Eternal Heavens

Disclaimer:  I'm poor, so don't bother sueing.  I only own my 
original characters.  Hell, I don't even own some of them, heh.  
I don't own any of the Tenchi, Pretty Sami, Tenchi Universe, or 
Shin Tenchi characters that might make an appearance since AIC 
laid them off. ^_^

Authors Forward: The Lord Of Destruction kicked ass!

 I'd like to thank Sethra first off for her initial preread of 
this chapter, as well as various others who've added their input 
(and characters).  And I'd also like to beg and beg shamelessly 
for C&C of any type, oh PLEASE!  Please FFML! I BEG OF YOU!  >_> 
<_< Anyway, before I get my ass killed by certain Mechanoids for 
gimmick infringement, I'd really like to point you to my email 
addy: kthardin@yahoo.com so you can drop me a line and tell me 
how really bad and terrible my fanfiction is if you really want 
to (oh please?) ^_^

Gathering of the Children

   -Unknown Conflict

<Opening Theme - Sweet Child o Mine - Guns and Roses>

<Excalibur - Richard Wagner>

	He walked through the darkened halls with the weight of 
several lifetimes bearing down upon him.  He'd seen countless 
battles in his time.  He'd fought in wars that had stretched from 
one end of his galaxy to the other when his people were first 
establishing their place in the grand wheel of the universe.  His 
fighting skills in the family he hailed from were unmatched, save 
by those whom he served.  Because of his great experience and 
even greater power, he had been given the honor of mentoring 
generations of nobles from this family, until it was time to for 
them to take their place in The Empire.

	Because of this, it was he whom the overwhelming burden of 
delivering this ultimatum fell upon.

	The man exited the gates of the fortress carved within the 
tallest of the peaks.  Blinded momentarily by the rays of the 
rising son, he at the range of snow covered mountains and deep, 
seemingly bottomless, canyons that all served as home for the 
family he was sworn to protect.  The Y'tack, an honorable and 
noble family stretching back into the time before recorded 
history, when the clans of the Tetran were young and struggling 
to survive on their homeworld.  And this...this was their very 
heart.  Here the Lord and his Lady resided with their children 
who would have one day grown up to inherit the vast resources of 
their family.

	It would be a miracle if they survived this day, he knew.  
As the gates slid together behind him with the sharp ringing 
sound of metal upon metal, he gasped sharply causing his breath 
to come out as a stream of visible fog in the chill air.  He 
looked back half in surprise, and half in relief that they had 
done this .  Now he could only turn back, and resign himself to 
facing this destiny; hoping those gates would hold back the 
darkness that rushed to face them…if only for a little while.

	His kind could withstand the temperatures of deep space 
without protection; this chill of this world was as nothing to 
him.  Yet, he found that he'd rather feel the freezing touch of 
the wind that was blowing now or the bitter depths of space as 
compared to the cold dark caress of the terror gripping his 
heart.

	So far the lone figure standing only meters away, who was 
dressed in clothing that was so black it seemed to suck at the 
very reality around him, had not moved.  The being had just stood 
there since delivering a fateful proclamation and subsequent act 
of terminating all communications and traffic out of the Y'tack 
star system.  But if that lone figure made good on the threat 
given....

	"Cyraqs," he sighed, wondering who the hell he was kidding.

	All of it was true.  All the rumors and legends that their 
race used to scare each their children into submission, and 
frighten each other at night.  Something had unleashed the only 
thing those of the Tetran Empire feared more than the Emperor 
himself.

	What could it have possibly been to set off this 
monstrosity?  

	The being before the herald quirked a little grin and 
looked at him over the top of sunglasses which revealed eyes of 
infinite space and starry skies.  He looked upon those strange 
cold eyes, and knew right then just how small and insignificant 
he really was in comparison to what was represented before him.

	A light snow began to fall, obscuring the being's hair that 
was snow white, spiked up, and curled straight backward though 
kept rather short.  This was odd, as most who sported such hair 
tended to curl either toward the left or the right.  Not in this 
case, but then why should normal rules apply when nothing else 
did to this nightmare brought to life before the man?

	Even this being's physical size was a contradiction.  What 
the herald was looking at should have been gigantic...bigger than 
a whole quasar and monstrous beyond all sanity.  Not this 
unassuming barely five foot tall humanoid.

	The man took a deep breath, and prayed to the great lady 
who pulled their race out nonexistence and raised them to 
sentience.  He had never done so before, but it was the only 
comfort he could find now before he did what he knew he must.

	"Mad One!  The Family of Y'tack has existed since our race 
came to be, and you'll not destroy us now!  Remove your foul 
presence from our Star System and withdraw your blockade; for we 
will fight you to the death of every single one of us here!  And 
when this day comes to an end, it shall be you, not us, that will 
no longer be!"

	"Enough," the Mad One whispered, yet the force carried by 
that one word echoed over the world and into the stars beyond.

	Not one bit of snow or rock moved.

	The man who was the herald fell to his knees clutching his 
slightly elongated ears, blood seeping between his fingers.  The 
Mad One actually waited until the herald regained his feet and 
his eardrums had repaired themselves before he spoke again.  Not 
that the herald was expecting to have survived, but then that was 
why this being -this dark god- was called the Mad One.  You never 
knew.

	"I shall take your position...into consideration."

	He almost sounded...sincere.  In fact the Mad One looked to 
be mulling it over with himself, talking to who-knew-what-force 
raged chaotically in whatever it was that passed for his mind.

	The snow stopped falling when the Mad One looked up again.  
The wind, in fact all motion and sound had ceased.  The herald 
dared hope that they were to be spared when the Mad One smiled at 
him suddenly.

	The herald's shadow was permanently blasted into the 
mountain that he had once been standing on.

	"Well, it appears your terms...are not acceptable," he 
chuckled softly, ever increasing in intensity until he was 
laughing uncontrollably.

	Still laughing the Mad One raised his hand.

	Everything went white.

-----------------

<BGM - Enigma - MCMXC A.D.>

	"Nnnn...hyperspace...I'm going to hurt whoever invented the 
concept." She complained.  Vainly, she tried to shake the 
dizziness and disorientation she was experiencing after her 
reentry into normal space.

