Topic: Second storyline: "Dark Lines, double trouble"

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Monday, December 27, 1999 - 19:48:
(RP ON)

Dreamland with Warren Hudson....

"Great love?"

"mmm..!!!"

Hudson opened his eyes to find himself floating in a void...save for Lucilla Edea Hudson floating in front of him. Hudson nearly squealed with joy.

"Sorceress wife!" he cried.

"Love," she smiled, "I'm happy to see you finally getting on with your life. Ryouko seems like a wonderful girl."

"I'm glad you approve," Warren smiled and laughed.

Lucilla laughed back, "Dear heart, why don't you try for the White House again?"

Hudson regarded her for a moment, "I've thought about it, yes. But I'm not sure if I have the same piss and vinager in me that I use to. I'm also sure some corners of the States would give me trouble for marrying Ryouko, not enough to cause me problems...but I'd worry about Ryouko, she'd have to move to a foreign land and become the most visible woman in the nation all before she's legal age to drink over there."

Lucilla nodded, "but she's a strong woman."

"Yes, she most certainly is."

With a shock and a knock Hudson awoke to hear Ryouko on the phone; she hung up, and clicked a light on, "The UNO just sent a communication saying they think they've found Ginkobot."

Hudson glanced at the clock which read 3:45 AM.

"You want to sleep?" Warren asked Ryouko.

Ryouko shook her head, "I want to see Radicus and Ginkobot dead with my own eyes."

"All right, let's go."

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Monday, December 27, 1999 - 20:13:
(RP ON)

Mendou Control...

Hudson and Ryouko had met Shutaro on the way when they heard/felt several loud explosions in the distance.

When they arrived they found out that some stealth ship in orbit had decloaked and started firing at several targets on Earth, a few of the shots were directed at several tourist spots in Northern Japan, but no one was hurt because it was in the middle of the night.

Then, as if things couldn't get any stranger, a Kuroko screamed that a ship was falling to Earth, and point of impact was Walt Disney World of Japan!

After the crash Hudson had conferred with the tactical people, finding out that the ship wasn't detected until it started firing and radar could pinpoint were the nukes were launched. Apparently, it was one hell of an advanced stealth design.

"Well," Shutaro muttered under his breath while watching Disney World go up in flames, "at least nothing of value was destroyed."

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Monday, December 27, 1999 - 21:06:
(RP ON)
Ginkobot cussed. One of the ships in Ross 128 had unexpected veered off course while he was re-locating some of his more detectable equipment, and as a result, the self defense systems had switched on...

"The entire damned fleet will be here soon.. it will be difficult to hold off."

Behind him, Beavis and Butthead laughed as they watched the monitor, which was showing one of the smaller corvettes getting torn apart by a barrage of missiles.

"This is cool... huh huh" said Butthead.

"Yea, but like, where's the hot chicks? We should, like, change the channel or something."

"Yea, we want chicks, and guns and stuff. Uhh.. hey Mr. scientist dude.. can you like, uhh, change the channel? We wanna see women and stuff."

Ginkobot growled. The 2 boys were becoming a nusiance, and he'd be forced to dispose of them soon if he was unable to find the secret to sub-space time travel.

Over at the edge of the Ploxis system, the UNO and the Bastion were waiting for the return of the rest of Alpha squadron.

Hayes tapped his foot impatiently. "Where the hell are they?"

Sergei looked up. "Sir, I'm picking up a contact at long range, it looks heavily damaged."

After a moment, a very crippled corvette came into visual range, blackened and scarred.

"This is the Ares to the Under New Ownership. Reporting as ordered."

"What the hell happened?"

"The ground defenses on Ploxis V mis-took us as a hostile enemy.. apparently they're all worked up over that tourist center incident... they got the Washington, but we managed to limp back. Repair teeams report the situation is under control."

"Alright. We're heading for the Ross 128 system. Follow us in."

"Roger that."

"Sergei, set the jump point to Ross 128."

"Aye skipper. Jump coordinates set."

"Take us-"

"Sir, picking up a distant contact, heading to our location. Maybe the Washington got out alive after all?"

"Lets hope so. Tell me the details once it's in range."

A distance away from the small group, Lum's UFO entered with a flash and began flying to the far side of the moon.

"So this Ginkobot guy is behind all of this?"

Cygni nodded. "The details are pretty sketchy, but I'm pretty damn sure it's him."

"Then I'm coming."

"No, you aren't. It's far too dangerous."

"..You think I'm just bringing this old ship?"

Lum laughed to herself and walked over to the main screen, then called up the communications. Invader appeared.

"Daddy, I'm going to go teach that Ginkobot guy a lesson, can you give me some ships to help out?"

"Ahh, you found him?"

"Well, actually some friends of mine did.."

"Alright, I'm coming personally to help out. I'll be sending 10 destroyers to assist you. They'll arrive in 10 minutes."

"Thanks daddy!"

The comm unit winked out.

Cygni blinked. "Who was that?"

"My daddy, he's got the biggest fleet in the galaxy!"

"Well, lets hope so, because we're going to need all the help we can. Anyways, that looks like Hayes' fleet up ahead, I'm gonna go catch up and brief him on the details. Contact us once your fleet arrives."

"Okay."

As Cygni crawled into her mecha, she saw Lum hugging a confused Ataru going "Darling, we're going to war together! Won't it be fun?"

She could already predict the array of arguments that would follow, so she didn't hesitate to palm open the airlock and shoot out, towards the UNO.

Sergei smiled. "It's Cygni sir, she's coming aboard."

"Good, we can use all the help we can."

After a few minutes, Cygni walked onto the bridge, giving Sergei an affectionate smile. She then turned to Hayes.

"So you've found this Ginkobot guy?"

