Topic: Third storyline: No Sympathy for the Devil

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Saturday, March 11, 2000 - 11:06:
Wow, our humble offers ARE being read?

*Mr. Burns Impression*

Someone out there likes me Smithers...

When greasing together my posts, I pretty much just type away at whatever's on my mind instead of putting it together ahead of time... hence the occasional typos, which I try to correct when I preview, but I occasionally miss a few.. and I'm a pretty damn coherent person too >)

I'd say put em into a text file if it's not too much trouble, that way you can work with it easier if needed instead of digging through a bunch of HTML to change a thing or two... more flexible.

As for the posting/announcing stuff, well, I believe Jocko was handling that..have any progress on that man?

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Saturday, March 11, 2000 - 21:36:
Guys,

Hehe. I haven't gotten jack-shit back from Sak's archive...I'll give him another week.

The only other option I know of is posting this to rec.arts.anime.creative.

To answer Lum-chan's question, I just do everything on the fly...although I try to keep thinking a scene or two ahead. I try to proofread for spelling and readability, and the preview window is a great thing, too. But really all the threads need a good edit/cleanup job.

On format...I'm not too sure. Sak's archive at Tomobiki.com requires submissions to be zipped.

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Saturday, March 11, 2000 - 22:13:
(RP ON)

Lum and Cygni arrived on Ran's ship and immediately collapsed to the floor; exhausted.

Ran and Hudson were at the controls.

Warren leaned close to Ran as she activated the reactor and engines; creating an odd hum throughout the ship, "Ready Ran?"

Ran nodded. She was about to tell Hudson to scream at everyone to hold on when she noticed something on one of the outside surveillance monitors...

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Sunday, March 12, 2000 - 10:32:
..So I'd assume Sergei-n-company are already on board? We'll just go with that >)

(RP ON)
Cygni and Sergei ran over and stared at the monitor a moment.

"That looks like..."

"..Hayes! The old bastard always finds some way to pull through, not the first time he's pulled this on me!" finished Sergei, cracking a grin. He was about to turn to Cygni, but she was already at the airlock.

"Be back in a second" she yelled, getting ready to open the hatch. Before she could, a massive rumbling began shaking Ran's ship, and multiple explosions were heard deep below. More wiring and conduit fell from the ceiling of the shuttle bay..

Cygni didn't hesitate to proceed. She opened the airlock, then winced as a blast of cold air and vacuum washed over her, seeping into the rest of the ship. She cussed, lept out of the airlock and slammed it shut behind her as quick as she could, making her way at top speed towards Hayes. He was collapsed at the broken seal, hanging on to the edges, barely, to avoid being sucked out.

She glanced over to her right. Massive flashes were seen towards the breaches around the shuttle bay, the containment systems were about to fail. The horribly distorted computer system attempted to relay the status of the ship somewhere far above.

"Warning..... core.. meltdown....... 20...... secSFAHJKF-"

It was cut off as another explosion rocked the ship. She growled in determination and continued towards Hayes. Only a few meters left...

She caught him by the sleeve of his uniform just as his grip gave out. "Gotcha!" she called out. No response, he was unconscious. She immediately spun around and began rushing towards Ran's ship, she could see it's engines already coming online, ready to leave. Multiple blasts were heard behind her.

The trip back to the ship was easy, aside from the massive bucking of the ship and the occasional chunk of debris landing nearby. Lightning had begin coursing through the walls as the reactor lost it's containment and began to let loose it's powerful energy. An amount of it snapped out of a loose wire and tore itself down her left arm. Surprisingly it didn't have any effect, aside from creating a small barely noticable burn mark.

She reached the airlock of Ran's ship and rushed inside into Sergei's waiting hands, exhausted.

"Punch it!!" she yelled, then blacked out. Ran was only too happy to comply.
(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Sunday, March 12, 2000 - 21:53:
(RP ON)

In the first few seconds as Ran's ship jumped forward Megane, Shutaro, and Cherry were thrown back against the wall. Everyone else was lucky enough to be strapped in or holding onto something stable.

Hudson smiled happily as the ship quickly cleared the UNO and sailed safely into open space. Earth shown prominently ahead.

"Hi-O-Silver!!!" Warren gave a good rebel yell and slapped his knee hard; well...as hard as he could. He tried to point ahead at the blue planet, "I think I see my house!!!" he shouted to no one in particular.

Meanwhile on the back wall of Ran's living room Megane strained his eyes to glance at Shutaro. "Hey Mendou!" he shouted; barely audioble over the engine's rumble. "Bet you didn't think you'd be doing this last Saturday, eh?"

Shutaro shook his head, and looked over to find Cherry holding onto his leg with his face pressed into the wall.

"This is destiny..." the monk could be heard muffling into the bulkhead.

Kintaro and Jariten were strapped into the same couch with Lum and Ataru eating popcorn and wearing 3D glasses. Enjoying the show.

