Please note that I do not own, or claim ownership, to any of the Anime/manga/or other published works that have been included in this story. Gundam belongs to Bandai (I believe), Goku and the Dragonball series' to Akira Toriyama, and Ranma 1/2 to Rumiko Takahashi.
Basically, keep in mind that this is a crossover. It probably won't seem like it for a while. ;) And as a quick note, the Gundams in this fic are a couple generations after the Gundams in G Gundam. (The one with the Dark Gundam, which just HAD to belong to Japan, as well as the Gundam that defeated it. O.o''' Well, at least the enemy army wasn't red-colored.)
Well, enjoy, okay?
ENCOUNTER
A professional sounding voice rang out over an intercom. The one who received it nodded his head as he affirmed to himself that he had heard it.
"Bridge to Commander Yakuma. Your presence is requested immediately." Ren Yakuma nodded again, and silently stood to adorn his outfit, the one they had given him to wear. It was common grays and blues, nothing fancy. The only real designing were the golden wings on each shoulder, signifying his rank and status as a pilot.
Leaving his room, or rather the closet that served as his room, he made his way to the bridge, never fully opening his eyes or even showing any emotion.
After a minute or so, he automatically walked up a small flight of stairs to the bridge. The stairs weren't really necessary. Rather, the ship designers felt that it was a good way to separate the ship into its parts. The primary decks, those used for leisure time and civilian occupation, were all flat and had elevators leading from floor to floor. There were stairs to the temple in the geo-dome, and that was about the only civilian set of stairs on the ship. The other sets were those leading to and from the different segments of the ship's operational decks. The engine rooms were down a set. And below that were the shield maintenance decks. One level above the top civilian level was the officer-level. This is where all the 'official' workings of the ship went on. And above that were five floors of launching/landing for the ships assorted military units.
Operation White-Star truly was significant. It was meant to be almost totally independent. The only thing it would ever need until it came across a suitable planet was the nuclear payloads that it had in storage until needed. Heck, they even had recyclers that let them use old, used up fuel as weapons for military purposes.
They got constant communications from Earth, the home-planet. In fact, no matter how far they got from the little blue ball, the sub-space systems were totally instant. There was no lag whatsoever. All they had to do was keep power going to communications systems and keep them in good repair.
But it was, overall, a military vehicle. A project meant and made to set a kind of 'island' on another planet in another system. And as a reflection of this purpose, it was outfitted with all the most advanced combat systems, the numbers of which reached the thousands. They even carried separate carriers alongside the main ship.
Of course, what use was a militant outfit if there was nothing to fight?
Which was why Ren wasn't too hyped about being called to the bridge.
"Commander Yakuma reporting as ordered."
The first to address him was a stout man in a uniform similar to his, except adorned with platinum shoulder braces, showing that he was the ships captain, and not a pilot. "Ah, Commander Yakuma. I would like to speak with you. Would you like to speak here, or in my office?"
Ren looked tiredly around the bridge. Honestly, it reminded him a lot of old Sci-Fi flicks. "Right here. If you're telling me, then most of those here probably already know."
Captain Shal nodded with a slight smile. "Of course, you're right. I know you don't want me to beat around the bush..." 'No kidding.' "...so we'll get right to it. You do remember what the original intent of this ship was, right?"
Ren didn't respond in any particular manner, except to recite the mission parameters. "Project White Star. Primary mission objective: to establish an off-world colony for the Human race. Colony is to be primarily military and will be well defended. We've got five-thousand annoyed citizens on board and two thousand troops, as well as the better part of Earth's entire Gundam force. What're you getting at?"
Leon Shal sighed. "What I'm getting at," he gestured toward the primary monitor, "is that we are nearing on a planet we believe to be suitable for sustaining life, if only for a while. If the upper departments say that it's suitable for the kind of installation we need it for, then we'll set up camp there and start making base." 'Camp' and 'base' were referring to the two stages of inhabitation. 'Camp', was the setting down of the ship, and laying out of supplies and finding of excavation sites. It was a mis-leading term, as once White Star was set down, it wasn't going to be moving for a while. 'Base' was... the first permanent installation. It was likely that it would be the primary base for quite some time, until another was built bigger and better.
