Unimaginable things. Unthinkable horrors. Sights that would drive mortals to insanity at worst and suicide at best. At the very least, the trip was almost over.
"I can see it," the Navigator said, helping to steer the Invincible Reason towards its destination. The Gellar Field was holding steady and no Warp-predators had happened upon their path. Perhaps there was such a thing as luck…
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The sun was rising. Minaka Hiroto stood atop his company's skyscraper, looking out over the city he owned (more accurately, held hostage) with a smile that would make even the most professional clown rethink their life choices.
His subordinate, and mother of his children, Sahashi Takami lit a cigarette and actively ignored whatever declaration he was making. It was time like that she wondered just when his twig had snapped…
"Are you listening, Takami?" He inquired with that signature tone of his: gleeful, yet threatening.
"Which answer will make you stop talking?" She lazily exhaled.
"This is a time of celebration!" He happily shouted, jumping off the ledge and sauntering towards her. "Every last Sekirei is Winged and accounted for! By our son, no less!"
"My son." She clarified. Hiroto barely qualified as a sperm donor.
The MBI CEO was not deterred. "Things are falling into place at last. Decades of work are about to be paid off." He leaned back, looked to the brightening sky, and spread his arms out. "The gods will soon smile upon us!"
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Perhaps fate was playing favorites at that moment. Perhaps Tzeentch enacted one of his innumerable plans. Or, perhaps it was just the biggest coincidence of the day.
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Behind the clouds, a crack formed. Far away but impossible to miss. As it opened like a misshapen mouth, Hiroto had to squint just to make out what was on the other side.
"What…?"
Takami glanced at him, and a deep curiosity struck her. She too looked up just in time to see two… things emerge from the widening rip.
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"Warp Jump successful, my Lord."
The Primarch nodded, keeping his unblinking eyes trained on the numerous holograms circling his command chair. Readings were coming in. The air was breathable. The surface was stable. The orbit was littered with thousands of satellites. The latter might prove to be a potential issue.
"This planet…" It reminded him of the Emperor's accounts of the ancient geography of Terra: similar continent shapes and sizes, wildly varied climates, vast interconnected oceans, even a single star for it to orbit. Though, the land masses were different, and there was proof of healing from environmental or chemical fallout. Moreover, there were no visible space ports. "Isolated and archaic."
And here he'd thought that this retrieval was going to require a fight. "Hail my brother. Deploy cruisers. Ready for descent."
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She dropped her lighter as the objects grew larger. As the two got a better look, Takami subconsciously remembered the old science fiction movies her son and daughter would watch back when they still passed as a normal family. She barely registered all the smaller objects coming from the two big ones, let alone all the others following the apparent leaders from the rip.
"This isn't good. At all." Numerous possibilities ran through her mind, but before she could focus on any of them, she felt her ex whisk past her. Shaking her head, she chased after him back into the building. "Where are you going?!" His escape pod was on the roof, which he had just run away from.
"Making contact!" He loudly answered with glee. "Perhaps this will add a new level to the plan!"
"I seriously doubt it!" She regretted smoking at that moment. Lung capacity was hard enough to maintain while running down stairs. "These ones are probably not embryos, and there's two ships now!"
"Oh, have some faith, my dear!"
She would have scolded him, or pointed out the vanishingly small chance they would cooperate with the madness. But why bother?
Within a couple minutes, the two were in a room very few had the opportunity to behold. Monitors were everywhere, manned constantly to keep eyes on every single participant of the boss's so-called Plan.
Minaka hastily stood behind a man whose monitor was showing the newly arrived vessel. Which one, he could not tell but it did not matter. With a smile, he gripped his employee's shoulder. "Can you make contact?" Years of reverse engineering that ship he had come across so long ago made highjacking most forms of media devices child's play.
The glorified hacker nodded, keeping his eyes glued to the screen. "I sent the signal out. Now it's up to them to answer."
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"They are hailing us, Lord." The tech-adept informed the Primarch. "A truly outdated signal for a video-feed."
The Emperor's loyal son spared a moment to watch the cruisers spread out beyond. "Finish the orbital scan first. One can tell that they have nowhere to go."
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"Looks like they've got you on hold," Takami snarked as the three of them waited for their call to be answered.
"Or perhaps they are out of range?" The man operating the computer offered.
"Nonsense!" Minaka exclaimed, still smiling. "They're simply debating on how to greet us."
Takami rolled her eyes. "Keep telling yourself that." She felt so happy that neither of her children had inherited their father's social blindness.
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Relatively not too far away, Sahashi Minato was still slumbering. The previous night had been a long one. Fighting, scouring, a narrowly avoided case of what could be compared to a suicide bombing. Sleep gripped him, but not tight enough for him to remain unaware of the light shoving.
"Minato, wake up!" Someone desperately whispered.
