Ship of the Line: Pioneer's Dawn
Authors Note: This story is a response to Zaion's ship of the...
Authors Note: This story is a response to Zaion's ship of the...
Ship of the Line: Pioneer's Dawn
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Ship of the Line: Pioneer's Dawn
Authors Note: This story is a response to Zaion's ship of the line challenge on Twisting the Hellmouth. I've been playing with a few different ideas on how to respond ever since the challenge was first posted but decided that this was probably my best option.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around with for my own purposes and make no profit from their use. So please no one sue me.
~~~///~~~
Chapter One
Somewhere
Sometime
The being known as Janus frowned as he stood over his viewing pool watching events playing out in the mortal world. While his kind had little influence on the events taking place in the mortal realms these days, the result of a decree by the Creator brought about after they'd abused their powers one too many times, they could still look in on them. Which was precisely what he was doing now.
And he really didn't like what he was seeing.
The Powers That Be and the Ascended were really making a mess of things; the Powers especially with that ridiculous idea they had for a balance between the forces of good and evil. The latter with their complete lack of interest in anything that went on with those they regarded as 'lower' beings, too afraid to act less they become as addicted to power as their Ori cousins had. Being the Roman god of time as well as doorways and change he could see which way things were going for the people of Earth under both their stewardship.
It wasn't good.
The Powers had their mortal champions locked in an endless battle against the supernatural, a battle that if things didn't change soon could have very dire consequences. He could already see the destruction of The Seed of Wonder and with it the temporary end of all forms of magic on the horizon – the tau lines were clear that that was a very probable future – which would be a bad thing. Though their rational minds didn't yet understand or accept it humans needed magic if they were to one day reach their full potential as a species and rise beyond simple ascension to energy beings – a potential his kind had nurtured since before the second iteration of the human race began recording time.
Thinking about it he wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't the Powers plan as they'd long hated humanities potential for magic – a potential the Alterans before them had never had – as it could eventually lead to them – and their precious balance – being rendered basically redundant. Plus the end of magic – at least for awhile as the Seed of Wonder would eventually regenerate itself – would let them do away with those other higher beings like the Elders, the Angels of Destiny and the Avatars who they saw as competitors, allowing the Powers to become even more powerful and domineering over the future of humanities destiny.
And if that wasn't bad enough the faction of humans known as Americans had reopened a door that would have been better left closed. Now they were out amid the stars far sooner than they ever should have been, facing threats that they weren't yet ready or even properly equipped to fight. Though they did not know it yet the Goa'uld System Lords were a minor threat compared to some of the things that prowled the universe. Any one of which could wipe out all life on Earth with no effort at all. While there were some who wanted to close the Stargate – though for hardly altruistic reasons as the true motivations of people like Senator Kinsey were an open book to him – it was already too late for that.
He was already aware that the System Lord Apophis was gathering his finest Jaffa army on two warships with which to attack and reconquer Earth. While he could see they'd repel the assault this time, and eventually make a peaceful contact with the powerful but steadily fading Asgard gaining a measure of protection against the egotistical, megalomaniacal parasites, it would only be a short term respite. Eventually they'd clash first with the Ori and then other higher dimensional threats and without magic, or some other advantage, they would ultimately fall no matter how hard they fought.
The problem was what he could do about it. How could he shake things up and hopefully make the events to come turn out differently? There wasn't much; like all the Old Gods he had little ability to affect the mortal world at all anymore. Certainly he couldn't just change things at his whim in the way he and the others had once been able to, which he had to admit had gone to their heads more than once and in the end prompted the Creator to step in and issue the decree to stop there interference.
It presented him with quite the conundrum.
After a couple of minutes thought a possible solution occurred to him. The Creators Edict wasn't absolute; the Creator hadn't been so cruel as to cut him and the others off entirely from the mortal realms, there was a way he could intervene. The fact that doing so could cause those over officious Powers That Be to have the celestial equivalent of a heart attack would just be, to borrow a delightful mortal phrase, icing on the cake.
His solution was simple.
In just under four hours – as humans reckoned time – it would be All Hallows Eve. Janus was fully aware that one of his few remaining mortal followers had travelled to the most active Hellmouth on Earth; his intent to cause chaos on Halloween night using enchanted costumes. Ethan Rayne had been a useful servant in the past, even if he did like the chaotic aspects of his power more than any of the other divine magic's that he could command. And now he would use that to his advantage as it would be easy to hijack Ethan's spell and repurpose at least part of it to accomplish his goal. He would have to be careful of course and make the change look to be a natural side effect of the chaos magic, so the Powers wouldn't be able to scream fowl, but it was doable. The repurposing of the spell would hurt Ethan a bit but that would be a small price to pay, and besides it would let him teach the chaos mage an important lesson, the lesson that he was primarily a god of change with chaos being only a small part of his aspect.
With the basics of a plan now in mind Janus waved a hand over the surface of the viewing pool, causing the image to change to show both Ethan Rayne's little shop and everything around it. Now who to use, he thought gazing thoughtfully at the throng of young humans coming and going from the shop, determining just who he would use to hopefully change upcoming events for the better.
After a few moments of searching he spotted them.
One of the two current vampire slayers, Buffy Summers, the still unknowing witch Willow Rosenberg (he quickly made a mental note to have a word with the Elders about her, see if they could assign a whitelighter to assist her in learning magic properly as the girl was a powerhouse, and thus potentially the founding member of an entirely new magical bloodline, though she didn't know it yet) and his current favourite mortal, Alexander 'Xander' Harris. Perfect, he thought smiling with both his faces at Alexander. That young man had been quite the topic of conversation amongst the various pantheons since the moment he'd successfully defied prophecy. Since then he'd kept a very close eye on him and directly intervened on his behalf when the Powers had wanted to punish him for disrupting their plans and thwarting one of their prophecies. In so doing by the ancient laws that bound celestial beings of all kinds, laws laid down by the Creator at the very beginning of the universe itself, he'd claimed him as a champion. And he was perfect for his purposes.
Now just a few things to arrange, he thought as he extended a small tendril of power to adjust some events that were to take place inside Ethan's shop. The first change he made was making the noble woman dress the Slayer would have been originally drawn to subtly undesirable to her. At the same time he made someone else get the last toy gun in the shop which would force his champion to find something else, something that he would be really able to work with. With a final little tweak he pulled back and watched to see what happened next.
~~//~~
Ethan's Costume Shop
Sunnydale, That Same Time
Alexander 'Xander' Harris resisted, just, the impulse to swear as he noticed that all the toy guns had vanished from the shelves. There went his plan for a two dollar costume using Uncle Rory's old army combat fatigues. Just my luck, he thought with a sigh.
