New Partner!
Chapter Nine: Battle for the Planet of the Humans.
Division: Reg(OVA)

    As Washu started to dig into her fried rice the tiny alarm on her wrist
started to meow.
    "Oh damn," stated Washu, as the redhead stared at it.
    "What is it?" asked Sasami as she served Tenchi and the others in her
carrot apron.  She had made a very simple breakfast as nobody really seemed
to be hungry.
    "Well, folks," the redhead said as she stood up, "those who wish to
watch
the battle for the planet will want to join me at the Command Center."
    "We have a Command Center?" remarked Tenchi, as the rest of the group
stood up and followed Washu towards the door under the stairs in the front
hallway.  Ryoko, Ayeka, Sasami, Ryo-Ohki and Katsuhito followed, leaving
Nobuyuki behind.  Katsuhito turned about and asked, "You coming also?"
    Tenchi's father shrugged and continued to stuff his face.  "If I am
going
to be enslaved by aliens, I am going enslaved on a full stomach."

    The Command Center was nothing but a large room with one huge hologram
of
the solar system.  Benches surrounded the hologram's projection table and
consoles allowed for close-ups.  Washu and the others all selected a
console,
even Ryo-Ohki sitting at her own tiny station.  Washu started to type onto
the symbols at her station and commented, "Let us see who has come a
courting."
    Green brackets seemed to highlight a cluster of blinking red dots just
outside the asteroid belt. This area was expanded and showed to waves of red
colored ships.  The first wave seemed to be five ships that looked like thin
slivers and the second wave was made up of ten ships that looked like grubs.
    "Those are ships?" asked Tenchi while making a face.
    "Those are ships," remarked Ayeka, "when you have a computer trying to
put an image together from halfway across the system."
    "The first five are Hive First Class Battleships," said Washu.  "They
have hardened armor, deflector screens, lots of plasma and energy weapons,
jammers, huge engines and three fusion reactors.  My pods are going to have
a
hard time with them."
    "And the other ten?" inquired Ryoko as she leaned towards the hologram.
    "Hive Military Transports," remarked Washu as she continued to type in
commands.  "They have lots of laser batteries, but the hulls are not very
thick.  They relay mostly on deflector screens when attacked.  But they have
a great flaw."
    "What is that?" asked Sasami.
    "They're underpowered.  All their energy is going towards life support
such as gravity, air conditioning, temperature control and so on.  They have
to keep the troops happy and the food fresh.  That leaves little for the
engines, weapons or shielding."
    "Will your pods be smart enough to attack the transports?" stated
Katsuhito as he folded his hands in his lap, looking very calm.
    "The B types will be," said Washu.  "The tactics with the most points
deal with attacking the enemy's flanks and rear.  Which reminds me, where do
I plant them?"
    They all stared at the map, each lost in his or her own thoughts.
    "That's not right."
    "What's not right?" probed Washu as she turned to face Tenchi.
    "Well," babbled Tenchi, "they won't be going right through the belt will
they?"
    "You're RIGHT!"  Washu pressed a few points on her display screen and a
thin line showed the Hive's predicted course.  "There.  Yes, they are going
through the belt.  No doubt they wish to save fuel.  It's not a thick area
of
the belt.  Mostly dust and small rocks.  Nothing they can't handle."
    "Why enter normal space so far from the planet?" demanded Ayeka as she
peeked up at the red ships.
    "I don't know.  Maybe they wanted room to maneuver in case they ran into
the local Galaxy Police patrols."
    "Funny," snickered Ryoko as she flew right into the projection, hovering
about the green brackets as they tracked the invaders.
    "They must only know Mihoshi via her police reports," explained Washu.
    A new set of green brackets appeared in the belt itself.  They blinked
and then became solid, locking onto a part of the belt.  "Here we go."
    A blob of green light seemed to appear in the brown belt and then
thinned
out till it could no longer be seen.
    "That's it, right," exclaimed Sasami, "you just placed the pods into
position?"
    "Bingo," stated Washu with a dimpled smile.

    The first wave of the invasion ships had reached the edge of the belt.
Spectroscopic scans from the transport's sensory collectors showed little in
the way of danger to the fleet, yet the Hive Admiral felt uneasy.  This
system was under the protection of the Royal House of Jurai and had been
assigned protection from the Galaxy Police.  The Prince studied the many
projections that circled his command chair.  No power sources, no heat
trails, nothing larger than a small third class escape pod.
    "No danger," chirped one of the many workers who continued to man the
projectors and data stations around the command center.  "We can't even
detect tracking stations anywhere in the system."
    "Order the Battleships forward.  We will keep the transports HERE till
they give the all clear."
    "Understood," replied the worker.
    The Admiral leaned back in his chair, his robes of office glittering in
the light of the many floating images.  His name, a series of clicks and
chirps, translated to Claw of the White Line or WhiteClaw.  His name had
been
rewarded to him when he had first gained command of a military cargo ship
over three hundred years ago.  To be rewarded a name was a great symbol of
power.
    Yet in his claws was the greatest symbol of his power, a Royal Sphere,
given to him by the Queens themselves only a few days earlier.  A symbol of
his total power and command in the name of the Queens.  Only one had ever
been made and even other males drones, both Princes and Admirals, of the
Hive
would have to bow before his authority.
    As the screens showed the warships slowly pushing into the clouds of
dust
and tiny rocks he couldn't help feel that there was still something wrong
here.  Surely there would be something to defend the system.  Or was it a
Special Protection Area because it was dangerous to be here?  Even within
the
comfortable chamber of the command center he could not help but shudder at
the thought.
    'Oh my,' thought WhiteClaw, 'didn't think of that, now did I?'
    At that moment, all hell broke loose.