"And if not?"
"Then we set down with some of the shuttles only, keep White Star in orbit, and take a cool off period. If we find anything worth fighting for, we leave a carrier here and move on. If not, we basically call back to Earth and find out what they recommend."
Ren closed his eyes. "And what is it you want me for?"
"I want to know if you'll lead a reconnaissance mission to the surface. If there's any reason to believe it would be too dangerous for civilian habitation, then we need to know beforehand. Besides that, you're going to be our eyes and ears on the surface."
"And if I don't go?"
Commander Shal shrugged. "Then we send someone else. Others can do the job, you're just the best choice to do it."
"No need to flatter me, you know I'll do it..."
"I know, but you're the one who asked."
Ren shook his head slowly. "I've been on this ship too long."
"Exactly why we're in a hurry to figure this planet out. And why this can't get to the public quarters."
"Right. Now, you're going to give me full control on the personnel?" Ren looked calmly across the bridge at the primary monitor.
"Of course. If you wanted to ask a pre-graduate to come, I wouldn't argue. I'm leaving it all up to your judgment, as usual."
Smiling, Ren turned around. "Good. And when do we launch?"
"Five hours. You bring me an escort-list in four, and you launch at eighteen-hundred."
Ren nodded. "Four hours. A little excessive for me, but still good." Putting his index and middle fingers together at his forehead, he saluted loosely with his other fingers curled under. "-Live for life.-" (A/N: The lines indicate that it's meant to be said in Latin. I simply can't translate. XD)
"Indeed. -Live for life.-" Returning the salute, the Captain closed the conversation and let Yakuma go as he went back to his own duties.
Once he got back into his civilian style clothes, he started walking around the ship. From time to time, he would find some of those that he considered to be candidates for his little excursion. He spent one hour exploring the civilian levels, and then went to the launching bays.
His first destination was level 2, bay 412, dock 1.
Stepping out of the hyper-lift (so eloquently dubbed thus apparently by the ones who designed the entire ship, yet again, apparently after some old Sci-Fi flick), he walked over to a green-haired woman who was apparently monitoring something.
"Monitor, Report. Approximately how long until Flame Gundam unit A1 returns?"
"Flame Gundam unit A1. Docking time is clocked at fifteen minutes."
"Thank you, Monitor. You may resume." The monitor, an android made in human image, didn't even nod as she continued with her previous activity.
Ren leaned against a nearby wall and pulled out his notepad.
He had five possibilities so far. And if Torri accepted, that would be his first definite.
Torri Yamada. His most trusted officer and quite the warrior. On Earth he had been trained as a martial artist, and then enrolled in the United Earth Military. He was probably the most trustworthy person that Ren had ever met, at least with his credentials.
And the Flame Gundam wasn't anything to laugh at either. Specifically designed for those who enjoy playing with fire, it was based on the Burning Gundam. Because of its ancestry, it has proven to be quite the powerful unit, even if a bit temperamental. It seemed to have a mind of its own, and only really accepted certain people. So far, Torri was the only one on White Star that could effectively control it, though he couldn't seem to bring out its Super Mode quite yet. Though he did manage to damage it from time to time.
Unit A1 was the primary unit. And then there were units A2 and A3, the backup units with exact copies of all software and hardware. Any time-specific data could be uploaded into either one of them if the situation called for it to be called up. It was a system that also allowed for another pilot to have one of his own, in the event a suitable pilot was ever found.
A series of alarms and red lights alerted Ren to the fact that unit A1 was coming in for dock.
As he watched, the primary unit came down the gigantic corridor and was caught by the magnetic fields that were the launching/landing mechanism.
A set of mechanical arms reached out to the red-flared unit and grabbed it around the waist. Once in its grip, it turned it and positioned it so that it would line up properly with the docking extensions, and while the unit came into position, the armored door protecting the pilot came loose and slid away.
Ren waited patiently for Torri to come down to ground level.