The ship's inertial dampeners adjusted; making the ride smoother. Ran clicked on a few monitors in the cockpit, bedroom, living room, and kitchen to display the UNO's last few seconds.

Ran, not relaxing, continued adjusting controls rapidly and speeding the ship towards Earth at top speed.

Meanwhile, a scanner panel to Hudson's left reported a new group of ships entering the area. The ID singnatures identified them as ships from all five of the Earth's Space Navies and a few Oni vessels.

"I'll be damned." Warren said calmly.

"What?" Ran glanced over, "rolling out the big guns?"

"Hell yes."

Back in the living room Cygni came to in the unconcious Sergei's arms, and across from the still unconcious Hayes. She had a splitting headache but was otherwise all there.

"Oh man..." she sat up and looked over at Ten, Kintaro, Lum and Ataru on the couch. "You haven't missed it yet," Ten said through a mouthful of popcorn; indicating the monitor on the wall.

Cygni frowned and started shaking Hayes and Sergei's shoulders, "guys? Your precious ship's about to go sky high."

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Monday, March 13, 2000 - 10:09:
(RP ON)
The pair slowly came to, but Hayes seemed to only be half-conscious. Sergei helped him come to his senses, then they turned their attention to the monitor as the Under New Ownership shuddered violently in it's last moments.

Lightning was already coursing through the outer hull, streaking over the destroyed gun turrets and disabled engines. The front of the ship suddenly burst open in flame as it was engulfed in the explosion. Then the bridge, along with the shuttle bay they had just exited. It began to slowly tumble from the concentrated force of the repeated explosions.

The reactor finally gave way, and the hull of the ship tore itself in half, ripping into 2 pieces with an extremely loud groan that was heard right through the hull of Ran's ship. Sergei gritted his teeth. Secondary explosions began consuming the two halves while a massive blue shockwave shot out from where the reactor had once been. Ran's ship buckled slightly, easily coping with the blast. The explosions continued streaking around the half with the main engines on it, slowly consuming the entire portion untill there was nothing left except flaming debris. The forward section, however, simply floated away from the explosion, trailing flames and sparks but remaining intact. Barely. It was over. The ship was destroyed.

Cygni touched Sergei's shoulder affectionately. "I'm.. sorry..."

He shook his head slowly. "Not your fault, it's that damn wench. Her number just got bumped up the list."

Hayes was unresponsive, he seemed lost, deep in thought. Cygni thought it best to let him be. She stood up.

"I'm gonna go check on the rest of the gang.. make sure Hayes is alright, he's come through too much to be lost now."

Sergei nodded. "Way ahead of you."

Meanwhile, on the dark bridge of Shinobu's cruiser, loud excessive profanity was constantly heard coming from the captain's chair while the crew busily worked on trying to get the ship back online. They had long since given up on trying to block the noise.

Shinobu finally shut up and leaned back, frustrated. She was startled when Zard came up behind her.

"All this screaming.. this isn't like you at all. What's so wrong?"

She waved around the bridge. "Look around! The whole ship is down! I can't do ANYTHING!"

"..And just what is it you're trying to do? You're sure riled over something.." replaied Zard, kneeling down in front of the chair and taking her hands. She was about to pull them away, then thought better of it.

"It's that bitch Lum and her friends! I'm sick and tired of being embarassed over and over by them, I want them GONE!" She sighed as a tear dropped down her cheek. Zard calmly wiped it away.

"As odd as it might sound coming from a guy like me, mass destruction isn't necessarily the answer to everything.. surely there's another way. And anyways, this attempt has obviously failed.."

"But I've tried EVERYTHING! There's just no damn way to get rid of them! I just wanted Ataru.. everything was going so well untill Lum showed up!" She broke down sobbing into Zard's hands. He simply nodded and stroked her hair.

From the shadows near the exit of the bridge, the lead scientist watched with narrow eyes.

"Excellent.. this is going perfectly... if it continued, I'll soon be able to assume command of this ship, taking it from that worthless retch of a woman." he mumbled to himself, chuckling. He turned and walked off the bridge, he had much work to do.
(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Monday, March 13, 2000 - 21:10:
(RP ON)

Shutaro Mendou and Cherry were dragged off the floor by Warren Hudson; shaken, then slapped into conciousness.

"You two still with us?" Hudson asked. Receiving groans in response. Cherry dropped to the floor and immediately ran into the bathroom; slamming the door behind him.

Warren shrugged and walked over to Ryouko's chair and knelt to examine her with a tricorder. He smiled as Shutaro walked over.

"How is she?"

"Fine, fine," Hudson glowed, "she just needs to rest," Warren moved the tricorder down to Ryouko's legs and feet, "and her ankle needs some attention from Sakura."

Mendou looked over to Ran's bedroom where Ron and Sakura had been dumped on the bed. "I think Sakura will be the one needing the doctor more..."

Warren glanced up at him, "why? What happened to her anyway?"

