A/N: Part two of the prologue.
Pekopon was just a few light-years away now.
"Senior Private!" the captain barked. "Destination secured, I presume?"
"Yes, Captain!" The Senior Private saluted him from the work her work station, a circular pad that surrounded her on a platform elevated from her captain by the cockpit. Her fingers danced rapidly across the green lights spread out before her as she made some last quick adjustments. "I've just calculated this out. In just about a half an hour is when we'll be in the thermosphere of Pekopon."
"Ah. Then it appears things are going smoothly," the Combat Medic observed with a hint of a smile.
A purple-skinned Keronian let out a yawn and stretched her legs out. "Just a half an hour longer? …Yesss! My legs are so tired!"
"Have fun stretching them all you can, because the second we land, you're gonna be up on your feet again and you're gonna have to be fast."
"I know. I can feel the excitement pumping through me!" She placed her hand in the air. "In no time at all, Pekopon will be all ours!"
"That's right." The Senior Private touched her finger to her chin. "This is your first time invading, isn't it?"
"Right! And it's so not fair," she pouted. "I should be an invader now just like the rest of you."
The Senior Private gave a small sigh and rested her elbow against her dash. "Well, at least you actually get to be out there and fight… instead of being holed up in some enclosed room filled with wires and lights…."
"Senior Private, we've already discussed your duty in this platoon. I will not have any complaints from you," said their captain with an intimidating look of authority. "And especially not thirty minutes before we land on the planet itself."
"R-right…." A sweat-drop slid down the side of her face.
"Well, I think it's fantastic that you're able to understand that complicated technology!" put in her gray-skinned comrade.
She forced a smile. "Thanks…."
The new recruit, the youngest one, placed her elbows on the edge of her station and looked up at her two platoon mates. "Don't you think it's weird?"
"Don't you think what's weird?"
"That Pekopon's never been invaded before." She put a finger on her cheek. "I mean, yeah, it's definitely not the biggest planet out there—but it's definitely one of the most diverse ones. It hasn't even been around that long, and look at how many names it's got already—Pekopon, Pokopen, Earth. And think about it—countless other aliens have visited the place! …And yet, not a single native Pekoponian knows about the existence of aliens."
The Senior Private gave a bit of a scoff. "I'm sure there have got to be some."
"They've theorized, certainly. And they've got solid evidence, yeah. Even though they don't know it." She giggled. "I guess that's another thing that makes them unique. Pekoponians are one of the stupider species!"
"New recruit!" the combat medic chastised. "Don't discriminate Pekoponians. You've never met one before so you don't know what they're like."
"Just like how you had never met a normal Keronian for years, huh, Zuriri?"
"Oh, come on, you know how to say my name—and I am too a normal Keronian!"
Their captain touched his chin absentmindedly. The new recruit did have a point about the oddities of Pekopon. He pondered this, his hands back on the controls, as he gazed out toward the large, curved pane of hyperglass that displayed space. Some white plumage from his hat just barely drifted into his eyes, and he tossed it away. Spanning before him, the vast emptiness of space seemed to lead on forever, revealing only rarely a hint of a star or distant meteor. How disappointing. He would have liked to have a bit of fun and steer the ship dangerously away from it, driving his platoon into an asteroid pit and having to find away to dodge them all and just barely escape with their lives.
That was the kind of excitement he was looking for—and he was sure as hell that they wouldn't find it on Pekopon, one of the calmest planets for an alien yet. His hint of a smile twisted into a frown.
He hoped this would be quick.
And he wondered if his platoon was even ready for this—his new recruit, his bumbling tech officer, his estranged medic, and… his currently useless one. Useless but now less annoying.
"Well. Platoon. Shall we resonate?"
He hoped to reassure himself. Maybe they could all work together in this….
"Very well, Captain."
With the ship set to auto-pilot for just a moment, they all abandoned their positions and stepped forward to form a circle, even the Keronian in the corner who quickly caught on to what was happening.
"Zurezurezurezure…"
"Dokidokidokidoki…"
"Xuyixuyixuyixuyi…"
"Purapurapurapura…"
The last one smiled and opened his mouth.
"LATA! LATA! LATA! LATA!"
"Zu…"
"—Ah, Captain! He's doing it wrong again!"
"Yes…. I know." Their captain put a hand over his face in exasperation. "Private First Class, you're being too loud."
"You know he's not gonna listen."
"I'll tell him," said the Senior Private. She walked over to him and quickly signed some things with her hands, and he seemed to understand. He became silent once again.
