Chapter Four

The Guardian Series

Chapter Five

Fellings / Silence Decending

Tenchi and The Gang belong to Pioneer LCD, AIC, and other assorted people on the far side of the big lake to my west, and not to me.

Hope you like this one, there will be more to come, whether you like it or not.

This story is set 7 years after "Daughter of Darkness," which I have placed in the OVA chronology after OVA-2, GPX, and the Manga released here in the States.

Time/Dates being added to story to give since of when things are happening, by coincident, this year makes 7 years since Daughter of darkness has been released, if my research is correct, (if not, some one will correct me I am sure  ). So arbitrarily, I am setting the ending of chapter four, (incidentally which was not completed, it was just getting too long and I needed to finish it) the date at the end of chapter four is Aug. 18 2004. All times and dates will be in earth time/date. So will be measurements for convenience.

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Erudo Home Universe

0250 LST (Local Ship Time)

August 18, 2004

Wouter Rodolf stood on the bridge of his personal ship, watching the actions of his crew, and not finding any fault with their actions. Looking out the forward screens of the bridge he watched the tunnel affect of the stars as the sped toward the staging area.

In the center of the tunnel was a point of light that steadily grew larger as they slowed from their trip from the front lines. The streaks of light going beside the ship were becoming slower and shorter as the ship came closer to the transition to sub-light speed.

"Speed 1.5 L, disengage FTL engines, engage SL (sub-light) engines at seventy-five percent power," stated the captain of the ship.

"FTL engines disengaged, SL engines at seventy-five percent Sir," reported the helmsman. "Gravitic braking effect bringing us to below light speed Sir."

Outside the ship, the stars stopped moving. Before them was a Red Giant star, the inner planets long burned away. Twenty light-minutes from the star, an asteroid belt circled the star where once a planet resided. A distance above the asteroid belt, safe from the asteroid fields, a large structure had been constructed. This was the gateway to another universe or galaxy maybe.

"Helmsman, bend your course toward the station," ordered the Captain.

"Done Sir," reported the helmsman.

The structure moved in the bridge screens until it was just below center view. As time past, it became apparent the station was huge. Even at their high rate of speed, it took several minutes for the ship to get to the station. The station was huge; on top was an arch that must span a distance large enough for many dreadnoughts to pass through at once.

As they moved toward a docking bay, the area of the arch filled with an energy field. Sitting before the energy field were ten cruiser size scout ships, as soon as the field stabilized the ships moved through and disappeared. He knew that they were going to the new destination to find local inhabited worlds ripe for farming.

Universe Prime

Earth Prime

2030 LMT (Local Mean Time)

Masaki Estate

August 18, 2004

The Ladies felt very despondent watching Tenchi's ship disappear into the clouds. Hanging their heads they split into small groups headed in different directions.

Sasami, Kiyone, Mihoshi, and Ryo-oki gathered their bathing implements and headed out to the onsen. Walking up the path toward the gate for the onsen, they discussed what had happened that day.

"Tenchi has changed so much over the last few years," said Sasami.

"Yes, he has become a man now," said Kiyone with a rosy blush coming to her cheeks.

"Kiyone, you like Tenchi too," Mihoshi said, her face getting very red. "He has become such a handsome man."

"Mihoshi!" Sasami said blushing very hard.

"Ahh haaa, so you like him too, do you Sasami," asked Kiyone with a glint coming to her eyes as she teased Sasami. "But then again, I believe that all of us like him, even love him," she said in a low voice, almost inaudible.

Sasami turned to the quite one in the group, "so Ryo-oki, what do you think of Tenchi and what has happened?"

Ryo-oki had been walking along quietly, the whole time listening to what the others had to say about he favorite person in the world. She loved Tenchi even more than she loved Sasami, she had loved him ever since she had been born, only with the assimilation with the Maus, had she been given the form where she had the capability to show that love the way she wanted to. She looked up in surprise at Sasami's question to her, her face not showing it much, but also very red at the thoughts of Tenchi. "Miya? Whaaat? Whoo, meee?" she asked, trying to hide behind Mihoshi to escape the attention of everyone.

"Ah ha, caught you, hehehe, so, you were thinking of him also!" Sasami said in the not so loud voice of hers whenever she caught anyone doing something they did not want found out.

All of them laughed at the way there conversation had been going. Even Ryo-oki was finally able to join in the laughing after she got over her embarrassment of being caught thinking of Tenchi.

A smile came to Sasami's lips thinking of what Kiyone had just said. Yes, she did love him and everything was going to work out fine now that he had made his decision.

Rounding the corner of the path an arch of stone stood before them. There appeared to be a thin see through film stretched across the arch. As they passed through the arch, the film did not break, instead they disappeared, and ripples radiated out from their passage through the film.

They reappeared inside the onsen, the place was huge, and multiply pools were spaced about. Trees and plants were spaced about the area, giving shade to the pools at different times of the day. The roof of the onsen was a clear material allowing the sun light to shine in at all times of the day.