"Ron knocked her unconcious," Shutaro sighed, "I'm not so sure *how*; he did not have any weapons with him when Sergei and I caught up with him."

Warren stood up, "you saying he used those ESP powers that almost turned my brain into roast beef?" he moved into the bedroom; Shutaro following, "or just that Ron clobbered her over the head real hard?"

Mendou produced handcuffs and quickly started to secure Ron's arms to the bedpost. Warren noticed the handcuffs, "where'd you get those?" he asked absently while checking over Sakura.

"Artistic liscense," Mendou grunted and was finished.

Hudson gave Ron a quick scan and clicked off the tricorder; Warren looked over at Shutaro, "they both check out from what I know," he indicated the tricorder, "which isn't much."

Shutaro shook his head, "should we try to wake Sakura?"

"I don't know," Warren sighed, "probably doesn't matter; we'll be home in twenty minutes anyways."

Hudson and Mendou walked into the kitchen and found Megane, Sergei, and Hayes watching the remnants of the UNO floating and "burning" in space on the viewscreen.

All were silent; Hudson gazed at the viewscreen, the wrecked ship, and Shinobu's dead space fleet beyond.

"It's been a helluva day," Warren whistled.

"Yes...I guess it has," Sergei sighed and cast a sideways glance to the stone-faced Hayes, "at least we won't have to pay the repair bill..."

Meanwhile...on the outer hull of Shinobu's flagship a Kuroko Commander (frequently spelled with a K in English) used handsignals to communicate with his subordinates.

Things had been hard since the Lady Ryouko and Master Hudson's ship abruptly left. The plan was unfolding according to schedule; they were about to ambush the bridge and sensitive areas of the ship from the outside.

But something had happened, and the proper chain of events did not unfold and the Commander ordered a halt until they could figure out how to proceed next. It would be most unfortunate to call the mission off and make the long return EVA to the ship to make the equally long trip back to Earth undetected.

After about an hour of eavesdropping into the MSS ship's comm channels the Kuroko were able to determine what had happened to Lady Mendou's group. The Commander decided he was not willing to commit Lady Mendou's Kuroko to a fight in a "burning house" and was about to give the order to withdraw when Lady Luck smiled upon them in the form of Hayes' EMP warhead.

Now they were ready to move in and make Shinobu's day worse...

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Tuesday, March 14, 2000 - 10:31:
(RP ON)
The communications officer on the bridge of Shinobu's cruiser let out a silent breath of relief when his console came online and his headset began filling with the chatter of the engineering team working on the ship.

His expression quickly sank, however, when he began hearing a transmission over hailing frequences demanding they surrender their ship and dis-embark. He was hesitant to tell the news to Shinobu, considering the bad mood that she was in, but at the moment she also seemed occupied with Zard.

"I don't get payed enough for this.." he groaned after a moment's thought, standing up and heading to the captain's chair.

Zard was still holding Shinobu in his arms. She had long stopped crying, and was either deep in thought, or sleeping. He hoped it wasn't the latter. He turned when a tap came on his shoulder.

"..Yes?"

"Sorry to bother you sir... communications just came online.. we're being ordered to surrender.."

Zard noticed Shinobu was indeed asleep and leaned her comfortably in the chair, then stood.

"From what? We saw the UNO go up."

"It appears they may have called for re-enforcements sir.. there's quite a fleet from what the comms said, but we can't get confirmation with the rest of the systems down. I don't even know if it's a prank or not!"

Zard grunted. "How long untill we're capable of fighting?"

"At least another few hours.. the reactor's cold, and all the batteries are being used for life support and essential comms."

"And the fighters?"

The comms officer shook his head. "No clue, for all we know they could be dead."

Zard thought a moment. "Give me the headset, patch me through to our friendly visitor."

The comms officer nodded, took off his headset, and handed it to Zard, who put it on. He turned up the volume slightly.

"This is Zard, acting captain of the Martyr, to whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?"

The voice on the other end was heavy, and gruff, but seemed to have the un-mistakable traces of the Oni accent in them. Zard was good at knowing voices.

"This is Zrugg of Oni megadestroyer Zergla. You surrender now, or we smash."

Zard let out a small chuckle. "Direct and to the point my highly coherent friend.. however..."

"YOU NOT INSULT ZRUGG FOR WORDS! ZRUGG SMASH ALL OTHER PERSONS WHO INSULT ZRUGG! YOU NO HAVE POSITION TO INSULT!" came the booming reply. Zard held his head in pain and the comms officer looked at him in worry, along with the rest of the bridge, who could hear the Oni's voice right through the headset. He stumbled for a response.

"Uh.. right... well.. why do we need to surrender? What have we done?"

"You no take Zrugg for fool. Zrugg know Lum and Hudsmon. Hudsmon tell Zrugg all about big boomies you make on Hudsmon's ship. Zrugg no like that. Tired of talk, you surrender now or we smash!"