"Yea, on one of the planets in the Ross 128 system."

"Not much of a fleet to go with."

"It's better than nothing."

"Well, it's still not enough. I've got 10 destroyers, plus Lum's father coming through to assist."

Hayes grinned. "I think we'll present a bit more of a credible threat with that much for a fleet.

"There's also the respective fighters on each ship, and I'll be going in as well..."

"Excellent." Sergei said, grinning. "We'll show that bastard what we really have!"

Ten minutes later, 11 destroyers jumped into the Ploxis system and linked up with the Under New Ownership. After briefly discussing battle plans, they jumped towards the Ross 128 system in a flash.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Bladeofkintaro (Bladeofkintaro) on Monday, December 27, 1999 - 21:42:
Hudson and Ryoko continued down the road when a man jumped out in front of the car. he extended his lightsaber claws and ripped apart the front of the car. Radicus ripped the door off and said "Get out of the car! I may not be able to get Lum or Cygni but at least I can finish off you three!"
Shutaro pulled out his sword only to get it chopped off. Radicus lowered his arm and a strange cannon came out of it.

The ten destroyers arrived at the Ross 128 system in a flash.
Ginkobot looked at the monitor and said "What the hell? No I'm not ready yet! My ships cant stop that many. I'd better use the phaze missiles!" a large missile left one of the moons in the Ross 128 system and it exploded sending out ten phaze missiles simular to the one that detonated on earth awhile back.

Beavis said "Cool! explosions! huhuhuhu!"
Ginkobot took out some duck tape and stuck it on Beavis and Buttheads mouths. Beavis and Butthead struggled to get the tape off without theyre hands. suddenly a blue flash apeared between theyre heads and a portal spat out Koaro the 17th Angel and Boba Fett. Koaro said "Why do you pilot EVA shinji?" Boba Fett said "I'm not Shinji! where am I?"

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Monday, December 27, 1999 - 22:37:
(RP ON)
Sergei looked up with alarm. "Sir, incoming phase missiles!"

Cygni stood up. "I'll disarm them, my mecha has an anti-bomb pack."

"Be careful, those things are damn sensitive" said Sergei.

"Don't worry, I'm not ready to die yet."

She rushed down to the docking bay, hopped into the mecha and palmed open the airlock.

After jumping out and flying towards the incoming missiles, she prepared the anti-bomb pack. A large panel opened up on the mecha's left shoulder and brought out a white package. Cygni opened it and brought out 10 small devices, labelled "Logic inhibitors". She proceeded to rapidly begin planting the inhibitors on all the incoming missiles. One by one their engines shut off and they began drifting.

Ginkobot watched as the missiles gradually began switching off. He stabbed a red button, signalling the last one to detonate.

Cygni was proceeding to the last one, when suddenly a light on it went red and it began counting down from 5.

"SHIT!"

("Get out of there, NOW!")

She kicked in the afterburners and flew straight upwards, away from the missile. It exploded, causing a chain reaction in the rest of them, ripping an extremely large hole in the time/space continuum. A black vortex appeared and began spinning rapidly.

On the bridge of the UNO, Sergei growled. "Sir, one of the missiles had detonated.. I'm showing a massive disturbance ahead.. we're too far away to be affected by it."

"Is Cygni still alright?"

"Aye, she managed to get out of range."

"Alright, plot a course around the disturbance and take us towards the planet." He walked over and switched on the comms. "UNO to squadron, follow us around the disturbance, then we'll split up and hit the planet from different sides."

The ships acknowledged. Sergei hit a few buttons on his console to take them around the rip. Suddenly a large blip appeared on his screen.

"Sir, something's coming through the portal!"

Cygni fought off the unconsiousnous that threatened to overtake her. She had managed to clear the blast, but the shockwave had knocked her around quite a bit. She heard static begin sputtering over her comms.

"--Colossus here! Command, hull failure seems immenent! We bo- what the hell? Where are we??"

She watched below as a massive brown and grey ship, trailing sparks and lightning, tumbled out of the vortex. It had large gaping holes all over it, and looked ready to blow.

She instantly recognized it as the Colossus from Freespace 2, one of the games she had played. The combination of all the phase missiles must have re-opened the dimensional breach!

The Colossus cleared the vortex, barely, before it sputtered and closed in on itself.

Onboard the UNO, Sergei scratched his head. "Sir, I don't recognize the configuration of that ship.. I have no idea if it's one of ours, or part of Ginkobot's defense.."

"It looks heavily damaged. We'll circumvent it for now. All units, we're heading to the planet. Follow us in."

Down in the lab, Ginkobot cheered. "So THAT'S the solution to creating a sub-space trans dimensional breach! I must examine this further..."

He skipped down the hallway and closed the door behind him, leaving Beavis and Butthead alone in his lab.

Butthead reached up and tore the tape off of Beavis' face, who yelled in pain. "Ow! Butthead that hurt!"

Beavis reached up and did the same thing to Butthead.

"Ow, cut it out dill-hole!"

They walked over to the console, where they saw a massive ship sitting in orbit around the planet, trailing sparks.

"This sucks. Lets change the channel."

"Yea, this sucks!"

They began randomly hitting buttons on the console. When nothing seemed to happen, Beavis picked up a large pole from the ground.

"I think it's broken. This should fix it.. heh heh"

"Yea.. heh.. lets break it."

"Yea yea, break it, break it, BREAK IT!!"

Butthead picked up another large pole and they began smashing the console to pieces. The door opened nearby, and Ginkobot entered, gasped, and dropped his equipment to the ground with a clatter. Beavis turned around from the console, which was now smashed and trailing sparks and lightning, and grinned.

"Um.. I think it's broken. Heh heh."

Butthead turned around as well.

