The Guardian Series

Book One

Chapter Eight

The Guardian Series

Chapter Eight

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.

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. Have not see any of OVA-3 yet so not sure where Noike Kamiki Jurai to add her, how she acts, how she reacts to Tenchi and the others. I have read some of the synopsis about her, but not enough to be able to add her to the story.

Universe Prime 0142AQ

Star System 472398A

Former Science Academy Research Outpost

1726 Local Ships Time

August 26, 2004

Tenchi stood in front of Tenjin's boarding ramp. Near by a Galaxy Patrol Cruiser was resting, smoke and steam coming from the area where its engine compartment was located. Evidently, they had damaged their engines to some extent to get here so soon, since they were not expected for several hours.

The Captain of the GP ship came toward him with the Settlement's Elder.

"Major we can take care of this from here on out," said the GP Captain.

"Yes, Young Lord, we are in good hands now and you did mention you wanted to get after them," the Elder said with some malice in his voice. "I just wish I was young enough to go with you."

Tenchi looked to them both, a deep sorrow in his face, and then nodded.

Moving up into the ship, the ramp started closing. In the passageway to the bridge, "Tenjin, raise ship, and set course for the rift with all possible speed. Follow their ion trail if possible. We will intercept them before the rift," he spoke aloud as he moved toward the bridge.

A voice spoke from out of nowhere, "We are lifting now sir."

As he enters the bridge and moves to his command chair, the bridge screens are colored red and orange with the flames of the atmosphere as the ship races for deep space. Breaking clear of the atmosphere the ship trails a long plume of flaming atmosphere into the void.

The speed build up fast, several of the outer planets flashed by as the ship left the system behind, the engine exhaust glowing bright and leaving a trail of gravitons as it sped faster and faster. Armored shields enclosing the Faster-than-light engine exhaust ports, irises open. Bright light of the energy reaction deep with-in the crystals held within could be seen if you were behind the ship. An explosion of photonic energy ejected from the crystals heralded the activation of the FTL engines. The tunnel effect of the stars happened seconds later as the ship exceeded the speed of light.

The silky voice of Tenjin came from the bridge's speakers, "Based on the time it took for the raider ships to reach the outpost from the moment the rift fully coalesced, I project an intercept in five hours. Estimated time of arrival of the assault team is ten hours."

Tenchi looked out deeply into the depth of space thinking aloud, "OK then, we will make an attack pass on the raiders, disable their ships engines and communications, get the team on board with us, and then board the raider's ships. Test the actions of all turreted and non-turreted weapons and start any repairs as necessary. Update their status on the weapons status board."

Through the view screens and on bridge display screens could be seen the weapons of the ship going through their pre-activation test. Forward through the bridge-screens could be seen the barrels of the main fixed assault cannons protruding from the bow of the ship. In addition, the turreted mounts of Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie turrets could be seen on the faceted forward deck swinging left and right checking the rotation of the turrets, the barrels elevating and depressing, checking the motion of the actuators. On the display screens, turrets Delta, Echo, and Foxtrot was shown going through their self-test underneath the ship. Looking through the rear facing bridge-screens, turrets Zulu, Yankee, and X-ray turrets and on the displays, turrets Whiskey, Victor, and Uniform turrets were seen going through their self-test.

Amid ship, both above and bellow the ships center line, secondary gun turrets, missile batteries, point-defense lasers, main and secondary directors, and electronic counter measure (ECM) and electronic counter-counter measure (ECCM) projectors went through their own self-test. Armored shield doors opening and the different systems riding up on elevators sealing the openings with their armored bases, or in the case of missile systems, the armored doors opening in rapid secession, the rotary missile magazines spinning rapidly, bringing the selected missile types to the firing positions. With the Self-test finishing, the systems sunk back down below the armored decks that moments before that had appeared from.

Tenchi sat there in his command chair, smiling. Thinking of the power this ship called Tenjin held. A space ship the size of a World War Two Heavy Cruiser, nearly seven hundred feet long, with the firepower of all the combined conventional and nuclear forces of the planet Earth. However, with only himself being the only living organism onboard. Though it was up for debate whether Tenjin was actually alive or not. Tenchi thought she was, and to him that was all that mattered. If not for Tenjin, it would require a crew of nearly a thousand sentients to operate the ship and fight her near her capabilities. However, with her help, all that was required was for him to let her do her thing.

After a few more minutes, all the turrets returned to their parked positions. The displays around him at the different stations on the bridge stopped their flashing and when into screen saver mode.

"Tenchi, all weapons, defense, and guidance systems check our fully operational," Tenjin said to him. "Targets are within passive sensor range. ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) to have the targets in range is three hours. ETA of assault team is five hours for them to reach the target area of the raider ships."

