Author: Nadz
Email: vegitto02 at yahoo dot com

Disclaimer:
The title "DragonTek" is owned by the author.
Any characters owned by the producers of Tekkaman, Dragonball Z, Dragonball GT, or Rurouni Kenshin are, of course, the property of those respective individuals or companies. Any original characters are strictly owned by the author of this fan fiction.
The story line of the entire DragonTek series is also owned strictly by me.
This story may not be distributed to anybody without the author's permission. However, the author does encourage you to welcome your friends to read DragonTek on FanFiction dot net. Much thanks...

DragonTek (Part I: The Invasion Saga)

Chapter 03 – Retaliation

"General Galt! These things are attacking every major city!" shouted a subordinate officer. Galt looked at the screen wide-eyed with both fear and fascination. Before his very eyes, he was witnessing utter chaos and an unprecedented destruction. Scenes of broken communities littered the screen, including shots of individuals being brutally killed by the buggers.

'What in God's name are those things? They are so powerful,' he thought, seeing one of them demolish a building in Australia. 'If I can use my military's strength to stop them, I will be hailed a hero.'

General Galt was second in command of the United Earth Military. A power-hungry individual, he would support any mission or battle that would further his career and status. He considered every fight an opportunity for him to rise in power; human casualties were secondary issues of concern for the man.

"General! What should we do? These cities' local forces are begging for more aid!"

"Send the guard to the major cities; the smaller areas will have to rely more on themselves," came the gruff reply. "Don't use the reserves yet. We don't want to show these things our full firepower."

The bald-headed Galt continued to watch the screen as the officer delivered his commands.

"Noal! Aki! You will stay here!" ordered Freeman sternly.

"Chief, how can we just sit here?" challenged Aki, watching the view screen with disgust and anger. Never before had she seen such devastation, and she felt sick about the fact that she wasn't helping.

"I am telling you, there is not much we can do now. If you leave now, you will reveal to the enemy the location of our own base, and they will come here," argued Freeman.

"But Chief…" protested Noal, stepping forward.

"No means no! You stay put here, that's an order. If you go now, you'll get yourselves killed. The Blue Earth doesn't have the artillery to do battle with so many of those creatures," reasoned the man.

"What should we do, just sit here and watch?" said Milly, a young Space Knight who was sixteen years of age. She was Freeman's personal aid and helped in coordinating communication during missions.

"Yes, watch and observe for now. The military will be able to do much more than anything we can currently do," Freeman replied as he helplessly watched the screen. In the back of his mind, he was unsure as to whether even the United Earth Military (or Allied Military) could hold its own.

As his pod approached Earth, the young man woke up and looked outside the window. What he saw made him seethe in anger; the buggers had already begun to take over the Orbital Ring. He watched as they used their claws to tear massive holes in the Ring's protective walls, and he could see them tossing the people inside into the unforgiving emptiness of space.

'I'm too damn late!' he gritted in frustration and anger towards himself. As he approached closer, he witnessed more mutilated bodies float close to the segments of the ring. Their blood bubbled into space.

"TEK…" screamed the man, an emerald crystal materializing in his palm. "…SETTA!"

The pod exploded, and the man flew through space enclosed in a bright large green shape that closely resembled the shape of his crystal. Scarlet-red lines trickled down his body, spreading over his torso, back, arms, legs, and face. Within seconds, armored plates appeared on his chest, gauntlets faded on his arms and legs, and thick, sharp shoulder pads materialized on his shoulders. When the armored mask appeared on his face, the crystal-shape that encased him shattered in green brilliance, revealing a vicious Tekkaman. His body gleamed of white armor with a chest plate of red. His green eyes, which remained unlit, contorted in a scowl. He used the quantum energy from his armor to generate a double-sided lance lined with razor-sharp blades, and he used the blasters on his backside to fly towards the Orbital Ring.

'Radam!' he raged in his mind.

