New Shores
AWarringer
Disclaimer: Nothing in here belongs to me, except for the story. PERRY RHODAN belongs to the Pabel-Moewing-Verlagsunion. Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. Tenchi Myou belongs to A. I. C. and to Pioneer. Infinity's Shore belongs to James Barnhill. I've used it with his permission.
Chapter two
Hunt for 'Marco Polo'
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Hiroshi Yamasaki sat in front of his console in the computer control center of the 'Marco Polo'. He leaned back into his chair, feet on the console and reading in a manga. Sometimes he chuckled a bit and turned the page. Well, it was not a real manga in the meaning of the old 20. century term. It was more a little computer with over 200 pages, like an actual book, and could be loaded with the story, so that you could read it like a normal book.
Hiroshi was an Azura. They where descendants of Japanese emigrant, who colonized the planet in the late 21 century. They took their culture with them, as well as their language. Of course they spoke the common language of the LFT, the Interkosmo, too.
Azura was a planet with a largely earthlike ecosphere and a bit bigger than earth, with a higher gravity of 1.332 Gravo. The humans on Azura had adapted to the planet and where of a bit stocky build and had slightly longer canines. And Hiroshi could have been the visual twin of Ryoga Hibiki.
One fifth of the Azura had parapsychical abilities, but most of them where only very minor in power. Hiroshi for example was an Energetic, an ability that was a variety of telekinesis. He was able to manipulate conventional and higher dimensional energy fields. And Hiroshi had specialized to use this ability on computer systems. With that he was the perfect hacker.
He felt a weight on his legs and lowered his manga.
"'Golden Boy' again, heh?" the weight on his legs said.
Hiroshi shrugged and continued to read his manga.
"We have Condition Red, and you are reading like you are off duty."
"As if something would happen, Yoshi. We're in hyperspace and I don't think that anyone is able to do us harm here. And like you see, everything is in best condition."
The weight moved higher and over his abdomen to press itself under the manga and looked him into the eyes.
"You should know better, Hiroshi."
The 'weight' was an Oni, an intelligent species that had developed on Azura, but not from the native fauna, but from rats that came to the planet on board the colony ships. Some kind of radiation caused the rats to mutate and become more intelligent with every generation. In the 2300's the first Oni's came into the light, so to speak, and they where thought to be ghosts, hence the name Oni. Nowadays the Oni where part of the culture of Azura and very good engineers. Yoshi was the partner of Hiroshi and an expert for the hardware, while Hiroshi was the expert for software.
He looked at the twenty centimeter long brown rat.
"So?"
Yoshi sighed.
"You're hopeless."
Two small black eyes where looking into two brown human eyes.
"Let me tell you, what we got here. First, we are in another universe. Second, we are on Condition Red. And third, we are in a combat situation and should look for the computers. And you are sitting here looking into the newest issue of 'Golden Boy'."
Yoshi rose onto his hind legs and crossed his front legs, which ended in small hands.
"Why is it always me, who had to remind you that we are on a battleship?"
Hiroshi sighed, closed his manga. He grabbed his companion and sat him onto his console.
"You are annoying, you know?"
"Yes, and I'm good with that. You are the head of the computer center, you have to be a good example for the others."
Hiroshi rolled his eyes.
"Sheesh, you are not my mother. Or my dad for that matter."
Yoshi glared at him.
"Thanks the Kami, that none of my kids is a lazy bum like you."
Hiroshi looked at him.
"And you know if any of them is lazy? How many do you have, huh? 100? 150?"
"137, so?"
Hiroshi rolled his eyes again and his fingers where flying over the keyboards and through the holograms.
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The 'Marco Polo' sped through hyperspace, the two battle cruisers in tow. The three heavy cruisers were in the special bays, where they where being repaired. The three ships where using the highest economical speed, somewhere near 85 million times the speed of light. Every speed over this put more strain to the Metagrav systems that where holding the ships in hyperspace.
"Jump back into normal space in 1 minute."
The destination of the three ships was the system 'Kalup's Gate'. It had three gas giants and multiple moons orbiting the giant. In the war between the LFT and the arkonian Hunhay'Tussan, the third planet was the secret base of the solar home fleet, wirch consisted of more than 25.000 ships. "Jump back into normal space in 30 seconds."
Everyone in Command was nervous. Even the commander of the ship, Ranma Saotome. Except for the voice of the computer everything was quiet.
"Jump back into normal space in ten seconds."
Nobody knew if there where ships in the system, or even colonies. Everything could be the exact opposite of the known system.
"Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, Executing."
The three ships left hyperspace and the sensory systems where sweeping the whole system with active and passive scans.
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"What the heck?"
Hiroshi blinked and looked back onto the status hologram he had looked at, as the ship fell back into normal space.
"What is it," asked Yoshi.
Hiroshi blinked again and scratched his chin.
"I mean that there was something that shouldn't have been there."
Now it was Yoshi's turn to blink.
"What?"
Hiroshi shook his head.
"Nothing."
He pressed his eyes shut and went back to work.
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Unknown to most of the people in the Empire and the Resistance, the Solar Empire had a vast network of communication and surveillance satellites in the galaxy. Every satellite had the shape of a cube with a side length of 20 meters and was packed with communication and surveillance systems.
There where several millions of nearly identical satellites, each overlooking cube of space with a volume of 125 cubic-light-years. Sometimes these cubes where overlapping.
The cubes themselves where handling a data stream of nearly 100.000 Penta- Bit per Second. They where organized like the internet on earth before the impact of the asteroid Loki that brought the 'Great Ice' and with that Crystal Tokyo and the Solar Empire.
Now seven of these satellites where receiving a short signal. It was placed on a frequency used for special cases by the Solar Fleet. For example, when there where hunts for space ships which were contaminated by a special computer virus. The ships could try to run and hide, but every time they entered normal space the virus would send a short transmission. With this transmission and the satellites the ships of the Solar Fleet where able to hunt a ship and eventually destroy or capture it. At least as long as it didn't left the galaxy.
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Hiroshi blinked again as he looked at the hologram in front of him and frowned. There it was again. A trace of something that moved through the syntronic systems of the ship.
"Okay, my friend. I'll get you."
Yoshi blinked at him.
"What?"
"There is something in the system that doesn't belong here."
Yoshi frowned like Hiroshi.
"A virus or something like that."
Hiroshi nodded and began to program a search for the trace he found.
"Looks like if. But how did it penetrate the Firewall? And when?"
