Assassin Drones: The original saga
Silent Invasion Arc. De Arimasu!
By Alex Young
Fuyuki's room, 7:00 am. Independence day, 2002
Fuyuki was wearing a shirt and tie as usual this morning, but it was more than that. He wore a light blue dress shirt with a white collar and white cuffs which he never wore before, in addition to which he wore a white tie, white dress pants, white belt, and white dress shoes. This could only mean one thing: it was break in time, and he knows the break in dress code very well.
All new dress shirts are to be worn with a white tie and white dress pants. All new neckties can be worn either with a white dress shirt with navy or gray dress pants, a light blue dress shirt or denim shirt with gray or white dress pants, a black dress shirt with any other pair of dress pants, or any other dress shirt with white dress pants. All new pairs of dress pants can either be worn with a black, light blue, denim, or white shirt with any necktie. However, if both a new necktie and a new pair of dress pants should be broken in together, a black dress shirt is to be worn. A white belt and a pair of white dress shoes are to be worn in all these instances.
Fuyuki motioned for the drawer that the Kero ball was being held, and the tip which was flashing on and off in a highly unusual manner. At first glance, he dismissed this, returned the Kero ball to the drawer, and joined the rest of the family downstairs for a break in photo shoot. Fuyuki got into position in the living room, Natsumi took his break in photo, he had it printed out, and voila! Another addition to the dress shirt section of his break in photo album has been made. As soon as he opened it up, we all could see that the trend where he has been wearing shirts and ties goes back as far as September 16, 2000. Although this trend is on the decline, it won't completely die out, as his likeness for them could attest. With all that said and done, he simply went back downstairs to go out for a walk.
Across the wide, desolate landscape of Namibia, 8:00 am
"Come mah bruddahs! Let us fight to da deth agenst de corrupt government!" A rugged looking commandant/generalissimo by the name of Guillame "Shaka" Zulu barked as his regiment marched forth to face their enemy head on. This was part of an EX.W.A.T.I. sponsored military coup d'etat against what they suspect is a regime hijacked by the Garuru platoon so they can divert the nation's funding directly into their invasion budget. Among the EX.W.A.T.I. sponsored revolutionaries were, surprisingly enough: Tatewaki Kuno, Ryoga Hibiki, and Mousse after having taken a detour from their summer vacation in South Africa. The U.S. navy seals, along with the marine corps were also involved with their seizing of any Garuru controlled high value military bases within the country, newly established or otherwise. Aside from the AC-130 Specter gunships hovering around, there was also the RQH-6A Dire Wolf unmanned supersonic S.T.O.V.L./V.T.O.L. (Short Take Off, Vertical Landing/Vertical Take Off and Landing) bomber gunship, equipped with a GAU-88 Violator cyclical grenade launcher, 2x10x80 Suzumebachi micro rocket salvo pods, and 2x8 AIM-94 Taipan laser guided missiles on the upper two forward swept wings, and 6 JDAMs on the lower two forward swept wings.
Then of course there was the XM-97S1 Centurion mobile unmanned railgun artillery platform. The Centurion can transform into cannon mode from vehicle mode by stretching its two front and two back "legs" outward in an X position when bracing for fire. The railguns can also be connected in series for launching a highly experimental, twin fuselage Predator D Marauder drone. The drone itself is equipped with high energy gamma ray lasers, and an ultra lightweight mogen (motor-generator) system to power all the avionics in addition to the standard features that carry over from the Predator B from which it was derived. A capacitor based joule thief system is all that's required to start the motor, which is what it was designed exclusively for seeing as how a small fraction of the electricity that the generator part generates goes into the motor that propels it. The Predator D is also equipped with the very same two blisk turbofan engines it shares with the YF-41 Mantis, although it's been tuned more for fuel economy than outright power, thereby showcasing another key feature of the Mantis' Z400 turbofan engine family; versatility.
The Z400A1, the Z400H1, the Z400F1, and the Z400S1 all power the Mantis, Centurion, Dire Wolf, and Predator D respectively. The Z400 can be fueled by any number of compounds, including a specially formulated propanol (propyl alcohol) solution/afterburner for the Mantis, a methanol range extension/hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system for the Centurion, a bio-methane/butane mix for the Dire Wolf, and a Hydrogen burning engine with the mogen system for the Predator D. All of this, along with a major surprise; an A-26 invader equipped with a turboprop version of the aforementioned engine family, dubbed the Z400P1. This particular invader goes by the call sign "Claw," and for good reason as we shall soon see. If anyone with half a brain could tell right away, then it's that EX.W.A.T.I. could see the frog invasion coming from several miles away, and were therefore totally committed not to go down without a fight.