	Damn, she though.  This is worse than the time I was at 
that party and got totally blitzed!  I wound up sleeping with the 
most awesome god creation had produced...at least that's what I 
thought I was doing.  Then I rolled over the next day and found 
that Bugblatter Beast of Traal next to me!  Gah!  What the hell 
did I drink!?  The god of alcohol has a messed up sense of humor, 
that's for certain.  Still, I think I'd rather do that again 
instead of this!

	"Two days?" she asked herself once her balance returned 
somewhat.  She checked the chronometer on the portable scanner 
strapped to her wrist a second time just to be sure.  "Ugh.  Two 
days."

	She hated that.  She hated her current hyperspace travel 
abilities with a passion usually reserved for ex-boyfriends and 
Seion's pranks.  They were as much a curse as a blessing to her 
present state of being.  True, Kiyone was far faster than even 
the most advanced of the Galaxy Police ships, even Mihoshi's 
ship, the Yagami and Seion's ship, the Midorishu.  However, the 
queasiness and disorientation she experienced shifting to the 
state of energy required for hyperspace travel was not 
comfortable to say the least.  Coming out of hyperspace made that 
experience seem like the afterglow of a professional massage 
after some really intense sex.

	She shook what passed for her head quickly, trying to shake 
out the vestiges of her vertigo. 

	"I have got to figure out how to quit doing this!"

	The lab techs assured her she'd likely get used to the fact 
that her mind slipped into a different state of existence while 
she was traveling through that other...place.  She, of course, 
knew its generally accepted name, but she couldn't quite accept 
it so easily, at least not with how she traveled through it these 
days. That wasn't what bugged her so much, what happened when she 
arrived, now that is what she found so...distressing.

	Without consideration upon leaving that other state of 
existence several things happened, none of them pleasant.  She 
was ejected from hyperspace, rather rudely at that, converted 
back to a more recognizable form.  To top it all off, she was 
mentally brought around to a state of being where she could 
logically process information.  All in a matter of a few 
nanoseconds, and it was only that slow on a good day.  

	This hurt.  A lot.

	She glanced back at the scanner on her wrist, and noted it 
was still on the last page of the Quantum Destabilizer's user 
manual.  She'd actually managed to read its entirety before she 
'fell asleep' in hyperspace, while absently wondering why 
everything had to have a set of instructions that read in the 
most monotone and lackluster way imaginable.  Rather like the 
teacher she and Seion had when they were in midschool.

	A grin crossed her face when she remembered him for a 
fleeting instant; recalling what a truly useless individual that 
particular educator was.   She waved her hand once over the 
scanner, and a small solid-light control panel appeared above it.  
Tapping a couple of buttons, a map of the star system she was 
presently floating opened up above the panel, with a red dot 
blinking in the unmistakable manner of 'you are here, moron!'

	Something occurred to her.  "What star system is this?"  
She grinned as names were added to the five planets of the system 
as well as the medium sized yellow star they were orbiting.  
"Seion, I could kiss you!"

	The scanner had the capability of picking up and 
interpreting the low level radio waves she was speaking with 
while in the cold depths of space.  It had been an easy fix to 
the software, but most scanners still hadn't been upgraded with 
the ability to interpret her 'voice' in space as anything other 
than background radio noise.  Seion had obviously remembered to 
do this for her...it had completely slipped her mind.  She 
frowned at that, but it wasn't like it was a necessity she had 
forgotten, only a convenience.  After all, the thing still had 
buttons that could be pushed.

	She groaned a bit when a wave of weakness washed over her 
suddenly and her green radiance dimmed in response.

	"Mmmm...yeah, I guess I used up a bit of energy going all 
the way across the galaxy."  She chuckled and looked toward the 
star of this system.  "Ah...Sentinel Prime.  You'll do."  

	Kiyone unstrapped the scanner from her wrist, and unbuckled 
the pack around her shoulders and waist. Then, using a small 
amount of her power, she moved it a few feet away and prevented 
the pack from drifting further.  The woman of green energy wasted 
no time in stretching out as if to embrace the light streaming 
toward her.  Immediately points of emerald light began shimmering 
all over her...around her...in her glittering and twinkling in 
patterns all their own.

	"Mmm...yummy!"

	Some used to go to the beach to get a tan.  Now she'd go to 
get a bite to eat.

	Odd that.

	------------

	Seion walked through the double doors of the Section X's 
hangar bay - Level Twelve.  Hardly noting the spacecraft of 
various designs docked around him, he made his way to the back 
end where he knew his ship, the Midorishu, resided.  Hopefully 
she wasn't busy with one of her...pursuits.  She would be a total 
bitch for days afterwards...or at least 'til she could find a 
nice new computer to...

	"G'day mate!"

	His thoughts interrupted, Seion took note of the mammalian 
biped, which spoke from a perch atop his ship.  Without further 
ado it jumped from the top of Midori and landed right in front of 
the worried teal haired spy for a more up close and personal 
conversation.  Aside from his utility jacket, it was dressed only 
in its fur, which was presently covered in grease and other more 
exotic lubricants.

	"I'd shake yer 'and, but I doubt ya'd really want to be 
covered in all the muck I've been wading through...crimeny! That 
shit reeks!"

	Seion shrugged, "Hey, you're the best there is at this, 
Wallabee.  You probably get paid more than I do.  What the hell 
are you complaining about?"

	Wallabee considered that while he scratched his muzzle with 
the impact hammer he'd been carrying. This only served to add a 
few more stripes of muck to his face.

	"Aye mate, I do at that," he finally agreed.  "But what 
good does it do me, if I'm sucking ex'aust from warp cores all 
the bloody time, eh?"

	

	"Not too much."

	"And then ya just got to come down 'ere and rub in the fact 
that yer rogerin' the big boss..."

	"Is she ready?" Seion interrupted.

	"Keep yer pants on, mate.  Ya know she's ALWAYS ready."  
Wallabee chuckled as Seion leveled him a sidelong knowing smirk, 
"Don't worry, mate.  She's ready to fly far and fast.  'opefully 
fast enough to keep the Major's cute arse from getting fried 
before 'er time is up."

	"I wouldn't be so worried if her old partner were with 
her," Seion told him, "but since she's here at Section X and 
Mihoshi's been assigned to the wayward children of the Jurai 
Royal Family..."

	Wallabee nodded in understanding, "Aye mate, it's not often 
you get yer own..." Seion glanced at him a slight warning in his 
eyes, "...devoted friend," Seion rolled his eyes while Wallabee 
winked, "to look after ya."