"Yea, it was like, uhh, broken and stuff. We tried to fix it."

"Yea, just call me Mr. Fixit. Heh heh. Thank you drive through."

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!!" yelled Ginkobot, pulling out a gun from his coat and aiming it at the boys, who's eyes bugged out.

Suddenly the console exploded, knocking Ginkobot off of his feet and sending Beavis and Butthead flying across the room, landing in a heap in the corner.

"Ow... I think I broke something.. heh heh" said Beavis, who was lying on top of Butthead.

Ginkobot recovered and began reaching for his gun, which had flown out of his hands, when another explosion rocked the complex. A female voice spoke.

"WARNING: REACTOR TEMPERATURE REACHING CRITICAL MASS. MASSIVE INCOMING HOSTILE SHIPS. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!"

Ginkobot's face turned white. "You boys can rot in hell for this!" He spun around and ran out the door, while explosions began going off all over the room.

Butthead struggled to his feet, only to be knocked down again when a large conduit landed on the two.

"This sucks.." he muttered.

"It doesn't just suck Butthead, it's like.. uhh.. it's like... it really sucks!"

Butthead reached down and smacked Beavis on the face. "This is all your fault buttmunch, you're the one who had to smack that console."

"Ow! It was broken already damnit, I was fixing it!"

"So? It like, exploded and stuff."

"Yea, heh, that was cool."

Butthead hopelessly tried to shove the conduit off of them, while explosions rocked all around them. Pieces of the base began falling down all over.

Onboard the UNO, Hayes scratched his chin thoughtfully. Explosions had begun rocking the complex before they had even begun their attack. He wondered just what was going on.

"Sir, the self-defense systems are still online. We've got various automated mecha and turrets aiming at our position."

"Signal the rest of the fleet. Pincer attack Gamma."

"Aye, sir."

Onboard Lum's UFO, Ataru began screaming as Lum cheered and moved the ship across the planet, skillfully avoiding and shooting down anything that aimed at them.

"Are you nuts? We can die out here!"

Lum just smiled. "I do this sort of thing all the time darling!" She brought the ship around for another run, while Ataru just sat there screaming.

Cygni had stayed above the planet to investigate the Colossus. Apparently they had been caught in the breach at the part in the game where the ship was destroyed... by the Shivan Juggernaut if she remembered correctly. It looks like they had been saved in the brink of time.

Her HUD indicated the ship to be at 5% hull integrity. It was barely hanging on. Repair crews were already crowding the outside of the vessel, fixing up what they could. She inched closer to get a better view.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Tuesday, December 28, 1999 - 02:00:
(RP ON)

Mendou Control...

Two figures stood watching a wall monitor.

"Looks like it has begun," Ryouko said to Warren with satisfaction as they watched the battle beginning light years away. "Remind me to write a thank you letter to Lum and her father when this is all over."

"That goes ditto for me," Hudson said solemnly. "Ryouko-chan, we should also plan a memorial service for Terra. I don't know what we should do..." Warren shrugged.

Ryouko looked up at him, "whatever we do you should give the eulogy, Warren-kun. I can't think of any better tribute."

"Yes, I suppose so," he smiled faintly, "looks like Terra's given me a reason to write and deliver a speech again."

Ryouko looked at him quizzically for a moment. He smiled, "I haven't spoken in front of people since 1977."

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Tuesday, December 28, 1999 - 03:08:
(RP ON)
After the fleet finished it's initial run across the second planet of Ross 128, they gathered in front of a large cave.

Inside the UNO, Sergei examined an interior map. "It looks like this tunnel leads right to the core captain. If we follow it down, we should be able to overload and destroy the base."

"Won't that take out a large chunk of the planet as well?"

Sergei shrugged. "We won't know till we try!"

"You got a point. Hayes to squad, follow us in."

The various ships switched on their running lights and proceeded into the large cave. After a few moments, a large bright beam stabbed out of the darkness and impacted against the bridge of the Ares, sending the ship plummeting into the side of the tunnel. Two other ships took it's place and combined their fire to take the turret down. They moved on down the tunnel without further incident.

Inside of Ginkobot's lab, Beavis and Butthead, using their combined strength, managed to shove the conduit off of them and stuggled to their feet while explosions echoed around them.

"Huh huh, this is cool."

"Heh, yea. I'm hungry, lets go get something to eat."

They took off down the hall, which ended into a large chasm. They watched as a bunch of ships flew past them.

On the UNO, Hayes squinted and looked ahead. There was a doorway with 2 ragged kids standing in it.

"We can't just leave them here to die. Sergei, land us near them."

"Aye."

The ship landed at the doorway, and Hayes ran to the airlock and ushered Beavis and Butthead inside, then closed it as the UNO took off again.

"What were you two boys doing in there?"

Butthead grinned. "Uhh, like, the TV was broken, so we tried to change the channel and stuff. But the thingie was broken so we, like, tried to fix it. Huh huh."

"Heh, yea, but then it exploded and there was all this cool crap flying all over the place!"

Hayes gawked. Could these two boys be the ones responsible for destroying most of the base?

He decided to worry about it later, and ran back to the bridge, leaving Beavis and Butthead looking around, laughing.

"Huh, this is cool."

"Heh, yea.... ahhh!"

They were thrown to their feet as a missile exploded near the ship.

Out in space, Cygni was finally spotted by one of the techs working outside of the ship. Her comm unit chirped a short moment after.

"This is the GTVA Colossus to unknown ship. Assuming you can understand me, where the hell are we?"

("May as well explain it to them..")

"Captain, you're in the Ross 128 system. Thanks to the combined detonation of multiple phase torpedos, a sub-space rip was opened in the time and space continuum. Somehow you got caught up in it, and well, here you are now."