Tenchi smiles at the sound of anticipation in Tenjin's voice. "Well, sounds like everything is ready. Update Team Delta of our status and plans. Give them the approximate location of our projected rendezvous point for the transfer of personnel. The transport ship will need to stay in the area to assist with the transport of the survivors and any prisoners we may decide to keep." Tenchi thought on the last part with dark reflection on what had been done to the ones left back at the colony outpost. Just thinking of the cold-blooded murder of these peoples caused his blood to boil.

Laying out his weapons on the Navigation table, he started checking them. First was his Master Key; since he was the power source for it, there was not much he could do with it. Next was his DL-44 heavy pistol. Removing the power pack, he exchanged it for a fully powered one, then placing the old on into the charger. Breaking down the pistol, he checked the lasing crystal, blast gas chamber and the gas charge. He charged the gas chamber back up to full pressure, checked the optical power conduits for loose connections and degradation of the fibers. Closing up the pistol, he runs the gun through a self-test to see if any of the circuits or power paths needed replacing or modifying, and thinking of modifying, he just shook his head knowing that he did not have the time now to do modifications to either his weapons or to the ship.

He thought of his other weapons, deciding to leave them due to that he would not need them due to the close quarters. However, thinking on the close quarters a slightly evil smile comes to his face; he got up quickly and headed to the armory next to the port side-boarding hatch and airlock.

Entering the room, he stops and looks around to again familiarize himself with the layout of the weapons here. There are so many different types of weapons in here. Weapons that when he was first loading out the ship, he did not think he would need. Though now with the situations he had seen so far, he now saw many uses for the different systems in here. Thinking on what he had seen he wished he could take some of the larger weapons with him and cause as much damage as possible to the raiders for what they had done to the colonist. However, he could not do that; to do that would just cause him to start down the road to becoming just like them.

However, the real reason he did not reach for the potable heavy weapons, (like the GE-M34, the XM 214, XM-109, the LR Blaster, 'Grand Mauler' Gauss Cannon, or the Tsaumi). No in front of him, right next to the door, under the sign for repel-boarders, was the heaviest and nastiest weapon for shipboard use. He reached forward and took the Neostead-10 into his hands. For its deadliness, it was small, light, and compact. He slung the weapon over his back, then grabbed an ammo pouch and started stuffing it with several different types of ammo cassettes for the weapon and a bordello for carrying readied ammo cassettes and power packs. He grabbed penetrator, flechette, and flame-ejector rounds for the weapon. He also grabbed a number of extra power packs for the DL-44 and a variety of grenades.

Looking around the Armory, a crocked smile came to his face, 'Damn, when did this room turn into a weapons collection, instead of an actually armory,' he thought.

Having what he needed for the up coming assault, he took the items of destruction back up to the bridge. He laid out his choice of weapons on the navigation table and pulled a restraining cover over the table to hold the weapons and supplies in place for the up coming battle. He knew from what experience he had in space operations, which the artificial gravity for the ship would fluctuate during the fight. This would happen when the steering engines would turn the ship faster than the ships gravity deck controls could keep up, and with that, any thing that was not fastened down would find some rather unique and not so nice new places to reside.

Settling into his chair he attached all of his restraining belts and tightened them to the point of hurting and then a little more. Touching buttons on the arms of the chair, control boards swung into place within easy reach. Typing commands, display screens they showed to him that three ships were before him just beyond weapons range, though that was changing very fast. "Tenjin bring use right in behind the center ship, it appears to be the one place most forward. Align the main weapons for a discharge close enough to damage the main engines, but not damage them too bad. We do not want to destroy them out right. Portside main turreted guns on the one to port and the same to starboard, secondary weapons and protection systems to catch any return fire that could get through our shields. Shields to maximum covering forward, port-forward, and port-starboard quarters."

In a business sounding voice Tenjin responded, "Main power plants at ninety percent power. Secondary power plants coming on line and going to ninety percent power level. Main weapons on line, secondary systems now in position and on line, and shields now at one-hundred percent power. All weapons ready and trained on targets, weapons fire will commence when detected or when main weapons target ensures ninety percent success of target hits."

"Very-well, fire when all parameters have been meet or when detected," Tenchi answered all business now.

Looking through the forward view screens, the raider ships could be seen speeding away toward the rift. At the bottom of the screen, the range to the targets was slowly counting down. Reading out in percentage points, there were sets of numbers indicating for each weapons group. Main fixed weapons was at eighty percent, main turreted weapons were at one hundred and fifty percent, secondary gun turrets were at two hundred and eighty percent, and missile systems were at fifty percent of range. However, the missile weapons were mainly to be used as interceptor units, since the blast ability of the smaller missile warheads were measured in mega-tonnage and the long-range bombardment missiles were measured in total giga-tonnage. Therefore, he did not want to use them for on-target hits.