Zard winced, his preference for more intelligent conversation was hurting him here, not to mention this particular Oni's obvious difficulty with words.

"Hudsmon...?" he muttered to himself. "Please give us 5 minutes to meet and decide, then we shall contact you with our decision."

"Zrugg give you 3. No more, no less. Zrugg have big Oni date in hour."

"Fine, 3. See you then." He gave the headset back to the comms officer and called over the bridge engineering sergeant, who was busy hacking away at a panel with a wrench in frustration.

"How soon untill we have engine power?"

"At LEAST 3 hours sir, and that's if we're very lucky.. the reactor is TOTALLY cold, it's kinda of like setting fire to ice. We can't turn it on suddenly, it just won't work."

"Is there ANY way at all we can get immediate power?"

The engineer paused a moment to consult his datapad. "Well.. if we shunt everything from the batteries into the engines, we might get moving slowly.. but we'd only have 5 minutes of oxygen and absolutely no helm control besides what we pre-program into the system."

"How slow?"

"We'd get a sudden burst of speed, I could probably toss an explosive charge in there or two to amplify the process.. although we'd junk the drives. I could probably get us moving at around 5,000 units a second..hmm, hold on."

He tapped away at his datapad again, then smiled slightly.

"I just factored in the explosives.. if we decided to junk the drives, we'd be going faster than our normal cruising speed.. we'd be flying along quick enough to outrun the average missile!"

Zard nodded. "Get on it, now. And wait for my signal."

The engineer saluted and took off out the door, running as fast as he could. He hit a button on the captain's chair.

"Battery control, this is the bridge. Transfer power from communications to helm for 30 seconds, then send it back to comms."

"..We might blow a few relays, but I think we can manage that.."

He clicked off the comms and walked over to the helmsman.

"Get ready to pre-program coordinates to the engines... point us towards Earth. They won't escape that easily.."

Elsewhere, down in the escape pod area, a security officer was sitting back, having a smoke and staring at his blank monitors tirelessly, as if his sole will could magically restore power to his station and end his eternal boredom. At least the emergency systems had "Pong" to occupy him...

He was inhaling deeply from his cigarette when suddenly the wall beside him exploded open, and the air instantly began rushing out. In surprise, he swalled his cigar and began choking wildly while at the same time reaching for and pulling down the emergency bulkhead switch. It immediately came crashing down from the ceiling, blocking off the breach. He fell to his knees, coughing.

He finally managed to digest the ashes of his cigarette, and slowly rose to his feet.. only to see ten hooded figures emerge from the darkness.

A loud scream was quickly flashed out by 3 silenced gunshots. The Kurokos left the body in the storage closet and began moving.
(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Wednesday, March 15, 2000 - 02:06:
(RP ON)

Hudson sank into the chair next to Ran while Megane watched over his shoulder.

"Who is it?" Warren asked over his shoulder. "Captain January; of the USS Arizona," Megane replied with awe. January was a fast rising star in the new United States Space Navy.

Warren nodded and pushed the button on the console. "Captain January, this is Ambassador Hudson."

[Copy that, are you all right Ambassador?]

"We have a few injuries onboard, Captain."

[Affirmative sir. Do you require any sort of assistance besides a medical detachment?]

"No..." Hudson turned to Ran, "do we need anything else?"

Ran frowned a second while piloting, "well...I'm out of flour and nutmeg," she adjusted the nav computer for atmosphere reentry.

"Flour and nutmeg?" Megane snorted, "hell, Cherry's ate EVERYTHING in the kitchen!"

Hudson's mouth gaped open. "You saying everything? Even after puking his guts out?"

"Well..." Megane shrugged, "yeah...you know Cherry."

"Yeah well apparently not well enough," Ran bit out viciously.

Megane and Warren shared a shrug and Warren turned back to the console, "Uh Captain? When we land in Tomobiki we'll need a medical detachment and somebody to go to the gorcery store for Miss Ran-"

"-AND I AIN'T PAYIN' FOR IT!!!" Ran shook her fist at Hudson, Megane, and the board.

"Okay..." Warren conceded, "got all that, Captain?"

[...More than enough, sir. Do I charge the grocery bill to your account?]

Warren winced, he had once had dinner at Ran's and knew the extent to which the girl held good cooking and a fully stocked pantry in her heart.

"Yes Captain," Hudson sighed loudly, "to my account..." he clicked off the comm.

Both Megane and Hudson glanced at Ran for a few seconds, saying nothing, then turning back to the cabin only to be interrupted by a strange beeping.

Ran glanced around the cockpit at the various consoles and displays. She shrugged, "well I'll be damned..." she trailed off then glanced back at the duo, "what the hell is that?"

Megane checked his pockets, "it's not me."

Back in the living room Beavis and Butthead chuckled.

"Hehehehehe hey Butthead, I've got a beeper. Wanna see? Hehehehe."

"Uh, no." Butthead concluded.

"Hehehee it's like, in my pants, or something."