    The WDPs, type A, became active and like sharks sniffing blood they
homed
in on the first wave of Hive ships.  Their ion blasts, like tiny solar
flares, seemed to hit the battleships from all directions.  Luckily, defense
screenings did not need to be manned, as they automatic went up, deflecting
many of the bolts.  But not all of the bolts.  Parts of the Hive's warships
were already seared, the hulls showing bright wounds from the first blows
from the ambushers.  The battleships' screens were VISIBLE under the
barrage,
glowing as they tried to pump the dangerous energy back into space.
    The warships responded slowly, their crews recovering from the surprise
and shock, returned the greeting.  Super heated plasma lashed out and
invisible beams of energy spat out, again and again.  Smart missiles sprayed
out in flocks, searching about for enemies.  The sudden flaring of light
here
and there suggested that the missiles were finding them.
    The type B pods held their fire, moving like eager hawks about the
thrashing enemy ships, heading for the second wave.

    "What is happening?" clanked WhiteClaw as his command staff hurried
about, checking radar stations and receiving updates from the battleships.
"Well?"
    "There are ships out there," mewled a worker who was trying to
understand
the information he was reading.  "Small ships, no bigger than size 8
shipping
crates.  They have no armor and little in the way of an energy profile.
Just
an ion gun and an engine system.  The Battleships are switching over to
antimissile tactics."
    One of the images started to show the Admiral many different views that
had been captured of the enemy ship, which was very few.  It looked like...
    "It's an egg?" remarked WhiteClaw.
    Suddenly one of the workers twirled from his control screens and
shrieked, "Enemy ships coming right for us!"
    Even before the words could sink in, a shrill alarm started to fill the
room.
    "All transports," shouted the Admiral, "defensive formation A-3!"

    "What the heck are the transports doing?" asked Ryoko as she hovered
about the tiny red grubs.
    "Don't know," answered Washu.  "They seem to be closing ranks, but they
are also changing speeds."
    The ten tiny symbols seemed to be moving at random.  Some moving ahead,
while others fell back.  A fell even started to change their pitch, climbing
or diving in relation to the others.  A tiny cloud of green was pouring
towards the transports, like a white cell charging germs.
    "I know what that is!" shouted Tenchi, giving Ayeka, who was sitting
near
him, a heart-attack.
    "What do you mean?" demanded Ayeka, as she touched her chest, trying to
calm herself.
    "I remember from my European history classes," said Tenchi as he pointed
at the developing formation.  "During World War Two the allied bombers flew
something like it.  It was kind of off centered stacking and allowed them to
cover each other WITHOUT blocking the other bombers' machine-guns.
Attacking
fighters could be hit by at least two or three defending fighters no matter
WHAT direction they attacked from."
    "Oh shit," said Ryoko.

    "Put all power into port side screening and forward screening," clicked
the Admiral.  "I want at LEAST 90% power for the laser batteries in those
hull sections."
    "Yes, sir," repeated a dozen workers as they passed on the data to the
computers and gunners.
    "Anti-fighter tactics and programming," demanded Admiral WhiteClaw.
    "Understood," came a few dozen replies.
    The Admiral leaned back in his chair.  Now the time for commands from
him
were over.  The gunners and tracking computers and damage control teams were
in command.  WhiteClaw glanced down at the sphere in his claws and wished he
felt like he had deserved it.

    The type B pods came in, spreading out like a Venus fly trap and
snapping
shut on the transports and the transports were waiting for them.  Screens
were already up and lasers reached out, spearing the pods with millions of
joules of energy, turning them into fire and wreckage.  The robotic
defenders
of the Earth opened up at long range and walked long bursts of ion bolts
over
the defensive shields causing them to sparkle and shimmer.
    The pods started to jitter, trying to throw off the targeting systems of
the Hive while at the same time using their smaller mass and power engines
to
their advantage.  The Military Class Transports were too big to jitter, but
they seemed to be holding up to the attack, their hulls were still
untouched.
    One of the First Class Battleships were not as lucky.  The huge ship
lost
its screens.  Once second they were turning a blue-white from overwork and
the next they were not working at all.  The ship did not just explode, it
was
consumed by the storm of ion bolts from the tiny pods that enclosed it.

