Author’s Note: Most of the characters in the following story are not mine and in no way do I claim them to be. Nor do I claim that I created the universe that the characters are placed in. The characters and the universe remain the property of Hitoshi Okuda, Pioneer LDC, INC and Kadokawa Shoten Publishing CO. Please do not sue. This is a fanfic and is nothing more than a show of my appreciation to the creators of Tenchi Muyo. No Need for Dark Warriors Chapter 3 Galaxy Police station 21 had gone from a lowly outpost on the fringe of unexplored space to the primary re-supply base and defense sphere for half the Galaxy Police fleet. Thousands of ships had massed in the space around the station holding enough firepower to wipe out a world in moments. Shuttles zoomed around making last minute crew shipments and repairs. Anxiousness was heavy all around. Even in the way the shuttles and other ships moved the fear could be seen. Masayuki was on the bridge of his personal battleship the Kariudo. The admiral had been placed in charge of the entire operation as he had the most experience in the area of the belt of Sojin. Currently he was coordinating the entire fleet from the bridge and his voice clearly showed that he was pleased to be in command of a fleet once again. “Aright. All ships in task force one come to my flank. Ships in task force two and three take your respective positions on my port and starboard sides. Task force four, begin defensive formation around station 21, we’ll see you when we come back. All fighters pull into docking bays and prepare for jump. Task forces one, two and three, set course for edge of Sojin system approximately fifty light years lateral from our current standing, that’s where the outpost was. Prepare for jump on my mark.” Masayuki looked up from the tactical projection and the bluish light illuminated his features. “Mark!” The fleet fired up their main engines and initiated their respective jumps. In a flash they were gone leaving station 21 one and her guard alone as they went to fight an enemy that no one had seen and survived. While still in jump Masayuki hastily opened frequencies with the commanders of the three task forces. “Alright here’s where we stand. I’m feeding the tactical info to you now. We don’t know what is going to be there when we come out of jump so stay together and back each other up. Listen for my commands at all times.” The voices of the separate commanders came over the comlink in unison. “Yes admiral!” Masayuki seated himself in the command chair just in time to hear his helmsman address him. “Admiral. Coming out of jump now.” The admiral nodded. “Right. Engineering prepare to shift full power to weapons and shields the moment we come out of hyperspace.” “Aye, aye sir!” With a slight shudder the fleet dropped out of hyperspace. Quickly they set up a standard defensive posture making sure to keep Masayuki’s battleship in the center to give him a full field of fire. Now out of hyperspace the Kariudo moved its substantial mass into position. From the bridge of the Kariudo Masayuki looked around apprehensively. There was nothing to see. They had dropped out of hyperspace almost on top of where outpost Three Four One should be but it was nowhere to be found. “Where are they?” Said the admiral. “Destroyed?” “No admiral.” Came the voice of the science officer. “There’s some space junk but nothing that would even nearly amount to the remains of an outpost.” The admiral leaned heavily in his chair. “Strange, where are they? Patch me through to the task force commanders.” “Done sir.” “This is admiral Masayuki. Stay on the alert but don’t go anywhere. I’m going to have the Kariudo perform a deep scan to see what we can pick up. Kariudo out!” The battleship Kariudo upon the actions of her crew began to slowly open several sensor sails from its lower section. Once fully extended the deep scan began. On the bridge Masayuki looked out the viewing window knowing that the scan would take a while. It was then that his eye caught something; or rather something psychological drew his eyes to one spot. It was there only a second or so and then was gone. A small ripple in the star field, a minute blurring of several stars that ended so quickly a novice officer would have never noticed it. However nothing escaped the admiral’s hardened eyes and he directed his crew casually although a lump was forming in his throat. “Science, see if you can scan the area I’m feeding to you now.” Masayuki typed a few quick coordinates on a pad built into his chair. “Aye, scanning sir… we’re picking up something, its weak though. We’ll need to send a ship closer to get a better reading.” The admiral nodded. “Very well patch me through to task force one on audio.” “Aye.” “Admiral Masayuki to task force one. I’m feeding some coordinates to you now. I want you to travel to within a few kilometers and begin a deep scan.” “Yes sir.” The admiral watched as the fleet of several hundred ships that was task force one began to slip away from the main battle group toward the intended location. “Anything else on the scan?” Said Masayuki offhandedly. One of the science officers nodded. “Yes. We just picked it up actually. It’s some kind of metallic object, a beacon perhaps. It’s playing some kind of message on standard GP frequencies.” “Well what are you waiting for cadet? Put it through!” “Yes admiral.” The sound of captain Shishi’s voice filled the bridge. The message was full of static and could barely be understood and the fact that Shishi seemed to be in a severe state of panic did not help. “-A. All ships stay away… Gone- location- enemy has cloaking-… Cloaking device. Repeat…” Masayuki gripped the arms of his chair and looked to where task force one was still moving steadily forward. “Pull them back!” “Sir?” “Pull them back now! Don’t ask questions just do it!” The communications officer, sensing the gravity in the admiral’s voice, quickly began to send the signal. But it was the science officer who spoke next. “Sir we’re getting a massive power reading just ahead of task force one. It’s… my god!” Masayuki was shouting at this point. “What! How big is the reading!” “Sir…” “How big it the reading!” “I can’t sir!” “Tell me or I’ll throw you out into space myself!” The science officer stood at this and shouted back at the admiral in as respectful a tone as he could. “I can’t