Butthead smacked Beavis. "Damn't assmunch, we've already been through this with Mr. Bluevein!" Butthead continued to slap Beavis.

Ataru picked up a lamp on a table and chucked it at the back of Butthead's head (pun intended and needed).

SMACK!

Butthead fell to the floor taking Beavis with him; applause erupted all over the ship.

Lum hugged Ataru, "Oh Darling you're so wonderful!"

Ataru smiled with content and the beeping noise continued.

Hudson felt around his pockets, his face brightened up, "found it," he drew out a traditional Japanese fan, folded.

Megane looked at it, "You've gotta be kidding me...THAT?" he pointed at the fan.

"But of course," Warren chuckled, "Ryouko-chan gave it to me. She said it may come in handy..." he shrugged, and unfolded the fan.

[Kuroko Kommander reporting, Hudson-sama.]

"Where the hell are you?" Hudson could hear the signal was breaking up.

[Inside the designated target.]

Hudson grinned at Megane then turned back to the open fan, "You've earned your pay for the month, continue the operation," Warren closed the fan.

"What was that about?" Megane asked; baffled.

"Megane..." Hudson giggled (actually giggled), "I'll tell you over a beer when we get home."

Megane tapped Ran's chair, "where are we landing?"

"Where else?" Ran snorted gruffly, "my house!"

"But this is your house," Megane deadpanned.

"Well Megane-san, you will just have to trust me," she giggled sweetly.

(RP OFF)

I'm intending to add Rei into mix here. Maybe as a fighter escort for Ran's ship under Zrugg's command?

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Wednesday, March 15, 2000 - 11:15:
Sounds good!

(RP ON)
Zard smiled, things were coming together. The engines had the necessary coordinates, Engineering was nearly ready with the explosives, and they even had sufficient time to vector the coordinates of Ran's ship and find out where it was going to land, and as thus they had compensated so they would crash nearby. There was a matter of minor concern though...

Shinobu, who had woken back up, smacked the communications area on the Captain's chair repeatedly in frustration.

"Escape pod section, come in! Where the hell are you?"

Zard rubbed his chin in worry. "Could be a problem if the escape pods aren't ready.. there's a chance the ship would break up on atmospheric entry.."

"I know that! I'm going to go see what's going on..."

She was about to stand up, but Zard waved his hand. "I'll go, you command from up here. If we get hailed again by Zrugg, tell him that we're surrendering and need time to get our crew to the escape pods."

Shinobu leaned back and huffed. "Fine." Zard nodded and walked off the bridge, only to run into a mass of hooded figures at the door.

"Excuse m-" He was cut off from a kick to the stomach. The bridge crew spun around and noticed the commotion. One pulled out a small laser pistol and aimed it, but couldn't get a shot in without hitting Zard.

Calling back on his training, Zard pushed the pain into the back of his head and leapt backwards, executing a perfect back-roll. He landed smartly and dodged a series of punches that came his way, then shot out with his leg, tripping the closest Kuroko to him. The others surrounded him and began hacking away. Zard was so busy trying to dodge that he never managed to get another shot in. Eventually one of the punches connected with his jaw, spinning him off balance against the wall, breaking his nose. He groaned and tried to recover, only to be kicked in the face. Shinobu yelled out in worry.

Down in the area housing the massive engines, a burly engineer finished placing the last explosive charge and climbed up the ladder that would lead him to a safe zone. When he reached the top, he wiped his hands, saluted to the chief engineer, and nodded.

"She's all set ta go sir!"

"Alright, lets punch it! Hand me the detonator."

The engineer dug into his pocket and pulled out a small electronic pad with a single red button on it, and handed it to the chief. He then retreated down the hallway with the rest of the group.

The chief walked over to the nearby wall and flicked a couple of switches. A panel opened up with a small lever on it with the words "Emergency Boost" ingrained on it. He nodded and smiled.

"These lil babies have taken us through hell and back again.. time for one last shove..."

He reached up and grabbed the lever with one hand, then yanked down, hard. The machinery groaned in protest, then gave way, and a loud whining was heard as the engines began sparking to life.

He waited untill the ever-familiar sound of ignition came on, then stabbed down at the red button on the pad. At the same time he backed away slightly and put on a pair of glasses to shield his eyes, as well as grabbing a handhold from the ceiling.

The effect was immediate. A massive white flame shot out from the engines, then went even brighter as the explosive charges went off, igniting the system further. The ship lurched heavily as it went from sitting still to shooting along at an insane speed in less than 5 seconds. A few secondary systems came online for a moment to align the vessel with it's pre-programmed destination, then shut off. After a moment, the crippled engine also gave out from the severe damage the explosives had inflicted and coughed offline, leaving a heavy trace of smog as the only sign they had ever fired. The chief released his handhold and continued smiling.

"Our push has given way.. now it's up to the gods to make sure we make our destination..."

Suddenly, his face turned white. "Oh crap, didn't Zard say to wait for his signal? Uh... it just 'malfunctioned'... yea. .that's it.."