"Something wrong, Xander," Buffy asked looking over at her best male friend.
"It's nothing, Buff," Xander answered, "it was just I was hoping to get away with not having to spend a lot as I already had a costume lined up for tonight. All I needed was one bit from here but now…"
"…it's gone," Buffy finished for him prompting an affirming nod.
"Yup now I have to find something else," Xander replied.
"Hmm well thanks to that troll, Snyder I also need to find something," Buffy commented, "maybe we can have a look together. And maybe together we can both convince Willow to wear something other than a ghost costume."
Xander snorted. "Buffy we're more likely to get pigs to fly than succeed in that," he pointed out, "both myself and Jesse – rest his soul – tried for years but in the end we ended up giving up."
Buffy inwardly winced when Xander mentioned his lost friend. She still felt guilty that she hadn't been able to prevent Jesse being turned as it was her own damned fault. She'd been so busy trying to escape her destiny as a Slayer at the time that she'd failed him, failed Willow and failed Xander who'd been forced to drive a stake into the heart of the monster who'd worn his friends face. Despite the blond-bimbo mask she sometimes wore she knew Xander was – to this day – haunted by Jesse's fate. And that it was one the things that drove him to fight the darkness, so no one else would know that pain, even though he had nothing really in the way of formal combat training.
Which now she thought about it she should really do something about. She made a mental note to have a word with Giles about it later, see if she and the Watcher couldn't come up with some sort of training regime for Xander and Willow. After all it would tear her apart if one of them were to be killed due to lack of training or worse turned, forcing her to slay them. So far they'd been lucky but no luck could last forever. She mentally kicked herself for what now seemed like such an obvious, and unforgiveable, oversight on her part. Xander and Willow would get some training even if she had to train them herself.
A hand suddenly waving in front of her face brought her out of her thoughts and she jumped. "Sorry I was miles away," she admitted smiling sheepishly at Xander.
"Anything we need to be worried about?"
Realising that he was worried that she'd just had one of her Slayer Dreams/Visions warning of some new big bad on the horizon she was quick to reassure him. "Nah I just realised something though we'll talk about it later," she said firmly wanting to talk to Giles before she broke the idea of training with Xander and Willow. "So Willow won't wear anything other than a ghost costume?"
"Nope though if you want to try your welcome to," Xander answered, "hell you might have more luck with her than we ever did since you're a girl as well."
"I'll go have a word with her," Buffy decided. "Will you be alright searching for a costume?"
"I'll be fine go speak to Willow," Xander replied, gaining a nod from the Slayer before she wandered off in search of the quiet, meek redhead. Xander watched her wistfully, wishing he could have her as a girlfriend, even after what she'd done to him at the Bronze. But she was with Angel now, a thought that made him shiver in distaste. What Buffy saw in Angel he really didn't know, after all cursed with a human soul or not the man wasn't really a man but a vampire and always would be. I do wish she'd stake his ass and be done with it, he thought, but now she carries on a relationship with the walking corpse. Which just proves one thing, girls are weird.
Putting Buffy's distasteful relationship with Angel out of his mind he turned to the serious purpose of finding a suitable costume for tomorrow night. He began looking through the various costumes on offer. There were a few costumes from DC comics present but unfortunately none of them were in his size which was a pity as it would have been cool to dress up as Batman, Superman or even Green Lantern for the night. With a sigh of resignation he moved on to the next rack of costumes.
There was no help here either. All the costumes were of the traditional Halloween variety, all ghosts, ghouls, witches, werewolves and vampires. While he might have considered wearing one of them in the past, now that he knew the truth of the supernatural world he wasn't about to touch any of them. Not even with a ten foot barge pole – even though a few looked to be in his size. So he moved on again.
And immediately paused for a moment in shock as he saw the contents of the next rack. The costumes were from a certain anime series he, Willow and Jesse used to watch when they'd been kids. Some of the costumes looked a bit newer, a bit more with a modern take but they were clearly all Robotech costumes. Grinning slightly he began looking through them, searching for one that was both for a male and in his size. One particular costume caught his eye and he carefully lifted it out, it was a white and red officers uniform with a high collared black jacket-like cloak over the top. He immediately recognised it as the uniform Rick Hunter had been wearing as one of the senior officers attached to the SDF3 for the Pioneer mission in the aborted Robotech II: Sentinels series. A small bag was attached containing a large black wig and a few other accessories including a replica of a SAL-9 Laser Pistol.
Whoa who ever put this together obviously paid a lot of attention to detail. Which means its probably out of range of what I can afford, he thought before checking the price tag. And freezing in shock before checking again to make sure he wasn't imagining things. The entire get up was only fifteen dollars well within the range of what he could afford. A smug grin appeared on his face as he decided then and there that this would be his costume tonight.
"Found something Xander," Buffy suddenly asked from behind him, making him yelp slightly in surprise before spinning around to find Buffy and a dejected looking Willow standing there. Neither of whom had costumes yet.
"Don't do that," he replied, giving the blond haired Slayer a death glare for trying to give him a heart attack. Buffy winced and mouthed 'sorry' back, so he let her off the hook this time at least. "And yeah I have," he added holding up the uniform for his two female friends to see.
"No way," Willow exclaimed eyes widening as she recognised the uniform even though she hadn't quite been as into Robotech as Xander and Jesse had been. "I didn't realise they did Robotech costumes for Halloween."
"Ugh what's Robotech," Buffy asked and winced at the scandalised looks she got back off Xander and Willow.
After a few moments of stunned silence that she didn't know Xander decided to enlighten her. "Robotech was a 80's anime Buffy," he explained, "in which three different generations of people fought off repeated waves of alien invaders all after a special ultra-clean power source called protoculture."
"Oh," Buffy replied. "Well it's a very nice uniform, Xander. I'm glad one of us is having luck finding something to wear, nothing I've seen so far really catches my interest."
"They don't have any ghost costumes, Xander," Willow griped to her oldest friend – and not so secret crush.
Xander chuckled. "Well then," he said a slight smirk appearing on his face even as he mentally thanked whoever was in charge for making sure Willow wouldn't be able to dress up as a ghost this time. "Looks like you won't be able to dress up as a ghost for a change, Wills. There are plenty of other costumes in this rack why don't you guys take a look?"
"I suppose it couldn't hurt," Buffy admitted, "come on Willow."