The captain blinked a moment, trying to take this in.

"Any way we can get back?"

"If there is, I haven't got the slighest idea what. Looks like you'll be sticking around here for awhile."

"I don't believe I caught your name."

"Cygni."

"Thanks for clearing this up Cygni. We'll try to get this fixed up and be out of your hair as soon as possible."

"It's no trouble. I'm gonna hang around for a bit and make sure you haven't attracted any unwanted attention. You look pretty beat up, I'll assist with the repairs."

"Alright, you have clearance to approach the ship. Colossus out."

Cygni grinned and flew in towards the ship. "Computer, deploy the nano-droids to assist in the repairs of the Colossus."

A panel opened and a swarm of fireflies flew towards the ship, beginning to fix the massive holes and breaches in the hull. She pulled out a small repair tool on the mecha's hip and began assisting.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Tuesday, December 28, 1999 - 08:08:
I'm bored so I may as well contribute a bit more..

(RP ON)
Hayes watched from the bridge of the UNO as the dark tunnel they were travelling through gradually emerged into a massive interior, with a long generator running down the middle.

"We're going to have to go on foot and deploy satchel charged to destroy this thing. If we disrupt the flow right now..."

"...We're all dead" Hayes finished. "Hayes to squad. Head down to the base of the reactor, go out on foot, and drop as many satchel charges as you can. Set the timer for 5 minutes."

The ships acknowledged, and the fleet moved downwards, taking out the various defenses guarding the perimeter.

On Lum's ship, Ataru hugged Lum tightly, mumbling "I don't want to die!!!" over and over. Lum's smile went even wider, he was playing right into her hands.

Out in space, Cygni landed the vessel in the fighter bay of the Colossus. She had arranged to meet the captain to discuss the details of just what was going on.

Various officers scattered, most gawking at her mecha as she softly touched down on the flight deck. When she opened the front panels and jumped out, their eyes bugged out even further.

She turned to a group of them that were red faced, and put on a stern expression. "What's the matter, never seen a girl in a bikini before?"

One of them coughed, and the rest returned to work, stealing occasional glances at her. At the far end of the bay, a door opened and an officer walked out, escorted by 2 guards. He walked over, and, nearly blushing, raised his hand. Cygni shook it and smiled.

"Don't be put off by the get-up, my life doesn't revolve around sex. I just wear whatever's the easiest to move around in... I stay alive longer that way."

The officer coughed, then smiled back. "Of course. You are Cygni, correct?"

"Yup."

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Captain Ryan, GTVA Colossus."

"The pleasure's mine.. how are the repairs coming?"

"Well, we managed to hold her together.. we got our butts thrashed good back there.. right now we're working on bringing the engines and weapons online."

Behind Cygni, a few techs were swarming around her mecha. One of them opened up a panel on it and nearly fell over backwards in surprise.

"Look at it.. it's beyond anything I've ever seen! Incredible!"

"Wow..."

Cygni turned around, replacing the stern expression on her face. "Whoever breaks it, dies." She patted the gun on her hip.

The techs, red faced, mumbled and returned to what they had been working on. She turned back to the captain, who nodded.

"Don't mind them, they're always poking around with new things."

"Well, just remind them not to poke around too much, because I wasn't kidding."

Ryan coughed again. "Yes.. about your weapons..."

"Sorry bud, the guns stay. Survival instinct."

One of the guards raised his gun, but Ryan put his hand in front of it. "Easy, I'm sure it'll be fine.."

Cygni nodded. "Believe me, if it was my intent to kill you, I'd have done it a long time ago. Now, are we going to stand here all day or are you going to show me around?" She cracked a smile.

Once again Ryan coughed, straightened his uniform, then extended his hand. "Shall we?"

Cygni nodded, took his hand, and they walked off the flight deck to begin the tour. Before they left the area, Cygni tossed an icy glare over her shoulder at the techs that had gawked over her mecha. They got the message and began pretending the mecha didn't exist.

Down at the core of the planet, the fleet landed at the bottom of the core area and dis-embarked. They then massed around the entire generator structure and placed hundreds of large satchel charges down, setting their timers for 5 minutes.

When the last one was set, they returned to their ships and immediately took off, heading straight for the top. Along the way, Hayes put on a stern expression.

"Are you sure this planet has nobody on it? The whole damn place is gonna go up from us doing this."

"Aye skipper, the logs show the whole area is uninhabited after the strange incident four years ago. If anybody IS here, they didn't log it, so it's their problem."

"Alright...."

As the ships reached the top, ten of them exited into the tunnel, but before the rest could go through, a massive door closed, sealing it off.

Hayes cussed. "Sergei, what the hell is going on?"

"I don't know! The whole place is locking down!"

A large monitor appeared above the door. Ginkobot's face appeared.

"Congratulations, you're smarter than I gave you credit for. Unfortunately I cannot allow you to leave... so I guess you'll be forced to go up along with the planet. I guess this is goodbye. Oh and one more thing to think about. I've figured out the secret to sub-space time travel. Just figured I'd share that little secret with you."

Ginkobot laughed, and the monitor winked out.

"Sergei, can you hack into the systems?"

"I'm trying! Damn thing, it's totally locked me out!"

"How much time have we got?"

"Four minutes, thirty seconds."

"Can we blast our way out?"

"That depends. Do you feel like having the entire planet blow up four minutes ahead of time?"

Hayes sighed. This was going to be tough.

"What about the ships that made it through?"

"Any kind of gunfire this close to the core will set it off. Only a precise cutting tool could cut through the door without setting off the generator. But none of our ships has any of that!"

"Hmmm... Cygni is still out in space checking out that ship. Assuming she's still alive, that mecha of her's could come in handy. Open up a channel with her."

