Sequel time!
Disclaimer: I don't own Vandread.
#1: The Planet of Death
It had been a little more than a year since the 'Nirvana' had left the defeated planet Earth. They had left him; alone on the planet, to rule over what little was left. He had banded together all the remaining people from the massive machines encircling the planet, which came up to 50 people all together. They all lived inside the massive, ominous metal castle that had previously held the four High Counselors. Back then, earth was nothing, the harvest having been defeated. The new leader moved quickly, to get a foothold, and flew to Tarrak in his Vanguard. He single handedly conquered it. That was a time when he still cared about people. He left the government in tact; they just provided him with ships, and army personal. Tarrak was a war machine, and that was a valuable asset, and they were happy to join him once they found out his plans. Two days later, with his newly conquered planet's help, he conquered Majale. They put up almost no fight, and were now supplying him with troops, and other supplies. With these two planets under his command, in just a year, he had conquered many worlds, and his planet, Earth, had become know to his enemies as the planet of death.
Today, he was in a particularly foul mood. Inside of the throne room, he sat upon his gigantic, spike riddled throne, metal gauntlets and boot's reflecting the light of the stars from the main view screen across the room. Hundreds of ships were floating around the planet, Tarrak, Majaleian, and other planet's warships, and several supply ships, always coming in and out, as the assets to his empire gave their contributions to him. It was the largest fleet left, as the harvest fleet was completely destroyed. Thirty women in the throne room surrounded him, all in special light armor, with two pronged spears, his honor guards. All his guards and all ranking officers were women. He knew that women were smarter, and more reliable than men were, so that fueled that decision. He always treated the people under him with respect and kindness. That is how you inspire true loyalty, not by fear and death. Of course most of them were afraid of him. He had changed since he first landed on this world. His dark coat was longer, darker and more sinister than ever. He never took it off, his hood always covered his head, the back hanging down to between his shoulder blades. He looked like death, but more frightening than death had been said to be. Skeletal hands and feet were not nearly as scary as the razor sharp metal claws that stuck out from the black sleeves, or the spiked boots that glistened under the cloak. He was also more ruthless and cruel than death had ever been. Rumor circulated at what happens when someone had made him angry, and were never seen again. No one every questioned him, or asked about him, they were to intimidated by his appearance. One story that was circulating, was that one planet that was being conquered, had refuse to join, even after defeat, and he simply punched the ground and the planet exploded into nothing but a cloud of dust. Some thought it was impossible, but did not argue, for their leader did have strange powers, and had conquered the male war planet Tarrak, himself, without the aid of anything but his Vanguard. He heard of this rumor, but decided not to stop it. In truth, he had never destroyed a planet, there was no need, and that was that much less supplies that would be supplied. He did, however, have the ability to do something like that, but the most he had, was to destroy a planet sized asteroid, as a demonstration of what he was capable of, when a planet decided not to surrender. Such things gave his people something to talk about.
The doors opened up, and a single female walked in. She was holding a data pad, and reviewing it. She was a newer member of the crew, and had been placed on supply inventory for the new deliveries. She handed him the data pad, and her started reviewing it.
"Here is the list of all delivery's within the last 24 hours." She said, timidly. He knew what it was, for he always got it around this time, from whoever was working the shift that day.
"Very good." He said, with a low growling voice.
"What is with that picture?" She asked, seeing the picture at his right side, which was the only thing that decorated the room. All of the guards took in a sharp breath. They had been with him since he had first conquered Majare, and had never seen anyone ask about the personal item. The girl looked around when she heard the guard's reaction. She was getting worried. She felt like she was going to collapse when the Leader spoke again.
"Guards, leave us." His voice was cold and merciless. She began shaking as the guards filled out quickly. She had heard his personal guards were afraid of almost nothing, and they way they were acting, she knew she was never going to be seen again, or at least not in a big enough piece to recognize. The doors closed, and she fell to her knee's ads the Leader stood. The screen on the wall suddenly shifted to a woman's face.
"What?" He said, in the same cold voice.
"Sir, a ship of unknown classification has just entered the system. The sensor station 'Arbor' has hailed it repeatedly, but no answer. It is heading straight for us, but does not appear hostile. What should we do?" Next to her face a three-dimensional silhouette appeared, and rotated slowly. The leader sat back down, and typed into the keypad integrated into his throne. The screen spilt, on part displaying the woman's face, the others different camera angles as the ship drew closer. He pointed his finger at the girl cowering in the center of the room.
"Name?" His voice was as cold as ever.
"Connie." Her voice shook in fear.
"Would you like to move up in the world, or should I just kill you now?" his voice was still could, but not threatening.