"Alright," Willow replied, still deeply unhappy about having to find something else to wear instead of her traditional ghost costume. Still if she had to wear a costume it would be nice if it was from one of hers, Xander's and Jesse's favourite childhood shows. It would be a nice way to honour Jesse, who'd been gone nearly a year now, and maybe, just maybe, it would get Xander to notice her more as a woman.
"Great," Xander answered. "I'll go pay for this then meet you girls outside, deal?"
"Deal," Buffy and Willow agreed, speaking almost in unison. Xander grinned back before heading over with his costume to pay while his two fellow Scoobies resumed their search for costumes. Maybe, Xander thought as he arrived at the back of checkout queue, despite Snyder's best efforts tonight won't be so bad after all.
~~//~~
Summers Residence
A Short Time Later
"So where are you meeting, Angel?"
Buffy smiled slightly at Willow's question even as she finished putting the final touches on the costume she'd acquired from Ethan's. Like Xander and Willow she'd been able to acquire the costume from the stock of Robotech costumes and, while she had no real idea just who the character Admiral Lisa Hayes was, she had to admit it looked good on her.
"Here after trick-or-treating moms going to be out so we'll have the house to ourselves," she replied before looking at the bathroom door. "Okay, Willow come on out. You can't hide in their all night."
"O…okay but promise you won't laugh?" Willow stammered back, her voice thick with nerves at being seen wearing what she was wearing. Buffy resisted, just, the impulse to roll her eyes not for the first time wondering just how Willow hoped to get Xander to notice her developing womanhood if she was nervous about appearing in anything remotely sexy.
"I promise," she assured the red head.
Slowly, nervously, the door opened and Willow – her very demeanour screaming meek, little mouse instead of the attractive woman she was maturing into – stepped out. She was dressed in a near strapless pale sky blue dress that hung down from an equally light blue chocker she wore around her neck. The dress hugged the contours of her body and showed off well the willowy figure was really starting to develop. The dress was open at the sides from her feet to just below her hips, showing surprisingly well proportioned legs. A translucent white silk mesh worn over her shoulders, white stiletto shoes and elbow length white gloves completed the ensemble. On her head in place of her normal red hair, Willow – like Buffy herself – was wearing a wig, though hers was black unlike the hazel brown of the one she was wearing – that framed her face and cascaded over her shoulders. Wow, Buffy thought, she dresses up nice. This Lynn Minmei character obviously knew how to dress to impress. Now if only I could convince her to dress up like this more often, she'd be giving Cordelia a run for her money in the attracting boys department.
"Wow," she said with a smile. "Willow you look a dish."
Willow frowned. "No I don't I look terrible," she replied looking down. "I wish they'd had a ghost costume I could have worn."
Buffy sighed. "Willow…" she started to admonish her friend for being so negative about her own appearance, but before any sound could emerge from her lips the doorbell sounded. "That will be, Xander. Cheer up, Wills you'll be fine. Trust me you'll blow, Xander away."
With that she turned and started to head downstairs to let their Xander-shaped friend in. Willow sighed and watched the Slayer leave, filling out the Sentinel's era uniform she was wearing very well indeed. She wished she could believe Buffy that this get up would really blow Xander away, and get him to notice her as a woman, but she wasn't at all sure that it would. But since Ethan's had lacked ghost costumes, the rack where they would have been having been empty indicating they'd probably already been sold out, she had no choice but to wear this get up. Mentally she tried to picture herself more as Minmei – as Minmei had been her favourite character in the Macross Saga though there had been a few times when she'd despaired at Minmei's seeming ignorance of Rick's attraction to her – than as herself. After all as Buffy had pointed out earlier Halloween was about pretending to be someone else.
It helped somewhat.
~~//~~
Reaching the bottom of the stairs Buffy sighed to herself. She so wished Willow wasn't so negative about her appearance all the time, wasn't so lacking in self-confidence. Though the latter was hardly a new thing for Willow, at least according to Xander, as despite her very high intelligence – or possibly because of it – Willow had lacked self-confidence for years. Though Xander had also said she'd gotten better recently, ever since they started helping her with her calling. Maybe the training I'll give them both will help, she thought making another mental note to discuss the issue of getting her friends some defence training with Giles later.
Reaching the door she pushed those thoughts aside for now and opened it to let Xander in. "Admiral Hunter reporting for duty," Xander joked as he came in, prompting Buffy to blink as she saw him actually in the uniform he'd picked up. She had to admit he looked good in it, better than good in fact he looked well… hot in uniform. Though where had he acquired blue tinted contact lenses? She didn't remember seeing any in the accessory pack that came with the uniform. "Whoa, Buffy you look good," Xander commented. "You pull off Lisa well."
Buffy smiled. "Why thank you kind sir," she replied smirking as she shut the door. "Now just wait till you see, Willow," she added moving to the base of the stairs. "Come on, Willow come down."
"B…but," Willow yelled back.
"Wills if you don't come down we're going to be late," Buffy shot back, "you want Snyder to give us detention for a month?"
For a few moments there was silence, and Buffy began to fear that Willow would indeed chicken out of coming down, then Willow appeared at the top to the stairs and slightly unsteady in her stiletto shoes began descending. Buffy watched cautiously, knowing this was Willow's first time in stiletto's and knowing from her own experience that it was easy to fall in them, at least till you got used to wearing them.
The moment Willow reached the bottom of the stairs Xander blinked. Wow, Willow is getting hot, he thought, not that I'll ever date her, would be too much like trying to date a sister. He of course recognised the outfit as being the one Lynn Minmei had worn during Robotech II: The Sentinels when she'd attended the wedding of Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes. "Wow Willow you look great," he said smiling.
Willow blushed slightly. "Ugh thanks, Xander," she replied, inwardly dancing in victory as she saw the look that briefly came into his eyes. Eyes that she suddenly noticed were not their normal colour. "You don't look so bad yourself. But what's with the blue eyes contacts?"
"Yup, the shop owner had them behind the counter for two dollars so I snapped them up. Think it really makes me look the part don't you?"
"It does," Willow agreed. "But we should get going."
"True we don't want to give the troll an excuse to chuck us all in detention," Xander agreed. "Though what he's got against the three of us I really don't know."
"Wish I knew," Buffy agreed as she picked up her house keys from a side table and slipped them into the pocket of her uniform, "maybe he's just mean. Come on times a wasting."
Xander and Willow both nodded in agreement. Being closest to the door Xander opened it and gestured for the girls to go first, then he followed them out making sure to close the door behind him. Then without further comment the three friends began making their way towards Sunnydale High School to pick up their charges for the evening.