"Aye sir."

Cygni was walking down the hallway towards the bridge, discussing what had happened before the dimensional breach with Captain Ryan, when the portable comm unit she had taken out of the mecha beeped. She held up her hand. "Just a second."

She picked up the comm unit and hit the green button. "Cygni here."

"Cygni? This is Captain Hayes. We've got a problem. We're all set to blow this planet to pieces, taking Ginkobot's lab with it, but he's laid a trap for us.. a massive door blocking the exit to the core. We can't risk firing or it'll be set off. Does your mecha have any precise cutting tools?"

"Yup, I think so."

"Get down here on the double. You got three minutes and fourty seconds."

"On it!" She flipped off the comm unit and returned it to her hip.

"I'm sorry to bug out on you, but I've got some friends who are about to be blown to pieces, and I've got to go play super-hero."

Ryan nodded. "We'll be waiting for you on your return."

"Right. And I suggest you move away from this planet as soon as possible, it's gonna make quite a boom when she goes."

"I'll keep that in mind."

She spun around and ran down the corridor, rushing directly to the flight bay. When she reached her mecha, she immediately hopped in, closed the front plates, and set the computer to count down from three minutes. She kicked in the afterburners and poured all the power she could into the thrusters. Her mecha shot away from the ship and dove towards the planet at insane speeds, entering the cave after a few second and diving down through it.

On the UNO, Hayes cussed. He was an idiot for ordering the packs to be set at 5 minutes, 10 would have been more than enough to get away and still not worry about someone disarming them.

"Sergei.. is there any way we can disarm them?"

"There's far too many. We'd be wasting our time. Even one of them could set off a core breach. The reason we set down so many is to be sure the breach destroyed the whole planet. Ginkobot has forces all over the damn place."

"Damn! Nothing to do but wait for Cygni..."

Sergei leaned back in his chair and smiled to himself. How ironic it would be that his lover would be coming to rescue him, he always figured it would be the other way around.

His smile dropped into a frown.

"Assuming she is my lover anyways..." he muttered.

(RP OFF)

[Lum-chan]

By Bladeofkintaro (Bladeofkintaro) on Tuesday, December 28, 1999 - 15:54:
Ginkobot prepared to madify his ship wherever he was to jump into another diamension using phaze missile technology. Once he went into another diamension there would be hundreds of new resources at his desposal!

Cygni was cutting through the door. Sergei looked at the timer witch was down to less then 3 minutes.
RPoff

Oh gee this post was kinda short.

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Tuesday, December 28, 1999 - 21:41:
*grin* I guess since Jocko will be working on the next thread, the job of this one kinda falls to me. Oh well, no problem!

By the way, I'm planning on leaving the sub-space time travel stuff to the next thread or the one after.. right now Ginkobot is just going into hiding again and preparing to re-build his base and commence experimentation on the technology.

(RP ON)
Beads of sweat began to build on Cygni's head. The door was massive, it needed to be to block off the entire tunnel. The best she could possibly do in the time given was make a hole large enough to fit one ship at a time. She had cut approximately 25% of that area now.

She glanced at the red timer on her screen. "Two minutes, thirty seconds..."

Hayes stood tensely at the front of the bridge, glancing out at the door where sparks were seen at the area Cygni was cutting. The comm unit beeped.

"Hayes, I'm not gonna have enough time to get a big enough hole for you all to get out at once. It's gonna be really close, but I may be able to get something big enough to get you out one at a time."

"Hurry, we've only got two minutes left."

"I'm workin as fast as I can! I had to turn this cutter to low power mode, or risk blowing the whole thing to pieces!"

When the timer hit 1:30, Cygni cussed. She had only cut 50% of the wall, and she couldn't possibly get the rest in time.

"Hayes, we've got a problem. I can't get this door down, not in the time remaining. Any bright ideas?"

Hayes turned to Sergei. "Isn't there anything we could do?"

Sergei shrugged. "We could try blowing the door down and rushing out before the explosions overtook us."

Hayes shook his head. "Last resort, but there's got to be another way!"

Inside Lum's ship, which had been trapped along with the rest of the group, Lum tapped her foot against the deck plating, wondering what was taking so long. She brought up the comms and called up the UNO.

"What's taking so long? How come we're hanging around here?"

Hayes calmly explained the situation. Lum paused a moment, then yelled out. "NOBODY hurts my darling!!"

Hayes recovered and realized what was going on. "Lum! NO!!"

Too late. Lum stabbed a button on her console, and a massive amount of lightning stabbed out from her ship, utterly annihilating the door. Behind them, the reactor began sparking and turning a blood-red colour. Ataru began screaming. Lum laughed. Sergei yelled "We need to go, NOW!" and Cygni attempted to recover from being flung against the far wall of the tunnel from the blast.

The ships immediately began moving outwards from the tunnel on blaring thrusters, gaining as much speed as possible. Below them, the satchel charges detonated from the intense fluctuations the reactor was emitting, and a wave of explosions began moving upwards from the reactor. Cygni recovered and followed the vessels outward.

Behind them, the explosions reaeched the top of the core and spilled out into the tunnel, while the core itself lost containment and began tearing massive holes in itself. The massive magma it had been pumping from the planet's core spilled out, causing additional explosions.

As the ships moved down the tunnel, a few of them loosing control and exploding against the wall from the insane speed they were moving at, the area behind them gradually turned red, and the explosions and flying magma began catching up behind them. Cygni passed over the rear-most vessels, yelling "Out of my way! Me first! I don't feel like dying today!" On the UNO, Hayes turned to Sergei, a haggard look on his face.

"How far?"

"Ten kilometers. It's going to be close."