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An alarm went through the ship.
"Contact! Looks like five battle ships of the Solar Empire."
Ranma cursed. He had hoped that they had more than twenty minutes.
"How did they find us that fast?"
The reaction of his command staff was fast and precise. The big gravimetric field drives accelerated the giant ship with ease towards 55 percent the speed of light. But still, the ship needed time.
Five enemy battleships did a short trip to hyperspace to bypass 15 million kilometer and left hyperspace directly on course of the 'Marco Polo'. At the same time the ships opened fire and the energies of their weapons slammed into the Paradim-shields of the 'Marco Polo'. The 'Yamato' and the 'Graf Spee' were using the better shielding of the larger ship as a cover. The three ships blasted though the line of enemy ships and the two battle cruisers changed their position to be in front of the 'Marco Polo'.
Ten seconds later the three ships entered hyperspace.
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Hiroshi stared in concentration at his holographic screens and tried to trace the virus. He worked his way through the logs-files and began to place tracer bots.
"Okay, my friend."
Exactly at that time the 'Marco Polo' left hyperspace, a short data-burst raced through the network. The tracer bots Hiroshi had placed, went to work and traced the virus. A small firewall tried to hold back the virus, but it broke through it like a high speed projectile trough a sheet of paper. But Hiroshi knew that the virus would do this. The firewall was only a distraction for the virus to place a virus into the virus. The virus attacked the hyperspace communication phalanx and the navigation software and transmitted a short message with the coordinates of the 'Marco Polo' followed by a short status file of the ship.
Hiroshi smiled. Now he was able to track down the virus and build a virtual playground for it.
"Yoshi, cut the communication between node 12-Alpha-2-Gamma and the surrounding nodes except for node 13-Beta-1-Omega."
Yoshi himself began to use a smaller terminal to cut the lines of a minor system node with more than a thousand of surrounding nodes. The main computer system of the 'Marco Polo' was one of the most sophisticated systems for space ships. A syntonic-positronic hybrid computer with network architecture. 750.000 Syntronic and 1.250.000 positronic major nodes where spread around the ship. While the Syntronic nodes were faster, they could be destroyed by a special computer virus called KorraVir, that was used in electronic warfare. Positronic systems hadn't this problem and so the hybrid computers had been successful in the last 40 years.
"Now I got you. Yoshi cut every line between 13-Beta-1-Omega and the surrounding nodes."
With that the trap snapped close. Since every line was cut on a physical level, the virus wasn't able to leave the two nodes. When it moved to 13- Beta-1-Omega it would find the virtual playground and never leave.
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The 'Marco Polo' entered hyperspace a second time in one hour to flee from the Solar Fleet. While it had been five ships the first time, it had been 200 the last time. Ranma had a slight air of nervousness around him.
"Commander?"
Ranma jumped out of his seat at the sound of the voice and landed in a ready stance. Hiroshi locked a bit lost.
"Are you all right, Commander?"
Ranma breathed in deep. At first he had thought that Hibiki had somehow entered the ship, but than he remembered Hiroshi. He sat back into his seat and began to massage his neck.
"I'm a bit nervous, that's all ."
Hiroshi nodded and gave Ranma a PAD.
"I found a virus in our system. Every time, we reentered normal space, it sends a short information impulse to an unknown receiver. The impulse contains out position and course."
Ranma's eyes swept over the foil and the information on it caused him to frown.
"Any idea how it came into our systems?"
"No. But I suspect that it could be on the same way as the KorraVir infects Syntronic systems. But this virus only infects positronic systems."
Ranma sighed and recalled everything he knew about the KorraVir.
The Korrango-Virus has been discovered in the galaxy DaGlausch in 1292 NGC. It was able to infect every syntronic system and destroy it. Only positronic computers were immune to the virus. It could be transferred through every thing that you could modulate - for example a communication signal, the beam of a weapon, the shield frequency or even the active scanning beam. The only thing that was needed to get infected was a scanner or receiver that was able to separate the modulated virus from the signal. Nowadays the KorraVir was a standard way of information warfare, causing all main systems to be refitted back to positronics, the building of hybrid computers or, for the giant system mainframes like 'Nathan' on Luna, to be shielded by a physical shield.
"Can you delete the virus."
"Piece of cake, but I don't know if the other ships got the virus too."
Ranma got a gleam in his eyes as he smiled.
"They want the 'Marco'? They can get it. If they find the real one that is."
Ranma's reaction caused Hiroshi to blink.
"Huh?"
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The hangar section of the 'Marco Polo' burst with activity. Five 'Vesta' class cruisers stood in their hangars and waited to be refitted with special modules.
'Vesta' cruisers were one of the backbones of the LFT fleet. They were designed as Multifunctional spaceships, short MFS-ships. They could be outfitted with a multitude of moduls and take any role you needed.
At the moment these five of 20 'Vesta' cruisers waited for special 'Virtual Imager'-modules. These modules were fitted with a high effective Virtual Imager, a device that could create the normal- and hyperdimensional emissions of any space ship. These Virtual Images couldn't be distinguish from real ships without special sensory systems.
In reality it was a matter of only two minutes to dock the modules into the MF-bay, but first they had to be transported to the ships. Only one minute before the 'Marco Polo' fell back into normal space the hangar crews were finished and the five 'Vesta' cruiser prepared to leave their hangars. Force field projectors were ready to catapult them into space.
Only one second after the reentry of normal space, the virtual matter hangar doors simply disappeared and the 'Vesta' cruisers were launched into space. Every cruiser set an individual course and accelerated to a speed that was necessary to enter hyperspace.
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"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE _SIX_ POSITIONS OF THAT FLEET??"
Lieutenant Commander Niclas Haroldsen took a step back as he looked into the anger-red face of Lord Hibiki. He swallowed. He never imagined that he would be the cause of one of Lord Hibiki's temper fit's.
"THERE CAN'T BE SIX ENEMY FLEETS!! I KNOW THAT THERE IS JUST ONE!!"
Haroldsen swallowed again.
"Milord, we have six confirmed sightings of the fleet, at six different position. One big reflex and five smaller ones. The reflexes are even completely identical."
Haroldsen just wondered why he suddenly felt that he should sign a transfer back to Ceti Alpha 4. The sandstorms there should be beautiful this time of the year.
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Hiroshi shook his head as he watched his currently female commander giggle like mad. Commander Saotome had some interesting ideas.
"Let them hunt shadows," she had said.