'Lord Omega will be so pleased,' Dagger thought as he set foot on the Orbital Ring. He had gone ahead and ordered the buggers to clean out the Ring and the planet along with it. 'We are well ahead of schedule, and in a few weeks, this planet will be ours to keep. Even if there are survivors in the Orbital Ring, their homes will be destroyed. There would be nothing for them to go back to…'

His thoughts were interrupted when he suddenly heard some buggers shrieking in pain.

'What was that?' he wondered as he flew towards the appropriate direction.

'These aren't that hard,' the Tekkaman thought as he sliced bugger after bugger. He beheaded one and landed on the Space Ring. Two more tried to ambush him from the sides, but he jumped out of the way and lethally stabbed them both. A third one tried to land on top of him, but the Tekkaman drilled his lance straight through its belly and flew out through its back as it roared in pain. The armored warrior smiled in satisfaction as he watched its purple blood splatter on the floor of the Ring. He threw his weapon at another one and dispatched it with ease. As he bent over to pick up his lance, he heard a small explosion and felt a sharp pain on his back. The Tekkaman turned around and looked upwards.

"Tekkaman Blade, at last we meet," said Dagger as he showed himself standing up on a tower that rose just in front of his opponent. Dagger himself was almost entirely of a dark bluish-green color; the shape of his body resembled that of a large insect. In his left hand, he held a lancer that he used as a bow, and in his right hand he held an arrow charged with yellow energy.

'Blade… yes… that is my name,' the young Tekkaman thought as he continued to glare at his new enemy. "Dagger! So, you survived the conversion process."

"And so did you. I am surprised that you are so capable in your powers especially since you didn't complete the transformation… you traitor," Dagger snickered as he mounted his arrow.

"Traitor? Me? You're the one who's betraying our people!" Blade shot back.

"Spare me the lecture. Omega was generous enough to give you your powers, and now I see you are using them against him. Use your powers to serve him; don't waste your life trying to protect those inferiors down there," gloated the bluish Tekkaman.

"You were one of us, Dagger!" argued Blade. "You were and are a human being like me!"

"What I am… is your assassin," retorted Dagger as he released the arrow. Blade had plenty of time to see it approach and evaded it with ease. However, he didn't notice Dagger suddenly appear next to him. The Radam warrior tried to stab Blade through the face, but the latter parried and returned a strike to Dagger's belly. The bluish Tekkaman turned his body, missing the lance by several inches. Dagger jerked his lance upwards, causing a superficial cut in Blade's armor but leaving the man's skin underneath intact.

"There's still hope for you, Dagger," Blade said, parrying another blow. Their duel continued – block, evade, strike, block, evade, strike, block… It was a sight to see two Tekkamen fight so relentlessly.

"Fool, do you really think you can beat us?" Dagger asked, brandishing his lance-bow. "You are only one, and we are many. What can a loner like you do against the lot of us?"

"I can do enough to beat your humanity back into you, Dagger. Omega is only using you. He'll destroy you when he doesn't need you anymore!" pleaded Blade, continuing to defend himself.

"The only thing that is not needed around here… is you!" yelled Dagger as he swung this blade at Blade's face again. Blade evaded and floated backwards, only to be caught in the grip of a bugger that had sneaked up from behind. He winced in pain as its talons punctured his armor and pierced his backside.

"Dagger…" he choked in desperation.

"Here is where you perish, Blade," Dagger said, raising his lance above his head and pointing it directly at his target. "This is for betraying me… and for betraying our master."

With those words, the evil Tekkaman stabbed his lance into Blade's chest and pushed him, as well as the bugger, over the edge of the Orbital Ring. The creature released its grip on Blade and screeched as it felt the heat of entering the atmosphere. Dagger grinned upon seeing the traitor share the same fate.

"Good-bye, Blade," he laughed, witnessing the man helplessly plummet towards the Earth.

Blade felt sick as his stomach felt the freefall; his body felt like it was on fire as he fell through the Earth's atmosphere. The only thing that prevented him from being vaporized was his powerful armor.

'I'll get you for this, Dagger,'he swore as he closed his eyes and prayed for a miracle to occur.