~~//~~
Back of Ethan's Shop
Two Hours Later
Ethan Rayne smiled as he observed dusk give way to the deep darkness of a moonless night. After all his preparation it was time to begin the complex incantations that would summon the power of Janus and allow chaos to reign over Sunnydale. Quickly he closed the curtains over the back window and began carefully lighting the black candles around the room and the idol of Janus.
Once that was accomplished he knelt before the shrine and produced a small athame, the double edged steel knife engraved with a variety of mystical symbols, from his pocket and held the blade between his hands. Calmly he pressed both palms against the blades razor-sharp edges, wincing lightly at the slight stabs of pain it send shooting up his arms. Allowing the ceremonial knife to fall to the floor he gazed at his bleeding palms; the cuts were not that serious, certainly they were nothing a simple healing spell couldn't cure later, before getting started on the first part of the ritual to call upon the power of Janus.
"The world that denies thee, thou inhabit," he chanted dabbing the blood in his left hand with his right middle finger before drawing a line of blood over his right eyelid, "the peace that ignores thee, thou corrupt," he repeated the process with his left middle finger, right hand and left eyelid before drawing a bloody cross on his forehead, "chaos I remain, as ever, thy faithful, degenerate son."
In front of him the idol began to glow a soft green and the features on the side facing him changed into that of a monstrous male figure. He had succeeded in gaining the attention of his patron god. With a mounting sense of ecstasy he began the most important part of the ritual, the weaving of the spell.
"Janus, evoco vestram animam," the Latin incantation rolling easily off his tongue. "Exaudi meam causam. Carpe noctem pro consilio vestro. Veni, appare et nobis monstra quod est infinita potestas. Persona se corpum et sanguium commutandum est. Vestra sancta praesentia concrescet viscera. Janus! Sume noctem!"
The soft glow of the idol brightened and pulsed, before bursting outwards in a rippling wave of energy that rapidly swept over Sunnydale. As it touched those wearing the tainted costumes they're very existence changed and twisted. Ethan smiled maliciously as he felt the magic surge through him and sensed the spell beginning to do its work.
"Showtime," he muttered softly before gasping as pain suddenly blossomed in his chest. The magic from the idol was still surging through him, going on for far longer than he had anticipated. He could feel it starting to drain his own store of magical power, a store built up over all his years of faithful service to chaos. Ugh something's not right did I make a mistake in the incantation or something, he thought doubling over as the sensation manifested as intense pain similar to that caused by a heart attack.
His vision began to grey out at the edges and, realising he needed to stop the spell now before whatever mistake he'd made in the casting killed him, he tried to reach out to knock the idol of Janus off its plinth and out of the ring. An act which would destroy the idol and cause the spell to collapse unable to sustain itself without a focus. But before he could do so the pain ceased and exhausted he fell over backwards, the world going dark as consciousness fled his body.
Authors Note: This story is a response to Zaion's ship of the line challenge on Twisting the Hellmouth. I've been playing with a few different ideas on how to respond ever since the challenge was first posted but decided that this was probably my best option.
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around with for my own purposes and make no profit from their use. So please no one sue me.
~~~///~~~
Chapter One
Somewhere
Sometime
The being known as Janus frowned as he stood over his viewing pool watching events playing out in the mortal world. While his kind had little influence on the events taking place in the mortal realms these days, the result of a decree by the Creator brought about after they'd abused their powers one too many times, they could still look in on them. Which was precisely what he was doing now.
And he really didn't like what he was seeing.
The Powers That Be and the Ascended were really making a mess of things; the Powers especially with that ridiculous idea they had for a balance between the forces of good and evil. The latter with their complete lack of interest in anything that went on with those they regarded as 'lower' beings, too afraid to act less they become as addicted to power as their Ori cousins had. Being the Roman god of time as well as doorways and change he could see which way things were going for the people of Earth under both their stewardship.
It wasn't good.
The Powers had their mortal champions locked in an endless battle against the supernatural, a battle that if things didn't change soon could have very dire consequences. He could already see the destruction of The Seed of Wonder and with it the temporary end of all forms of magic on the horizon – the tau lines were clear that that was a very probable future – which would be a bad thing. Though their rational minds didn't yet understand or accept it humans needed magic if they were to one day reach their full potential as a species and rise beyond simple ascension to energy beings – a potential his kind had nurtured since before the second iteration of the human race began recording time.
Thinking about it he wouldn't be surprised if that wasn't the Powers plan as they'd long hated humanities potential for magic – a potential the Alterans before them had never had – as it could eventually lead to them – and their precious balance – being rendered basically redundant. Plus the end of magic – at least for awhile as the Seed of Wonder would eventually regenerate itself – would let them do away with those other higher beings like the Elders, the Angels of Destiny and the Avatars who they saw as competitors, allowing the Powers to become even more powerful and domineering over the future of humanities destiny.
And if that wasn't bad enough the faction of humans known as Americans had reopened a door that would have been better left closed. Now they were out amid the stars far sooner than they ever should have been, facing threats that they weren't yet ready or even properly equipped to fight. Though they did not know it yet the Goa'uld System Lords were a minor threat compared to some of the things that prowled the universe. Any one of which could wipe out all life on Earth with no effort at all. While there were some who wanted to close the Stargate – though for hardly altruistic reasons as the true motivations of people like Senator Kinsey were an open book to him – it was already too late for that.
He was already aware that the System Lord Apophis was gathering his finest Jaffa army on two warships with which to attack and reconquer Earth. While he could see they'd repel the assault this time, and eventually make a peaceful contact with the powerful but steadily fading Asgard gaining a measure of protection against the egotistical, megalomaniacal parasites, it would only be a short term respite. Eventually they'd clash first with the Ori and then other higher dimensional threats and without magic, or some other advantage, they would ultimately fall no matter how hard they fought.
The problem was what he could do about it. How could he shake things up and hopefully make the events to come turn out differently? There wasn't much; like all the Old Gods he had little ability to affect the mortal world at all anymore. Certainly he couldn't just change things at his whim in the way he and the others had once been able to, which he had to admit had gone to their heads more than once and in the end prompted the Creator to step in and issue the decree to stop there interference.
It presented him with quite the conundrum.
After a couple of minutes thought a possible solution occurred to him. The Creators Edict wasn't absolute; the Creator hadn't been so cruel as to cut him and the others off entirely from the mortal realms, there was a way he could intervene. The fact that doing so could cause those over officious Powers That Be to have the celestial equivalent of a heart attack would just be, to borrow a delightful mortal phrase, icing on the cake.