He groaned slightly as he opened his eyes. Everything was blurry for a moment. After a few blinks, he saw Homura sleeping soundly. Looking over his own shoulder, the Ashikabi found out that it was Matsu rousing him back to the land of the living. And she looked worried.
"What's wrong?" he quietly asked, not wanting to wake Homura so early. The latest addition to the Ashikabi of the North's brood was hardly in shape to do much of anything.
She grabbed his forearm and tried pulling him up; strength was not her forte. "You wouldn't believe it unless you saw it."
Lifting himself up, he followed the brain-type Sekirei to her secret room. "Wait, are you just trying to get me alone for… attention?"
Making sure to close the fake wall behind them, Matsu had him sit down in front of the largest of her monitors. "That can wait. We might have a titanic problem." A few keystrokes and the news was on.
"- still no official information is available on the mysterious flying objects high above. The phenomenon was quickly noticed and spread on social media not even an hour ago."
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"Authorities are saying that we should avoid panicking at this time…"
"Do you know anything about this?" Mikogami Hayato asked Mutsu, his first Sekirei and closest friend.
The former member of the first Discipline Squad shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine."
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"The two objects have remained airborne since first appearing, thus making contact unavailable at this time."
"For them, perhaps," Higa Izumi mused from his chair. No doubt that giggling annoyance was already making nice with the arrivals. He quickly dialed an all too familiar number on his phone. He did not have to wait long for an answer. "Get Kochou."
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"Scan complete, Sire. The only immediate concern is the ancient orbital lasers."
"Have the cruisers destroy them. And allow their signal through."
The floating rectangle hummed for a moment before presenting him with a grinning face that reminded him too much of Konrad. The local did not appear to be a Xenos nor a mutant.
"It is a true pleasure to meet you!"
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"They've accepted the signal. We are being patched through."
Minaka, possessing infinite patience, clapped. "Marvelous!" He adjusted his coat and hair before standing in front of the monitor. The screen went to static for a moment before showing him a stern caucasian man with blonde hair and hard eyes. "It is a true pleasure to meet you!"
The man far above did not give a response. He only stared and took in information.
"My name is Minaka Hiroto. Chief Executive Officer of MBI. Whom am I addressing?"
The other man studied him for another moment, as if planning out a chess move. "I am Lion El'Johnson, knight of the Order of Caliban, and Primarch of the Dark Angels Legion."
"Well then, I bid you welcome, El'Johnson," Minaka said neighborly while his mind raced. Was this a military thing? Was the UN finally sick of him? How could he not have known about the vessels above his tower? What or where was Caliban? And who names their son Lion? "In the spirit of new friendships, is there anything I might do to make your arrival better?"
"Compliance."
Minaka blinked. "I'm sorry?" Whatever he had been expecting, that was not it.
"Adhere to our demands and all of us can move forward with this engagement smoothly. Count yourself fortunate that we are discouraged from resorting to Exterminatus."
Nobody in the room knew what the last word meant, but the closeness to 'exterminate' gave them a good guess.
"Since you're not here to kill us," Minaka pressed on. "Might I ask just what it is you are here for?"
El'Johnson's eyes darted to his left before he could answer. Not that it mattered, as one of Minaka's underlings tapped his shoulder.
"We have a problem, sir."
"I'm aware."
"Okay, then we've got another problem. We're losing satellites."
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"My Lord, someone on the planet's surface is attempting to subvert the mainframe's machine-spirit. They are making progress despite our efforts."
The Lion decided upon his course of action instantly and muted the feed. "Counterattack. Find where the incursion iscoming from. And tell them to prepare for their drop." If he had to, he would blast that skyscraper to rubble… so long as what they were looking for was not inside.
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He could hardly believe it. They were indeed taking out his second most destructive asset. Whenever a screen ehowed him the view from one satellite, it quickly lost the feed. More and more of their orbiting eyes were being obliterated by smaller ships. He could safely guess where they had come from.
"They don't want to kill us, yet they're taking out our weapons…"
Takami could feel both rage and dread fill her. "Maybe they caught wind of how you deal with people who don't fall in your line." Her mind frantically sought an explanation and a solution. The Discipline Squad would have to basically rocket launch themselves to even get close. Maybe if they shoved Karasuba into the escape pod on the roof? The Black Sekirei was a menace, no question. But nobody on the ground knew anything about what Lion El'Johnson was capable of in a direct confrontation…
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"Onii-chan, I'm scared." Kusano, the youngest of all the Sekirei, clung to her Ashikabi as nearly every resident of Izumo Inn watched the large television; the only absentee was Matsu, who had opted to remain in her room.
Minato gave her a comforting smile. "I'm sure it'll be okay."
"I wish I had your optimism..." Homura winced as his ribs flared up. Everyone had tried to convince him to stay in bed, even his... Ashikabi. It still felt so strange to him...
"I agree with my husband," Tsukiumi, the Water Sekirei and Minato's self-proclaimed wife, said with her arms crossed and eyes not leaving the screen. "If they wished to attack, they would have by now."