"This is ridiculous!" blurted Vegita as he continued attacking the buggers. Another creature swooped down to attack from above, but he lashed out his fist, punching off its head. He grimaced as he saw its body explode, spraying lavender ooze all around, and the ooze fell to the dirt a hundred feet below.

"Dozens of them… and more just keep coming!" Goku yelled in annoyance. He too had done his share of dispatching, but more kept attacking relentlessly. It was a thankless task that vexed him to no end.

"Just keep hitting them," said Gejin calmly, ducking as a creature flew just above his head. With a quick gesture, he released an energy blast, destroying it completely. The old man contorted his face, for he worried about his daughter and how she was faring against these monsters.

'I hope Alena is doing okay,' he thought. 'I can still feel her chi, so she's still alive and strong.'

"We're saving ourselves up here, but what about the people below?" asked Goku, still fighting.

"I think we're wasting time," Gejin announced, gathering extra energy. "We have to take them out with a single blow. Boys, guard me while I gather my energy, and don't let them get too close."

"Alright," said Goku and Vegita in unison. The buggers continued to ambush them from all sides, more of them arriving when their brethren were destroyed. The three men had no chance to save the people that were being massacred below; the victims' screams echoed into the sky, and the sick smell of blood and death permeated the air. The beasts captured any humans that attempted to flee. Wrapping them in their elastic tentacles, they crushed their victims' bones and broke their fragile bodies in hideous proportions.

It was almost as if the buggers enjoyed hearing the shrieks of the people they were butchering; perhaps the nauseating sight of crushing human bones and causing blood to spray provided them with entertainment. Some of the monsters, however, considered their victims as edible items, swallowing some whole while masticating others. The local military unit was doing all it could to protect the citizens, but they managed to kill only a handful at best. There was no way that they could keep up with the swarms.

Trying to keep his focus despite the bloodshed, Gejin continued to yell a battle cry as he gathered his energy. When he was ready, he gave the order, "Ok, boys, get out of the way, I'm ready!"

Goku and Vegita dived below as Gejin's roaring voice echoed: "HA!"

A blinding explosion filled the sky; the piercing screams from the beasts could be heard as they vaporized from the pure force and energy from the attack. Goku and Vegita decided to add to the fire and released powerful blasts of their own, fatally baking the monsters with intense heat. When the air cleared, all of the buggers were gone; only those on the ground remained untouched.

"We'll wipe 'em out real quick, otosan," Vegita smirked as he prepared to release another flare.

'That was too easy. They were easier to kill than I thought,' Gejin wondered, noticing that those that suffered minor injuries died as well. They had imploded, spilling the lavender ooze onto the ground.

'Besides the mere presence of these things, something is not right here,' he thought.

"Individually, these things are nothing," muttered Goku as he and Vegita flew down to kill the ones remaining on the ground. "But with so many, they're such a pain."

"Come on, let's finish off these bastards," growled Vegita. As he and Goku prepared their lethal blasts, the buggers voluntarily exploded, splattering their thick, pink-purplish juices all over the ground.

"They're killing themselves?" wondered Goku. "That ooze… their blood… what is that?"

All three of them watched with dread and wonder as the ooze rapidly covered the landscape like a hungry river of lava. They released their energy attacks at it, hoping to stop the mess; however, the ooze only pulsed red upon contact. It then seemed to expand, almost as if its contents welcomed the energy.

"It absorbed our attacks?" said Vegita, bewildered. 'Physical strikes against a liquid would have been useless; the chi blasts were our only option.'

"Don't fire, or you'll be feeding it," warned Gejin. The ooze continued to slosh about ominously.

"Then what do we do now, father?" Vegita asked impatiently.

"Take your mother and Pan to Earth Guardian Kami's Palace," his father replied as he powered down. "We'll figure out what to do from there. I'll go look for Alena."

"The invasion seems to have halted for the time being," noted Freeman as he watched the large view screen. "I think it's time to go and explore more of that ooze so that…"

A blip on the screen and a warning from the computer caught everybody's attention.