"Commander Yakuma?" Torri looked confused for a moment, and then smiled as he looked his commanding officer up and down. "Nice fashion statement! Going Hawaiian?"
It was true, Ren did feel somewhat out-of-place in his sun-burst T-shirt and red jogging shorts. But it was all that he had at the moment. Coughing to clear his throat, he looked seriously into Torri's eyes. "Torri, I have a difficult mission for you, should you choose to take it?"
Torri's eyes lit up right away. "Oh yes! I will risk life and limb for my country! Please, allow me to dive deep into enemy territory, risking capture and possible torture, so that I may ensure the survival of my country."
Ren couldn't help but chuckle. Torri always could get him to open up like that. "I suppose you already know what that mission is then?"
"If it has anything to do with that planet out there, then yes."
"Right. Well, we leave at 1800, but we should meet at 1700 in Mahogany."
"Right. You can count on seeing me there."
"I thought I could."
Each waving a quick salute, they separated.
The Mahogany room was one of several briefing rooms, one of the smallest ones. It was named after a tree on Earth, and was also known as room 101: Special Ops. So far, it had barely been used, and had actually needed a dusting before Operation: Landling could meet there.
Operation: Landling consisted of five Gundam pilots, one Trail-Tank operator, and a pilot for the Radar GunJet. Basically, the bare-bones for a successful scouting/landing mission.
"I believe you all know your places. Commander Yakuma will take it from here." Shal gave the floor to the Commander of the Operation, leaving the room since he already knew all of what was about to be said, and had other things to do anyway.
"Okay. This is going to be a basic landing. Load up in the landing pods, fall to the ground, and then take up position. This is likely to be different from the simulations, since it's an actual environment, and not Earth, but it's likely that we shouldn't run into too many surprises. We're going to land in a valley-area picked out just for this purpose, but don't let your guard down regardless. Remember, we know nothing about this landscape and just about any surprise can be fatal if you're caught off guard. The GunJet is equipped with Radar, so we should be able to keep track of each other and the wildlife, and we've also been given a Trail-Tank. The GunJet and the Trail-Tank will be operated by Mister Truyesha and Mister Liyaki respectively." He gestured to two men at one side of the room, who showed their hands in turn. They really didn't look too interesting, basic military pilots.
"I hand-chose each of you for this mission because I believe you could benefit from this, and because I trust each of you to be able to carry this out effectively. Please don't disappoint me." He looked seriously at the small group, "Are there any questions?"
One hand to his right went up. The owner was a scrawny kid with a shell of brown hair reaching to his ears and bright red eyes. "Yes, Trent Vinet?" (Sounds like 'Benet' "Vinay")
"Um, yeah. I was wonderin' why I was picked for this? Everyone else here seems a whole lot older and more experienced than me."
Ren smiled. "Trust me, when it comes to real-life experience, none of us have had any in years. I chose you because, out of all the graduates from the academy over the last ten years, you are the only one to have brought out the full use of a full-size Gundam before your second year. The last one to do that was mister Yamada here."
Trent looked over at Torri, who winked at him and shot a 'Gotcha' finger-point at him. Looking down at the ground, he nodded. "Thank you sir. I'll try not to let you down." Inwardly, he was beaming at having been compared to Torri Yamada, one of the UEM's greatest pilots.
"Okay, if there's no more questions, we can... yes Mister Tarr?"
Harvey Tarr put his muscled hand down and cleared his thick throat. "Is this going to be a permanent landing? Or will we be packing up right away."
"Well, that depends. If we find dangerous life-forms, or any reason to believe that a permanent installation would be a dangerous venture, then we would likely pack up and leave. If it's tolerable to a normal installation, then we would set up and prepare land for the shuttle-landings, and so much so such. Now, are there still any questions?"
Not seeing any raised hands, he nodded and continued. "Like I said, we launch at 1800, so you need to be fully prepared by then. You are relieved."
The bunch of them milled slowly out of the room, heading for wherever they would go.
"Trajectory predictions locked. Launching of Flame Gundam unit A2 in three... two... one. Launch."