His solution was simple.
In just under four hours – as humans reckoned time – it would be All Hallows Eve. Janus was fully aware that one of his few remaining mortal followers had travelled to the most active Hellmouth on Earth; his intent to cause chaos on Halloween night using enchanted costumes. Ethan Rayne had been a useful servant in the past, even if he did like the chaotic aspects of his power more than any of the other divine magic's that he could command. And now he would use that to his advantage as it would be easy to hijack Ethan's spell and repurpose at least part of it to accomplish his goal. He would have to be careful of course and make the change look to be a natural side effect of the chaos magic, so the Powers wouldn't be able to scream fowl, but it was doable. The repurposing of the spell would hurt Ethan a bit but that would be a small price to pay, and besides it would let him teach the chaos mage an important lesson, the lesson that he was primarily a god of change with chaos being only a small part of his aspect.
With the basics of a plan now in mind Janus waved a hand over the surface of the viewing pool, causing the image to change to show both Ethan Rayne's little shop and everything around it. Now who to use, he thought gazing thoughtfully at the throng of young humans coming and going from the shop, determining just who he would use to hopefully change upcoming events for the better.
After a few moments of searching he spotted them.
One of the two current vampire slayers, Buffy Summers, the still unknowing witch Willow Rosenberg (he quickly made a mental note to have a word with the Elders about her, see if they could assign a whitelighter to assist her in learning magic properly as the girl was a powerhouse, and thus potentially the founding member of an entirely new magical bloodline, though she didn't know it yet) and his current favourite mortal, Alexander 'Xander' Harris. Perfect, he thought smiling with both his faces at Alexander. That young man had been quite the topic of conversation amongst the various pantheons since the moment he'd successfully defied prophecy. Since then he'd kept a very close eye on him and directly intervened on his behalf when the Powers had wanted to punish him for disrupting their plans and thwarting one of their prophecies. In so doing by the ancient laws that bound celestial beings of all kinds, laws laid down by the Creator at the very beginning of the universe itself, he'd claimed him as a champion. And he was perfect for his purposes.
Now just a few things to arrange, he thought as he extended a small tendril of power to adjust some events that were to take place inside Ethan's shop. The first change he made was making the noble woman dress the Slayer would have been originally drawn to subtly undesirable to her. At the same time he made someone else get the last toy gun in the shop which would force his champion to find something else, something that he would be really able to work with. With a final little tweak he pulled back and watched to see what happened next.
~~//~~
Ethan's Costume Shop
Sunnydale, That Same Time
Alexander 'Xander' Harris resisted, just, the impulse to swear as he noticed that all the toy guns had vanished from the shelves. There went his plan for a two dollar costume using Uncle Rory's old army combat fatigues. Just my luck, he thought with a sigh.
"Something wrong, Xander," Buffy asked looking over at her best male friend.
"It's nothing, Buff," Xander answered, "it was just I was hoping to get away with not having to spend a lot as I already had a costume lined up for tonight. All I needed was one bit from here but now…"
"…it's gone," Buffy finished for him prompting an affirming nod.
"Yup now I have to find something else," Xander replied.
"Hmm well thanks to that troll, Snyder I also need to find something," Buffy commented, "maybe we can have a look together. And maybe together we can both convince Willow to wear something other than a ghost costume."
Xander snorted. "Buffy we're more likely to get pigs to fly than succeed in that," he pointed out, "both myself and Jesse – rest his soul – tried for years but in the end we ended up giving up."
Buffy inwardly winced when Xander mentioned his lost friend. She still felt guilty that she hadn't been able to prevent Jesse being turned as it was her own damned fault. She'd been so busy trying to escape her destiny as a Slayer at the time that she'd failed him, failed Willow and failed Xander who'd been forced to drive a stake into the heart of the monster who'd worn his friends face. Despite the blond-bimbo mask she sometimes wore she knew Xander was – to this day – haunted by Jesse's fate. And that it was one the things that drove him to fight the darkness, so no one else would know that pain, even though he had nothing really in the way of formal combat training.
Which now she thought about it she should really do something about. She made a mental note to have a word with Giles about it later, see if she and the Watcher couldn't come up with some sort of training regime for Xander and Willow. After all it would tear her apart if one of them were to be killed due to lack of training or worse turned, forcing her to slay them. So far they'd been lucky but no luck could last forever. She mentally kicked herself for what now seemed like such an obvious, and unforgiveable, oversight on her part. Xander and Willow would get some training even if she had to train them herself.
A hand suddenly waving in front of her face brought her out of her thoughts and she jumped. "Sorry I was miles away," she admitted smiling sheepishly at Xander.
"Anything we need to be worried about?"
Realising that he was worried that she'd just had one of her Slayer Dreams/Visions warning of some new big bad on the horizon she was quick to reassure him. "Nah I just realised something though we'll talk about it later," she said firmly wanting to talk to Giles before she broke the idea of training with Xander and Willow. "So Willow won't wear anything other than a ghost costume?"
"Nope though if you want to try your welcome to," Xander answered, "hell you might have more luck with her than we ever did since you're a girl as well."
"I'll go have a word with her," Buffy decided. "Will you be alright searching for a costume?"
"I'll be fine go speak to Willow," Xander replied, gaining a nod from the Slayer before she wandered off in search of the quiet, meek redhead. Xander watched her wistfully, wishing he could have her as a girlfriend, even after what she'd done to him at the Bronze. But she was with Angel now, a thought that made him shiver in distaste. What Buffy saw in Angel he really didn't know, after all cursed with a human soul or not the man wasn't really a man but a vampire and always would be. I do wish she'd stake his ass and be done with it, he thought, but now she carries on a relationship with the walking corpse. Which just proves one thing, girls are weird.
Putting Buffy's distasteful relationship with Angel out of his mind he turned to the serious purpose of finding a suitable costume for tomorrow night. He began looking through the various costumes on offer. There were a few costumes from DC comics present but unfortunately none of them were in his size which was a pity as it would have been cool to dress up as Batman, Superman or even Green Lantern for the night. With a sigh of resignation he moved on to the next rack of costumes.
There was no help here either. All the costumes were of the traditional Halloween variety, all ghosts, ghouls, witches, werewolves and vampires. While he might have considered wearing one of them in the past, now that he knew the truth of the supernatural world he wasn't about to touch any of them. Not even with a ten foot barge pole – even though a few looked to be in his size. So he moved on again.