Hiroshi shook his head and left Command to get back to his console. He had a virus to analyze. Maybe he could use the virus to write other viruses?
The 'Marco Polo's fleet would fall back into normal space near 'Boscyk's Star', around 6309 Light-years away from Sol. In the LFT-universe the second planet of 'Boscyk's star' was called Olymp and the most important trade world in the whole galaxy. Ranma wanted to see what the planet was here.
The three ships, the heavy cruisers were still in the docking bays, fell back in to normal space, maybe 20 million Kilometers distant to Olymp.
"We got seven contacts," it come from one of sensory technicians," five ships are confirmed as Imperial ships. The other two are unknown. They fire at each other."
Ranma's giggles stopped. She looked at the main hologram. It showed a diagram of the system. The two unknown ships were in actual short distance ship-to-ship combat with the five imperial ships. Tradom had been the last time, She had seen short distance ship-to-ship combat, not only long distance combat with transform cannons. The two unknown ships seemed to be smaller than the imperial ships, with lesser weaponry and less powerful shielding, but with a higher acceleration. A data window showed that the smaller ships had an acceleration of nearly 1200 kps².
They would speed up to maybe 20 percent light-speed, fire when in range and until they were out of range and than make a curve and come back.
"I think we should help them. Fire when in range."
Daniel Zarkov, the weapons operator, nodded and made some inputs into the weapons console. The targeting computer targeted the five imperial ships and deep in the bowels of the ship, each of the 36 transform cannons chambered ten transform bombs, dematerialized them and stored the dematerialized bombs for the use.
While the 'Marco Polo' reduced the distance to the fighting ships, one of the smaller detonated violently in a shower of scrap metal and gas. The other ship now received more hits than before, as it was the only remaining target. Idly Ranma wondered why the ships didn't do anything to acknowledge the 'Marco'.
As the three ships approached to 15 million kilometer distance to the imperial ships, 6 heavy and 30 twin transform cannons fired their deadly payload, 60 thermonuclear bombs with 4000 Giga-tons payload and 300 bombs with 3000 Giga-tons. Since the ships didn't seem to have the same systems as the ships that invaded the LFT-universe, the shielding of the ships wasn't powerful enough to withstand the detonation of the bombs. The covering long distance transform bombardment was exactly timed and the small ship was away from the detonating imperial ships.
1.140.000 Giga-tons of thermonuclear death found their targets. Each ship was hit by twelve 4000 and 60 3000 Giga-ton bombs and the resulting detonations of the bombs was to much strain for the shield of the imperial ships. Even if only 10 percent of the detonation energy made it through the shielding, it was enough to melt the hull armor and make its way to the reactors. The resulting explosion was nothing compared to the detonation of the 360 bombs.
In other words. BOOM!!!
The smaller ship itself had gotten hit pretty hard in the last volley of the imperial ships. Its main engine section blew up and it now floated in space.
"May-Lin, try to hail the left ship."
The feline operations and communication officer nodded. After a few seconds she nodded.
"We got a connection, voice only. The ship identifies itself as 'Sanyo- oh'."
Ranma nodded and began to speak.
"This is the 'Marco Polo', do you need any assistance?"
There was a short silence, before Ranma got an answer by a gruff male voice.
"Who are you?"
The suspicion was clearly audible.
"I'm Ranma Saotome, the captain of this vessel. We are not of the Solar Empire."
"We kinda noticed, smartass. Are you of the Resistance?"
Ranma raised an eyebrow and breathed in deep.
"No, we are not. Can we help you."
"Of course you can help! This system will be full of imperial ships in ten minutes! We have to get away from here!"
Ranma nodded.
"We will tow you in one of our hangars. Do you need any further help?"
Ranma looked at May-Lin, who nodded. The voice seemed to loose patience.
"Who the fuck are you? Some sort of retard?"
Ranma closed her eyes.
"I just want to know what kind of help we can give you, once you are in our hangar."
"Every help we can get."
The other side cut the connection.
Ranma shook her head.
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Only five minutes later the battered form of a small jurian cruiser rested on antigravity fields in the middle of one of the 'Marco's' hangar-decks. It was a ship of 250 meter length and 100 meter width, but it looked a bit lost in the hangar with its height of 50 meters. Some patches of the wooden hull was burning now that it was exposed to the oxygen in the atmosphere of the hangar.
Several small robots took of from their hidden hangars and began to put out the fires. Other robots and hangar crews had to wait for the crew of the ship to open the hatches of the ship.
One of the engineers in the hangar crew stared at the hull of the ship for a long time. Than he turned to a colleague.
"Just why does anyone build the hull of a space ship of wood?"
His colleague shrugged.
"Absolutely no idea, Scotty. Maybe because it's ecological?"
The Scottish engineer just stared at his friend.
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Ranma, back in male form entered the hospital of the 'Marco' together with his daughter. Most of the rescued ships crew was injured. Well, not just most, every single member of the crew was injured to a certain degree. Open wounds, plasma and normal burns, broken bones, internal injuries, even one or two missing limbs. But the hospital of the 'Marco' was more than able to handle the fifty injured, since it had been designed to be able to take care of up to 200 injured, with the help of medical robots of course.
They went up to a humanoid male in a white coat. His head was completely hairless and of a conical form. The man smiled at Ranma.
"What can I do for you, Commander? Nothing medical I hope."
Ranma smiled back.
"No Dr. Martak, I wanted to look after the rescued and maybe talk to the captain of the vessel."
Martak nodded. He was an Ara, a race that was leading on the medical sector in the galaxy. No one ever heard of an Ara that wasn't working in the medical sector.
"Good. From what I gather we got the captain of the vessel in room number 121. She only got a concussion and some minor plasma burns around her hand, but nothing that can't he healed."
Ranma blinked. The captain was female? Maybe he had spoken with one of the crew of the 'Sanyo-oh'. After a short walk they entered room 121. It was a room for two patients who needed observation. And two persons were present.
One of them looked like a young female terran, but since there were some races that looked exactly like terrans in the galaxy, it was possible that she wasn't. She looked maybe 21 years old, had a overall Japanese face and black hair that bordered into a dark blue with some white and golden streaks. She laid in a medo-bed and her arm was covered with adhesive medical tape that supported her healing. She looked oddly familiar.
The other person, well, you weren't exactly able to tell of what gender this person was, since it looked somewhat androgyn. But the face was something you would remember, since it looked unfinished, like the face of a statue that wasn't finished by the artist. Like the gender, the age was not identifiable. The person sat by the bed and watched the woman.