"Trajectory predictions locked. Launching of Light-Side Gundam unit B3 in three... two... one. Launch."
"Trajectory predictions locked. Launching of Psi-Time Gundam unit A1 in three... two... one. Launch."
"Trajectory predictions locked. Launching of Gaia Gundam unit B1 in three... two... one. Launch."
"Trajectory predictions locked. Launching of Torrent Gundam unit A1 in three... two... one. Launch."
"Trajectory predictions locked. Launching of GunJet pod one in three... two... one. Launch."
"Trajectory predictions locked. Launching of Trail-Tank pod two in three... two... one. Launch."
Seven identical fingers simultaneously pressed seven identical square pressure points on seven identical panels. The resulting launching of seven landing pods looked a bit like the launching of several torpedoes in space.
Dormana was the king of his domain. At more than two meters tall with a full meter of pure-spiked tail, and forty razor-sharp teeth, he was the most dangerous predator in his world. His vision was as sharp as could be, and his build was more than simply powerful, it was fast too.
In a phrase. He was the perfect killing machine.
His extra-crisp hearing noticed something above him. Looking up, he noticed that the sun seemed to have moved in a very different manner recently. It seemed to have moved to the opposite side of the sky. This meant that night may have been far closer than he thought.
It also meant that he would have to change the way he looked for game.
The noise had little bearing on him, it wasn't important. Despite that it seemed to be getting louder. He had nothing to fear from this world, and he knew of none other.
A large fireball incinerated him and everything within fifty meters of the impact area, just big enough for the pod to expand to its full size, exposing a metal behemoth, elaborately colored in different shades of blue and gold with sharp points going off in odd directions. One arm seemed to end in an elongated barrel, ending with a large hole, and the other arm ended in a five-fingered hand and held something that looked effectively like a metal stick barely any longer than the hand was wide.
As the metal monster stood to its full twenty-five meters tall, other fire-bombs came down nearby.
Torrent Gundam and the others had landed.
Commander Yakuma looked around the landscape. It looked like any valley on Earth, really. There weren't any rivers nearby, at least none that could be seen, so he couldn't take that advantage. There was a forest to the East, or what was dubbed the East, but it was far enough that they wouldn't need to worry about it.
"Open close-communication lines to Operation: Landling. Operation: Landling, has everyone landed?"
The first to report in was Harvey Tarr in his Gaia Gundam. "Gaia Gundam reporting, all green."
Then came the most youthful voice in the group. "Light-Side Gundam reporting, all green."
The calm, feminine voice of Ryoko Tenka came next. "Psi-Time Gundam reporting, all green."
"Flame Gundam ready for action, sir."
"GunJet ready for launch in five minutes."
"Trail-Tank ready for deployment."
"And Torrent Gundam also ready. So let's get started. Psi-Time, can you send out a few bits and gather intelligence?"
"Affirmative. Doing so now." A couple dozen or so translucent balls shot out of a couple of tubes coming out of the thin units back. They then spread out and started feeding pictures that were available for each of the units in the field to view.
"All right. As soon as the GunJet is up and running, we spread out and start looking around. Not much else to do, really. As for the moment, however, Gaia Gundam, can you clear a place for the Trail-Tank to begin construction?"
"I can."
"Go ahead then. Mister Liyaki, are there any particular resources that we should be looking for?"
"For the time being, we've got all we need right here in my pod. Other than that, look for anything metallic."
"Okay, GunJet, how long until you're ready?"
"About forty seconds more, sir."
"Good. Trent, you and Light-Side Gundam are with me. Miss Tenka and Mister Yamada, I need you two to start to the east and start circling around to the south. Mister Vinet and I will start in the west and go around to the north. Any questions?"
After a few moments of silence, he turned to the west and signaled for Trent to follow him.
"GunJet prepared. Launching now." A few moments after this a holographic display popped up near each of the pilots, showing green blips for each of the units and a 3-D representation of the surrounding area.
"Okay, we're off."
"Coming sir." Trent started off along with his commander.