He coughed and turned to slowly head for the bridge.

On the bridge itself, chaos was erupting. Most of the crew had been thrown to the wall at the back when the engines had fired, and were unconscious, save Zard who was already against the wall. Various Kuroko were attempting to pick themselves up, but were knocked down again by additional shuddering as a few stray fighters impacted and exploded against the external hull. Zard wiped the blood from his face and slowly stood up, pulling out his personal Argon-class slicing laser. He aimed at one of the Kuroko agents.

"Now I'm not exactly sure just who you guys are, but I do know who you work for, and I suggest you stand down, unless you feel like having roast Kuroko for dinner."

The commander, currently not seeing a viable option, waved to the rest of his troops, who slowly dropped their weapons to the floor, keeping a few well-hidden ones inside their protective casings for later use. Zard nodded and handed off command of the "hostages" to one of the recovering officers, then walked over to a viewport near the front of the bridge and looked out.

Earth was getting closer extremely fast, along with the bright red glow of Ran's ship as it entered the atmosphere. Ran would probably touch down first, but it didn't matter much. He looked over to the right and noticed Zrugg's fleet powering up it's engines to pursue, but they were already far out of weapons range.

"Perfect..." said Shinobu, who had recovered and walked over beside him, staring at the same sights. She glanced up at Zard.

"Thanks for your help."

Zard sighed and turned back to her. What he had on his mind at the moment was going to be difficult to say.

"I may be helping you, but it's for a different reason. I understand how you feel, as nothing else is working to win Ataru from Lum, but what went on back there was madness. Who knows how many people were killed in that explosion, and during your attack?"

Shinobu's expression dropped, and she frowned a moment, in thought.

"People... killed? But I would have never thought..."

"Ahh.. battle rage.. we all go through it at some point, when you loose all caring and touch with reality and just want to destroy everything. But still, that doesn't cover what happened. Once we land, you're going to apologize."

Her expression then went from a frown to something extremly sour, then to whiteness.

"What? No! It's too late, I'm already too deep in, I've got to.."

Zard turned his back and began walking towards the back of the bridge. "If that's your decision, then fine, but I won't assist you further in this." he threw over his shoulder, leaving Shinobu in a state of heavy confusion. She eventually grumbled and tossed it off, continuing to look out the window at the rapidly approaching Earth.

On Ran's ship, Hudson looked up in alarm as he saw the engines on Ran's cruiser spike, then alarms started flashing as the ship began closing on them at an insane speed. Cygni, who had just walked into the room, also noticed.

"What the HELL? I thought we knocked that damn thing out!"

Megane examined the sensors. "I don't know how they did it, but they did. They must have used explosives or something to amplify the blast.. although how they got the engines started in the first place is beyond me..."

"They probably kept a few spare batteries in a specially insulated area for just such an occasion." said Hudson, groaning. He turned to Cygni.

"You'd better go tell the rest."

"Sergei will have a fit.." she sighed, turning and heading out of the room.

When she entered the room Sergei and Hayes were in, however, she wasn't very impressed with the sight that greeted her. Ron had somehow recovered, broken free of the handcuffs, and now had grabbed Hayes' pistol and was pointing it at his head while standing in the corner of the room, dis-allowing any flanking maneuvers. Sergei and Shutaro stood tensely, looking for an opening.

"Let him go you bastard." Sergei hissed.

"Not untill you give me free passage off this ship, with.." His eyes widened a moment as he spotted Cygni entering the room, and he pointed with his one free hand. "..her!"

"You gotta be kidding!" growled Cygni, slowly moving one hand behind her back and charging a small lightning bolt. Ron didn't notice.

"I assure you it's no joke. You either come with me or the old guy gets it. 10 seconds."

He cocked the pistol to prove his point. Hayes groaned and rubbed his head in pain from the massive aching he was getting.

"There's no way in hell I'm.." started Cygni, only to be cut off by Ron.

"Seven.. make your deicision.."

"Damnit Ron! Don't do..."

"FIVE..." he called out loudly.

("Go for it, this isn't going to work the other way, trust me.")

"But I'll hit Hayes.." she replied to the voice.

("He'll only get a bit of the splash if you hit the wall right next to Ron's head.. it'll rebound and hit him directly. Trust me.")

"Three..." Ron's hand began squeezing down on the trigger.

Cygni winced, then clenched her fist tightly, concentrating the build up energy.

"Damn you to HELL!" she yelled, punctuating her last word by throwing her left arm out and letting loose the lightning blast. Her aim was true, and sure enough it hit the ceiling next to Ron's head, then rebounded hitting him directly in the ear, stunning him long enough for Hayes to break free and move away, his ears ringing.

Cygni didn't hesitate. She yanked out her Desert Eagle, flicked on the laser sight, and aimed it at Ron. "I've had enough of you." she said quietly, then pulled the trigger 3 times, just as Hudson came up behind her to see what all the commotion was about. 3 loud reports echoed across the ship.