The person turned to Ranma and Tijana.
"Who are you?" the person asked.
"I'm Ranma Saotome," Ranma answered. " I'm the commander of this vessel. This is my daughter Tijana."
Tijana smiled at the two. The person nodded.
"I'm Yasha."
Then he smiled a bit forced.
"I have to thank you for the rescue."
Ranma nodded.
"It's the duty of a martial artist to help those who are in distress," he said, " And that of a commander of the LFT."
Yasha blinked and tilted his head.
"What is the LFT?"
Tijana answered before Ranma had the chance.
"The League of Free Terrans. We are from another universe. The Solar Empire tried to invade our Terra a day ago. We defeated them and our little Task Force was able to follow the only ship that was able to flee."
Yasha nodded at that and looked at the woman.
"You were right Hiromi. They really tried it."
The both Saotomes blinked.
"She knew they would do something like that?"
Yasha nodded.
"Yes. She is Hiromi Hibiki, the daughter of Lord Ryoga Hibiki and Lady Io."
Ranma breathed in hard and he moved into a standard Anything Goes Defense Position, not that anyone who wasn't trained would realize it. His eyes narrowed.
"Ryoga Hibiki?"
Yasha nodded again.
"She fled from the Empire two hundred years ago when she found out some of the horrible truth about her father and her mother. Our resistance group found her and she was active ever since."
Tijana stared at the other woman.
"Wow, time treated her well. I want to know that secret."
That got her an elbow into the side by her father. He looked at the strange humanoid.
"What horrible truth?"
"Does giving the order for more than enough genocides count? She doesn't believe that standard propaganda of the Empire that every non-humanoid race is 'evil', at least not anymore."
He made a dramatic pause.
"And than there is the fact that she's not entirely human anymore."
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Lieutenant Commander Haroldson swallowed nervously at he looked at the communication stream his ship just received. He reread it for the third time and closed his eyes. He had to give this communiqué to Lord Hibiki and he hadn't any doubt what would happen, he knew the temper fits of his Lord. He had become the commander and adjutant of Lord Hibiki after his predecessor had been on the receiving end of one.
He breathed in. His Lord had received an order from their queen just a few hours ago about the six ships from that evil human empire they had to cleanse and now this. This wasn't good. If this was right they had a problem.
He had seen the horrible pictures and video-feeds from the agents that had been in that other universe. Humans were nothing but slaves and cattle for the evil alien Overlords and the human traitors, like Perry Rhodan or Reginald Bull. They had to help those humans.
He breathed in a last time before he entered his Lord's office and kneeled before the big oak desk.
"My Lord, I have to give you bad news."
The big arm chair swung around and Lord Hibiki glared at him.
"What?"
Harlodson gulped.
"We have gotten one last message from Patrol Fleet 13221. They were on the trail of you."
'Damn,' Haroldson thought,' I nearly said it.'
".of the traitor Hiromi. The fleet cornered two ships of her group. One of them was the 'Sanyo-Oh'. They destroyed one of the ships, but then the fleet, we are hunting, interfered and destroyed the ships. We got one last communiqué before the contact to the surveillance cube of that area was interrupted."
Lord Hibiki glared at the sweating and shivering Haroldson. He did not smile at the pathetic form of his adjutant.
"Leave." he said with a dangerous low voice," Leave."
Haroldson nearly stumbled over his own feet as he left the room in a hurry. He was glad that he made it out alive, as Lord Hibiki had this habit of killing the carrier of bad news.
Inside his office Hibiki's knuckles turned white as he broke the wooden armrests of his arm chair. Slowly a sick green aura formed around him as he muttered one of his old trademark phrases from his past, before the Empire.
"Ranma, this is all your fault."
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Ranma sat in his office, deep in thought. He never thought it would be like this. The few words with Yasha had just shattered the last thing of hope he had. Usagi had always been so positive and carefree. But he also remembered the xenophobic tendencies of the Sailor Senshi. He really had thought that the Empire would only cleanse other species, but genocide? He shook his head.
"Good intentions pave the road to hell," he said and chuckled dryly.
He looked at a small holographic picture. It showed him and some friend back from the University. Two of them were alien. One was a Blue, the other a Swoon. He sighed. If he let Usagi and the rest of the Senshi and their lapdog get a bridgehead at home, he would just sign a death sentence for them.
He chuckled again. He didn't know when he began to consider the LFT- universe as his home and not this universe, but it didn't matter.
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Slowly a fleet of twenty Jurian cruisers and battle cruisers made its way through hyperspace. One of them was the flagship of the fleet, 'Throne'. A few frigates of the Oni and the former Galaxy Police gave them back-up, followed by a lemurian carrier.
Kiriaade, part of the being that had helped Tsunami to navigate in Omega Centauri, had found the trail of the six ships from the other universe. It was only a matter of time before they reached the ships.
Tenchi Masaki, former Emperor of Jurai and leader of the Resistance sat in an armchair in the middle of the 'Thorne's' bridge.
"Return into normal space in ten seconds," the voice of the female navigator said.
Tenchi just nodded. Hopefully they would find the ship this time, before the Empire found them. He looked at the main view-screen. He only saw the red swirls of hyperspace.
"Return to normal space."
The view changed and showed deep space, littered with small lights.
"Contact. We got three contacts. No imperial energy signatures."
Kiriaade looked over the shoulder of the sensory tech and nodded.
"That are energy signatures of the LFT," she said in her soft voice.
Tenchi nodded.
"Hail them."
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Appendix:
Gravo: measure for gravitation, 1 Gravo is equal to a standard earth gravitation of 9.81 meter per second squared.
Syntronic: A very high developed computer. It creates a small 'subspace- pocket' and uses as a base for the operations. It is said to be faster than light in its operations.
Gravimetric Field Drive or Hypercon: A fuel less propulsion system that uses special emitters to create hyperdimensional waves. These waves are creating interference in flight direction that resembles a gravitation field and draws the emitting ship, and only the emitting ship, towards this gravitational field. At the same time the field moves at the distance. It's a bit like the carrot on a stick and the mule.
Virtual Matter: Simply put materialized energy. It can take any shape you like and is used in every imaginable way. It is very safe to use, so safe that it is used for the interior design of apartments.
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Next Time:
First Contact
AWarringer
Disclaimer: Nothing in here belongs to me, except for the story. PERRY RHODAN belongs to the Pabel-Moewing-Verlagsunion. Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi. Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi. Tenchi Myou belongs to A. I. C. and to Pioneer. Infinity's Shore belongs to James Barnhill. I've used it with his permission.