"M-move u-u-up." She stuttered, confused as well as scared. The Leader waved his hand, and another chair built itself on his right side.
"Ok, you are now my personal assistant, you will do the things I find I don't feel like doing. Sit here." He pointed at the new chair, she stood shakily, and sat down.. "Guards, return." The guards filled back into the room, but hid their amazement that the girl was still there. The leader stared at the screen as the ship went from camera to camera. "Jenny, track the ship with all the weapons in the sector, no missile locks, or any other weapons lock. Do not open fire until I give the word." He said, calm and cold. The woman on the screen nodded, and her face was replaced by another camera feed. After an hour of silently watching, the ship halted. The rear opened, and a shuttlecraft appeared. "Tell them where to land. Do not expect reply."
"Hailing now… message sent." The shuttle turned and descended toward the castle.
"Good, follow the shuttles progress with all available weapons, and after they land, keep following. Wait tell I give the word to fire, they're coming here, and if anything goes down, you are to level this facility."
"Y-yes sir." Jenny's voice floated in.
"That is the loyalty I expect out of you." He said, gesturing at Connie. She gave a small nod, and starred at the floor. He tapped in another command on his keypad, and a man's face appeared.
"Luke, greet the visitors in the entrance hall, and do it friendly." There was a falsely friendly flare in his voice, but it didn't drown out the bitterness in his voice, which was colder than ever.
The landing gear on the Shuttle extended, and it touched down with the gentle wine of hydraulics. The door hissed open, and five people walked out. A tall muscular woman with long green hair, a stooped over woman in a brown hooded outfit took the lead, as they were lead inside of the giant structure. Two other women and a buff man followed. They entered the entrance hall, where a man, lavishly dressed, greeted them.
"Hello." He said, as the walked up, and he reached out his hand. The tall green haired woman grabbed it, and shook, but it was the shorter one that spoke.
"We wish to speak to your leader." She said, with a hint of impatience in her voice. The man looked them over for a second, then brought his hand up to his ear. He nodded a couple of times, then started walking down a hall.
"Follow me, right this way, my name is Luke, and I just need to go over a few things that you will do good to head if you value your personal safety." He said, casting a smile back at them, but was a bit surprised when none of them seemed protruded by his saying. "May I ask what brings you here? I was most surprised that you were aloud to make landfall."
"We had a friend who joined in this outfit, and we want to see what has happened to him." The short woman said, 'what about the things you were going to warn us about."
"Oh, yes, well, no sudden movements, no insults, no visible fire arms or other weapons, and please be polite, because the rest of would like to live as well."
"What do you mean by that?" The tall one asked, with an odd look.
"Oh, uh… nothing. Well, here we are, ill leave you here… oh! I guess I'll join you." Luke said, fear crossing his face briefly. He pushed the door open, and they walked into the throne room. Luke stood to one side of the door, as the guests moved to the center of the large room, staring around notice the guards with the two-pronged pitchfork like spears. They turned their attentions to the two thrones at the far side of the room.
"What do you want." The Leader said, in a low, cold, growl.
"So I'm guessing you're the leader of this place?" The stooped woman said. The eader nodded, and then one of the girls from the back of the group spoke up.
"Who the hell is that?" She said, pointing at Connie. Connie looked at the picture, and then at the girl who spoke, then back at the picture. The stooped woman raised her hand to silence the girl, because the guards had all shifted at the movement.
"How did you come to power here?" The woman asked, no fear in her voice. What shocked the guards, was that their Leader answered.
"I killed the previous Leader, and took the throne." Connie kept looking back and forth between the picture and the girl in the back, noting the similarities.
"So it looks like you didn't take any time to find a new partner!" The girl yelled, and ran forward, with balled fists. She didn't make it four steps before she was on her back, spear pinning her to the ground by her throat. A second later four more guards pinned her arms and legs to the ground.
"Let her up." The Leader said casually, like it didn't mean much to him. The guards backed away, and the girl rose of the floor, coughing, and clutching at her throat.
"Bastard." There was a gasp all around the room, and the guards expected her to be dead in a matter of seconds. When nothing happened, all of the guard gazed quizzically at him.
"I was going to let you leave peacefully and unscathed, but I think I've change my mind." He wasn't going to lose face in front of his guards. He was going to make an example of them. "Do the names 'Stout', 'Plato', and 'Dewgong' ring a bell?" he said, letting his voice get even colder. The stooped woman though for a moment.
"Oh, yes, they are the names of some of the ships we raided." She said happily.
"Yes, my ships, carrying supplies from my planets."