Massive spurts of green liquid shot out from the 3 holes in Ron's torso, as he coughed, staggered one step forward, then collapsed on the ground. Hudson was about to say something when he was pushed aside by Ran who shoved her way into the room, then gasped.

"I am NOT cleaning that up!!"
(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Wednesday, March 15, 2000 - 22:57:
Say Parias...I need a good joystick or a gamepad that can do everything. I have several flight sims and first person shooters I'd like to play and I'm getting sick of the keyboard and mouse.

What do you recommend?

Price is not an object, I'm only looking to kick ass smoothly and with ease.

(RP ON)

Mujaki burst out of the bathroom and tripped over the unconcious Beavis and Butthead.

"What...? What's happening in here?" the dream demon picked himself off the floor.

"Fate has sent Ron-san on his way to the next life," Cherry clasped his hands together and began to pray for Ron's soul.

Ran angrily walked over to a closet and opened the door. She dragged out various housekeeping equipment and slapped a broom in Hudson's hand, a bucket of water in Cygni's, a scrub brush in Sergei's, and cleaning solution in the redneck crewman's hand. Ran stormed into the kitchen and threw out a large black bag.

Warren picked it up, "a body bag...? Where the hell does she get this stuff?"

Ran stomped out and glared at her appointed clean up crew. "WHEN I COME BACK IN HERE I WANT THIS ROOM TO BE AS NEAT AS A PIN!!! GOT IT?"

"Yes Ran-chan," everyone said quietly.

"Uh Ran-chan?" Warren raised his hand like a school boy, "who's minding the store?"

Ran fluttered her eyes sweetly, "Hudson-san? Whatever are you talking about?"

"The ship Ran, the ship," Hudson inclined his head back towards the cockpit, "who's flying it?!?"

"Uh...I don't know..." Ran ran back across her living room.

Meanwhile in the cockpit Megane had taken over after Ran left to investigate the gunshots and the screaming without bothering as to how would take over.

Now to say that Megane was an amatuer isn't exactly fair, he could pilot the ship a whole hell of a lot more than Ataru or maybe even Hudson, but Megane was still only mostly acquainted with World War II flight simulaters.

Things went fine with our intrepid hero for about three minutes.

Five alarms sounded at once all over the board. "Oh Shit!" Megane kept his eyes on the rate of atmospheric descent. He smacked the comm board.

"Ran get back in here!!!"

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Thursday, March 16, 2000 - 10:12:
Whelp, as far as joysticks go, the best place to look would be www.neoseeker.com, a pretty damn good site with a massive archive of reviews and stuff on a given chunk of hardware. Should answer your questions pretty good >) Although as far as using it for playing an FPS.. well I just can't recommend it, nothing beats a good Keyboard/Mouse combo. Although you're welcome to try..heheh

(RP ON)
Almost immediately after Megane called for Ran, she burst in, sat down, and brushed Megane away in one swift motion, then immediately set to work on stablizing the ship without a single word. Megane simply blinked and went back to the sensors control, opting instead to to make use of something he was at least slightly familiar with.

Back in the living room, Cygni grunted in frustration as she assisted Sergei in cleaning up the stinking mess of gore surrounding the area Ron's dead body was in. Hudson had already picked it up and disposed of it properly, but not before Sakura had taken a quick look at it to see just what Ron was. She was going over a couple of samples she had grabbed in the bedroom, and Cherry had wandered off to join her.

"Nice shooting..." Sergei commented absently while scrubbing away at a large mess of the green liquid that refused to disappear.

"The lightning or the gunshots?" Cygni grunted in return.

"Well, I'd say both, but this isn't the most enjoying thing I've done all day.."

"Gee, thanks." She sighed. "Wish I'd brought those damn nano-droids along.."

"And of course you had full knowledge that you were going anywhere.." Sergei remarked sarcastically.

"Point."

They continued scrubbing. Sergei was beginning to feel that it would be more effective to just blow a hole in the wall than to continue trying to clean up the stubborn mess, but said nothing.

Down on Earth, the remainder of Cygni's stormtroopers shuffled around Tomobiki in sorrow. Their attempted campaign to raise enough cash to go to space themselves and launch their own rescue mission had failed miserably, and future side-attempts almost got them a trip into jail. Suddenly Perm looked up, something had caught his eye.

After a moment he yelled out in joy and pointed. "Hey look, it's Ran's ship! Maybe she found something!!"

The rest of them yelled out and began chasing after the ship, trying to figure out where it was going to land.
(RP OFF)

Slightly shorter one tonight, I've been busy since the word "Go" this morning and am just slightly pooped >) I'm assuming Ran was planning to land somewhere in Tomobiki, but if this wasn't the idea, I'm still leaving it open for her to land somewhere else.. the gang would probably hound her ship down if it was landing in the North Pole! >)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Thursday, March 16, 2000 - 21:46:
Thanks for the suggestion, Parias. These days are gamepads better than joysticks?