Kazehana glanced at her former teammate with a smirk. "Is this enough for you to come out of retirement?"
Miya did not answer. She did not even acknowledge the question. She kept staring at the two vessels. They seemed… familiar, somehow…
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Matsu's fingers were getting sore. These fellow extraterrestrials had a system that put MBI to shame. Every time she had it into the network, whoever was on the other side slammed a digital door in her face.
She was beginning to break a sweat when her speakers hummed for a moment...
"ENOUGH!"
The single word was enough to make her freeze just long enough for her main monitor to flicker. Gone was the coding. Now, there was a very angry looking man glaring bombs at her.
"Identify yourself, interloper," he demanded with an authority she assumed would make even Miya back off. So strong were his words that she briefly panicked. For a moment, she feared he might see her and drag her off to MBI to make nice. With a deep breath, she remembered that all of her microphones were deactivated and all the cameras that would reveal her were disabled. Sadly, her relief was short-lived; the one who had beaten her at her own game was impatient. "Silence will not spare you from my wrath."
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"Wait… wait, I can see one of the smaller ships coming down." The camera operator shifted the view to show the audience that the reporter was not mistaken. A vehicle not of the planet came down to the skyline and kept going towards the ground. "We should back up! Give it room to land!"
The tenants and landlady of Izumo Inn watched with trepidation as the spot in front of MBI Tower went from swarming with news crews and people with phones recording them reacting to the situation to dead empty. Within a moment, something that looked like it belonged in a video game landed in the middle of the street. It was twice the size of a bullet train car and not nearly as sleek. Burn marks and rushed welding patches riddled the hull and the mounted weapons whirred as they slowly shifted in place.
Uzume gripped her knees tightly, her thoughts going to very dark places. Suddenly, Higa's threats felt so light. Invaders coming in from the stars, with giant ships and undoubtedly giant weapons… She looked around before standing up as quietly as she could and traipsing out of the room.
"What do you think they want?" Musubi asked none of them in particular. Her usual ditzy demeanor was absent.
Minato kept his arm around Kuu. "Hopefully, they just want to be friends." He knew that was wishful thinking, but he was not about to frighten the poor girl.
They watched as the hatch on the ship opened with a hiss. Out of it came… two wolves the size of war horses.
"Smart animals," Kazehana quipped, hoping to ease the tension. "Who knew wolves could pilot ships?" She got no reactions.
Following the canine beasts, the tallest man any of them had ever seen walked into the sunlight. He was at least three and a half meters tall, donning bluish-gray armor that was so burly, it should have made movement impossible. The pelt of a wolf festooned his shoulders and back, and in his right hand was a sword that all watching would call either 'ornate' or 'audacious.' In his left hand, he gripped a pole taller than him with a flag embroidered with a symbol unfamiliar to any viewer. As he marched out, several more from within his vessel fell in line behind. They wore the same armor, but none could match his height.
The camera zoomed in on his face, catching his attention. He narrowed his eyes at the lens, as if studying it.
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"So you want me to get rid of him?" Karasuba asked, looking out the window towards the lead intruder. He was big. That just meant he would fall harder.
"Maybe," Takami replied. "For now, just make sure he doesn't destroy anything or kill anyone."
"How boring. He looks like he's good at both…"
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"Safe guess," his voice was like that of a warrior. "You are some sort of Remembrancer."
The reporter, either through tremendous willpower, or a longing for fame, shakily approached the stranger, still holding up the microphone. Anyone watching could tell she was struggling to keep herself together. It was up in the air if it was due to the massive specimen or the duo of gigantic predators that did nothing but sniff the air around them.
The tower of a man paid her little, if any, mind. Instead, he glanced at the microphone.
"Is this what passes as a vox on this planet?" He might have shrugged; the armor made it rather hard to tell. His focus returned to the camera, and transitively, the tens of thousands watching. "My name is Leman of the Russ, ruler of Fenris, Primarch of the Vlka Fenryka." His left arm went up, and with a powerful thrust, came down, planting the flag into the road like an unnatural tree. "My brother, our Legions, and myself have come to retrieve something that was stolen from our home, Terra."
The reporter struggled to find words. As she stuttered, Musubi noticed something else on the screen.
"Hey, look!" She smiled and pointed to the door of MBI Tower opening. "It's Karasuba!"
Minato paled as he thought back to a certain night on a bridge. "This won't be good…"
The armored giant turned his head towards the head of the Discipline Squad. His eyes darted to the sword she carried, before they widened slightly. He sniffed the air, his frame so large that his sniffs were audible to everyone watching.
He flashed a feral grin, exposing his vampire-like canines, so long that they reached his bottom gum line. "And it seems we've come to the right planet."
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Closing Notes: I would like to give tremendous thanks to Ikrani, who was endlessly helpful in bringing this to life. Go check out his stories, he's quite good. Take care.