Chapter two
Hunt for 'Marco Polo'
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Hiroshi Yamasaki sat in front of his console in the computer control center of the 'Marco Polo'. He leaned back into his chair, feet on the console and reading in a manga. Sometimes he chuckled a bit and turned the page. Well, it was not a real manga in the meaning of the old 20. century term. It was more a little computer with over 200 pages, like an actual book, and could be loaded with the story, so that you could read it like a normal book.
Hiroshi was an Azura. They where descendants of Japanese emigrant, who colonized the planet in the late 21 century. They took their culture with them, as well as their language. Of course they spoke the common language of the LFT, the Interkosmo, too.
Azura was a planet with a largely earthlike ecosphere and a bit bigger than earth, with a higher gravity of 1.332 Gravo. The humans on Azura had adapted to the planet and where of a bit stocky build and had slightly longer canines. And Hiroshi could have been the visual twin of Ryoga Hibiki.
One fifth of the Azura had parapsychical abilities, but most of them where only very minor in power. Hiroshi for example was an Energetic, an ability that was a variety of telekinesis. He was able to manipulate conventional and higher dimensional energy fields. And Hiroshi had specialized to use this ability on computer systems. With that he was the perfect hacker.
He felt a weight on his legs and lowered his manga.
"'Golden Boy' again, heh?" the weight on his legs said.
Hiroshi shrugged and continued to read his manga.
"We have Condition Red, and you are reading like you are off duty."
"As if something would happen, Yoshi. We're in hyperspace and I don't think that anyone is able to do us harm here. And like you see, everything is in best condition."
The weight moved higher and over his abdomen to press itself under the manga and looked him into the eyes.
"You should know better, Hiroshi."
The 'weight' was an Oni, an intelligent species that had developed on Azura, but not from the native fauna, but from rats that came to the planet on board the colony ships. Some kind of radiation caused the rats to mutate and become more intelligent with every generation. In the 2300's the first Oni's came into the light, so to speak, and they where thought to be ghosts, hence the name Oni. Nowadays the Oni where part of the culture of Azura and very good engineers. Yoshi was the partner of Hiroshi and an expert for the hardware, while Hiroshi was the expert for software.
He looked at the twenty centimeter long brown rat.
"So?"
Yoshi sighed.
"You're hopeless."
Two small black eyes where looking into two brown human eyes.
"Let me tell you, what we got here. First, we are in another universe. Second, we are on Condition Red. And third, we are in a combat situation and should look for the computers. And you are sitting here looking into the newest issue of 'Golden Boy'."
Yoshi rose onto his hind legs and crossed his front legs, which ended in small hands.
"Why is it always me, who had to remind you that we are on a battleship?"
Hiroshi sighed, closed his manga. He grabbed his companion and sat him onto his console.
"You are annoying, you know?"
"Yes, and I'm good with that. You are the head of the computer center, you have to be a good example for the others."
Hiroshi rolled his eyes.
"Sheesh, you are not my mother. Or my dad for that matter."
Yoshi glared at him.
"Thanks the Kami, that none of my kids is a lazy bum like you."
Hiroshi looked at him.
"And you know if any of them is lazy? How many do you have, huh? 100? 150?"
"137, so?"
Hiroshi rolled his eyes again and his fingers where flying over the keyboards and through the holograms.
-----------------------------------.
The 'Marco Polo' sped through hyperspace, the two battle cruisers in tow. The three heavy cruisers were in the special bays, where they where being repaired. The three ships where using the highest economical speed, somewhere near 85 million times the speed of light. Every speed over this put more strain to the Metagrav systems that where holding the ships in hyperspace.
"Jump back into normal space in 1 minute."
The destination of the three ships was the system 'Kalup's Gate'. It had three gas giants and multiple moons orbiting the giant. In the war between the LFT and the arkonian Hunhay'Tussan, the third planet was the secret base of the solar home fleet, wirch consisted of more than 25.000 ships. "Jump back into normal space in 30 seconds."
Everyone in Command was nervous. Even the commander of the ship, Ranma Saotome. Except for the voice of the computer everything was quiet.
"Jump back into normal space in ten seconds."
Nobody knew if there where ships in the system, or even colonies. Everything could be the exact opposite of the known system.
"Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, Executing."
The three ships left hyperspace and the sensory systems where sweeping the whole system with active and passive scans.
-----------------------------------.
"What the heck?"
Hiroshi blinked and looked back onto the status hologram he had looked at, as the ship fell back into normal space.
"What is it," asked Yoshi.
Hiroshi blinked again and scratched his chin.
"I mean that there was something that shouldn't have been there."
Now it was Yoshi's turn to blink.
"What?"
Hiroshi shook his head.
"Nothing."
He pressed his eyes shut and went back to work.
-----------------------------------.
Unknown to most of the people in the Empire and the Resistance, the Solar Empire had a vast network of communication and surveillance satellites in the galaxy. Every satellite had the shape of a cube with a side length of 20 meters and was packed with communication and surveillance systems.
There where several millions of nearly identical satellites, each overlooking cube of space with a volume of 125 cubic-light-years. Sometimes these cubes where overlapping.
The cubes themselves where handling a data stream of nearly 100.000 Penta- Bit per Second. They where organized like the internet on earth before the impact of the asteroid Loki that brought the 'Great Ice' and with that Crystal Tokyo and the Solar Empire.
Now seven of these satellites where receiving a short signal. It was placed on a frequency used for special cases by the Solar Fleet. For example, when there where hunts for space ships which were contaminated by a special computer virus. The ships could try to run and hide, but every time they entered normal space the virus would send a short transmission. With this transmission and the satellites the ships of the Solar Fleet where able to hunt a ship and eventually destroy or capture it. At least as long as it didn't left the galaxy.
-----------------------------------.
Hiroshi blinked again as he looked at the hologram in front of him and frowned. There it was again. A trace of something that moved through the syntronic systems of the ship.
"Okay, my friend. I'll get you."
Yoshi blinked at him.
"What?"
"There is something in the system that doesn't belong here."
Yoshi frowned like Hiroshi.
"A virus or something like that."
Hiroshi nodded and began to program a search for the trace he found.
"Looks like if. But how did it penetrate the Firewall? And when?"
-----------------------------------.
An alarm went through the ship.
"Contact! Looks like five battle ships of the Solar Empire."