However, the Garuru platoon learned from their mistakes in Afghanistan rather extensively, as was indicated by what else but more weapons being deployed to combat EX.W.A.T.I.'s advance. This was when Claw would come into his own as indicated by his transforming into a bipedal, digitigrade, tetradactyl robot with a ponytail. Claw has a pair of four, terrifically sharp plasma claws on each hand, which he definitely won't hesitate to use. His namesake weapons of choice are sharp enough and strong enough to shred even the strongest and thickest of his enemies to ribbons. However, that's not his only weapons as he raised one of his arms into attack position. A cyclical coil gun on one side, and a high velocity Gauss gun on the other, both mounted on his right wrist make this statement very clear as he shoots down some Garuru owned unmanned custom serpentine zakus. On his left arm is a retractable plasma shield, which Claw used to some rather outstanding effect.
Claw wasn't the only giant transforming robot on the scene as Reaper, a plasma scythe wielding J-37 Viggen, Sheriff, a twin six shooter toting swallow tail tuxedo coat and cowboy hat clad B-25 Mitchell, Ballistic, a quad cyclical cannon and missile armed F-5 Tiger II, Tracer, a coil powered sniper rifle armed J-35 Draken, Skunk and Scud, a pair of A-6 Intruders wielding a plasma ball attached to a laser chain and a pair of cutlasses, Venom, an F-14 Tomcat equipped with a grappling laser hook shield, Razorback, an F-4 Phantom armed with twin railgun shield blades, Ripper, an S-3 Viking equipped with twin hooks one one hand and a laser whip on the other, and Zero, an SR-71 Blackbird who so happens to be their leader joined in to fight along side him. Zero and company were just 11 designs hand picked by EX.W.A.T.I. high command for field testing out on an open battle field. This readiness factor was due in large part to the fact that the souls of dead pilots have been transferred over to the giant transforming robots' personality cores, with which all mechadrones share.
This should mean another victory for EX.W.A.T.I. forces. The Garuru platoon, however, are not ones to give up on their siege of Namibia. Some rather hefty economic sanctions were imposed upon Namibia by the United Nations just prior to the attack as a warning that if the Garuru platoon did not surrender their position along with any invasion funding collected during their seige and any valuable intel concerning keronian high command, they will get attacked. In fact, they were informed about the impending sanctions, and thus received additional funding from the keronian government. It would also seem as though Keroro had applied his model making skills into the assembly and manufacture of these custom built unmanned zakus. The fluidity of their movements, the cleanliness of their body armor (as far as any stub marks and overflow lines are concerned), the attention to detail that goes into them, and the reliability of their weapons. In conclusion, the prolonged conflict of what would be known as the mid summer's war (known internally as EX.W.A.T.I. assault mission, codename: Shuvuuia) would be a fairly close fight.
The Tendo residence, 10:05 pm
Happosai found himself pacing around in his room looking for a means to get back at Jirara for all the humiliation he's been through because of him. It was right then and there that the sly old fox suddenly went through a brainstorm; what if he could put pressure on his two unruly disciples; Genma and Soun, to have Jirara and company kicked out by way of hypnotizing the latter's two elder daughters into doing his bidding. This revelation came to him as soon as he opened his treasure chest to reveal a medallion lined with hypno crystals. The medallion and the crystals emit two different sounds when rocking around that can be heard by the left and right ears respectively. This serves to create a whole new soundwave within the brain upon entry, thereby sending the hearer into a sort of high, even hypnotizing them to an extent. However, what the devilish old lecher could not have counted on as he hypnotized Nabiki was that she and Kululu could track each other in status, electronically or otherwise.