Hayes watched out the side window as Cygni caught up to the UNO, flashed them a thumbs up, and blasted ahead of them. Behind, a few of the slower ships were being consumed by the explosions. Screams were heard over the comms.

"Nearly there, only 2 kiliometers untill we exit the tunnel."

As the explosions got closer, the rear of the UNO began to heat up from the intense detonations behind it. Three more ships were caught in the explosions.

The view in front of them exploded into daylight, and as the ships exited the tunnel, they immediately vectored their course upwards. Explosions spilled out of the tunnel below, and hot magma began running all over the nearby land.

As the ships shot upwards, heading out of the atmosphere, the ground began to crackle and break up, and the seams began to glow red. The whole planet was slowly breaking apart.

Cygni was the first to leave the atmosphere. She signalled the remaining ships to follow her, and then shot towards the Colossus, which had limped away to the planet's moon. The rest of the ships followed as best they could.

The whole planet could be seen quite literally falling apart at the seams behind them, from orbit. The entire planet began to glow a hideous colour of red, then suddenly masssive chunks of it seperated and flew out of the atmosphere at insane speeds, luckily not hitting anything. After that, the planet's core itself was seen, gradually freezing over as the atmopshere dissipated. It then exploded in a massive flash... and was gone.

Cygni watched the entire spectacle from a distance. She had never expected to be taking part of the destruction of an entire planet. Hell, she hadn't expected to be controlling a mecha, or meeting characters from her favorite games. Terra would have loved to see this sight now...

Her stomach churned an unconfortable feeling. Terra was gone. It never really hit her so hard before, she had just let loose a few tears and had gone on her way. But now it was coming back and hurting twice as much.

She slowly moved over to the UNO and docked, then moved up to the bridge. Sergei and Hayes congratulated her for helping them out so much. She just took in the praise and nodded.

It hit them when Hayes said "A sight that would make Terra proud." Cygni didn't seem to react at all at first. Then she felt the waterworks coming on, and couldn't stop them. She didn't want them to stop.

Sergei saw immediately what was going on, and stood up. He walked over to Cygni and extended his hand, and was surprised when Cygni rushed into his arms, leaning her head on his shoulder and sobbing uncontrollably. Sergei stood there with her, trying to comfort her.

Hayes stood at the front of the bridge, peering out the window at the remains of the planet, a dark look on his face.

"I can just imagine what she would say right now..." he murmered, then pulled up a chair, sat down, and pulled his captain's hat over the front of his head, saying nothing.

(RP OFF)
My next post will wrap up the story, including the memorial service for Terra, and figuring out what to do with the Colossus.

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 06:50:
Alright, I guess it's time to finish this up..

(RP ON)
There was a massive crowd around the front of the school. The entire town of Tomobiki was there, to attend Terra's memorial. Hudson had recieved word that the attack was a success, and was currently preparing everything for the group's arrival. Cygni had sent word that Invader was coming as well, along with some "unexpected friends".

Out in space, a massive blue and white hole opened up in space and a 6 kilometer long brown and grey vessel slowly emerged. Various other holes and flashes appeared as the rest of the fleet emerged.

On the UNO, Sergei looked up at Hayes. He hadn't moved an inch from his chair after the planet had been destroyed, and he was just sitting in the same position, in the dark, looking down, with his hat over his face. Sergei cleared his throat.

"Sir, we've reached Earth."

A small nod was seen on Hayes' face. "Signal the fleet and take us down."

"Aye."

Cygni stood up. "This would be a good time to introduce Captain Ryan once the memorial finishes, so I'll go head over and invite him down."

Sergei nodded, and Cygni walked out the door. She stopped at the airlock, where Beavis and Butthead were standing, as they had been throughout the whole battle, just chuckling to themselves. They turned around and noticed Cygni, and their eyes bugged out.

"Woa! Hey Butthead look, it's another hot chick!"

They began rushing towards her, arms outstretched. Cygni put a small smile on her face, raised her hands, and let loose a small bolt of lightning their way, sending them crashing against the bulkhead and landing in a heap admist a bunch of cargo containers. Cygni boarded her mecha and took off, towards the Colossus.

"Uhh, this sucks."

"Heh, yea Butthead. What kind of world is it where we can't have any hot chicks? They're like, all around us and we can't get them! It's like, some stupid puzzle, or something. Heh heh."

"Beavis, I have the key to the puzzle."

"Woa, cool!"

"...It's in my pants. Huh huh, huh huh."

"Heh yea.. it's in my pants too. Heh heh."

Cygni landed smoothly on the flight deck of the Colossus and was greeted by Captain Ryan.

"Glad to see you guys made it in one piece..."

"We managed to hold her together. What can I do for you Cygni?"

"A dear friend of ours, who goes by the name of Terra, was lost to us a short time ago.. we're holding a memorial for her below. I'd be honored if you joined us, and it would be a good time to introduce you to the public so they know what's going on..."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? It might create some mass hysteria."

"Trust me, the people of this particular town are used to this phenomena. And I'm really not sure how long you guys are going to be here, but it will be awhile at least."

Ryan nodded. "Alright. It may be awhile before I can come down though, I'm still needed up here to direct the repairs. How about I make my entrance in an hour?"

"Maybe a bit later, I was planning on introducing you AFTER the memorial.. I'll send you a message when it's time."

"Sounds good. Untill then."

"Right."

She climbed back into her mecha and took off, following the rest of the fleet into the atmosphere.

Hudson stood at the massive stage that had been set up in front of the school, looking nervous. Ryouko cradled his shoulder.

"You're worrrying too much. It will be fine."

Hudson nodded. "I know... I just can't get the feeling out of my head that something will go wrong.."