	"Right.  Devoted friend.  You're going to get me in trouble 
with the powers that be yet Wallabee."

	The furred mechanic bowed, the motion for which started 
where his hips connected to his legs, which were far better 
suited for jumping, and causing his entire upper body to pivot 
toward the ground. "Always aiming to please, mate.  Anyway, ya'd 
best get going.  The Chief's waiting for ya too."

	Seion turned and sighed, "Great.  Just great.  Thanks..." 
Seion watched the furry mechanic jump over him and then land on 
top of another ship in the hangar "...Wallabee.  Fucking Roo."

<I Want Your Sex - George Michael>

	He crossed the remaining distance to the Midorishu, noting 
that indeed, the Chief was waiting for him, an amused smirk on 
her pretty face.

	"Chief!  What can I do you for?"

	She gave him a once over with her eyes, "You?  Shit, boy!  
You're someone else's property at the moment.  I don't dare do 
what I'd LIKE to do with you now."

	Seion groaned and rubbed his head, "Does everyone around 
here know about that?"

	"You forget where you are."

	Actually he hadn't, but was truly hoping that certain 
details had not gotten out.   But did whoever found out have to 
spread it to EVERYONE!?  Even Wallabee, the guy who, in his own 
words, had his head constantly in a warp core, knew!

	"Can we just get this over with?  Kiyone's going to be 
going soon and..."

	"You're the one who became her top man, Major." He ignored 
what she was implying and tried to move past her.  She moved 
quickly to impede him.  "Ah, Seion, you have no idea how much 
trouble you cause me, do you?"

	Seion picked her up, and moved her from in front of his 
ship's entrance.  Quickly he walked up and turned back, not being 
able to resist a final parting shot as he closed the door.

	"You're her favorite cousin Ramia, I was ordered to give 
you a hard time."

	Her eyes twinkling merrily she asked, "As hard as you're 
giving her?"  If only he could have heard it.

	Inside the ship, he made his way to the bridge.  
"Midorishu!"  He called.  "Midori!"

	"Mmmm..." A voice slowly hummed out all around him.  
"mmmm...yes that's it..."

	Aligning the nanites in his body, he sent a signal to the 
station computer to terminate all active connections with his 
ship.  The effect was similar to the time when he was a teenager 
and he was pulled roughly from between his girl-friends legs by 
his hair and sent flying across the room.  Just after he impacted 
an adjacent wall, he was to be greeted by the angry face of her 
father.  Still couldn't figure out how he survived that one.  Oh 
yeah, running.  Lots of running.

	"HEY!" she protested.

	A digitized image of an achingly beautiful and very nude 
woman, colored in nothing but shades of green, appeared on the 
main screen.

	"Get the engines online, Midori. We need to lift off two 
hours ago."

	"ooohhh..." she complained, "The main computer was sharing 
ALL his new information with me!" Her hands began to rove over 
her over-abundant breasts, and down her digital torso between her 
high-resolution legs, "He has such a large bandwidth since the 
upgrade.  I could have interfaced with him for hours and hours, 
while he pushed his files in me and..."

	"Midori..."

	"Hey you're awful tense, cutie!  Why not connect up to an 
interface port and I'll make sure you get serviced far better 
than that Juraian..."

	"Don't go there," he warned.

	She stuck her tongue at him, and licked sensuously once.  
Turning over, she cupped her hands under her chin as if propped 
up on the ground.  The effect was totally given over to something 
a mite surreal as her large bosoms floated freely in the space 
beneath her, swaying as an algorithm mimicked breathing.  "My 
engines are all warm and lubricated, dear.  You have only to give 
the word, and I'll take you to heaven!" 

	Seion couldn't help but chuckle.  Trust his girl to put him 
in a good mood.

	"Then gimme some sugar, baby!"

	Midori squealed with delight.  "Aye Aye, Captain!  I'm 
getting off now!"

--------------

	There was no way.  There was no way in Hell that the 
scanner's readings of the planet Primus were accurate.

	"Nothing."  She tapped it experimentally.  No 
change...these things were nearly indestructible, so it was 
unlikely to be a glitch, but still..."No plants, no animals, no 
people.  Not even any bacteria or other microbes."

	How was that possible?  And if it wasn't some sort of 
jamming (which she hadn't ruled out) and the scanner wasn't on 
the fritz, what could make this possible?

	Briefly she considered calling for backup.  She shook her 
head in exasperation when she realized what she was thinking.

	Old habits died hard.  Even though she'd been on several 
assignments with Section X, the urge to 'call for backup' when 
something out of the ordinary popped up still figured largely in 
her original training.  That's what Section X, the division that 
sent her out here, dealt with; so it rather defeated the intent 
of the mission.  That and the fact that it would take at least 
three days for someone to get here made the idea somewhat 
impractical.

	Still, of all the really whacked out things she'd scouted 
out so far in her current job, this rated really high up there on 
the weird-shit-o-meter.  Even watching time stop around her when 
Kain broke free at Seventh Headquarters didn't give her the 
creeps nearly as bad as a planet, once teeming with life and over 
a billion sentients, all of the sudden being as dead as the moons 
surrounding it.

	"Resume." 

	The scanner obediently continued its sensor sweep of the 
planet, the readout appearing in the holoscreen projected above 
her wrist.  Her glowing green eyes narrowed as the text began to 
scroll by.

	"You didn't go down without a fight, did you?"

	Battle damage.  Radiation, indicative of nuclear and other, 
far more deadly, weapons employed, were present all over the 
planet.  Hard to see with all the dust in the air, but then 
that's what happens when big holes are blown in a world.

	What would possibly scare them so badly they'd use weapons 
of mass destruction on their own planet?  She was sure only the 
Terrans, and maybe the Tetranians, were that psychotic.

	"Strange."

	The radiation levels were decreasing a phenomenal rate, far 
faster than they should be.  Almost as if something were sucking 
away the alphas, betas, and high-energy gammas.

	Aside from that, there was no trace of anything that could 
be causing this.  Or wiped out all life from the face of the 
planet for that matter.

	She wondered if the other planets of this system shared the 
same fate.  "Are we in range to scan Prima and Prime Nova?"  A 
green holographic 'yes' appeared next to the screen.  "Do so."

	She shook her head regretfully as the readings came up.  
They were identical to the readings on Primus.  She was hoping 
for something more, something that would tell her what happened.