The Sergeant Major simply wouldn't have it, as the grimaced expression on his yellow, bespectacled, amphibian face could attest. With that, Kululu decided to give the sleeping Keroro a bit of a wake up call via a silent alarm. "GIYAIYAIYAIYAYIAIAYIYAIYAIAIYGH, oh Kero! Wait! What! What in the devil frog is going on around HEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeee!" Keroro screeched as he found himself barreling down a chute with the silent alarm still blaring in his amphibian ears. "uuuuwwwwwaaaaaaaaaAAAAAGH OOF!" The sarge yelped as he landed on the floor right near Kululu "Kukukukukukuuuuu!" Kululu emitted as Keroro tiredly uttered out a "Do you realize what time it is, Kululu?" "I only wanted you to take a good look at what is transpiring in Nibiru-san's room." Kululu replied obviously wanting to provoke a few thoughts in Keroro's invading frog alien brain. "We obviously cannot allow that lecherous old dwarf to have his way with all the women on Pekopon. So, we'll just have to break the binaural hypnosis going on." "Tch, I've already been designing a panty hanger that can turn into a binaural hypno-breaker." Kululu proposed after having rifled through some eyewitness accounts concerning Happosai at the Furinkan police department. Thus, the frog aliens kickstarted their plan to break Soun's elder daughters free of their hypnosis.
Somewhere within Windhoek, Namibia's heavily defended captial, 3:00 am. July 5, 2002
Kuno, Ryoga, and Mousse have split up in search of the five hypnosis nodes designed and built by hypnotist Zuoo; a temporary sixth member of the Garuru platoon. The hypnosis nodes themselves were placed in the four cardinal directions, along with the fifth in the center to regulate them all. Radon, too was here, although for a week or so longer. Strangely enough, all four were able to get past the various checkpoint scanners, simply because they all decided to play along with the hypnosis seeing as how the latter knows that he is trained to fake being hypnotized, and that the former three are martial artists, after all. After a good while of scrounging about, the reason for EX.W.A.T.I.'s interest in Namibia soon becomes clear; Namibia, and the battle raging on are but a stone's throw away from the South African border, and therefore, its local TransLoDefCom nerve center is in danger of a hostile takeover by the Garuru platoon.
"Well well, now, haven't seen the likes of you before." A cyan colored, freckled keronian remarked as he noticed that Ryoga was in violation of the strongly enforced curfew that's in effect. "Isn't it common courtesy to give out your name first before talking to strangers. In this case, I, Ryoga Hibiki, intend to stop you and your friends from taking over the world, as it is a martial artist's sworn duty to protect it." Ryoga challenged as he stepped up to the plate. "You don't say, huh? Fine, then my name's private First Class Taruru, and I accept your challenge, Taruru Genocide!" The keronian, known as Taruru, opened up with a Taruru Genocide eye beam attack aimed at Ryoga. {Remember what the miner taught you back at that cave in.} "Shi shi, hoko, dan." Ryoga countered rather calmly as a sphere formed in front of his crossed arms, and shot itself at the oncoming Taruru Genocide. The wave sphere exploded against the Taruru Genocide, forcing Taruru to stop and gawk at the results in surprise.
"Not bad, for a Pekoponian." Taruru spat in contempt. "If you think you should be shocked now, then wait until I've mastered the lion's roar shot." Ryoga shot back equally spiteful. "I was about to save this next one for Tamama. However, seeing as how you leave me no choice, then EAT THIS! TARURU GENOCIDE GX!" Taruru shouted as an even bigger sphere formed in his amphibian palm. Taruru catapulted it at Ryoga, thereby prompting the lost boy to counteract quickly, which he would. "If you think for a minute that you have me licked, then YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMIIIIIIING!" Ryoga shrilled as he unleashed an even more powerful lion's roar shot to hold off the Taruru Genocide GX death ball. The situation was much the same, except on a far larger scale, and the resulting shockwave was strong enough to knock out the southern hypnosis node within Windhoek, Namibia.
"Look's like Ryoga has made his move. Now it's my turn." Mousse declared as he scrambled for the roof tops being pursued by another, somewhat darker member of the Garuru platoon. The cyborg keronian was light gray with is entire left side being mechanical, the right being organic with a black eye and a red iris. Alas, Mousse would find himself intercepted by that same frog alien who was pursuing him. "What in the!? Never heard of you before?" Mousse groused rather surprised at this to the keronian's apparent furor. "How dare you mock me. I, Lance Corporal Zoruru, will make you PAAAAAY!" The frog alien dubbed Zoruru growled as he deployed his retractable blade on Mousse, who deployed his wrist claws and spartan shield to deflect the blade. Mousse and Zoruru were engaged in mortal combat, so too were Kuno and Radon once they met Tororo and Garuru respectively. These duels between the martial artists and the Garuru platoon was only the beginning of the end of the frog aliens' stranglehold on Namibia.