And immediately paused for a moment in shock as he saw the contents of the next rack. The costumes were from a certain anime series he, Willow and Jesse used to watch when they'd been kids. Some of the costumes looked a bit newer, a bit more with a modern take but they were clearly all Robotech costumes. Grinning slightly he began looking through them, searching for one that was both for a male and in his size. One particular costume caught his eye and he carefully lifted it out, it was a white and red officers uniform with a high collared black jacket-like cloak over the top. He immediately recognised it as the uniform Rick Hunter had been wearing as one of the senior officers attached to the SDF3 for the Pioneer mission in the aborted Robotech II: Sentinels series. A small bag was attached containing a large black wig and a few other accessories including a replica of a SAL-9 Laser Pistol.
Whoa who ever put this together obviously paid a lot of attention to detail. Which means its probably out of range of what I can afford, he thought before checking the price tag. And freezing in shock before checking again to make sure he wasn't imagining things. The entire get up was only fifteen dollars well within the range of what he could afford. A smug grin appeared on his face as he decided then and there that this would be his costume tonight.
"Found something Xander," Buffy suddenly asked from behind him, making him yelp slightly in surprise before spinning around to find Buffy and a dejected looking Willow standing there. Neither of whom had costumes yet.
"Don't do that," he replied, giving the blond haired Slayer a death glare for trying to give him a heart attack. Buffy winced and mouthed 'sorry' back, so he let her off the hook this time at least. "And yeah I have," he added holding up the uniform for his two female friends to see.
"No way," Willow exclaimed eyes widening as she recognised the uniform even though she hadn't quite been as into Robotech as Xander and Jesse had been. "I didn't realise they did Robotech costumes for Halloween."
"Ugh what's Robotech," Buffy asked and winced at the scandalised looks she got back off Xander and Willow.
After a few moments of stunned silence that she didn't know Xander decided to enlighten her. "Robotech was a 80's anime Buffy," he explained, "in which three different generations of people fought off repeated waves of alien invaders all after a special ultra-clean power source called protoculture."
"Oh," Buffy replied. "Well it's a very nice uniform, Xander. I'm glad one of us is having luck finding something to wear, nothing I've seen so far really catches my interest."
"They don't have any ghost costumes, Xander," Willow griped to her oldest friend – and not so secret crush.
Xander chuckled. "Well then," he said a slight smirk appearing on his face even as he mentally thanked whoever was in charge for making sure Willow wouldn't be able to dress up as a ghost this time. "Looks like you won't be able to dress up as a ghost for a change, Wills. There are plenty of other costumes in this rack why don't you guys take a look?"
"I suppose it couldn't hurt," Buffy admitted, "come on Willow."
"Alright," Willow replied, still deeply unhappy about having to find something else to wear instead of her traditional ghost costume. Still if she had to wear a costume it would be nice if it was from one of hers, Xander's and Jesse's favourite childhood shows. It would be a nice way to honour Jesse, who'd been gone nearly a year now, and maybe, just maybe, it would get Xander to notice her more as a woman.
"Great," Xander answered. "I'll go pay for this then meet you girls outside, deal?"
"Deal," Buffy and Willow agreed, speaking almost in unison. Xander grinned back before heading over with his costume to pay while his two fellow Scoobies resumed their search for costumes. Maybe, Xander thought as he arrived at the back of checkout queue, despite Snyder's best efforts tonight won't be so bad after all.
~~//~~
Summers Residence
A Short Time Later
"So where are you meeting, Angel?"
Buffy smiled slightly at Willow's question even as she finished putting the final touches on the costume she'd acquired from Ethan's. Like Xander and Willow she'd been able to acquire the costume from the stock of Robotech costumes and, while she had no real idea just who the character Admiral Lisa Hayes was, she had to admit it looked good on her.
"Here after trick-or-treating moms going to be out so we'll have the house to ourselves," she replied before looking at the bathroom door. "Okay, Willow come on out. You can't hide in their all night."
"O…okay but promise you won't laugh?" Willow stammered back, her voice thick with nerves at being seen wearing what she was wearing. Buffy resisted, just, the impulse to roll her eyes not for the first time wondering just how Willow hoped to get Xander to notice her developing womanhood if she was nervous about appearing in anything remotely sexy.
"I promise," she assured the red head.
Slowly, nervously, the door opened and Willow – her very demeanour screaming meek, little mouse instead of the attractive woman she was maturing into – stepped out. She was dressed in a near strapless pale sky blue dress that hung down from an equally light blue chocker she wore around her neck. The dress hugged the contours of her body and showed off well the willowy figure was really starting to develop. The dress was open at the sides from her feet to just below her hips, showing surprisingly well proportioned legs. A translucent white silk mesh worn over her shoulders, white stiletto shoes and elbow length white gloves completed the ensemble. On her head in place of her normal red hair, Willow – like Buffy herself – was wearing a wig, though hers was black unlike the hazel brown of the one she was wearing – that framed her face and cascaded over her shoulders. Wow, Buffy thought, she dresses up nice. This Lynn Minmei character obviously knew how to dress to impress. Now if only I could convince her to dress up like this more often, she'd be giving Cordelia a run for her money in the attracting boys department.
"Wow," she said with a smile. "Willow you look a dish."
Willow frowned. "No I don't I look terrible," she replied looking down. "I wish they'd had a ghost costume I could have worn."
Buffy sighed. "Willow…" she started to admonish her friend for being so negative about her own appearance, but before any sound could emerge from her lips the doorbell sounded. "That will be, Xander. Cheer up, Wills you'll be fine. Trust me you'll blow, Xander away."
With that she turned and started to head downstairs to let their Xander-shaped friend in. Willow sighed and watched the Slayer leave, filling out the Sentinel's era uniform she was wearing very well indeed. She wished she could believe Buffy that this get up would really blow Xander away, and get him to notice her as a woman, but she wasn't at all sure that it would. But since Ethan's had lacked ghost costumes, the rack where they would have been having been empty indicating they'd probably already been sold out, she had no choice but to wear this get up. Mentally she tried to picture herself more as Minmei – as Minmei had been her favourite character in the Macross Saga though there had been a few times when she'd despaired at Minmei's seeming ignorance of Rick's attraction to her – than as herself. After all as Buffy had pointed out earlier Halloween was about pretending to be someone else.
It helped somewhat.
~~//~~
Reaching the bottom of the stairs Buffy sighed to herself. She so wished Willow wasn't so negative about her appearance all the time, wasn't so lacking in self-confidence. Though the latter was hardly a new thing for Willow, at least according to Xander, as despite her very high intelligence – or possibly because of it – Willow had lacked self-confidence for years. Though Xander had also said she'd gotten better recently, ever since they started helping her with her calling. Maybe the training I'll give them both will help, she thought making another mental note to discuss the issue of getting her friends some defence training with Giles later.