Everyone let out their breath.
"And I thought we would never have to hear a word from him again…."
"Ha! Yeah, you wish."
"If you really don't want to listen," the Senior Private suggested, "why don't you just turn off your ears the next time?"
"Turn off your…. What?"
"You know, so you can…. Oh, never mind."
"…Back to your work stations, platoon."
The captain put his fingers to his temples. Oh, he did wish that they could all work together, just once. But of all the times that he had to be wrong about his platoon… not now.
"Keep your knees up, soldiers! You're not prancing your merry way through any old park; this is a battlefield you're on! And you there!" He pointed a gun at the head of the collapsed body that was gasping for breath. "Just what do you think you're doing? If this is you on the frontlines, you would have died already!"
"B-but this training is just too hard, Commandant…" the poor person wheezed as he flopped over onto his back.
The edge of the gun, however, continued to nuzzle by his pointed, dull green ear as he waited to regain his breath.
"It's loaded this time."
"E-EH? REALLY?"
Ah, that got him up on his feet.
"Now back to your drill!" he commanded. The dull green-skinned person resumed at once.
With a satisfied air, he flipped his gun around once and it vanished into the air.
Behind him, the stone door smoothly opened and another green body stepped into the room with a very inconspicuous look in his eyes. "Fun training the recruits, Giroro?"
"Not really." Giroro let out a huff and gazed forward at them. "Training the seniors was more my forte."
"Ah, well, it's not my fault that Tamama had to take a sick day…."
"Eh, I guess you're right about that."
"I bet those seniors feel pretty lucky that they get to skip out on a day of advanced training, huh?"
He shook his head. "I wouldn't be snickering if I were you. It can't always be training for these guys. Keroro, they need actual battle experience sometime—"
"Ah, but that's not going to happen, don't you see!" Keroro interrupted. "Pekopon belongs to us now. Everyone knows that. And any planet who thinks that they can send an invasion fleet here knows that they've met their match when Commandant Master Natsumi goes into battle with the advanced troops!"
"Yeah, but the last time that happened was five years ago, Keroro. An incident like the battle against the Norekians probably isn't one we're gonna see again."
"You've just gotta keep your hopes up!"
He gave him a good, nice pat on the back.
"Oh! That's right." Keroro smacked his fist into his palm. "I came here for a reason. You're needed at the Communications Center."
Giroro frowned. "Geez, again? What is it this time?"
"Not quite sure. Though I think Kururu said something about unknown spacecraft approaching Pekopon."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, it's too far away to identify yet. We're pretty sure it's not Pekopon's, or one belonging to a planet Pekopon's in treaty with, because otherwise they'd have sent a greeting signal."
"Hmm… better take a look at it, then." Giroro approached the doorway and pressed a button by the handle. "Warrant Officer Shlambeg! Your are entrusted with the supervision of the recruits for the duration of my absence."
"Yes, sir!" Shlambeg saluted him.
Giroro left with Keroro through the door.
Shlambeg turned to the troops, who were now no longer running in place. He grinned.
"All right, troops, the moment you've all been waiting for! You may now all take a bre—"
Giroro opened the door again. "I should also add that we will be keeping close watch on things." He shut the door, making sure to secure it so that it was locked.
Shlambeg dropped his head in disappointment, and the recruits resumed their routine.
Just outside the room, Keroro and Giroro used the floor panels in the hallway to transport themselves to the Communications Center faster, where dozens of officers of various species and color were seated at their circular work stations that surrounded them. The only one without a circular work station surrounding him was the yellow frog.
"Kururu! Status report," Keroro said.
After some quick typing across his keyboard of assorted lights, he sat back and scrolled through the screens of info before him. "Ku ku ku. The spacecraft is currently 5 billion miles from Pekopon as of now. However, its destination has definitely been confirmed to be Pekopon. Should be about half an hour till it arrives."
"A foreign body?" Giroro wondered.
"Looks like one, since it's not sending out any friendly signals. Ku ku!~"
"Any signals at all?"
"I've tried to pick up something," he responded. More typing. "All of my signals are being intercepted somehow."
"Is it no threat, then?"
"Not at the moment, no," Kururu answered. His eyes drifted back up to the translucent screen.
"Ah! It just passed the asteroid belt!" Keroro noticed.
"Oh? It's traveling quite fast, then." Kururu gave a chuckle. "Advanced technology such as ours ain't hard to come by these days."
"Well, that's why we have you," said Giroro.