The Tendo residence backyard, 10:00 am
The sarge and his A.R.M.P.I.T. platoon have already set up the panty hanger for a hypno breaker behind some bushes. Happosai, however, found himself being massaged by his underwear clad hypnosis slaves, Kasumi and Nabiki. Soun was wondering where Nabiki and Kasumi could have gone. "Nabiki! Kasumi! Where are you!?" Soun called out a little concerned for his daughters' safety when Genma found them under his lecherous master's influence. With the sudden shock, Genma quietly walked away and slid up to Soun's side. "Erm, Tendo?" "Yes, Saotome?" "I think I found your daughters, they're in the living room, hypnotized by the master." "SAOTOME, YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!" Soun cried out surprised at the news. "I'm afraid so, Tendo, an unless we do something about it, they'll remain under his influence for the rest of their lives! We cannot have that, now can we, Tendo?" Genma proposed. "You're right, Saotome! It's our duty as martial artists to rescue those in need, even if it's from the master!" Soun declared as Happosai growled out an "I HEARD THAT, TRAITORS! NOW EAT THIS, HAPPO FIRE BURST!" This immediately prompted the patriarchs to make a break for it around the various hallways within the house.
Happosai would spend all morning chasing the patriarchs around with his happo fire burst bomb balls in hand, even taking the chase out to the backyard through Ranma's room. "Come back here you cowards, and accept your punishment!" Happosai snarled leaping over the window in hot pursuit, leaving Ranma confused, but not surprised. "The fuck's the old letch mad about alluva sudden?" Ranma groaned as he sat up out of bed in his boxers "I-I don't know, Ranma, but whatever it is, I'm sure that dad and Mr. Saotome had it coming." Akane replied as she, too sat upright in her bra. "I suspected as much." Ranma sighed as he slumped back into bed with Akane staying at his bedside for a while, only for her and eventually Ranma to get up and get dressed. The moment that Happosai was outside for the first few minutes, the panty hanger revealed itself to him. With the irresistible prospect of more undies to add to his collection, Happosai jumped at the chance to nab them all. This was to be expected seeing as how Happosai was a lecherous, senile delinquent.
As soon as Happosai did grab them all, however, that's when the hypno breaker displayed its true colors. It deployed into two, sound emitting antennae to direct sound waves of the opposite wavelength at Nabiki and Kasumi, thereby breaking them both free of Happosai's control. Apparently, Happosai was so surprised at his own desires being turned against him that he didn't pay attention to Dororo slipping some explosives underneath him. This came to be his very undoing as he was suddenly shot up into the ionosphere by the sheer force of the explosives. One plot of his to get back at Jirara backfired by his own lechery, his own fetish for women's underwear used against him. It was then that Happosai had learned about the most insulting aspect about it of them all; Jirara himself had absolutely nothing to do with the failure to have him kicked out. All the while, poor old Nabiki and Kasumi were still in their underwear, having not even the foggiest clue as to what to make of it all, knowing that they were hypnotized. All that being said and done, the older Tendo sisters simply went back into their rooms and got dressed to face the day.
Natsumi's room, 6:00 am. July 12, 2002
Natsumi lie in her bed, snoozing the morning away blissfully unaware that Happosai was skulking around the Hinata's backyard. It would seem as though Happosai's battle energy enhanced senses have enabled him to trace the Keroro platoon's return journey to the Hinata residence. Keroro only saw Happosai as another individual competing for his chance at world domination, and thus sought to lessen any threat from him by as large a margin as possible. It was right then and there that Happosai slipped into her room through the vents and lowered the hypno touch crystal onto her bosom, all very methodical about the whole thing. By the time Fuyuki entered Natsumi's room to wake her up, she was already hypnotized in her sleep squeezing Happosai like a lecherous old plush toy. Fuyuki of course wore a minty green t-shirt over some khaki shorts with a pair of white socks and light sneakers.
