"The mission is to capture, there's no need to waste energy killing them all." Saburo strode into the room. Everyone instantly got quiet. "They aren't easily targeted like the land dwellers but they need water and that can be moved. Transport most of prisoners to the cargo hold of the Mother Ship and rig the landfills to hold seawater." He purposely paused and waited for his minions to salute and scramble to do his bidding. "Sergeant Major," he glanced purposely over at the yellow frog.
"Already working on plans for a water relocating device."
"Use a few battle ships for the primary hub." He needed to be mindful of his budget and the battleships would have the proper parts to make the device.
"Kukuku, it's nice to have a commanding officer who knows what he's talking about, for once."
"Likewise. How many towers are we going to need?"
"At least twenty." Saburo nodded then mentally went over the personal list to organize guard teams.
He quickly assembled the necessary teams to assemble each tower. The members of the preliminary invasion force, Keroro, Giroro, Tamama, and Zeroro were all assigned to guard the primary hub. Each group of soldiers also had a member of the tactical team to build the tower on site. Some of the towers needed to be close to the shoreline, hence the guards. The towers were needed to direct the water's movement. The planet was circular so it wasn't practical to just take a giant vacuum to the oceans. However, water was a polar molecule so creating a giant electrical and magnetic field to move it about wasn't particularly hard.
Saburo stayed in the field to monitor the construction of the towers and control hub. With everything finished, he stood near the control hub and gave the order. He stood on the ruins of a concrete wall and watched as the ocean divided. The water all moved towards the storage units. The Nantoma were finished, their ships and cities would be left stranded on bone dry ocean beds. The technicians at the aquariums were instructed to scan for any Nantoma that got pulled inside and flood the water with fatal amounts of electricity at any hint of a problem.
"Gero, gero, gero," Keroro laughed as the oceans parted. Saburo carefully watched the water head towards the storage tanks. His attention was then diverted when he heard voices below him.
"Who's making that noise?" It sounded like Keroro was talking with someone he didn't recognize. He looked down at what seemed to be a Pekoponian boy, he had on too many clothes to be a Nantoma, trying to carry on a conversation with the Keronians. He looked a little bit like Fuyuki.
"Saburo!" The boy called to him.
"A feeble Pekoponian isn't worthy of saying my name." How'd he even learn it? "I'm the mighty invader Second Lieutenant Saburo. My minions, send this Pekoponian to the landfill," he ordered.
"Yes Sir," the Keronians said in unison before starting to chase the frightened native. With a huff Saburo turned his attention back to the oceans.
"Report," he commanded over his earpiece.
"All water collected, Sir. No problems detected," a voice responded.
"Hey, where'd he go?" Keroro said as he and the others looked about in confusion. The Pekoponian boy had disappeared.
"He must have fallen into a sinkhole," Giroro said.
"Forget about it. The stragglers will die off on their own," Saburo dismissed the rouge Pekoponian. With all water on the planet under their control, their rule would be unquestioned. This conquest was a little more time consuming and expensive then planned but successful none the less.