Reaching the door she pushed those thoughts aside for now and opened it to let Xander in. "Admiral Hunter reporting for duty," Xander joked as he came in, prompting Buffy to blink as she saw him actually in the uniform he'd picked up. She had to admit he looked good in it, better than good in fact he looked well… hot in uniform. Though where had he acquired blue tinted contact lenses? She didn't remember seeing any in the accessory pack that came with the uniform. "Whoa, Buffy you look good," Xander commented. "You pull off Lisa well."
Buffy smiled. "Why thank you kind sir," she replied smirking as she shut the door. "Now just wait till you see, Willow," she added moving to the base of the stairs. "Come on, Willow come down."
"B…but," Willow yelled back.
"Wills if you don't come down we're going to be late," Buffy shot back, "you want Snyder to give us detention for a month?"
For a few moments there was silence, and Buffy began to fear that Willow would indeed chicken out of coming down, then Willow appeared at the top to the stairs and slightly unsteady in her stiletto shoes began descending. Buffy watched cautiously, knowing this was Willow's first time in stiletto's and knowing from her own experience that it was easy to fall in them, at least till you got used to wearing them.
The moment Willow reached the bottom of the stairs Xander blinked. Wow, Willow is getting hot, he thought, not that I'll ever date her, would be too much like trying to date a sister. He of course recognised the outfit as being the one Lynn Minmei had worn during Robotech II: The Sentinels when she'd attended the wedding of Rick Hunter and Lisa Hayes. "Wow Willow you look great," he said smiling.
Willow blushed slightly. "Ugh thanks, Xander," she replied, inwardly dancing in victory as she saw the look that briefly came into his eyes. Eyes that she suddenly noticed were not their normal colour. "You don't look so bad yourself. But what's with the blue eyes contacts?"
"Yup, the shop owner had them behind the counter for two dollars so I snapped them up. Think it really makes me look the part don't you?"
"It does," Willow agreed. "But we should get going."
"True we don't want to give the troll an excuse to chuck us all in detention," Xander agreed. "Though what he's got against the three of us I really don't know."
"Wish I knew," Buffy agreed as she picked up her house keys from a side table and slipped them into the pocket of her uniform, "maybe he's just mean. Come on times a wasting."
Xander and Willow both nodded in agreement. Being closest to the door Xander opened it and gestured for the girls to go first, then he followed them out making sure to close the door behind him. Then without further comment the three friends began making their way towards Sunnydale High School to pick up their charges for the evening.
~~//~~
Back of Ethan's Shop
Two Hours Later
Ethan Rayne smiled as he observed dusk give way to the deep darkness of a moonless night. After all his preparation it was time to begin the complex incantations that would summon the power of Janus and allow chaos to reign over Sunnydale. Quickly he closed the curtains over the back window and began carefully lighting the black candles around the room and the idol of Janus.
Once that was accomplished he knelt before the shrine and produced a small athame, the double edged steel knife engraved with a variety of mystical symbols, from his pocket and held the blade between his hands. Calmly he pressed both palms against the blades razor-sharp edges, wincing lightly at the slight stabs of pain it send shooting up his arms. Allowing the ceremonial knife to fall to the floor he gazed at his bleeding palms; the cuts were not that serious, certainly they were nothing a simple healing spell couldn't cure later, before getting started on the first part of the ritual to call upon the power of Janus.
"The world that denies thee, thou inhabit," he chanted dabbing the blood in his left hand with his right middle finger before drawing a line of blood over his right eyelid, "the peace that ignores thee, thou corrupt," he repeated the process with his left middle finger, right hand and left eyelid before drawing a bloody cross on his forehead, "chaos I remain, as ever, thy faithful, degenerate son."
In front of him the idol began to glow a soft green and the features on the side facing him changed into that of a monstrous male figure. He had succeeded in gaining the attention of his patron god. With a mounting sense of ecstasy he began the most important part of the ritual, the weaving of the spell.
"Janus, evoco vestram animam," the Latin incantation rolling easily off his tongue. "Exaudi meam causam. Carpe noctem pro consilio vestro. Veni, appare et nobis monstra quod est infinita potestas. Persona se corpum et sanguium commutandum est. Vestra sancta praesentia concrescet viscera. Janus! Sume noctem!"
The soft glow of the idol brightened and pulsed, before bursting outwards in a rippling wave of energy that rapidly swept over Sunnydale. As it touched those wearing the tainted costumes they're very existence changed and twisted. Ethan smiled maliciously as he felt the magic surge through him and sensed the spell beginning to do its work.
"Showtime," he muttered softly before gasping as pain suddenly blossomed in his chest. The magic from the idol was still surging through him, going on for far longer than he had anticipated. He could feel it starting to drain his own store of magical power, a store built up over all his years of faithful service to chaos. Ugh something's not right did I make a mistake in the incantation or something, he thought doubling over as the sensation manifested as intense pain similar to that caused by a heart attack.
His vision began to grey out at the edges and, realising he needed to stop the spell now before whatever mistake he'd made in the casting killed him, he tried to reach out to knock the idol of Janus off its plinth and out of the ring. An act which would destroy the idol and cause the spell to collapse unable to sustain itself without a focus. But before he could do so the pain ceased and exhausted he fell over backwards, the world going dark as consciousness fled his body.
Going by the description of the uniforms and Willow's dress (and the title), The SDF-3 Pioneer.
They are going to run into one not insignificant issue. The SDF-3 at the start of the expedition does not have a protoculture matrix. No matter how much of the stuff is on board, their supply is limited.
They are going to run into one not insignificant issue. The SDF-3 at the start of the expedition does not have a protoculture matrix. No matter how much of the stuff is on board, their supply is limited.
Not really. If you had read the challenge you would know that they are going to have one.
Haven't read the challenge. Figured that it simply was a case of "Xander dresses as captain/CO of capital space ship, said ship appears in orbit and doesn't go away".
I take it that the challenge specifies the best equipped version of the ship, regardless of the time period the characters are from?
I take it that the challenge specifies the best equipped version of the ship, regardless of the time period the characters are from?
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- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
Indeed there will be a protoculture matrix aboard the SDF3, Janus will make sure of that as its no good to bring the ship, and its compliment of mecha, their and not have any means of replenishing the fuel supplies.