"We're going too." Torri and Ryoko headed off on their own.
"I'll keep assisting the Trail-Tank here." Harvey bid adieu to the rest of the group.
There really didn't seem to be too much to be worried about here. But they weren't about to simply assume that it was safe. They were trained warriors with giant machines on their sides, but they were scouting for civilian occupation. Regular people were far more vulnerable than Gundams.
There were a couple of these weird lizard creatures, but other than that, it was all herbivorous animal life and Earth-like plant-life.
"Well, it doesn't look like there's anything too bad to worry about."
Trent was about a kilometer behind Ren, still looking from side to side, just to be safe. True, the sheer size of their Gundams afforded them some protection, but there was no reason to just assume that there was no reason to worry.
Ren came up on a depression in the valley. At the bottom it had a large round grouping of plants of different kinds, in a stark change from the thick green grass they had been tromping over thusfar. "Hmm, Vinet, do you see this?"
Trent came over one final hill and looked to see what his commander was referring to. "Yeah, looks like a dried lake-bed."
"Stay here, I'm going to see if the ground is moist or not."
"Right. I'll keep watch."
Smiling slightly at the boy's response, Ren started off toward the middle of the old lake-bed.
As he walked down he looked around. Something was telling him that there was something... off about this particular spot. But it wasn't the bad kind... he couldn't explain it, but it felt like he was being... invited.
As he walked down toward the center, he found that the ground was getting increasingly soft, allowing him to sink just slightly. 'Hmm, better extend the shoes.' Giving a mental command to his Torrent Gundam, he had the unit's feet unfold into much wider feet, in similar concept to something called 'Snow-Shoes' that were sometimes used on Earth.
With the added surface-area, he didn't sink quite so much, and could continue un-hindered.
Closing in on the very lowest part of the depression, he reached one finger of his right hand into the ground to take a few measurements, having put his gun-barrel away.
Right in front of him appeared a number of holographic images next to the Radar image. He was right, the deeper you went, the more water there was. 'This would be a good place to get an extractor put up.'
Beep! Beep! Beep!
"Huh?" Alarms were going off both in his cockpit and in his head. There were several sets of energy levels that were suddenly going off the scale all around him!
Pulling his bot from the ground, he made a bee-line for the nearest 'shore'.
Kssshhyaaaahhh
A field of electricity surrounded the entire area of the dry lake, cutting him off from the rest of the field. "Argh!!"
It then closed in, pushing him back until he was back in the center, trapped inside a small sphere of swirling energy.
"COMMANDER!!! N-yahh!!" Trent fired a single shot at the force-field, hoping he could break through it, but before he could even get a shot off, it was gone, along with the Gundam it had been holding captive.
'This is very strange...' Ren Yakuma was standing... no, floating in a spaceless void. It was all black and not a single sound existed. He had even tried shouting, but not a noise could be heard, the darkness swallowed every sound.
{Please...}
'What?' A quick flash and the background changed.
He was now floating above a strange landscape, there were four people there. One was a young boy, probably eight or nine, the next was a teenage boy, beside him was a girl, maybe thirteen or so, and across from the three of them was a very strange-looking green man.
He couldn't hear any of what was being said, but he could tell that they were talking.
Another flash and the scene changed again. This time it was a fight-in-progress. Except that they weren't using mobile-suits at all, and yet they were all flying!
Those same three humans were there, and they seemed to be fighting strange robots in mid air.
The girl was fighting very hard, and seemed to be doing rather well, but the youngest one seemed to be the one gaining the most on the robots. He was jumping around and kicking at light-speed.
Another flash, and the scene changed yet again. This time, the boy seemed to be crying. He was holding a piece of metal, which seemed to be engraved with the image of the girl.
Turning to the side, toward Ren, he looked angry all of a sudden.
Strange electricity flowed around him as his hair rose to odd angles. Then he was suddenly bathed in an odd light. 'SUPER MODE!!! But without a Gundam?'
Flash again and it changed. This time they were inside some kind of ship. They were in a house this time. That boy... he was no where to be seen. But someone who looked like he could be the kid's father was there. The girl was there as well, though the teen-boy was gone. They seemed to be enjoying dinner or something.