Finally, without even so much as an utterance, Fuyuki quietly closed the door and briskly paced up towards Giroro's tent. Fuyuki also found something else sleeping besides the red demon frog; Starclaw (who Giroro calls Miss Furbottom) of the Reaperclan's five fighting furies. "Corporal, wake up! It's my sister! I think she's under that dirty old man's spell!" Fuyuki pleaded to Giroro's unsurprising furor. "WHAT!?" The gun toting Giroro snapped before having bolted straight for Natsumi's room. "Step outside, old man. Let's fight like men." Giroro sneered with a serene hostility as he challenged Happosai to a no holds barred cage match. "Fine, I accept your challenge. However, I won't give up my prize so easily to the likes of you!" Happosai sneered back accepting the challenge as he followed Giroro to the backyard with the still hypnotized Natsumi in toe.
After an hour's worth of preparation, with Fuyuki as the referee between Giroro and Happosai. The wind was blowing giving an almost eerie tension as it built up between the two warriors. Giroro was armed with a pair of wrist mounted dual Gatling guns, and wore armor much like that of Trowa Barton's Mobile Suit Heavyarms gundam, complete with body missiles, plus a pair of dorsal mounted railguns. Happosai, on the other hand, is armed with bomb balls, a battle aura enhanced smoking pipe, not to mention his skills as the grand master of anything goes martial arts. "This backyard is now a designated battle zone." Fuyuki elucidated in reference to Zoids: New century zero, with a red flag on his left hand and a blue flag on his right hand. "Combatants ready?" Fuyuki commanded, to which both Giroro and Happosai complied after a 30 minute stare down.
"FIGHT!" Fuyuki declared as Giroro opened up with his left pair of Gatling guns on Happosai, who dodged and countered with a Happo rapid fire barrage. Giroro also dodged this and fired some top attack missiles after having painted Happosai for targeting. Giroro swerved around and about the battlefield as though he were a professional figure skater, and Happosai deployed a battle aura shield to nullify the impact of the top attack missiles. Giroro launched a laser whip to ensnare the old lecher, who cut it to ribbons with his battle aura blowtorch. It was then that Giroro seized the opportunity to close in for the kill, and that was when Happosai enveloped one of his bomb balls in a very potent concentration of battle aura energy. "Happo neo fire burst!" Happosai squawked as Giroro continued to advance. *KABAWM!* The red demon frog was sent flying into the air, who managed to recover rather quickly mid air just before Happosai unleashed yet another Happo neo fire burst wave shot in his direction. However, there was a good reason why Giroro made the decision to install dual dorsal railguns on his mobile armor; it was so the railguns could shoot cleanly through the wave shot, and send it right back at Happosai, who was propelled by the resulting explosion back into the air!
"BATTLE OVER! The winner is; Corporal Giroro!" Fuyuki proclaimed as he raised his left hand decaring Giroro the victor, and his sister freed from Happosai's lecherous influence. "Mmmmhmmmmmm, what? Where am I? The last thing I recall, I was drifting off to sleep. Also, WHY THE HELL AM I HOG TIED TO AN UGLY LAWN CHAIR, AND WHY THE HELL AM I IN MY UNDERWEAR ALL OF A SUDDEN!?" Poor Natsumi shrilled raving and ranting about her unfortunate circumstances after having had the hypnotouch crystal removed from her bosom. "Well, let's just say that some old geezer put you under his spell, that you should thank the corporal for coming to your rescue." Fuyuki elucidated citing the fast paced battle of anything goes martial arts vs high tech weaponry. "Anyways, you should get changed, Summer. We don't want people thinking that you have some bra fetish." Fuyuki recommended, to which Natsumi took to heart as she returrned to her room.
Meanwhile, back at the Tendo residence
"Ahh, another peaceful day at home. Isn't that right, Saotome." "You bet, Tendo! We haven't had one complaint from various women ever since the master's been blown to kingdom come." Soun and Genma conversed over a game of shogi, with Kasumi serving tea to both patriarchs in the process. "I have to wonder as to when grandfather is going to be coming back." Kasumi pondered as she left the fathers to their game. "Sounds like the old goat's already on his way to me." Nabiki deadpanned leaning against the adjacent wall after picking up a faint scream from Happosai. *KRAKRAKOWM!* Happosai crash landed perforating the house with several cartoonish, Happosai shaped indentations. "Ooowwwowowwowwwuuuuuwwuuugh!" Happosai croaked before dropping out cold before his disciple's eyes. "Well, let's not anger the master as he returned home. Eh, Tendo?" Genma proposed as he and Soun decided to take their unconscious master back to his room where he can sleep rather soundly in spite of his defeat at Giroro's hands.