Ranma cursed. He had hoped that they had more than twenty minutes.
"How did they find us that fast?"
The reaction of his command staff was fast and precise. The big gravimetric field drives accelerated the giant ship with ease towards 55 percent the speed of light. But still, the ship needed time.
Five enemy battleships did a short trip to hyperspace to bypass 15 million kilometer and left hyperspace directly on course of the 'Marco Polo'. At the same time the ships opened fire and the energies of their weapons slammed into the Paradim-shields of the 'Marco Polo'. The 'Yamato' and the 'Graf Spee' were using the better shielding of the larger ship as a cover. The three ships blasted though the line of enemy ships and the two battle cruisers changed their position to be in front of the 'Marco Polo'.
Ten seconds later the three ships entered hyperspace.
-----------------------------------.
Hiroshi stared in concentration at his holographic screens and tried to trace the virus. He worked his way through the logs-files and began to place tracer bots.
"Okay, my friend."
Exactly at that time the 'Marco Polo' left hyperspace, a short data-burst raced through the network. The tracer bots Hiroshi had placed, went to work and traced the virus. A small firewall tried to hold back the virus, but it broke through it like a high speed projectile trough a sheet of paper. But Hiroshi knew that the virus would do this. The firewall was only a distraction for the virus to place a virus into the virus. The virus attacked the hyperspace communication phalanx and the navigation software and transmitted a short message with the coordinates of the 'Marco Polo' followed by a short status file of the ship.
Hiroshi smiled. Now he was able to track down the virus and build a virtual playground for it.
"Yoshi, cut the communication between node 12-Alpha-2-Gamma and the surrounding nodes except for node 13-Beta-1-Omega."
Yoshi himself began to use a smaller terminal to cut the lines of a minor system node with more than a thousand of surrounding nodes. The main computer system of the 'Marco Polo' was one of the most sophisticated systems for space ships. A syntonic-positronic hybrid computer with network architecture. 750.000 Syntronic and 1.250.000 positronic major nodes where spread around the ship. While the Syntronic nodes were faster, they could be destroyed by a special computer virus called KorraVir, that was used in electronic warfare. Positronic systems hadn't this problem and so the hybrid computers had been successful in the last 40 years.
"Now I got you. Yoshi cut every line between 13-Beta-1-Omega and the surrounding nodes."
With that the trap snapped close. Since every line was cut on a physical level, the virus wasn't able to leave the two nodes. When it moved to 13- Beta-1-Omega it would find the virtual playground and never leave.
-----------------------------------.
The 'Marco Polo' entered hyperspace a second time in one hour to flee from the Solar Fleet. While it had been five ships the first time, it had been 200 the last time. Ranma had a slight air of nervousness around him.
"Commander?"
Ranma jumped out of his seat at the sound of the voice and landed in a ready stance. Hiroshi locked a bit lost.
"Are you all right, Commander?"
Ranma breathed in deep. At first he had thought that Hibiki had somehow entered the ship, but than he remembered Hiroshi. He sat back into his seat and began to massage his neck.
"I'm a bit nervous, that's all ."
Hiroshi nodded and gave Ranma a PAD.
"I found a virus in our system. Every time, we reentered normal space, it sends a short information impulse to an unknown receiver. The impulse contains out position and course."
Ranma's eyes swept over the foil and the information on it caused him to frown.
"Any idea how it came into our systems?"
"No. But I suspect that it could be on the same way as the KorraVir infects Syntronic systems. But this virus only infects positronic systems."
Ranma sighed and recalled everything he knew about the KorraVir.
The Korrango-Virus has been discovered in the galaxy DaGlausch in 1292 NGC. It was able to infect every syntronic system and destroy it. Only positronic computers were immune to the virus. It could be transferred through every thing that you could modulate - for example a communication signal, the beam of a weapon, the shield frequency or even the active scanning beam. The only thing that was needed to get infected was a scanner or receiver that was able to separate the modulated virus from the signal. Nowadays the KorraVir was a standard way of information warfare, causing all main systems to be refitted back to positronics, the building of hybrid computers or, for the giant system mainframes like 'Nathan' on Luna, to be shielded by a physical shield.
"Can you delete the virus."
"Piece of cake, but I don't know if the other ships got the virus too."
Ranma got a gleam in his eyes as he smiled.
"They want the 'Marco'? They can get it. If they find the real one that is."
Ranma's reaction caused Hiroshi to blink.
"Huh?"
-----------------------------------.
The hangar section of the 'Marco Polo' burst with activity. Five 'Vesta' class cruisers stood in their hangars and waited to be refitted with special modules.
'Vesta' cruisers were one of the backbones of the LFT fleet. They were designed as Multifunctional spaceships, short MFS-ships. They could be outfitted with a multitude of moduls and take any role you needed.
At the moment these five of 20 'Vesta' cruisers waited for special 'Virtual Imager'-modules. These modules were fitted with a high effective Virtual Imager, a device that could create the normal- and hyperdimensional emissions of any space ship. These Virtual Images couldn't be distinguish from real ships without special sensory systems.
In reality it was a matter of only two minutes to dock the modules into the MF-bay, but first they had to be transported to the ships. Only one minute before the 'Marco Polo' fell back into normal space the hangar crews were finished and the five 'Vesta' cruiser prepared to leave their hangars. Force field projectors were ready to catapult them into space.
Only one second after the reentry of normal space, the virtual matter hangar doors simply disappeared and the 'Vesta' cruisers were launched into space. Every cruiser set an individual course and accelerated to a speed that was necessary to enter hyperspace.
-----------------------------------.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HAVE _SIX_ POSITIONS OF THAT FLEET??"
Lieutenant Commander Niclas Haroldsen took a step back as he looked into the anger-red face of Lord Hibiki. He swallowed. He never imagined that he would be the cause of one of Lord Hibiki's temper fit's.
"THERE CAN'T BE SIX ENEMY FLEETS!! I KNOW THAT THERE IS JUST ONE!!"
Haroldsen swallowed again.
"Milord, we have six confirmed sightings of the fleet, at six different position. One big reflex and five smaller ones. The reflexes are even completely identical."
Haroldsen just wondered why he suddenly felt that he should sign a transfer back to Ceti Alpha 4. The sandstorms there should be beautiful this time of the year.
-----------------------------------.
Hiroshi shook his head as he watched his currently female commander giggle like mad. Commander Saotome had some interesting ideas.
"Let them hunt shadows," she had said.