"Warning, unidentified object projected to crash land in sector w3-4, 15 miles west of the base…"

"It looks a meteorite of some sort," commented Honda, the portly mechanic, watching it with interest. Seconds later, they heard the sound of a loud crash and witnessed a blinding explosion on screen.

The view screen filled with static, allowing the Space Knights to open their eyes once again.

"Oh my god," Levin whispered as he sat in a chair; his heart had skipped a beat.

"I want you and Noal to go check it out. If it's just a bugger, let it go, but if it's something else, bring it back, dead or alive," Freeman ordered Aki, who nodded. "And travel by ground; it'll be safer that way for now. Besides, Honda still has to make a few modifications to the Blue Earth."

A short while later…

"I wonder if there are any survivors," said Noal, staring at the crater that lay before him. 'There couldn't have been; nothing can stand a fall like that.'

The two Space Knights continued to aim their powerful flashlights and peer over the edge of the crater, looking for a sign of anything. So far, all they managed to see was thick smoke and dust; they couldn't make anything out at the crater's center. The second Noal turned to look at his watch, Aki gasped.

"Noal!" yelled Aki, pointing her flashlight downwards. "I thought I saw something move."

"Are you sure you're not hallucinating?" he asked as he pointed his light to the point where Aki had been aiming. The blond man took in a deep breath of air as soon as he made out the shadowy outline of a human figure. Noal quickly drew his blaster and aimed it at the figure.

'That's impossible!' the blonde man thought. 'It couldn't have lived through that explosion.'

"No, Noal!" Aki whispered as she softly batted Noal's gun aside. He gave her a sharp look, but the two turned their heads upon seeing the shadowy form walking through the dust and towards them.

"It's a human," she whispered, holding her breath. "How could he…"

The young man soon stepped out from the smoke and stared up at the two looking down at him. He looked to be somewhat less than six feet tall but was decently built. He had somewhat shaggy, spiky long hair, and he was standing completely naked. Aki and the strange man shared a glance, and the man fell forward to the ground, unconscious. The young woman gasped upon seeing his back, covered with bloody wounds. As Noal and Aki went down to the crater to pick him up, they noticed something one more thing – the blood seeping from a small wound from just around his eye.

"Grandpa Akira, are you okay?" Kenshin asked as his family flew towards Karin Tower, which rested underneath the Sky Palace. Ichiro and Akira were carrying their wives on their backs while Kenshin was carrying his little four-year-old sister Nio, terrified from the attack that had just transpired.

'No buggers are attacking now; it looks like their invasion has stopped, at least for a while,' the boy thought as he maintained his direction of flight. He too felt sick in his stomach due to such butchery.

"Ojiisan (grandfather), w-w-w-what is the Sk-k-k-ky Palace, and w-w-w-why we g-g-g-going there?" stuttered Nio, whose traumatized face appeared to be as white as paper. She had been in math class when it happened – the teacher was teaching them addition when the monster had tore through the walls.

Her classmates and friends had run in terror, but only a few escaped. The bugger was merciless.

Nio remembered seeing the teacher try to help a child; however, the efforts were in vain. The bugger attacked him with multiple tentacles, gripping his arms and legs and tearing them off with sickening rips. Policemen and security guards who had come to help ultimately shared similar fates. A terrified Nio had managed to hurt it with her own skills, but it was her brother who saved them all when he arrived. Nio glanced at the lavender blood on Kenshin's katana blade as she waited for her grandfather to answer.

"The Guardian of the Earth, Kami, lives there and watches over the planet. The Sky Palace is almost like a tiny floating island, the training grounds on it are majestic and the palace itself is grand. I only visited a few times. My father, Son Goten, told me to go there whenever a crisis like this would occur. Hopefully we will meet our other cousins and family there," replied Akira as he watched the ground below.

The rural areas were untouched, but the cities were badly damaged. Much of the grounds in and around the metropolitan areas were covered with the buggers' sticky ooze. The little girl closed her eyes, trying not to see the carcasses of innocent human victims lying in lakes of blood and ooze below…