	Something that would tell her that all life in this star 
system wasn't just snuffed out.

<Crush - Brian Luzietti (Descent II Soundtrack)>

	Realizing that little more information would be gained from 
space, she willed her energy form to move toward the planet where 
the scanner indicated the capital city of Primus should be.  
Given her body was presently a glowing green mass of articulate 
UEM based photons, she little more than blinked and found herself 
perched on top of what used to be the wall of a sky scraper.  
Light Speed (or very near it) she found very useful.  

	The wall, however, was laying over the rubble of a few 
dozen lesser buildings.  Its only purpose now was as a diving 
board into a sea of nuclear glass that used to be central park.  
Her eyes grew dim as she considered what she was standing on.  
Youma technology was biologically based; every single bit of it 
was alive and worked in harmony with the Youma and the world 
itself.  Now...all that was left was a dried up shell amidst the 
ruined husk that used to be a living city on a now dead world.

	Putting a foot before her, it seemed she stepped out of a 
skin of emerald green light that quickly dissipated.  Aside from 
her weapons and the scanner, this left her completely without 
clothing.  She paused for one brief moment to run her fingers 
through her long teal colored hair.

	"Battle gear."

	Electricity ran over her body from head to foot.  Where it 
passed it left her clothed from neck down in a skintight blue 
body suit with black ankle length boots designed for the most 
rugged of terrain.  Only her hands and face were left bare and 
the scanner changed form to a more combat oriented device.  Now 
it curved around the back of her head and around her ears, 
looking very much like a hair clip.  A small piece of pink 
colored glass sprang out from the side of the device, covering 
her left eye and listing tactical data derived from its 
continuous scan of the surrounding area.  She adjusted it 
absently and checked the placement of her weapons and pack to 
ensure both a snug fit and quick access should it be needed.

	"Where is the capitol building?"

	If anything had been recorded, she figured it would likely 
be there behind heavily shielded archives.  It was fortunate, she 
noted, that there had been enough information on the Youma 
refugee ships that maps had been acquired for most of the worlds 
in their protectorate.

	An arrow pointing to her left appeared on the pink screen.  
She turned to that direction, and resigned herself to flying.  
Keeping to the ground, and avoiding possible aerial detection was 
not an option with all the debris in her way.  Phasing herself 
through objects was also not an option; her computers and various 
other gear would not be able to accompany her through solid 
matter.

	Without further ado she sprang into the air leaving behind 
an emerald colored vapor trail.  She flew slowly at first, 
surveying the destruction first hand, and giving her scanner time 
to record the extent of the devastation.  Also she hoped to find 
some possible clues that might shed some light on the situation.

	Nothing, she concluded.  This place is as dead as the 
scanner says it is.  Better to just get to the capitol building 
and get the information first hand.  Poking around in these ruins 
won't get me what I'm pretty sure will be there.

	Unless, she grimaced to herself, whatever hit this place 
thought of that too?  Still, it's a better lead than poking 
aimlessly around this junkyard.

	With that in mind she increased her speed until she felt 
herself breaking the sound barrier on this world.  While her 
equipment and clothing was built to handle such stress, it would 
still create a rather noticeable sonic boom, and she'd rather not 
draw any more attention to herself than she probably had at this 
point (if there was anything to draw attention to, she added).  
She wasn't willing to take more chances than she had to, and 
besides...

	This place was really making her wish she was not there.

	She arrived at the building in a few galactic standard 
minutes, or at least what was left of it.  It had once been a 
proud structure of trees, and gold colored vines and branches, 
standing at least a couple of kilometers wide and many thousands 
of meters high.  Now, it looked barely habitable for those 
annoying Mon things the kids over the cosmos were collecting.

	"Where was the main server?"  An arrow pointing down 
appeared on her view screen.  "Of course.  Silly me."  She 
hovered over the rubble looking for an access point of any type.  
She considered phasing, but she'd need the scanner with her...an 
interesting dilemma.

	"Is there a stairway?  Turbo lift shaft?  Ventilation?  
Anything leading down there?"

	A schematic of what the building used to look like was 
pulled up on the screen.  Many glowing dots, denoting all the 
requested access points blinked on the screen.  She smiled, 
according to the data one of the main access lifts was not far 
from her present position.  She just hoped luck was on her side, 
and it wasn't caved in to the point she couldn't at the very 
most, blast her way through.

-------------------

<Funeral for a Friend - Elton John>

	"Now what did you want me to see again?"

	The man smoothed back his shock of bright red brown hair 
and gestured to the world below them in space, "Take a look." 

	The other tilted his reed boshi back on his head and did as 
he was bid. 

	"Strange," he said after a moment,  "I've heard from a few 
of the others that they've seen similar occurrences across the 
cosmos, but their investigations turned up absolutely 
nothing...except a lot of blown up shit."  His eyes narrowed, 
"This one is far more recent, however.  Perhaps only a few days 
old."

	"Yes," the one with the red hair agreed, "I was about to 
check it out, but considering you have a certain...interest in 
the Youma, I figured you'd want to see this too."

	The other man chuckled slightly, "Thanks."  His eyes 
narrowed suddenly, "Rumia?"

	"Yes?"

	The one in the reed boshi nodded toward part of the planet, 
"What is that?"

	"That, master?"  Rumia looked.  "Oh.  Her."  Rumia's 
companion raised an eyebrow, "Yeah, I noticed her the second she 
came out of hyperspace.  She speaks in radio if you can believe 
that.  I think she's a member of the GP."

	He considered this new information for a brief moment, 
"Major Kiyone?"

	Rumia nodded, "Yeah, I think so.  She's the only one I know 
of whose description fits.  Haven't hacked their files in a month 
or so; so I don't know if they've 'acquired' any other operatives 
like her."

	"So, the GP know." the one Rumia called master surmised.  
"Is the rest of the Youma space like this?"

	"Haven't had the time to check, but whatever hit them, ran 
over them like they were nothing, so I expect so.  What I don't 
get is why they were limited to planetary defenses.  Where are 
their warships?  Their planet killers?"  He gestured to the space 
around them, "This place should be littered with bodies!"

	The master shrugged, "I know.  This looks more like the 
galactic middle finger raised in the Ultimate Last Great Act of 
Defiance(tm)."  He rubbed his eyes under his sunglasses and 
sighed again, "What I don't get is how this is happening right 
under our noses.  I mean did you feeling anything?"