tell you because our instruments don’t read that high sir!” Masayuki’s voice fell. “What?” The science officer had stopped yelling as well and this time only his voice could be heard on the crowded bridge. “The readings are off the scale sir. As far as the computer knows five supernovas just went up off our portside.” Masayuki looked to task force one and his jaw fell. The space ahead of the ships seemed to shimmer as if with great heat. The stars in the background became wild streaks as if they were being ripped apart. Then slowly a ship manifested itself. It gradually appeared from where there had been nothing. Bulkheads came from nowhere. Then it kept growing. The admiral leaned back in its chair. “Its huge! Science, how big is that thing?” “Running it through computer sir.” Came the shaken voice of the science officer. “What? Sir… it’s the size of a class c gas giant! But the readings must be wrong, that’s huge! No ship can be that large!” Now the crackled voice of the commander of task force one was coming across the comm franticly. “Admiral, this is task force one! We’ve got power fluctuations all over the ship! It’s coming from that… thing! That ship! It’s so intense it’s melting our computers! We’ve lost all power, even life support, communications are being kept up but we’re not sure for how lo-” “This is admiral Masayuki! You have clearance to open fire task force one! Hold on, we’re coming!” Somehow he knew that the ships in task force one did not hear him. “All ships in task force two and three take flanking positions and follow me! Weapons bring us up to full power. Communications hail that thing if you want but I doubt you’ll get an answer. Science, I want that thing scanned now!” Masayuki took the tiny moment it took for the fleet to gather to study this strange ship before him. It was truly monstrous. It sprawled over visible space blocking out the stars. But it was a bizarre ship. Made of multiple colors the ship bulged with countless projections and blisters. Then something caught the admiral’s eye. He could barely make it out. It was on the side of the monstrous ship, it was the insignia of the Galaxy Police. “What the hell?” The admiral said under his breath. “That’s not one of our ships, why in the universe…” Then he looked up to see that they were almost within range. Task force one seemed to be fairing well considering what they were up against, they would make it. It would all be fine. Those in task force one had lost life support but they could live off the air in the ships until they rescued them. Then the huge planet-sized ship began to change slowly, some of the blisters on the side began to open. Then and without warning beams of blue energy shot forth and impacted some of the lead ships of task force one, then the energy leapt in arcs from one ship to another until all the ships in the first task force were covered with blue wisps. Gradually, sickeningly, the ships began to be pulled toward the planet-sized ship. The admiral was dumbstruck. “What is that thing doing?” The ships caught in the strange blue energy continued to move until they at last impacted the sides of the massive ship. However instead of being destroyed they seemed to quietly tare apart and the pieces sank into the hull of the huge ship. Masayuki watched in horror as this planet-sized ship effectively consumed task force one, grafting the ships onto its own hull. Slowly he forced himself to look away. “Science. What is going on here?” He said in a tone that was too uneasy to be loud. “Sir… we just came through with the readings, that ship, its not just one ship. I’m detecting thousands of separate materials from all over the galaxy spread over its hull. Sir that ship is a mutation, it grows bigger by adding onto itself with any material it comes across.” The admiral silenced further comment from the science officer. “It absorbs ships!” He snapped out of his shock quickly. “All ships fire at will, fire at will!” The fleet opened fire at once. Energy streaked across the void toward the planet-sized ship and then harmlessly bounced off back into space. Masayuki was instantly fighting his urge to panic. “Are none of our shots getting through?” “No sir. Scans show its defenses are perfect, there’s no opening what so ever! The readings from the scans of its shields alone are overloading our computers!” “Keep firing!” Masayuki shouted quickly over the comm. “We have to stop that thing! Patch me through to headquarters and feed them all the information we know on that thing.” “Yes sir.” “And patch me through to that… thing!” “Yes sir.” Masayuki began screaming into the comm without fully realizing it. “Who are you! What are you! What have you done with our ships?” Static. There was no response. “Who are you? What is the name of your vessel?” No answer. “The connection has been cut admiral. They never responded.” Said the communications officer. “Then fire the main guns!” “Yes sir. Firing. Still no mark on the enemy ship!” The admiral turned. “Has our message been sent?” “Yes sir. Headquarters should be informed shortly.” “Sir!” “Yes?” Said Masayuki turning toward his science officer. “I’m reading a massive power surge. It looks like they’re returning fire!” The ship, or whatever it was, seemed to glow with an unfathomable energy. Then thousands of beams of searing blue energy shot forth from its hull. The Kariudo was wracked with explosions and admiral Masayuki watched as half his fleet was blow to pieces before his eyes. Then blue lightning began to run across the instrument panels all over the bridge as the panicked screams of his crew filled the air. The admiral was on his feet and steadied himself as his ship listed heavily. He quickly found his science officer. “What’s going on now?” The admiral whispered. “Power fluctuations sir. The same that took out the outpost and everything else.” Masayuki looked up to see his ship slowly being pulled toward the massive sides of the enigmatic super ship. “It’s pulling us in!” He shouted numbly and slumped to the floor as his crew panicked all around. “God help us all…” Slowly the Kariudo and the other ships unlucky enough to survive the first and only fire from this strange aggressor were now pulled closer and closer to the hull of the massive ship until at last the screams of the crews were replaced with silence once more. To be continued...