"Oh, not surprising, considering you've got quite a few under your command now. We went to Majale for a visit a while ago, only to learn it was conquered by earth, but not before Tarrak. We decided we would pay a visit to the man who took the planets."
"It is never a smart idea to mess with a man building an empire." The woman clutching her throat coughed and spoke.
"Ha, your no man, your just a damned slime ball!" The girl yelled, and ran at him again. This time the guards weren't fast enough, and the girl jumped, smacking the Leader through the hole in his cloak's hood, and connecting with the face within. The guards grabbed the girl, and threw her violently to the floor, pinning her by the throat again. The man with the guest group just sighed, a hand on the other girl's shoulder.
"I told her not to come, told her she'd just get hurt."
"Enough!" The Leader shouted, his anger in his voice resonating through the chamber. The guards ran back to the walls on the sides of the chamber, as he stepped down from the throne. He walked over to the girl, and picked her off the ground, one hand around her throat. She was hanging a foot of the ground, hands on the unyielding metal gauntlets. She stared into the black opening, no fear in her eyes.
Put me down!" She managed to choke out. He dropped her to the floor, tears in her eyes.
"That's enough!" The man called. "Just kill us if you want, but you're not going to scare us, Jack."
"Who are you to order me to do anything?" he said coldly, not taking his eyes of the girl at his knees.
"You know damn well who!"
"Fine than, if you insist, I'll kill this one." He clicked the tips of his metal fingers together, then pulled them apart, an orb of green energy growing into his palm. He closed his hand into a fist around it, and it turned into a single blade of glowing energy. The man, who had called him Jack, grinned at him.
"You won't do it. You could never do that, even when you couldn't control yourself."
"You would be surprised at what changes when you have an empire to rule." His voice was filled with such confidence, that the man doubted his words now. Jack grabbed the head of the girl at his knees, and lifted it so that her chin was perpendicular with the floor, eyes staring at the ceiling. He looked into her eyes, and still saw no fear.
"Your are an inch from death, and are still not afraid." He said, watching the tears flow down he face.
"I will never fear you!" She screamed.
"Pity."
He said coldly, and swung the energy blade through her neck. It
left no cut, but it did what was intended, as she fell over sideways,
and stopped moving. He stepped over her.
"Now do see what I
am truly capable of?" The coldness in his voice broke, and a happy
one replaced it. "Barnette, you can get up now." He said,
laughing a bit, and dropping his hood. "Man, you should have seen
the looks on you faces, John, you were right I could never kill…"
He stooped as a leg came up between his, and he fell over clutching
himself. Barnette stood, and kicked him in the sides a few times.
"Ouch!" He said, his voice high pitched, "Ok, I deserved that." He said, rolling around on the ground. The guards moved forward. "No, stop, it's ok, their friends." He rose to his feet, and brushed himself off. His voice was still high pitched. The man from the guests spoke up, walking forward.
"Now that's the Jack I know, How the hell you been!" He said, giving him a big hug.
"Just fine, John, has hanging around with that girl of yours turned you into an effeminate weakling, or what?"
"Nah, Meia's the same as ever, aren't ya?" John called over his shoulder, and Meia nodded.
"Nice to see you again Gascogne, and Captain. Sorry about you're greeting, but I have to keep up an image in front of my guards."
"And you're new girlfriend." Barnette said bitterly.
"What? Oh, you mean Connie? She's not my girlfriend, she just my personal assistant."
"Yeah, I'm sure."
"No, really, I loved you, and you left, but even after all this time, I still stand firm, I still love you. She just became my assistant because she was the first to ask any question about me. She saw the picture of you that I keep in here, and asked who you were."
"Hmm, well, you're still a stupid bastard." She said, relived that even though she had left without even a good-bye, he still loved her, and her him.
"Well, there was never any doubt about that, was there? Anyway, why don't you invite the rest of your crew down here, and we can have dinner together, and catch up?
"All of us?" The Captain said.
"Yeah, the whole crew of the 'Nirvana' is welcome."
"Well, after venturing for a while, we decided to take you up on your offer, and move our base out here."
"Really!" Jack said, eyes lit up.
"Yes, we could use some help moving it into the asteroid belt.
"Sure thing, Just give me the Coordinates." Gasco handed him a data pad, and he typed into the keypad in his throne arm. Jenny's face appeared on the screen.
"Yes, sir?"
"You can cancel the weapon lock, were fine, I want you to send a few ships to tow an asteroid from this location, to the belt." He fed the coordinates into the chair, and she signed off. "That was Jenny, my second in command. One of the first to join me." He said, and Barnette decided not to get angry at him.
The end of the first chapter, E-mail me any questions or suggestions, please, and also, don't forget to review!