"Yeah, ku ku ku, enjoy it while I'm here."
They watched as the spacecraft zoomed closer and closer to Pekopon's orbit. Kururu's large screen slowly zoomed in to match the decreasing distance between the two.
Keroro noticed something. "That asteroid is shaped a bit like a cake…."
"You've been worrying waaay too much about Tamama today, haven't you," Giroro huffed.
"Gero! Speaking of which, Dororo and I are gonna go to Alien Street later today to find some medicine for Tamama. You wanna come with, Giroro?"
"Ah, no, actually…" Giroro rubbed the back of his neck. "Girara's got another doctor's appointment later today."
"Someone else can't take her?"
Giroro shook his head. "No."
"Ku ku ku… you know, I could perform the check-up."
"Don't even think about it."
"…Plus, you'd charge way more," Keroro pointed out. "Just make sure she's not gonna come down with the same thing as Tamama. Pekoponian doctors don't have any way to treat alien diseases."
"Well, that's certainly something that I'll be sure to look out for."
"Hey, you two…." Kururu broke into their conversation and pointed to the spacecraft. "It's past Mars now…."
"Aren't you going to do something, Kururu?"
"Course I am. Just not yet."
"Why not—?"
"Nng!" Kururu abruptly sat up as something caught his eye.
"What is it, Kururu?"
"It disappeared…."
"Yeah, that's what happens when you don't do anything about it."
He entered some commands into the controls, and the large screen before them zoomed closer in to where the space craft had last been.
"How odd!"
Giroro touched his chin. "Looks like it really is gone…."
"How can that be?" Keroro wondered.
"I'm not quite sure." Kururu did some more typing. "But… I can't seem to detect its source… or where it went."
There was a long pause. Giroro and Keroro waited for Kururu to break the silence with some idea of his regarding what to do next.
But all Kururu did was thrust his hands up into the air.
"Well. Not my problem anymore; ku ku ku!"
"K-Kururu!" Giroro raised his fist, looking like he was going to pulverize the guy. "This could be a really big problem!"
"Sorry. You said only four hours. I've been here five. And I've already run the updates on your month's worth of defective technology." He chuckled, eyeing Giroro. "Midas' touch, as they say."
"What did you say. I heard that. Say it one more time, why don't you."
"Anyway." Kururu dropped himself out of the chair and put his hand out.
"Hm?"
He wiggled his fingers toward himself.
"Oh. Right." Giroro left the room to transport himself elsewhere. When he returned, he handed the check to Kururu.
"Let's see…. Hmn, looks like the amount's right. Oh, and you even added that extra bonus for distracting the Cosmic Police. How generous of you, ku ku!"
Satisfied, Kururu began to walk off. He turned around and gave a salute to Giroro and Keroro. "Best be taking my leave now, y'all. See ya some other time. Ku ku ku!"
Giroro and Keroro watched mercifully as he stepped onto a circular floor panel and vanished in a vertical flash of light.
From another panel in the ceiling, a blue ninja dropped down.
"Oh! Dororo!" Keroro rushed up to him.
"Commandant! Master Sergeant!" Dororo bowed his head to both of them. "The Yamazuki AIS* project did not go so well. His anti-form has malfunctioned in the middle of the street and three Pekoponians have witnessed him. Shall I proceed with UPAE** counseling, or should we erase their memories instead?"
"Hm…." Giroro considered.
"Erase their memories!" Keroro piped up. "It was only a short encounter, right? And it should never happen again. So a bit of the old memory-erasing shouldn't harm them too much."
"Commandant?" He looked to Giroro for approval.
Giroro gave his nod. "Yes, I suppose that will have to do."
"Very well. I shall prepare them for the procedure." Dororo flitted back away into the ceiling.
In a hushed voice, Keroro turned to Giroro and asked, "Hey, wasn't AIS Master Koyuki's job?"
"Yeah. Yeah, it was," Giroro whispered back.
"And it's it the fourth time this month that an AIS project failed?"
Giroro was about to snicker, but he lifted his fist to his lips and turned it into an awkward cough instead.
"Gero gero gero."
"Eventually she'll start taking her own tips. You'll see."
"Don't forget that the one who appointed her to that job was you, Giroro."
"Yeah… I damn well know that."
*Alien Integration into Society
**Unplanned Pekoponian-Alien Encounter
A/N: Anyone have any suggestions for better titles and ranks for these froggies? I'd love to hear 'em.
Don't count on hearing about the Norekians again. I just chose a random name.