	"Other than that weird sense of something coming we've all 
been getting?"  The master nodded, "Nope.  Not even a billion 
billion voices crying out and suddenly being silenced.  That kind 
of thing tends to draw attention...you alright?"

	Red energy had slowly begun leaking out from the master's 
eyes and was progressively growing darker.

	"No, I'm not 'alright.'  Let's get a move on and check out 
the rest of the..."

	"Hey.  Listen, I think we should wait here awhile," Rumia 
raised his hands defensively as the master's eyes turned toward 
him in a sooty red glare of rage.

	The red energy leaking from the master's eyes ceased 
instantly, and his brow furrowed as he regarded Rumia.  He turned 
and glided closer to Primus, putting himself in a geosyncronous 
orbit above what used to be the capitol, Rumia quickly following

	"You're right, of course.  If there is anything anywhere 
around here, there's a good chance Ms. Bright, Green, and Glowing 
down there will draw it out."

	"There are two of us.  You or I could still..." the master 
shook his head at the suggestion, "naah, you're right.  Better 
not chance it."

	"Exactly."

	"Hey, look at it this way..." One of the master's eyes 
quirked up questioningly. 

	"If something does pop up you'll get to do the lightning 
and thunder thing you get SUCH a kick out of..." 

	"Yes," the master said as his war hammer returned to his 
hand, "Silence is certainly an improvement." As an afterthought 
the master grabbed the stunned Rumia before he could drift into 
the atmosphere.

-------------------------

	Kiyone slowly drifted down the final few feet of the turbo-
lift shaft that led to the main server room.  She had been 
fortunate in that she had first found a clear stairway that, 
while blocked off after about half a kilometer down, led to a 
junction in the main ventilation shafts.  After that, it had been 
a bit of trial and error, but with her scanner and ability to 
control most of the electromagnetic spectrum (including X-rays) 
she had managed to see her way through to a relatively clear path 
via the ventilation, turbo lifts, and stair wells.  

	Now she was almost to her destination.  The closer she got, 
the more intense the cold feeling that ran up and down what now 
passed for her skin.  Something was just not right about this 
place...other than the obvious lack of anything living.

	Her weapon had been drawn a long time ago, and she readied 
it as she touched down.  Quickly she covered the area:  An open 
doorway, a hall with is varied defenses opened and seemingly 
spent, and the gateway to her goal standing ajar.

	She bit back an expletive, and hoped something in that room 
survived whatever hit this planet.  Her gun still at the ready, 
she proceeded onward staying close to the wall.  Though now 
immune to most standard energy and projectile weapons, there were 
still quite a number (two of which were presently on her person) 
that could tear her apart.  She wasn't willing to take the chance 
that anything that might be on the other side of that door wasn't 
carrying such a device.

	After clearing the hallway and securing the room, she 
holstered her weapon, but left it unclasped for quick access.  
Now her job was to take stock of whatever information she could 
salvage from this mess of...

	"Fuck."

	The server was dead.  Its once bright green vines, firm 
branches, and crisp leaves were shriveled and dry.  No life 
pulsed in what used to be the very brain and heart of the 
information system of this world.  It was already beginning to 
turn to dust as if it had been left derelict for years.  The rest 
of the place was similarly drained, the various terminals and 
control points that once pulsed with bio energy surrounded by 
teams of technicians...all decaying.  She supposed it was 
fortunate whatever organic materials these buildings were made of 
was made of sterner stuff.  If this server was any indication, 
the buildings wouldn't last more than maybe a month.  Two at the 
most.  It also explained why she had found no bodies.  Such 
deterioration would have taken them and anything similarly 'soft' 
within hours of what could have done this.

	What COULD have done this, she wondered again.

	Her shoulders slumped, and she let herself relax against 
the wall.

	NOTHING! she despaired silently.  There's no way I can 
extract anything from these living computers!  Even their backups 
were organic based, and whatever hit this place sucked every bit 
of bio energy from the planet!  And the degradation is...

	Her musings cut short when her scanner clicked on.  Her 
hand strayed toward her gun before she realized it was trying to 
lead her to a terminal on the other side of the room.  The AI in 
the scanners was relatively primitive in comparison to a ship's, 
but given a mission statement it would help their users in many 
innocuous ways.

	"What is it?"

	"Standard ISCS output data crystal." Now that it was out of 
the vacuum of space, it could vocalize its output if it found it 
necessary to do so.

	"WHAT?" She shot up in surprise and rushed over to the 
station in question.  "How..?" She scanned the output device for 
some means of ejecting it.  Finding none (she absently noted it 
was most likely absorbed into the system and regurgitated later, 
which was an impossibility now), she smashed the area indicated 
by the scanner. Withdrawing a whole mass of carbonized organic 
parts, she sifted through it.  Within moments she withdrew what 
could have been the Holy Grail, judging by the look of elation 
upon her face.

	A crystal, no bigger than a child's fingernail, glinted off 
the emerald illumination she was emitting.  

	Did they expect someone like me to find it, she wondered.

	Quickly she pulled off her scanner and inserted the gem 
into the port in back of the earpiece.  She could barely wait 
'til it had scanned the data encoded upon it as she put it back 
around her head.

	The scanner clicked on immediately.

	A set of tentacles suddenly impacted where she'd been 
kneeling on the floor. 

	"The hell?" she mumbled from her position on the ceiling on 
the other side of the room, gun at the ready.  Good thing her 
scanner was quite adept at detecting motion around her.

	A pair of red glowing orbs turned to regard her from the 
entrance, becoming slits of bloody light as its appendages pulled 
back into its body.

---------------------

	Rumia rubbed the back of his head where the war hammer had 
impacted and complained, "Ah man...did you have to hit me so 
hard, old timer?"  Expecting some sort of sarcastic rejoinder 
Rumia was surprised when the one Rumia named as 'master' made 
ready hammer and began gathering his energies.

	"Huh?  What are you..?"  Rumia's gaze flew down to the 
planet, and without skipping a beat pulled a staff with an 
elongated blade on each end out of hyperspace.

	"Ah shit!  Here we go!"  He didn't even try to keep the 
elation out of his voice.  Finally, some action!

---------------------

	Kiyone dimmed her radiance and flashed over to the other 
side of the room.  The appendages of the thing she dodged a 
second ago slammed into her former place on the ceiling.  A 
second set of tentacles slashed next to her, prompting her to 
move again.