And yes Ran is landing in Tomobiki, Rei is there with the medics and people to go shopping for Ran.

BTW, we missed out on a killer Pulp Fiction reference about "brain detail." Maybe I can fix that later...? I have to be going just now.

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Thursday, March 16, 2000 - 23:29:
Whelp, when it comes to flight sims, nothing beats a good joystick. Gamepads these days are kinda going down in usefulness.. I've only seen them be any good in arcade/sidescrolling games, and for those I generally just wuss out and go with the keyboard >)

As for the Pulp Fiction thing, go for it! >) I haven't even seen Pulp Fiction, although maybe I should pick it up sometime..

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Friday, March 17, 2000 - 03:28:
Okay, thanks for your help. Pulp Fiction is the bomb, along with everything else by Tarantino.

BTW, where's Dr. Ginkobot?

(RP ON)

Hudson gazed at the green mess and sighed, he looked down at the broom with disgust. Cygni and Sergei looked up from their labors, "what's wrong?" Sergei asked.

"Ran gave me a friggin' broom," Warren dropped the broom to the floor and went hunting in the kitchen for a mop.

When he returned, he and the redneck crewman went to work with the pools of blood that had collected on the walls and floor.

Ataru walked out of the bathroom and chuckled at the cleaning. "You don't actually think that can be clean in five minutes, do you?"

Hudson dipped the mop into the blood and began soaking that shit up. "Gee Moroboshi, I don't know!" he sarcastically threw over his shoulder, "at least I'm not on brain detail this time around!" Warren wrung the mop out in the bucket of water.

Everyone in the room shrugged. "What are you taking about?" Cygni asked.

Hudson stopped and stood up, "the clean up after a military execution in the old days," he said darkly.

Cygni nodded and returned to her work. Sergei leaned over to her and whispered, "what does he mean?"

"Remind me to tell you about Hudson's past in this country later, Sergei."

Hudson, Sergei, Cygni, and the redneck managed to clean up decently; leaving only light green stains behind. Sakura and Cherry were eating a bag of chips while the others screwed around in the kitchen or bathroom.

"Well," Cygni gazed at what was left of the mess, "think Ran'll kill us or have a cow?"

"I'll tell her I'll pay the steam cleaning bill," Warren snorted.

"Brave man," Sergei laughed.

"What about Ron's body?" Sakura asked; still visibly fatigued from the bump on the head Ron gave her.

"What about it?" Hudson collapsed in a chair, "proper documentation will have to be made and statements to the police and possibly other agencies by all the parties involved-" Warren propped his feet up on a coffee table, "-not to mention lots of signed affidavits with high sounding language; the kind my attorney loves."

Everyone groaned, "another trip downtown..." Sakura lamented.

"On top of that," Warren raised his right hand and ticked off the points on his fingers, "there's the fact that we're still facing an interstellar incident and that Megane will almost immediately be taken into police custody when we land. Beginning a nice evening with me pleading with the Judge not throw him in the pokey. I'll also have press statements of every kind to make, meetings with top brass from two countries and four planets, and possible war consultant work, not to mention revenge against Shinobu..."

He cracked a smile when he was finished, "and who knows? Maybe I'll get a Christmas bonus this year after all."

The intercom clicked on, "We're landing, everyone find a place to sit or hold onto," Megane reported.

Warren began walking towards the bedroom where Ryouko was moved to after Ron and Sakura made room, "but at least we're home!" Hudson shouted over his shoulder, "yeah...me for a nice hot bath, a cold beer, cup ramen, and Jet Hashimoto versus the Iron Yuppie...." he disappeared into the room.

Meanwhile as Ran's ship made its way over Tomobiki's skyline three military vehicles, five civilian police, and three ambulances screamed along down the streets following the ship. On the sidewalks a group of ten people ran along with the ship as it slowed down.

Then arrived two fighter escorts from space. One an Oni fighter, and the other American.

Various helecopters from the Mendou, Kuroko, and Mizonokouji forces also filled the skys but kept their distance.

Ran's ship arrived at her lot in the uptown section of Tomobiki and gently touched down; it was 4:17 PM on November 13th.

Ten figures ran up to the ship as the vehicles and fighter escorts arrived.

Included in this group was Cygni's Stormtroopers, Ataru's parents, Shutaro and Ryouko's parents, Tobimaro, Ryunnosuke Fujinami, and Onsen-Mark.

Inside Ran's bedroom Ryouko was awoken by the ship's landing.

"Warren-kun...?" she yawned.

"We're home, dear," Hudson held her hand firmly, "how do you feel?"

"Terrible," she grimaced at the pain.

"I'll have you at the hospital as soon as possible," Hudson leaned down and kissed her lightly on the forehead, "just hold on a few more minutes while Ran powers the engines down."

"...how?" she looked around. "What happened?"

(RP OFF)