The uppermost pool was actually a boiling hot spring. The water cascaded down into lower pools below cooling slightly as it went. They had several choices of pools with varying temperature, from scalding hot, to tepid, before the water finally went over an edge to fall to the lake below.

The Ladies finished cleaning themselves then settled into the pool for a soak, each lost in their own thoughts. The steam rising from the pool, segregating them from each other so that they each, appeared to be alone in the pool.

Kiyone settled back into the pool, steam raising around her, shrouding her in the mist, her mind drifting, thinking over the last few years. Remembering the times, she has had over the many years of her career. The times she had had as Mihoshi's partner before both of their injuries. Mihoshi had been a very different person then, very professional, not the ditz she is today. They had worked well together, the best team in the whole of the Galaxy Police.

Then had been that assignment that almost killed her, well actually it had for a while. For Mihoshi, the trauma of that mission had destroyed her. She felt sorry for what had happened to her, Mihoshi had thought her dead by her own mistake, and that had caused her to breakdown. Mihoshi had never fully recovered from that mission and because of that, she had lost the trust of their higher ups, the only reason Mihoshi was not cashiered was due to her grandfather being the Marshal.

For herself, that time had been a nightmare, when she fell into the chasm; she landed on the shore of the magna pool. The majority of her body consumed by the magna, only the upper part of her torso and her head was not consumed. There she died. Hours after her death, a GP recovery squad found her remains and placed her into stasis for disposition back at the Main GP Hospital.

At the GP hospital, it was decided her body was too damaged for regeneration, though her brain was still a viable organ. So her brain was placed into the body of an android until a new body could be cloned if she so wished. After several years of mental therapy and getting used to her new body, she was deemed ready to be assigned to a patrol team. She had requested if possible to be reunited with her old partner.

With that assignment, she had come to Earth; Mihoshi had been assigned here since this was deemed a low risk area. Yes, she hated the lack of action here, but she would put up with it just to be near Mihoshi, even though she complained about it all the time. However, during that time here, she had meet and come to like Mihoshi's new friends, and come to love one of them.

In a way, that disappointed her, but it did not surprise her. She was not forth coming with her feelings toward Tenchi, and she knew that she was no beauty like Ayeka or Ryoko, so had given up any hope that she could even compete with them. Now she believed that she had gotten her greatest wish, that being to be with Tenchi.

Tenchi had come to mean a lot to her, in him she saw at first a young man who would do anything for his family, even Mihoshi. He was kind, strong, and faithful, even though

the faith was directed toward all of them. All the Ladies wanted him to make a choice, but he did not want to hurt any of them with that choice, so he did not choice any of them. Now she saw him as the man he was, he was still dedicated to us, his family, but he was also more resolute in his outlook. He now had a position with some shadow organization here on Earth, which he felt very greatly about. She wondered about this organization, maybe the next time she was connected to the GP data net, she could look into finding some information on this organization.

Over the next few days, the Ladies tried to carry on as if things were normal; trying not to think that Tenchi was heading into danger, trying to think that it was as if he were still off at college. Nevertheless, it was hard. They threw themselves into their duties around the home to try and not think about what he might be getting into, even Ryoko helped out after the other women threatened her with imprisonment for her fretting.

Knock-knock-knock, Ryoko lowered her hand from a door she thought she would never willingly go through again.

"Come-in," a high-pitched, child-like voice came through the door.

Sheepishly, Ryoko opened the door. Slowly moving through the closet door, she felt a slight disorientation as she stepped onto a huge disk like area that overlooked a larger area full of equipment and holding areas. "Ah... Mother...

Can I talk to you," she asked.

Turning around from her keyboard, Washu appeared to float in the area on a cushion, "what can I do for you Little Ryoko?"

"Well.... Ah.... You see..." she tried to speak about the chaotic thoughts going through her mind, but could not.

"You are worried about Tenchi, aren't you," stated Washu, "I can understand, we all are."

"Yes, I feel so helpless right now and that scares me, I have never felt this way, not even when I was with Kagato. I want to go and help him, but I do not even know where to begin looking for him. Can you help to find him, mom?"

"Actually, I have felt the same way over the last few days, and I tried to find his ship and track it. However, his ship is too well stealth shielded. I could not even find traces of his ion trail leaving the Earth orbit. Now knowing that there are other extra-terrestrials on Earth, I have started to see if I can detect their ships and have been unable to find any trace of them. That has me worried."

"So, we can't find him then," Ryoko sad with a sad little girl voice.

Getting up from her cushion, transforming into her mature self, she took Ryoko into her arms, "I am sorry Little Ryoko, I will keep working on it though. I will find him,"

Raising her hand to her face, Ryoko wiped away a tear, "I so wanted to go help him, but now I have to trust him to keep his word and come home safe."

Washu looked down at Ryoko with a loving and caring look in her eyes, "you have finally started to grow up my Ryoko. Knowing when you cannot do something and not trying to bull your way through is showing maturity. So we will wait together for him and when he gets back, we will make him sorry for making us worry like this."