	Whatever it is, it's fast!  I can't get a good shot at it.  
But...she noted, it's staying in one place, maybe I can...

	Her hand waved out wildly as she dodged another attack, 
sending out a wave of green energy at the ceiling above her 
opponent.  A couple of tons of rock and organic debris 
immediately crushed the tentacled being.  The room shook 
violently, but somehow held; in retrospect she considered that 
might not have been one of her brighter ideas.  She nearly 
brought the entire place down around her ears, and tunneling out 
was going to be a bitch.

	The debris blew outward as the thing broke free.  It 
probably would have been a more dramatic reemergence, if not for 
the fact this blast DID start bringing the whole place down.

	Kiyone quickly considered her options.  This probably 
wouldn't hurt her, but the scanner and the crystal needed to get 
back to Section X in relatively one piece...and even its durable 
construction wouldn't survive a whole cave in.  On the other hand 
she didn't have to be careful of possibly harming any more 
information, and her life was in relative danger.

	She extended her hands above her and flew up, emitting a 
continuous stream of energy that disintegrated everything above 
her.  At the speed she was going it acted like the shield she 
didn't dare extend from her body for fear of what it would do to 
the scanner.

	Within moments she blasted from the building, like a green 
planet killing super laser. She stopped almost a mile above the 
imploding capitol building, and hovered.

	"Did you get a good look at what that thing was?" Kiyone 
asked the scanner.

	"Negative."

	It was the answer she was expecting, but she was hoping the 
device had managed a visual on the thing.  It would give an 
identity to those responsible for what happened here, or at the 
very least a good lead.  Too bad it had buried itself in rubble, 
and given its destructive capability she wasn't about to start 
digging for it either.  She had the feeling though, that if it 
did survive, she'd know soon enough.

	In this she was not disappointed.  As she had done before, 
the thing itself blasted its way out of the newly collapsed 
rubble and debris.  On the upside, now she'd probably get a good 
scan of it.  The downside, however, was she'd probably have to 
try to fight it before she'd gained enough data on this being 
that she could try to lose it and hyper-space outta this system.

	Maybe not such a down side, she thought with a smirk.  It 
had been awhile since she had seen any action...and she had been 
itching to try out her powers for real.  It was irresponsible in 
one way of looking at things, but she needed to give her scanner 
time to make some recordings, and Seion's ill-gotten gun would 
end it far too quickly.  She reached down and tapped both the 
sidearm and the knife on her thighs, ensuring they were still 
there and ready for action.  Still, she might need them if things 
went beyond what she could handle; and survival was still 
paramount in this game.

	Gently she glided down nearly a block away from the entity 
that had been scanning the area for her, presumably.  Once she 
got close enough, the thing immediately turned toward her, and 
she got her first good look of what 'it' was.

<Iron Man - Black Sabbath>

	"Great Goddess, have mercy," she uttered.

	How could this be?!  That's a Youma male, she realized in 
disbelief.

	Mostly humanoid in appearance, 'he' had the prerequisite 
bipedal appearance with two arms and two legs and facial features 
typical of that sort of creature.  After that they got a bit 
different.   The hands and feet of the males sported six digits 
with an extra joint each giving them a far greater scope of 
manipulation most races had to use mechanical assistance to 
achieve.  To further their manipulatory superiority, their backs 
sported a number of extra muscles that connected to six 
'tentacles' of additional extendable muscle that weaved and 
bobbed in the wind when not in use.  In this case they were tense 
and jutted out at all sides.

	Those are what he used to attack me with, she realized, but 
there is no way they could have extended as far as they did.  And 
those energy blasts are at a level way beyond the current 
capabilities of their race.  How did this guy get so much power?

	That's when it hit her.  He looked a bit off before, but 
now as she got closer she saw that this was actually little more 
than a parody of what used to be a Youma man.  What she saw was 
completely metallic, possibly technorganic, but regardless this 
was not what it appeared to be at first glace.

	"Scanner block," her scanner announced, "In-depth scans 
impossible."  Which explains why it didn't pick anything up down 
here.  So far she'd only seen one of...whatever this thing really 
was, but there was no telling how many more there MIGHT be.  
Suddenly blasting this thing with the Quantum Destabilizer seemed 
like a better option than before.  Still...a measurement of this 
thing's capabilities would prove to be an incredible tactical 
advantage if and/or when it came time to fight these things.

	The chief was going to lighten her ass a few pounds when 
she got back to HQ.

	So far 'he' had yet to make any movement, hostile or 
otherwise, in her direction.  Well, let no one say I didn't at 
least try to be civil, she smirked.  

	"Oi!  Any particular reason you're trying to kill me?  If 
it's about the computer, sorry about that, but even you gotta 
admit it was due for upgrade anyway!"  She barely managed to 
dodge the answering energy blast.

	Quickly she returned fire in the form of a stream of pure 
UEM force hitting it dead center in an explosion of emerald 
flame.  This had the added effect of further hastening the inward 
collapse of the capitol building, and kicking up an enormous 
amount of dust.  As if there wasn't enough in the air already.

	"Well, that wasn't too terribly difficult," she remarked as 
the dust settled.  

	There at the epicenter, the only thing left of 'him' was a 
disjointed mass of body parts spread over the landscape.

	She frowned.  True, pure UEM was incredibly hard to shield 
against, and that's what she just sent his direction, but still, 
this should not have been so simple.  There was no way something 
as easily destroyed could have been what took this place out...

	"Oh."  The parts turned into an amorphous amoebic substance 
and converged on a central point, gaining more and more mass, 
'til finally a figure began to ooze up from the growing pool of 
liquid metal returning to its previous form.

	And it was not looking very happy.

	Nonchalantly, she pulled her side arm and shot it.

	She decided there was a certain morbid fascination involved 
in watching the golden beam strike and envelop the object of her 
ire, scattering its presence on every plane of existence half way 
across the galaxy.  Not even a temporal shadow would bring this 
thing back.  Of course, the technology for that particular trick 
was something Seion had told her about in passing as being so 
tightly controlled by the Juraians and the Galaxy Academy that 
even the mere idea it could be done was discouraged.

	Holstering her weapon she turned and walked right into the 
business end of a group of high-speed tentacles.

--------------------

	"How long?" Seion asked.