With a flash, the image disappeared, and that voice rang out in his head again.
{Heroes...}
Flash The darkness gave way once again. This time he appeared somewhere in the middle of a city.
Looking down the street, he saw strange explosions and a bunch of kids that seemed to be following them. The one in the front seemed to be yelling over his shoulder, his pig-tail waving innocently.
His yelling didn't seem to have any effect, as one of his pursuers fired off a shot at him, something that might have been a hand-held rocket-launcher.
The picture changed again, like the changing of channels. This time they were found on a mountain, where there was a fight going on. This time, that boy wasn't anywhere to be seen. Instead, there was a rather strange man with slotted eyes fighting a red-haired girl with a pig-tail, who wore basically the same clothes as the boy had.
There was a whole lot of silent yelling, and then some other people joined in on the running and jumping around. As they did, an odd metal teapot bounced around and fell into a crater.
There were a few quiet (seemingly) moments, and then things happened again. Apparently, one of the friends of the girl jumped in after the teapot (a family heirloom?).
The mountain closed up and things quieted down again, but then a sudden explosion made a stream of water shoot out of a new hole.
There was some more yelling, and then the girl made a tornado. But something happened and she was sucked into the air, along with a lot of the water that was coming out of the mountain.
Right before Ren's eyes, when the water hit her, she turned into the boy that he had seen on the street! As he floated in the middle of the twister, he yelled some more and punched downward.
The flash that was created changed the image again. This time, that same boy seemed to be fighting an odd demon-monster. He was yelling a whole lot and running away as the odd creature chased after him. It looked a bit like a minotaur of lore, and was holding various creatures and items.
When the creature hit the ground with its fist, the ground exploded in another flash of light that made the area grow dark again.
{Help me!}
The image changed again. This time, he saw the familiar look of space. The starfield extended forever.
In one direction, right in front of him, he saw an odd ship. It was positively huge!
Accross the side of the ship, he saw a number of odd markings. This ship seemed to emit a very strong negative feel to it.
The scene changed again, this time showing a planet, bright blue in look, much like Earth.
A translucent image of that ship, and a few smirking humanoid faces along with it, came between him and the planet. The longer it stayed there the yellower and more sickly the planet became. When the over-image finally left the planet was little more than a yellow gas-ball. Then a strange white orb travelled to the planet, and when it hit, it blew the planet apart.
The image changed again. This time, he was shown basically what he had already seen. It was the planet he was already on.
The green plants, the lively oceans, lakes, and rivers of the planet. All of it so perfect, pristene.
Then a dark cloud came down on the planet, sending several small ships surrounded in clouds of fighter planes.
First, the fighters eliminated anything that lived, killing it all. Even going to the point of boiling the oceans.
They then took all the water, vacuuming it all up. After that, they robbed the planet of all its useful materials, stone, metals, gems, anything useful or valueable. After this was done, they dumped their waste on the planet and left.
They then destroyed it from afar, having no regard for the planet itself or what lived on it.
In the darkness that followed, Ren could feel the general aura of fear that penetrated his senses to the soul.
{Please...}
With a determined look on his face, Ren nodded. 'I will.'
With one more flash, feeling returned to him.
"GunJet, lock onto my position and send the coordinates to the others. Also, start taking readings of this area. And if you can, see if you can track the Commander's beacon signal."
"Roger Light-Side. Doing so now. He seems to be right there with you. Although it's obvious that he can't be seen." A few seconds more and the professional sounding voice came out again. "E-M levels rising in your area. Recommend retreat."
Growling in frustration, Trent agreed. "Agreed." He then took a position behind the nearest hill-top and used one of the translucent bits to observe what was happening behind him.
An odd, inward explosion of lightning created a bright flash, and then disappeared, leaving the missing mecha behind.
"GunJet? What are the readings now?"
"Going back to normal. Recommend caution when approaching."
Using extreme caution (I.E. he ran quickly with his sniper-rifle swinging wildly) ran to the place where his Commander's Gundam was now leaned over.