They looked up as a ship landed nearby, in the school grounds, with the words UNO painted on it's hull. Fifteen other ships landed around the area, ending with a small transport from Invader's cruiser.

Hudson walked over to the airlock of the UNO and waited as it opened. Two boys poked their heads out, chuckling. They looked down at Hudson.

"What a dork." said one of them. Hudson furrowed his brow. "What.. did you say?" he slowly stammered out.

The two were kicked out the airlock and onto the schoolgrounds a small distance away by a grinning Sergei. "Don't mind them, they're just a couple of stupid kids we rescued." Sergei walked down and shook hands with Hudson, followed by Hayes who did the same. Ryouko walked up and nodded at the two.

"Good to see you back in one piece."

They nodded.

"Where's Cygni?" Hudson asked.

"She's coming, just had to prepare a couple of things..ah, there she is now."

Behind them, a mecha landed on blaring thrusters, shutting down with a whine. The front panel opened up and Cygni hopped out, and walked over to the group.

Hudson turned to her and put on a stern expression. "I'm sorry.."

Cygni shook her head. "Save it, there wasn't anything you, or anybody else could have done."

Lum and Ataru walked over from another direction and said hello. Sergei flashed them a smile. "Nice flying back there.. almost as good as me!"

Lum nodded. "Thanks."

Ataru eyed the area warily. "So what's going on?" he asked. Cygni turned to him.

"Don't you know? Terra is dead. I thought I told you!"

Ataru reeled back in shock, then put his head down, his face clouding over in darkness.

"And I never even got to do it with her.." he mumbled. Lum bared her fangs and gave him a glare. "Darling!!!"

Ataru held his hands over his head as lightning crackled through Lum's hands. "I was kidding, I was kidding!" he yelled, and nearly had a heart attack when Lum ran over to him, he expected to get shocked to death, but no lightning came.

"Oh darling you're so sensitive..."

Invader walked over from his ship and gently shook Hudson's hand. "It's an honor to meet you face to face." he said. Hudson smiled. "Believe me, the honor is mine."

Invader turned to Cygni. Her eyes wandered up, and she found her stomach in her throat. Invader was at least three times the size of her, and could probably smash her into the ground if he felt like it. She put on a neutral expression. She knew what was coming.

"Word has it you were the one trying to kill my daughter..." he said calmly.

Cygni nodded slowly. "Yea, but I stopped when I realized I was being double crossed."

"I can always respect a girl with a conscience" he replied, extending his massive hand. Cygni shook it vigirously. He then turned to the group of Lum's elite guards, who had gathered behind him. He gave Bakuto a glare.

"How could you possibly let someone get so close to her, and have her at gunpoint?"

Bakuto cringed. "I.. uhh.. that is..." he stammered out. #31 cut him off.

"He was too busy spending time at the bar with me sir, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have convinced him to come. I accept full responsibility."

She bowed down, and nudged Bakuto. "That's three drinks you owe me." she muttered under her breath.

Invader nodded. "Your record speaks very highly of you, so I'll let it go just this once. But don't let it happen again, Clae."

#31 gasped, then recovered. "I told you never to mention my name in public!" she hissed.

"It's time you dropped all this secrecy, there's no need for it. I told you that a month ago."

"But.."

"No buts."

She growled and rose to her feet. "Yes.. SIR.."

She nudged Bakuto again. "Forget three drinks, that's twenty."

Bakuto laughed. "Sure.. 'Clae'.. hah, what a dumb name..."

Clae withdrew her sword and levelled it at Bakuto's head."That's it, I've had enough of you and your wisecracks! Die!!"

Bakuto laughed. "Only if you can catch me!!" He turned into a hawk and took off, flying low over the buildings dotting Tomobiki. Clae lept up and followed, yelling.

Outside of the schoolgrounds, a good distance away, Radicus climbed on top of a building and pulled a large sniper rifle from his briefcase. He assembled the various pieces together, then looked through the scope and aimed at the stage. He was going to take as many people with him before he got killed. He was sick of loosing.

The group arranged themselves in various chairs on top of the stage, with Hudson standing at the head, looking at all the people. He tuned the microphone for better reception, and waited for the rest of the people to be seated.

He breathed a sigh of relief as Invader's officers brought in his own large chair to sit in, finding him something adequate would prove to be a daunting task. He looked around at the group. Hayes was sitting by himself at the far end of the stage, with a dark look on his face. Cygni was sitting next to Sergei, with them chatting with each other. Ataru and Lum were exchanging glances at each other and looking over the massive crowd. Invader was simply sitting back in his chair, looking pre-occupied. Ryouko was sitting near him, smiling, and the various officers from the other vessels were sitting there as well. He eyed the area carefully. The two insulting kids were nowhere to be seen. He hoped they weren't getting into trouble.

He drank from a large glass of water and cleared his throat. The chattering crowd silenced. All eyes were on him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for joining us on this day. We are here to celebrate the memories and passing of Terra, who touched all of our hearts."

He paused, searching for something else to say.

"She came here first as an enemy, with nothing more than mass destruction on her mind. Indeed, Lum nearly died from her, and Invader was critically injured."

He raised his voice. "It was because of her that hundreds, possibly thousands died! Cities were levelled, pain caused, new soldiers were recruited to die shortly after! All because of Terra and her rebellion!"

Cygni, Hayes, and Sergei both looked up and began staring at Hudson at exactly the same time. "Hudson!" Cygni hissed under her breath.

Undaunted, he pressed on.

"So why am I bringing this up now? Why must we be reminded of these terrible acts?"

Cygni furrowed her brow in deep thought. This all seemed very familiar. Was Hudson a fan of Robotech as well?

"I remind you of all this, because we must learn to forgive our enemies!"