	All traces of her playful flirting gone, Midorishu replied, 
"At least a couple of more hours."

	Seion glanced at her engine indicators and snorted in 
disdain.  He was already pushing his girl way beyond her rated 
tolerances and didn't dare ask her to warp hyperspace any 
further.

	DAMN! DAMN! DAMN!  Why doesn't she ever listen to me!? 

	"I'd expect that's because she's related to you.  Stubborn, 
but loveable."

	He glanced to his side, noting that she had chosen to go 
with her holographic presentation as opposed to her digital 
representation on the view screen.  For a change she was actually 
clothed in a modest white house robe over her green 'skin.'  He 
still didn't get why she was wearing old style glasses.  Nor had 
he realized he'd said the last aloud.  Regardless, he took 
Midorishu's comment in the manner it was intended.

	"Thanks, beautiful."

	She smiled whimsically and cursed she couldn't hug him.  
"At least you had the foresight to tell her scanner to report 
back to us.  The time delay is nonexistent as close as we are."

	"For all the good it does me now.  She's bitten off more 
than she can chew."

	"She's strong.  Like you."

	"Yeah."

	You better survive sis.

-----------------------------

<Paranoid - Black Sabbath

	STUPID!  I AM STUPID!

	Self-remonstrations aside Kiyone also found herself 
propelled through the air.  Not to mention through what used to 
be a skyscraper and quite a number of other buildings before she 
managed to stop herself.

	Another of those Youma looking things had taken her by 
surprise and she walked right into his attack.

	Not this time. She barely had herself righted when it came 
screaming in her direction, only to fly into an energy-enhanced 
uppercut that ripped it messily in twain.  The Quantum 
Destabilizer found its way back to her waiting hand, and two 
shots were fired at the pieces fast enough to make one doubt 
there was only the single weapon.

	She tried to take to the air with the intention of escaping 
the planet's gravity well.  Before the thought was translated 
into motion, another tentacle had wrapped around her and slammed 
her roughly into the junk around her.

	So far she hadn't actually been hurt, but she was expending 
energy.  Far more than the weak rays of the sun were able to 
replenish.  It would only be a matter of time before she'd go 
insubstantial whether she wanted to or not, and she didn't dare 
let that happen.  Not with the cargo she was carrying around her 
head.

	Unfortunately, though it had not managed to disarm her, it 
had her well and truly pinned.

	She had lost strength, but nowhere near the point where she 
shouldn't have been able to overpower this thing.  Were they able 
to adapt to the threats they faced, she wondered.

	If so, the implications of what they had just done to the 
Youma did not bode well for the rest of the galaxy, and certainly 
not very well for her right at this moment.

	The tentacle around her torso began to writhe around her 
moving its tip up between her breasts and, "Hey, what are 
you...HEY!"

	Visions of that animated feature she and a few of her 
friends had smuggled from Earth and watched completely blitz 
drunk bubbled up in her mind as it slipped its appendage down her 
collar and between her breasts.

	"Oh no, you ARE NOT DOING THAT!"  She dropped the gun and 
began shooting it with her resident power.  But for whatever 
reason, be it her reduced energy state, their seeming ability to 
adapt, or her distraction via the tentacle wiggling around her 
pulchritude, it was just not doing the job. 

	Suddenly it stopped, and she felt the tentacle change and 
split apart.  Thousands of other smaller probes that began to 
wriggle and squirm around her chest like a billion little worms 
poking and prodding her.  If 'he' actually had facial 
expressions, she could have sworn he looked...puzzled.

	"Warning, nano invasion detected."  Nano invasion?  "Your 
energy signature is uncompromised.  Hypothesis:  Nanites appear 
to be bio-energy collectors.  It is trying to assimilate your 
bioenergy, but it cannot adjust itself to your UEM base."

	Energy assimilation?  So these WERE to blame for what 
happened here!  Or at the very least were the weapons of those 
responsible!

	THIS IS WHAT DESTROYED THE YOUMA!

	Her eyes narrowed and she concentrated every last bit of 
energy she dared muster into a single blast of bright green rage.

	Admittedly not quite as precise as the QD, but the 
resulting explosion and termination of that nanotech monster was 
far more satisfying.

	She slid to the ground in exhaustion.  Ruthlessly she 
crushed the urge to discorporate; she was not going to lose 
control of her scanner for any reason.

	Especially not with the veritable army of those beings 
popping up from the ruins around her.

	She fingered her gun, and then shook her head. Kiyone 
realized if she wanted to survive she probably didn't have a 
choice but to drop everything and 'go ghost'. She pulled her 
scanner off, hoping against all odds that she'd be able to come 
back for it. Then she started discorporating, only to find that 
she had somehow traveled about a kilometer in the air instantly.

	"That wasn't very nice of them, was it?  Molesting a pretty 
little energy girl like you without permission is quite rude.  At 
the very least they could have ensured you'd enjoy it."

	And she was being held...by a Juraian?!

	"How do Major?  Run into a bit of a problem did you?"

	"Who..?"

	"Name's Rumia.  I haven't qualified as 'Juraian' for 
centuries, so get that thought out of your head."

	"How..?"

	"None of your concern, pretty girl."  He cocked a 
mischievous grin at her, "Course if you see your brother before 
we do, tell him I'll pay him that twenty I owe him in a couple of 
weeks, eh?"

	She suddenly found herself, still in Rumia's arms, in 
orbit.  "What..?"

	"Had to get you out of there.  Didn't want to confuse you 
too badly, being who you are and all.  I'd like to continue to 
discuss a possible business deal with you, but I'm afraid the old 
man will vaporize all the nifty nano-warriors down there, and we 
need at least one still intact."  He shook his head, muttering 
something about senile old geezers as he set her adrift, "In any 
case you wait here, and suck up cosmic rays.  Oh and..." He set 
her scanner a few feet away from her.  "Try not to lose that eh?  
We'd all LOVE to see what's on it later!"

	"The hell just happened?" she mumbled as she lost 
consciousness and physical cohesion.

-----------------------

<Long Way Down - Goo Goo Dolls>

	Rumia appeared on the surface close to where he had found 
the weakened Major.  He lifted his arm to his side and casually 
caught one of the flying nano-tech warriors being forcibly 
propelled his direction.  He glanced at it, shrugged and 
enveloped it in a field of blue energy, causing it to vanish a 
moment later.