"Commander!? Are you okay?"
"Don't go too far."
Trent stopped immediately. "What? Why? What's wrong? Is it booby-trapped?"
Ren Yakuma chuckled a bit. "No. But the ground is very soft and your Gundam isn't equipped to come any closer without sinking in the mud."
As he stood there, Trent blinked, and then backed up. "Oh. Um, okay."
Beside one of Torrent Gundam's feet, a peculiar teenaged girl blinked as she had a spoon in her mouth. Pulling the spoon from her mouth, she looked at it. "Too much Soy..."
Beside the Gundam's other foot stood another teen, of about the same age. He wore his hair in a pig-tail and seemed more worried about the water that was present around the machine's feet. "Oh man! Who's trying to kill me this time!?"
Noticing the presence of another, Pan looked at Ranma. "Cool! I'm not alone! Did you eat too much Soy sauce too?"
Blinking, Ranma regarded her in confusion. "Uh-uh. Um, excuse me." Leaping into the air, he came down atop the giant machine's foot, avoiding the water.
Noticing the people running around his feet, Ren called down to them. "Hey down there. Do you need a lift?"
Smiling widely, Pan put both hands to her mouth and shouted. "Yeah! Sure mister imaginary robot!"
"...? Um, okay." Reaching down, he let the two of them jump atop his mechanical hand, and lifted them up. "Trent, we're going back."
"Sir?"
"We have a few things to talk about. I'll fill you in when we're all together."
"Sir! I'm coming!"
Back at the landing site the Trail-Tank has made a safe-house building, and it is in here that we find the three who were found in the lake-bed. Pan, Ranma, and Ren.
Outside this building, the team continues with their duties. Psi-Time Gundam keeps constant coverage of the area as Gaia Gundam and the Trail-Tank continue to construct an operational base-camp and landing strip. Farther from the camp, Flame Gundam and Light-Side Gundam were taking measurements and laying a detection-grid around the lake where all this had happened.
The appearance of the two teens had been pretty solid evidence that something had happened.
"Captain, can you hear me?"
"Yes. Go on Commander."
"Okay. To start off, can you two tell us who you are?"
"Wow! A hologram!? This is the coolest dream I've ever had!" Pan was sticking her hand through the image of the man in odd uniform.
"Ranma Saotome. And I don't think this is a dream... uh, what's your name?"
"Who, me? My name's Pan Son. Do you have anything to eat? If this isn't a dream induced by eating too much Soy Sauce, then I'd like to finish my dinner!"
"Well, now we know your names. Are you both from Earth?"
"Um, yeah. Where else would we be from?"
"You aren't from this planet?"
Ranma blinked once... twice, and then frowned. "Uh, hello? Didn't we just say that? Yes we're from Earth!"
Commander Yakuma shook his head slowly. "I'm sorry to say this, but we aren't on Earth."
Ranma smiled. "Oh! Okay, then I didn't travel through time again! I'm just on another planet!! Wait... that's not much better."
"Through..."
"Another planet? This doesn't look like any of the planets I've ever been on! And I've never run against robots that were quite THAT big! Robots sure, but never that big..."
"Are these guys for real?" Torri's voice came in from somewhere to the side.
"Oh, Torri. Do you have anything to report?"
"No sir, and that's just the thing. We can tell that something happened, since some of the plant life near where you were is burned. But it seems like... if there was any kind of energy there, it's all gone now."
Looking down, Ren sighed in thought. "Well, while I was... gone. I saw... and heard, something. What I saw was three things. First, was these two here, or rather scenes from their lives. After those two... I saw something else... A ship."
"What about it?"
"It's not the ship itself, of course. But it's the people on it. What I saw... they apparently travel the Universe, going from planet to planet. When they find one, they strip it of its resources, leaving it totally dead. Then they dump their wastes on it, leave, and destroy it."
"..."
"..."
Pan was the first one to say anything. "That's terrible! AND it reminds me of a movie!"
Blink
"Movie?"
"Hey yeah! I think it was some kind of American thing... I don't know."