    "One down," pointed out Washu as one of the red warships vanished.
    "How many pods did it take?" inquired Katsuhito as he calmly watched the
glowing projection.
    "Let me see," mumbled Washu as she typed into her touch screen.  "Oh
no."
    "What is it?" demanded Tenchi as he mopped at the sweat at was forming
on
his forehead.
    "We have only 380 Type A pods left.  The sheer magnitude of the
battleships' fire power is amazing."
    "And the other pods?" asked Sasami.
    "36 Type B pods left.  They're doing even worse than the other pods."
    "I guess the pen is not as mighty as the sword after all," said Tenchi's
grandfather with a frown.
    "Even if we defeat most of the battleships," exclaimed Ayeka, "the
transport ships will get through."
    "And the transports have more than enough in the way of firepower to
soften up Earth's military before landing the ground forces," stated Washu
as
she leaned back in her seat and shook her head in worry.
    They watched, in silent horror, as the four Hive battleships continued
to
exchange fire with the shrinking number of A pods.  Close behind them the
ten
military transports slowly started to move towards the asteroid belt.  They
planned to join their comrades and seemed to be almost shrugging off the
attacking B pods, like large horses dealing with flies.
    "Oh, I don't like this," whined Ryoko, "they're changing formation
again."
    "Oh no," said Washu as she expanded the view, closing in on the Hive
transports.  The ten ships were reforming into two rows of five, one on top
of the other.
    "Now what?" asked Princess Ayeka, frowning as she followed the second
wave slowly plow into the dust of the belt, heading right up to the second
wave.

    "All forward facing lasers at 20%," commanded Admiral WhiteClaw.  "That
should be enough to destroy the pods, but not breach our own battleship's
shielding."
    "Ready," said one of the staff after the orders had been relayed to the
other ships via the communication network.
    "Fire."

    "Wow," said Sasami, as she and the rest watched the military transports
fire into the belt, the energy causing a small inferno, as pod after pod
disappeared, falling apart under the attack.  The Hive's First Class
Battleships seemed to come through the attack thoroughly untouched.
    "My God," whispered Washu as she glanced at her screen.  "No type A
pods.
None.  And only 5 type B pods left."
    "Grandfather," asked Tenchi, "what do we do now?"
    Katsuhito shook his head and said, "I think the only person who can save
us now is Princess Sasami."
    "Me?"
    "Yes," said the old man as he turned to her, "you and Tsunami must
defend
the planet against the enemy's attack.  They will be entering into orbit
around the planet within a few days and Washu needs time to build something
else to counterattack."
    Tenchi frowned at the holographic map as the ships reformed into one
wave
and continued to move closer to Earth, using the screens against the dust
and
rocks, like tractors use iron plows against dirt.
    "Hey," said Ryoko who was close enough to notice before the others,
"what's that?"  She pointed a finger at a ripple in the map directly ahead
of
the invading fleet, between them and the planet Earth.
    "Hey, what is what?" stated Washu as she looked up at Ryoko and noticed
the ripple which was soon joined by others.
    "Not more invaders," sighed Princess Ayeka.
    "Meow!"
    "No, no," said Washu as she started to get readings over her own screen.
"YES!"

    Tiny dots in space widened to become huge holes in time and space.  And
out of this holes came the cavalry.  The first wave was made up of ten ships
from the Jurai Royal Body Guard.  Light spaceships, that looked like Viking
boats from the dreams of the God Odin, slipped into normal space. One long
line of battle, spreading out into two wings of five ships each, facing the
approaching Hive ships.  They all started to glow, enclosed within their
Light-Hawk wings.
    The second wave poured out.  Thirty Galaxy Police Ships formed up behind
the Jurai forces.  White missile frigates, purple gunboats and green patrol
ships.  If the Jurai made up the hinge of the bear trap, the Galaxy Police
made up the jaws, spreading out under the Jurai and above them.  Electronic
countermeasures were already filling space, as the Galaxy Police prepared
themselves.

    "So it's now 40 against 14," said Tenchi while Ryoko flew about
cheering.
    "Numbers don't count," pointed out Washu.  "Remember, we had them
outnumbered 500 to 15."
    "Well," said Princes Sasami, "I think mommy can beat them."
    "What?" Ayeka, as she stared at the map, then used her own screen to get
a closer view.  "It's the Angel!"
    "Angel?" asked Tenchi.
    "The flagship of the Royal Guard," remarked Sasami as her sister seemed
to become numb with shock.  "My Mom, Lady Misaki, commands it."
    "I am sure she will make it," replied Tenchi.
    "The women of Jurai are very strong," commented Katsuhito.
    "Yeah, you can say that," remarked Ryoko, who still remembered Sasami's
Mom slamming her into the wall and, later, almost pulling her face apart
because Ryoko had made fun of Ayeka.
    "Anybody have some popcorn?" said Washu as she brought the holographic
into sharper focus.

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Tenchi Muyo! and related characters and settings are owned by AIC and
Pioneer.  I own the rest of it.  All of it but the Earth.  That's not my
fault, it was that way BEFORE I got here.