Hiroshi shook his head and left Command to get back to his console. He had a virus to analyze. Maybe he could use the virus to write other viruses?
The 'Marco Polo's fleet would fall back into normal space near 'Boscyk's Star', around 6309 Light-years away from Sol. In the LFT-universe the second planet of 'Boscyk's star' was called Olymp and the most important trade world in the whole galaxy. Ranma wanted to see what the planet was here.
The three ships, the heavy cruisers were still in the docking bays, fell back in to normal space, maybe 20 million Kilometers distant to Olymp.
"We got seven contacts," it come from one of sensory technicians," five ships are confirmed as Imperial ships. The other two are unknown. They fire at each other."
Ranma's giggles stopped. She looked at the main hologram. It showed a diagram of the system. The two unknown ships were in actual short distance ship-to-ship combat with the five imperial ships. Tradom had been the last time, She had seen short distance ship-to-ship combat, not only long distance combat with transform cannons. The two unknown ships seemed to be smaller than the imperial ships, with lesser weaponry and less powerful shielding, but with a higher acceleration. A data window showed that the smaller ships had an acceleration of nearly 1200 kps².
They would speed up to maybe 20 percent light-speed, fire when in range and until they were out of range and than make a curve and come back.
"I think we should help them. Fire when in range."
Daniel Zarkov, the weapons operator, nodded and made some inputs into the weapons console. The targeting computer targeted the five imperial ships and deep in the bowels of the ship, each of the 36 transform cannons chambered ten transform bombs, dematerialized them and stored the dematerialized bombs for the use.
While the 'Marco Polo' reduced the distance to the fighting ships, one of the smaller detonated violently in a shower of scrap metal and gas. The other ship now received more hits than before, as it was the only remaining target. Idly Ranma wondered why the ships didn't do anything to acknowledge the 'Marco'.
As the three ships approached to 15 million kilometer distance to the imperial ships, 6 heavy and 30 twin transform cannons fired their deadly payload, 60 thermonuclear bombs with 4000 Giga-tons payload and 300 bombs with 3000 Giga-tons. Since the ships didn't seem to have the same systems as the ships that invaded the LFT-universe, the shielding of the ships wasn't powerful enough to withstand the detonation of the bombs. The covering long distance transform bombardment was exactly timed and the small ship was away from the detonating imperial ships.
1.140.000 Giga-tons of thermonuclear death found their targets. Each ship was hit by twelve 4000 and 60 3000 Giga-ton bombs and the resulting detonations of the bombs was to much strain for the shield of the imperial ships. Even if only 10 percent of the detonation energy made it through the shielding, it was enough to melt the hull armor and make its way to the reactors. The resulting explosion was nothing compared to the detonation of the 360 bombs.
In other words. BOOM!!!
The smaller ship itself had gotten hit pretty hard in the last volley of the imperial ships. Its main engine section blew up and it now floated in space.
"May-Lin, try to hail the left ship."
The feline operations and communication officer nodded. After a few seconds she nodded.
"We got a connection, voice only. The ship identifies itself as 'Sanyo- oh'."
Ranma nodded and began to speak.
"This is the 'Marco Polo', do you need any assistance?"
There was a short silence, before Ranma got an answer by a gruff male voice.
"Who are you?"
The suspicion was clearly audible.
"I'm Ranma Saotome, the captain of this vessel. We are not of the Solar Empire."
"We kinda noticed, smartass. Are you of the Resistance?"
Ranma raised an eyebrow and breathed in deep.
"No, we are not. Can we help you."
"Of course you can help! This system will be full of imperial ships in ten minutes! We have to get away from here!"
Ranma nodded.
"We will tow you in one of our hangars. Do you need any further help?"
Ranma looked at May-Lin, who nodded. The voice seemed to loose patience.
"Who the fuck are you? Some sort of retard?"
Ranma closed her eyes.
"I just want to know what kind of help we can give you, once you are in our hangar."
"Every help we can get."
The other side cut the connection.
Ranma shook her head.
-----------------------------------.
Only five minutes later the battered form of a small jurian cruiser rested on antigravity fields in the middle of one of the 'Marco's' hangar-decks. It was a ship of 250 meter length and 100 meter width, but it looked a bit lost in the hangar with its height of 50 meters. Some patches of the wooden hull was burning now that it was exposed to the oxygen in the atmosphere of the hangar.
Several small robots took of from their hidden hangars and began to put out the fires. Other robots and hangar crews had to wait for the crew of the ship to open the hatches of the ship.
One of the engineers in the hangar crew stared at the hull of the ship for a long time. Than he turned to a colleague.
"Just why does anyone build the hull of a space ship of wood?"
His colleague shrugged.
"Absolutely no idea, Scotty. Maybe because it's ecological?"
The Scottish engineer just stared at his friend.
-----------------------------------.
Ranma, back in male form entered the hospital of the 'Marco' together with his daughter. Most of the rescued ships crew was injured. Well, not just most, every single member of the crew was injured to a certain degree. Open wounds, plasma and normal burns, broken bones, internal injuries, even one or two missing limbs. But the hospital of the 'Marco' was more than able to handle the fifty injured, since it had been designed to be able to take care of up to 200 injured, with the help of medical robots of course.
They went up to a humanoid male in a white coat. His head was completely hairless and of a conical form. The man smiled at Ranma.
"What can I do for you, Commander? Nothing medical I hope."
Ranma smiled back.
"No Dr. Martak, I wanted to look after the rescued and maybe talk to the captain of the vessel."
Martak nodded. He was an Ara, a race that was leading on the medical sector in the galaxy. No one ever heard of an Ara that wasn't working in the medical sector.
"Good. From what I gather we got the captain of the vessel in room number 121. She only got a concussion and some minor plasma burns around her hand, but nothing that can't he healed."
Ranma blinked. The captain was female? Maybe he had spoken with one of the crew of the 'Sanyo-oh'. After a short walk they entered room 121. It was a room for two patients who needed observation. And two persons were present.
One of them looked like a young female terran, but since there were some races that looked exactly like terrans in the galaxy, it was possible that she wasn't. She looked maybe 21 years old, had a overall Japanese face and black hair that bordered into a dark blue with some white and golden streaks. She laid in a medo-bed and her arm was covered with adhesive medical tape that supported her healing. She looked oddly familiar.
The other person, well, you weren't exactly able to tell of what gender this person was, since it looked somewhat androgyn. But the face was something you would remember, since it looked unfinished, like the face of a statue that wasn't finished by the artist. Like the gender, the age was not identifiable. The person sat by the bed and watched the woman.