Pan looked at Ranma inquisitively. "What's an American?"
Blink
"Is that another kind of Alien?"
Blink
"Why are you all looking at me like that?"
Cough "Um, let me see here..."
"Man, what planet are you from?"
"Earth! I live in the East Mountain Area 435."
"... Is that in Japan or China?"
"What are those? Territories? I never was very good with geography..."
"Ah hah! Okay, now, I want the two of you to look at this hologram."
A hologram of the planet Earth appeared. It was a representation of Earth as it was last known to the White Star ship. This didn't mean too much, except that it had peculiar pieces of dirt floating way out in orbit.
Ranma looked at it and smiled. "Yep! That's Earth all right! See? There's America, Canada, um... Menskiko? Whatever. And there's Japan! And... hey... what happened to Tokyo?"
Ranma was pointing at the hole in the ground where Tokyo should have been. But Pan was blinking in confusion and disbelief.
"You think THIS is Earth? No! You've got it all wrong! There's only one continent! And it's not shaped like any of those!"
Everyone and their Grandma looked in confusion at Pan, who frowned as she began playing with the computer console, getting the hang of the controls rather quickly. "Now... let's see, there's the... hey wow! If you sink all these extras, and then move this funny round one up here, you've got it right!" And then she started fussing over the features. "But there's still some problems. Well, I guess if you..." Playing with a few more variables, she managed to produce a very different looking Earth, with one big continent, and one smaller one to the south. At the North and near the East-South border were mountain ranges, while the other edges were all rather flat leading to oceans. "And then the cities..." As she played with the controls, a number of cities and other land-features emerged.
"See? THAT'S Earth!"
(O.O) "Um, Pan? What year are you from?" Ranma's eyes were nearly falling out of his face.
"The year?" Thinking back fairly quickly, she thought up an answer. "Um, somewhere between 700 and 750 AP."
"Don't you mean AD?"
"No! AP, After Piccolo!"
"The instrument?"
"Instrument?" Pan smiled after a moment of thought. "Haha! Piccolo would LOVE to hear that one! Haha!"
Ren decided to dismiss the time-scale and simply pull up his original hologram next to the altered one. "Okay, here they both are. It's apparent that there's some discrepancies here."
"No kidding..."
"I still want to know what happened to Tokyo..." Ren answered the question with a simple point of his finger.
"It's up here. And since you didn't know that, then you must be from sometime in the past."
"AAHH!! What's Tokyo doing up here!? And is that Hong Kong?"
"Hong Kong! Haha! That sounds like a food!" Growl "I'm still hungry..." Once again, all eyes were on Pan. "What? All I said was 'I'm hungry!' You guys already knew that! When do we eat?"
Ranma idly rubbed his stomach. "Come to think of it, it's been a while since I've eaten anything..."
Ren thought for a moment. "Well, uh, we don't have any food down here. So, I guess we'll have to wait until we get the landing strip finished before we can get anything set up."
The two teens sighed. "Aw man... well, can we help?"
"Help how?" Ranma looked at Pan confused, not really sure what she was thinking.
"I don't know! But it's better than sitting in here thinking about how hungry I am!"
"Good point."
Ren chuckled. 'Now what?' "Well, I suppose you can ask Mister Liyaki. He's the one in the Trail-Tank outside."
Smiling, Pan thanked the man, and ran outside. "KAY!!"
Ranma was a bit more tame. "Y'know, I still can't figure out girls... but she's right. I'll go help too."
As the teens left, Ren turned back to the holographic monitor, where Captain Shal stood speechless.
"Well, Captain? What do you think?"
"I... I think you've got quite a bit to deal with. And I'll send down some basic Gundams, unpiloted, to these coordinates."
Taking the coordinates from the printout in the table, he saluted the Captain and disconnected the communication between them.
Looking over the printout, he smiled. "Well, it looks like we've got a couple of new recruits..."
Chapter 1 End
New chapters will only come after much praise, as this story feels rather iffy to me...
Alex Ultra: Creator of Eternal Realm
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