karmin.stjean@busilink.com (Karmin Stjean) Now a note to Everybody, Although the main character is copyright of those responsible for the Tenchi Muyo series, OAVs, and movie(s), the name Naoki is my own invention as are all but one other person involved in this story (whose identity shall remain secret until a possible later 'episode'). Just so you know, Naoki is, and this can be stated without spoiling this episode, or rather will become the Galaxy Police Operative who appeared in TMiL... Warning- This story contains extreme and graphic violence. If that stuff gives you the willies, better turn off your screen now and hide under the covers. Operative Manuevers Part One Tragedy of Youth The breeze blew through the gathering place as a crowd set about their usual activities fo the season. It was late summer and some worked at tidying up the flowerbeds while others trimmed sickly brances from otherwise healthy trees or washed down the picnic tables. A group of children who were too little to help with the chores dallied nearby, playing within sight of their parents. "Naoki," one female called out to her son, the smallest (though not the youngest) child there, who was wandering over toward a clump of trees, "don't run off too far. We're having dinner soon." Naoko climbed into one of the trees, not too high up, and watched the crowds. The landing jets of the spaceship ignited several of the crowdmembers, the short fur of their bodies crackling, their flesh crisping. Naoki's mother ignited, screaming as the flames race up her body and engulfed her muzzle. Naoki scampered up the tree, shaking in terror, digging his claws into the tree and looking at the burning corpses with horror in his eyes. Flames shot up the tree, starting from the dying form that had fallen against it. In total panic, Naoki leaped out of the tree, his tail catching in the crotch of two branches and tearing away from his body. Naoki screamed in pain and began wailing. His older sister saw him and ran toward him, but was scooped up by a mechanical claw and placed in the ship that had burned his mother to death. The ship took off as suddenly as it had landed. The few survivors watched it disappear, then heard whimpers and gathered around Naoki, the only child to survive the tragedy. Naoki cried and shook as the elderly survivors took him to the town physician, who was also well along in years. "And no other young survived?" The elderly female asked as she stitched the wound where Naoki's tail had been. "None," the youngest of the group who'd brought Naoki in, who was herself well beyond her fertile years, told her. "Our young, our grandchildren, all destroyed. Some burned, others taken for Jurai knows what purpose. Only he managed to survive." She looked down at Naoki's now-bandaged and sleeping form. "I've given him a mild sedative." the physician explained. "I don't want him overexciting himself." Naoki's body recovered quickly, but he never fully recovered from the horror he had witnessed. * SLMR 2.1a * "The space pirate Ryouko I presume?" -Unnamed Operative