	"Okay, sample acquired.  Now," His dual bladed staff 
appeared in his hand and glee in his eyes, "let's blow things 
up!"  Glee that turned to consternation when he found himself 
struck from behind and sent through a few hundred tons of 
carbonized organic building material.

	Not being one to be discouraged for such a trivial thing, 
he allowed the debris to slow him down.  Arching to the ground, 
he planned on bouncing back toward his current opponent, through 
the rubble, in a wave of purple fiery death to which nothing 
would escape.  When he found his face in the dirt again from an 
opportunistic tentacle that had sprung from the ground he was 
still not discouraged.  No, now his current state was one of mild 
annoyance.

	Creating his own tunnel through the ground, he found the 
annoying Youma looking Nano-warrior and sliced it from bow to 
stern.  The landscape from there to the horizon sported a two 
dimensional vertical slice.

	The would be tentacle monster fell into its component 
quarks.

	Turning quickly, he opted to phase his body through vice 
tunneling. He raised his dual bladed staff in preparation to 
attack; a singular blade rose from the ground and wove its way to 
its mark at near the speed of light.

	Rumia flowed from the ground, leaving ripples in his wake, 
and cut down his first attacker.

	His brow furrowed when he spied the master in a canyon that 
had just not been there before, nearly a block away.

	The old warrior seemed surrounded.  Yet as the many around 
him struck and blasted at him in a concerted effort only 
networked computers or telepaths with gestalt capabilities could 
accomplish, it became obvious who had who surrounded.  

	His body surrounded by writhing blue lightning, he dodged 
and weaved around their tentacles, limbs, and energy attacks with 
laughable ease.  Each time he drew near one, his hammer or fist 
struck leaving nothing but blue electric death behind him.

	Coming to his final enemy, he opted instead to grab this 
one by its neck, and lift it from the ground.  Vaguely he heard 
Rumia cry, "Finish him!" as the living power around him danced 
from his form into the Youma mockery before him.  The rubble in 
their battleground was channeled away from the excess power that 
was discharged from both their bodies.  Proving to be a fatal 
attack, nothing remained of the being before the master; not even 
a dimensional after image.

	He raised his hands joyously; sending a blast of pure 
electron might into the atmosphere.  The thunder struck every 
plain of existence, deafening everything around Sentinel Prime.

	His victory was short lived.  Hundreds of the creatures 
began popping up from the ruins around them both.  

	"Hey, don't kill em all now!  Leave a few for me!"  Rumia 
shouted from his perch on the artificial cliff.

	Before he moved to join in the mayhem, all the creatures 
ceased any other motion, and looked up.   

	Noticing they had a new preoccupation - something one does 
not get in battle without a REALLY good reason - the master 
ceased what was turning into a wholesale slaughter of their 
forces.  His gaze wandered up to where those beings had focused 
their attention and tried to discern what the hell they were 
looking at.

	"Hey!  Old Guy!  Look at Sentinel Prime!"

	He did as Rumia suggested (making a mental note to thump 
him harder next time for the old guy cracks), looking deep within 
the sun to see what it was that had his former student so 
disconcerted.  Absently he noted the beings around him turning to 
liquid metal and flowing underground.

	"Well.  That certainly looks ominous doesn't it?"

	"Oh yeah.  Someone just dropped a space-time disruption 
into our friendly neighborhood sun."

	The older one nodded thoughtfully, "Yes.  Makes you 
completely untraceable, even to us.  I suppose we should go and 
round up the cute Major then.  We'd easily survive this, but I 
doubt she'd be able to."

	"Yeah," Rumia nodded, "and we should probably wait on Seion 
and see he doesn't get turned into his component particles before 
his time," he added almost an afterthought

	As they both shifted their importance in the cosmos to the 
orbit of the planet they'd been standing on, the master raised an 
eyebrow at him, in an unmistakable question concerning what Rumia 
was talking about. 

	"Her brother bugged her scanner, it's been sending a 
continuous live feed of info to him as he trucks merrily away 
through hyperspace at redline."  Rumia expounded.

	Rumia's companion gathered the nebulous green form of 
Kiyone into his arms.  For a moment he too glowed green and 
seemingly pushing that emerald aura into the insubstantial Major.  
The girl gained a measure of cohesion, so that in his arms a 
sleeping, yet very nude and beautiful woman, had materialized.

	Rumia patiently drew her backpack, knife, QD, and scanner 
to himself; the latter he waved gently to his companion, "Nifty 
device.  It can morph into a couple of useable forms to be 
strapped to your wrist or around your head like it is now."

	Mostly because he was uninterested in the tech specs of 
recent toys, the master replied condescendingly, "So, you want to 
warn Seion what he's about to fly into," To emphasize his point, 
he nodded in the direction of the sun.  It was beginning to erupt 
violently around its outer edge in colors that walked their way 
around the entire electromagnetic spectrum and beyond.

	"Yeah, suppose I better." Rumia tapped a couple of times on 
the scanner, "Yo Seion!  I'm making myself audible to you now, so 
don't worry that the thing is reporting that we're in deep space.  
Go ahead and talk freely, I'm sure you've figured out right at 
this moment who's talking to you."

	A bit of static and a moment later, a slightly grainy tenor 
voice replied, "Oh man!  Not you guys!  Why oh why are you 
getting involved?"  A pause, "Is my sister okay?"

	"She's fine," the older one holding the major assured him.

	"Cool, cool."  Another pause, "Why are you all involved in 
this situation?  What's so important in the Sentinel Prime star 
system to get not one, but two of you out there?"

	Rumia hedged, "Well uhh...about that."

	"Yeah?"

	"Well, for one, I think you should quit talking about 
Sentinel Prime."

	"Why's that?"

	Kiyone was waking up under extreme duress, but something 
was telling her in no uncertain terms to come to, right NOW. As 
she regained her senses, she noted she was both nude and in the 
depths.  She noted next she was being cradled like a baby and was 
far too tired to do anything about it.  Finally she realized that 
there was someone next to her shouting into her scanner...and for 
some reason she could hear him.  

	"Because..."

	Kiyone was then treated to a scene she'd see in many a 
nightmare to come, as the sun was sliced open by the forces 
raging inside of it, to spew its cosmic guts all over creation.  
Thankfully consciousness left her in short order when the 
enormity of what just happened washed over her.

	"...it's just not there anymore."

<End Theme - Dreams - Van Halen>