Universe Prime

0030 LST

August 25, 2004

Tenchi's ship was coming up on the area of the rift energy. The view screens before him changed the vision of the space beyond into a stately procession of stars flowing by. He read the briefing report again to see what he might have missed.

The energy signature of the rift, showed to have originated from the Erudo Universe, the energy flares of the rift indicated the possibility of ten ships entering our universe. From experience, the Conclave knew that the Erudo themselves would not come through the rift; they did not have that ability yet. It is known that the Atoion are the main vassals of the Erudo, so that is who is believed to have come through the rift.

"Tenjin when we transition to sub-light speed have all passive sensors looking for the intruders," said Tenchi aloud.

A subtle feminine voice answered from the very air. "Yes Tenchi, it will be done."

"How many systems are within ten light years of the energy signature Tenjin?"

"There are seven star systems within ten light years of the emergence point, of which one system in inhabited by a non-space faring race. There is a combination Jurian and Science Academy research post in another system."

"Hmmm, then I think we should check on the Outpost first, since they are the only advanced peoples in the area, if we get there first, we can warn them off. Then we will head to the pre-space people."

"Very good Tenchi, decisions have been recorded in the log and will be sent to Headquarters on the next scheduled update communication," said Tenjin.

"Tenjin, Put on as much speed as possible, we have to get to that outpost first," Tenchi said with an air of apprehension.

The noise level of the engines in The Tenjin rose noticeable as all power available was routed to the FTL engines, taking the ship up past its recorded safe speed levels. Reaching speeds even faster than that recorded on her first voyages out of the builder's yards of just below 250k light. (For those that cannot figure that one out, that is 250,000 times the speed of light, traveling 250,000 light years in one year.)

Universe Prime

Star System 472398A

Science Academy Research Outpost

1426 LST

August 25, 2004

The planet was pristine with no high level intelligent species on it. Large areas of the planet were covered with large rainforest at the equator and temperate forest and plains reaching almost all the way to the poles.

The initial survey team that found the planet a century ago had found no sign of intelligent species on the planet more advanced that the reptilian carnivores that hunted the herbivores on the plains. So after this long a new survey team had finally been dispatched to do a detailed survey of the planet looking to see if the planet was viable as a colony. Two years before the team had set up the test colony with one thousand inhabitants from several different species, to find out who was best suited to colonize the planet.

The multi-species town was now very well set, several species had found that they could not adapt and had pulled out. Moreover, as usual, the human based species were as adaptable as usual and flourished here. The population was now up to twenty-five hundred peoples.

Buildings of two and three levels made up the heart of the town, with warehouses and small factories along the river that stretched from north to south that the town was built against the docks. Away from the town farms stretched toward the east. Farther out were larger ranches where local and transplanted herbivores were being raised.

The area was peaceful; the planet was far distant from any on going wars. The only danger in the area came from carnivores in the near forest and from of the plains.

Or so it seemed.

At the edge of the forest, several beings looked upon the outpost. They were visions of just about any ones nightmares. Most of them were originally humanoids. But then grafted to them were many mechanical parts, enhancing their abilities, turning them into killing machines.

Several, obviously the leaders, were fully humanoid in body. Their appearance was normal compared to the majority of humanoids in this galaxy, though their skin tone was ebony, their eyes were almond shaped, and their hair tended from brown to dark black.

One of the leaders raised a communications device to his lips, "take the settlement. Try not to kill too many of them."

Bursting from the forest edge many hover vehicles sped toward the settlement. Vehicles from the edge of the group spread out and heading toward the outlying ranches.

As the vehicles came within sight of the settlement, an alarm was sounded in the settlement. The few defenders of the settlement, getting together to fight off the attackers.

Bolts of energy flashing out from the settlement, arrowing toward the vehicles and their occupants. Where the bolts touched, explosion formed, on the vehicles, energy shields formed protecting their occupants. Some bolts got through the shields, vehicles and their occupants disappeared in explosions.

Energy bolts and projectiles flew back at the defenders, seeking them out, snuffing them out in explosions of their own, one-by-one. The closer the attackers got to the settlement, the more accurate their fire at the defenders became. After only a few minutes battle, it was over, the attackers were on top of the last few defenders, taking them in bloody hand-to-hand combat. The attackers using blades and energy weapons that were part of their bodies swarmed the defenders under.

The defenders did not go out easily they took many with them. The Jurians among them taking lots of the enemy with them, but numbers told. There was just too many of them. One by one, the defenders fell quite, around the Jurians; there were the largest piles of bodies.

With the defenders silenced. The attackers called forth their transport vehicles and started rounding up the settlers. First placing them into holding pens for sorting, then placing the healthy adults and near adults into stasis for transport, then killing all others. They went about it in a mechanical and heartless manner, not showing any remorse as they pored fire and projectiles into the ones not selected, the young, the old and the infirm.

Within just a few hours, the action was done, the ships loaded with the locals lifting off for space.

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