The person turned to Ranma and Tijana.
"Who are you?" the person asked.
"I'm Ranma Saotome," Ranma answered. " I'm the commander of this vessel. This is my daughter Tijana."
Tijana smiled at the two. The person nodded.
"I'm Yasha."
Then he smiled a bit forced.
"I have to thank you for the rescue."
Ranma nodded.
"It's the duty of a martial artist to help those who are in distress," he said, " And that of a commander of the LFT."
Yasha blinked and tilted his head.
"What is the LFT?"
Tijana answered before Ranma had the chance.
"The League of Free Terrans. We are from another universe. The Solar Empire tried to invade our Terra a day ago. We defeated them and our little Task Force was able to follow the only ship that was able to flee."
Yasha nodded at that and looked at the woman.
"You were right Hiromi. They really tried it."
The both Saotomes blinked.
"She knew they would do something like that?"
Yasha nodded.
"Yes. She is Hiromi Hibiki, the daughter of Lord Ryoga Hibiki and Lady Io."
Ranma breathed in hard and he moved into a standard Anything Goes Defense Position, not that anyone who wasn't trained would realize it. His eyes narrowed.
"Ryoga Hibiki?"
Yasha nodded again.
"She fled from the Empire two hundred years ago when she found out some of the horrible truth about her father and her mother. Our resistance group found her and she was active ever since."
Tijana stared at the other woman.
"Wow, time treated her well. I want to know that secret."
That got her an elbow into the side by her father. He looked at the strange humanoid.
"What horrible truth?"
"Does giving the order for more than enough genocides count? She doesn't believe that standard propaganda of the Empire that every non-humanoid race is 'evil', at least not anymore."
He made a dramatic pause.
"And than there is the fact that she's not entirely human anymore."
-----------------------------------.
Lieutenant Commander Haroldson swallowed nervously at he looked at the communication stream his ship just received. He reread it for the third time and closed his eyes. He had to give this communiqué to Lord Hibiki and he hadn't any doubt what would happen, he knew the temper fits of his Lord. He had become the commander and adjutant of Lord Hibiki after his predecessor had been on the receiving end of one.
He breathed in. His Lord had received an order from their queen just a few hours ago about the six ships from that evil human empire they had to cleanse and now this. This wasn't good. If this was right they had a problem.
He had seen the horrible pictures and video-feeds from the agents that had been in that other universe. Humans were nothing but slaves and cattle for the evil alien Overlords and the human traitors, like Perry Rhodan or Reginald Bull. They had to help those humans.
He breathed in a last time before he entered his Lord's office and kneeled before the big oak desk.
"My Lord, I have to give you bad news."
The big arm chair swung around and Lord Hibiki glared at him.
"What?"
Harlodson gulped.
"We have gotten one last message from Patrol Fleet 13221. They were on the trail of you."
'Damn,' Haroldson thought,' I nearly said it.'
".of the traitor Hiromi. The fleet cornered two ships of her group. One of them was the 'Sanyo-Oh'. They destroyed one of the ships, but then the fleet, we are hunting, interfered and destroyed the ships. We got one last communiqué before the contact to the surveillance cube of that area was interrupted."
Lord Hibiki glared at the sweating and shivering Haroldson. He did not smile at the pathetic form of his adjutant.
"Leave." he said with a dangerous low voice," Leave."
Haroldson nearly stumbled over his own feet as he left the room in a hurry. He was glad that he made it out alive, as Lord Hibiki had this habit of killing the carrier of bad news.
Inside his office Hibiki's knuckles turned white as he broke the wooden armrests of his arm chair. Slowly a sick green aura formed around him as he muttered one of his old trademark phrases from his past, before the Empire.
"Ranma, this is all your fault."
-----------------------------------.
Ranma sat in his office, deep in thought. He never thought it would be like this. The few words with Yasha had just shattered the last thing of hope he had. Usagi had always been so positive and carefree. But he also remembered the xenophobic tendencies of the Sailor Senshi. He really had thought that the Empire would only cleanse other species, but genocide? He shook his head.
"Good intentions pave the road to hell," he said and chuckled dryly.
He looked at a small holographic picture. It showed him and some friend back from the University. Two of them were alien. One was a Blue, the other a Swoon. He sighed. If he let Usagi and the rest of the Senshi and their lapdog get a bridgehead at home, he would just sign a death sentence for them.
He chuckled again. He didn't know when he began to consider the LFT- universe as his home and not this universe, but it didn't matter.
-----------------------------------.
Slowly a fleet of twenty Jurian cruisers and battle cruisers made its way through hyperspace. One of them was the flagship of the fleet, 'Throne'. A few frigates of the Oni and the former Galaxy Police gave them back-up, followed by a lemurian carrier.
Kiriaade, part of the being that had helped Tsunami to navigate in Omega Centauri, had found the trail of the six ships from the other universe. It was only a matter of time before they reached the ships.
Tenchi Masaki, former Emperor of Jurai and leader of the Resistance sat in an armchair in the middle of the 'Thorne's' bridge.
"Return into normal space in ten seconds," the voice of the female navigator said.
Tenchi just nodded. Hopefully they would find the ship this time, before the Empire found them. He looked at the main view-screen. He only saw the red swirls of hyperspace.
"Return to normal space."
The view changed and showed deep space, littered with small lights.
"Contact. We got three contacts. No imperial energy signatures."
Kiriaade looked over the shoulder of the sensory tech and nodded.
"That are energy signatures of the LFT," she said in her soft voice.
Tenchi nodded.
"Hail them."
-----------------------------------.
Appendix:
Gravo: measure for gravitation, 1 Gravo is equal to a standard earth gravitation of 9.81 meter per second squared.
Syntronic: A very high developed computer. It creates a small 'subspace- pocket' and uses as a base for the operations. It is said to be faster than light in its operations.
Gravimetric Field Drive or Hypercon: A fuel less propulsion system that uses special emitters to create hyperdimensional waves. These waves are creating interference in flight direction that resembles a gravitation field and draws the emitting ship, and only the emitting ship, towards this gravitational field. At the same time the field moves at the distance. It's a bit like the carrot on a stick and the mule.
Virtual Matter: Simply put materialized energy. It can take any shape you like and is used in every imaginable way. It is very safe to use, so safe that it is used for the interior design of apartments.
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Next Time:
First Contact