Looking forward, watching the range numbers decrease, the voice of Tenjin sounded out, "Activity detected of the raider ship's decks. We have been detected. Turrets indexing toward us. Weapons directors locking onto us. Power levels increasing in areas of weapons launchers and projectors."

With the screens zooming on the three targets. It could be seen that the turrets were aiming toward them. Bolts of energy flying toward them, then falling below. Missiles ejecting from their magazines, falling away from the ships, falling behind them, falling behind the Tenjin, lighting off their motors and started closing on target. That target being the Tenjin.

"Shit, over-ride the power limiters, engines to maximum output; only decrease power on evidence of engineering plant casualty. Implement random evasive maneuvers immediately, Tenjin, put us where there weapons are not pointing. Start firing immediately; we have to stop those ships. If we have too, we will take them out one by one with the main bumper guns. Secondaries and defensive weapons to automatic," Tenchi said in rapid-fire orders.

Even before Tenchi's words were out of his mouth, the ship started swerving up and down and from side to side. Moving in different direction to throw the aim of the raider ship off. Every few seconds, Tenjin would align herself toward the raider ships and let off a blast from the bumper cannons. Twin bolts of energy would lance from the front of the ship towards the raider ships, when the bolts converged the two beams interacted and created a humongous explosion. Each blast sphere expanded rapidly, nipping the raider ships with the edge of the blast. Each blast slowly wearing away at the raider ship's armor and each blast getting closer to the engines.

Point defense lasers slewing toward the incoming missiles. The lasers flashing their bolts toward the missiles. Leading the missiles as they fell past, trying to knock them out before, they could ignite their engines. Point defense missiles sped ahead of the ship to intercept the missiles ahead, and then the launchers slew around to fire on the missiles coming to overtake them.

Tenchi spoke aloud, designating targets for the main guns. "Tenjin, go after the ship on the port outer side. It is the one going closest to the course of the rift. The others are splitting off onto multiple vectors. Before they leave scanner range, put a recon drone on each so we do not loose them."

Laser bolts from the raider ships were coming closer and closer with each passing moment. With the raider ships being ahead of them, they had the range advantage. The computers on each side, working hard to break through the counter measure defenses of each other. Weaning through the multiple indications of the targets, trying to find which the real target was. Pseudo pods flying around in space emitting the sensor images of the real target, confusing each other's target resolutions. With the raider ships, one by one finding which one was the real target, their lasers started splashing across the Tenjin's shields.

Tenjin and Tenchi slowly made up the distance between their target and themselves. Because of the range, Tenjin could only use the forward mounted fixed guns; they were several magnitudes of power beyond the turreted main weapons and a direct hit would vaporize the target, and that would just not do. Even near misses had to chance of so damaging the ship that there would not be any survivors to rescue.

Tenchi had hoped to use their stealth abilities to an advantage and close enough on the raider ships to be able to take all three out at once. Nonetheless, they had gotten luck and detected them early. Now he had to do it the hard way, and take them out one at a time. Then track down each ship and board them before damage to the ships made them uninhabitable.

Closing the range toward his chosen target, weapons flashed, point defense weapons blazed away at incoming missiles. Enemy energy beams splashed against there shields. Some energy leaked through the shields, at first burning and blackening hull of Tenjin. In places, larger amounts of energy leaked through the shields, vaporizing portions of the hull, opening inner areas of the ship to vacuum.

On the screens before them, one of their shots finally got the range and trajectory correct. The energy blast sphere expanded and consumed the raider ship's FTL drive ports. With the FTL engines finally quieted, the raider ship started coasting down to sub-light speed.

"Well, one down, two to go. Tenjin put a recon probe to follow this one, so we do not loose him. Then plot a course for the nearest target," Tenchi commanded.

From a bay on the bottom of the ship, a small starship the size of a semi-truck, dropped away and closed on the raider ship. Maintaining sensor contact with the target but staying out of weapons range.

Tenjin turned away from there first target and sped toward the next, to repeat the task before them. Repair bots were already crawling across the damaged portions of the ship to try to get as much repairs done before the next battle.

Over the next several hours, Tenchi and Tenjin closed on each of the remaining raider ships and disabled them. Setting back in his command chair, Tenchi looked at the plot tracks of the disabled raider ships. Noticing that ship number two was the one to come closest to the rift. So that one was to be the first target for boarding, but before that, he had to rendezvous with the on coming assault team.

"Tenjin, plot a course for intercept of the assault team transport. Let us get them and finish this.

Well, that is it for this chapter, sorry about the long wait. I had a very back writers block due to some medication interaction.

Thanks for the reviews folks. Though one of you is trying to figure out the hints of one of my x-overs. For that school you are thinking about, It is fictional, but then again it may be real.

SO now for a hint about that school: IN our ral world it would be located in Harvey Massachusetts, If you can not figure out what school lit is from that hint, then you are not a true follower of that set of stories and games.