It took Cygni nearly all she could to keep from bursting out laughing. That had done it, she knew that he was a fan. And the funny thing was, it all fit so perfectly with what was going on. She coughed and tried to put a stern expression back on her face, crossed her arms, and leaned back in her chair.

Hudson stopped a moment to let it go over. The crowd seemed stunned a moment. Some of them were nearly ready to rush the stage in a rage, while others were simply glaring at him for saying such things. But his last words had caused them to reconsider.

"After a time, we learned that Terra was being used by Doctor Ginkobot. After she learned this as well, she never hesitated to come around to our side. She had been fighting for what she believed in, which is the important thing."

"After we brought her around, she changed her beliefs. Instead of thinking that the Oni kingdom was wrong and messed up, she knew she had been used, and made a promise to hunt Ginkobot down some day and exact revenge. How ironic it is that she ended up being killed by one of his cronies."

He took another sip out of his glass. Thing seemed to be going well.

In the distance, Radicus narrowed the crosshairs on Hudson's head. He had to be absolutely sure he hit, as he wouldn't get another chance.

Beavis and Butthead were hanging out at the back of the crowd, eating the junk food and glancing around at the women. Beavis grabbed a coffee mug and filled it to the brim with coffee, then drank it all down at once. He repeated this three times, then slung the back of his shirt over his head and began waving the coffee mug in the air, proudly proclaiming "I am the great cornholio! I need TP for my bunghole! Heh heh."

He began moving through the crowd towards the stage.

Hudson was preparing for his next line of speech, when suddenly a strange kid with the back of his shirt over his head climbed up and ran in front of him, demanding "TP" for his "bunghole." Before Hudson could reply, the coffee mug the kid was holding exploded in front of Hudson's face, sending the kid reeling and falling behind the stage into a pile of garbage.

Hudson kneeled down and picked up a spent sniper round, lying on the ground. He yelled out the first thing that came to his head. "SNIPER!!!"

Cygni instantly stood up, grabbed her Desert Eagle, and flew out towards the only direction the bullet could have come from, considering the isolated area the memorial was taking place in. She flicked on the laser sight, and after a moment, came across Radicus, fumbling for another round. She landed and kicked the gun away.

"So, we meet at last you slimy bastard."

She slipped a clip into her gun and shoved it in his face, then slowly shook her head and pulled the gun back.

"No.. death is too good of a sentence for you. I've got a better idea."

She grabbed him by the arms. "What are you doing? NO! NO!!!" He began panicking and flailing about, while Cygni put a determined look on her face and began flying him back to the stage. She landed, roughly forced Radicus down to his knees, and took the microphone from Hudson.

"This is Radicus Zeus. He's in charge of a massive underground agency attempting to bring the Oni empire down, has massive forces all over the place, is one slimy shithead, and killed Terra."

The crowd gasped. Cygni grabbed Radicus by the neck and lifted him off the ground, gagging.

"I'd pop a cap in his sorry head right now, but I'm going to leave this to you people."

She tossed him into the crowd, who swarmed around him. "NO! PLEASE!! NO!!!" He began screaming.

Hudson put a hand on her shoulder. "I'm glad you found him." he said.

She nodded. "I'll let them decide what to do with him." She returned to her seat.

Hudson sighed. The crowd was already grabbing large and deadly objects and beginning to attack Radicus with them, and there wouldn't be much hope of getting their attention again untill he was nothing more than a bloody smear on the grass. He took a large gulp from his drink, put his arm around Ryouko, and said "Come, lets go have some lunch, I'm hungry." Ryouko nodded, and they headed back to the mansion.

Cygni sighed as well. She may as well wait to introduce Captain Ryan and the Colossus. She stood up and grabbed Sergei by the arm, dragging him to his feet.

"C'mon, I'm starving, lets go get something to eat."

The duo walked off towards town. Hayes nodded and smiled.

"It's about time he settled down with someone."

He turned and began walking towards his favorite thinking spot, the bridge of the Under New Ownership. It was beginning to get cool out anyways.

Ataru watched in a panick as the stormtroopers, aside from Megane, picked themselves out of the crowd and began wandering down the street after Cygni and Sergei. His last diversion for Lum was gone, his hopes of chasing other women gone. He would be stuck with her forever.

"Come on darling, lets go home!" She leaned over and nibbled on his ear playfully. He shuddered and laughed. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all...

Megane stood admist the insane crowd with a stern expression, watching as Lum tugged on Ataru's arm, grabbed him under the arms, and flew him home. He sighed and turned towards the street and began walking. Things were going to get difficult now.

END
(RP OFF)
Ok so maybe that was kind of a sudden ending, but I wanted to get this out of the way >) I'd like to extend thanks to Jocko for doing such a damn good job with Hudson, for Bladeofkintaro and his Bakuto character, and to everyone who read this for putting up with my strange and whacky ideas (and my copyright infringement.. *grin*).

Oh and don't worry about the Colossus, I'll let that leak over into the next story, remember how Ginkobot found the secret to time and inter-dimensional travel? I might have the crew of the Colossus pull off an attack and steal the technology so they can get home or something.. *shrugs*

I'll get rid of em one way or another. And yes, I'm gonna keep Beavis and Butthead around for a bit longer too *grin*

[Lum-chan]

By Jocko on Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 07:27:
Pretty good, Parias...although I probably would've had Hudson take out his pistol and neatly put a cap in Radicus's brain. Or hell, I may've gone the "stop the killing" route and Hudson spares him. Just punches him in the face and sends him down town with the boys.

But I love the bit where Cornholio saves Hudson! Genius!

[Lum-chan]

By Parias on Wednesday, December 29, 1999 - 07:52:
*grin* Thanks, I did the best I could think up at the time.

Now, lets get going with this next thread..