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
Authors Note: Sorry about the delay posting this update here but I've been busy doing my carers thing with mum and dad the last few days. Thought I better post this here now since spacebattles is apparently entering its death throes as its run out of disc space - sad day to see such a long serving site dying like it is.
~~~///~~~
Chapter Two
The wave of magic unleashed by Ethan Rayne swept across Sunnydale like a silent, invisible tsunami of arcane energy. As the wave encountered those costumes which had been previously enchanted by Ethan Rayne reality shifted and warped. Face paint became skin, masks became bone, muscle and flesh instead of simply moulded, coloured plastic while simultaneously altering – sometimes radically – the biology of the costumes wearer into that of whichever ghoul, demon or monster they had originally dressed as.
Through his viewing pool Janus observed the spells energies spreading, changing and warping reality according to the tenants of Ethan's spell. As the spell reached the Scoobies, and a few other individuals he'd chosen for this particular task, he reached out with his power and began to more precisely sculpt the outcome of the transformations as they began to take place. Before extending another tendril of his power reached across the dimensional barriers to a reality where the anime characters they were dressed as were real people.
In an instant he created a precise copy of one of the key ships of the series humanity in the dimension he was concerned with knew as Robotech. Precise down to the smallest detail, with one critical exception he didn't duplicate any of the crew as that was far beyond his abilities as only the Creator was capable of creating and duplicating souls. After making a few more minor changes to the ship, including the installation of a very specific piece of technology, it was ready. So with a quick tug of power he removed his copied ship from its reality and deposited it in a high orbit of the Scoobies dimensions Earth, adjusting its quantum and magical signatures as he did so, so no one would be able to tell the ship hadn't been created by the chaos spell cast by Ethan Rayne. One final task, he thought quickly transporting a handful of craft from the bigger ship to the Sunnydale before he withdraw his power and sat back to watch.
And see what happened next.
~~//~~
Sunnydale
A Few Moments Later
Admiral Rick Hunter groaned softly as he opened his eyes to find himself lying flat out on an asphalt surface. Ugh what hit me, he thought sitting up and looking around in incredulous confusion. He appeared to be on Earth, somewhere in small town America if he guessed right, but he didn't understand how that could be. The last thing he remembered was being aboard the SDF-3 Pioneer as she orbited a newly liberated Tirol; he'd been with Lisa, the rest of the senior expedition members and Cabell to determine what was to happen to the planet now that it had been abandoned by the Robotech Masters before being devastated by the Regents attack. So how had he gotten back here to Earth, tens of thousands of light years from the Valvierre System and Tirol?
Deciding he would get no answers sitting here on his butt he stood up and gazed around. His confusion only grew as he recognized vehicles that hadn't existed since the Rain of Death, their manufacturing companies – like so much else – having been wiped from existence by the apocalypse Dolza had unleashed on the helpless planet. Had he somehow been transported back in time?
His apparent temporal dislocation wasn't the only thing that was strange about his current circumstances. There were aliens the likes of which he had never seen before running around causing absolute havoc. He couldn't help but jump as a car alarm went off behind him, startling him as it was a sound he hadn't heard since before the Rain.
"Okay Rick what have you been swept up in now," he said to himself. A loud roar from off to the right caught his attention and he turned to see what looked like a stereotypical werewolf coming towards him, salvia dripping from its fangs and feral yellow eyes alight with primal hunger and a fierce predatory intelligence. You have got to be kidding me, he thought. A werewolf! Or at least an alien that looks like a werewolf, and who looks like he wants to disembowel me right here. Better dissuade he/she/it whatever of that notion. Without hesitation he withdrew his sidearm and fired a warning shot.
A bright whitish-blue beam of compressed, supercharged photons shot out from the SAL-9 Laser Pistol, striking the ground directly in front of the werewolf-like alien. Instantly and with a resounding crack the intense focused energy of the beam vaporised a chunk of asphalt throwing up a cloud of noxious smelling steam and smoke. Immediately the 'werewolf' ceased its approach emitting a confused puppy-like yap, it sounded so bizarre that he couldn't help but chuckle. Before firing another shot, deliberately aiming past. The lycanthrope winced as the laser passed close enough to its body for the creature to feel the intense heat of the beam against its fur covered skin as well as smell the ionisation trail left by the passage of the intense stream of energy.
Deciding that it didn't want to tangle with this thing firing at it, knowing instinctively that it would not survive a direct strike from one of the light beams, the werewolf emitted a howl of fury and defeat. Before turning and running off to seek some easier prey to sate its gnawing hunger. Well at least it has brains enough to know tangling with a laser beam would be bad for its health, Rick thought watching the seemingly mythical creature retreat, tail metaphorically tucked between its legs.
"Rick, Rick help," a familiar female voice abruptly called from behind him, prompting him to spin around to see Minmei running up – dressed in the same stylish dress she'd worn when she'd sung at his and Lisa's wedding – a host of child-sized monsters – for lack of a better description – chasing after her. Without hesitation he acted, raising his sidearm and firing at one of the leading creatures threatening the singer/actress/somewhat little sister. The laser slammed into the creatures' torso with immense force producing a puff of smoke and flame from where its clothing was hit, even as the red-scaled, horned alien was knocked onto its ass, emitting a roar of combined surprise, incredulity, fury and pain.
The other creatures immediately froze. While the one he'd hit slowly, painfully picked itself up off the floor a vivid black smudge on its scaly chest showing where the beam had hit it. Rick blinked in surprise as a laser strike like that should have killed it outright unless its skin was some kind of natural armour, though even then the beam should have burned through. After all like all directed energy sidearms issued to the RDF/REF the SAL-9 had been designed with lessons learned from the study of Zentraedi sidearms in mind. There was no armour known to exist that the beam couldn't penetrate. Until now that is, Rick thought as the wounded creature seemed to decide to – rather than risk another extremely painful laser hit – exercise the better part of valour. Emitting a roar it turned and began running away, the other creatures following it but not before shooting fearful glances at the SAL-9 Rick was still holding.
"Minmei are you alright," he asked, looking over his one-time crush turned dear friend for any sign of injuries. Thankfully aside from being visibly frightened by the circumstances that they found themselves in – which he could well understand – Minmei seemed unharmed.
"I'm fine, Rick," Minmei answered blushing slightly at the attention. Though she had long since come to accept that she'd lost her chance with Rick when it came to love – both due to her own stupidity and interference from her anti-military nut cousin Kyle – to Lisa Hayes she knew Rick still cared a great deal about her. And vice-versa as Rick was someone she could talk to without worrying about the media somehow getting wind of it. "What's going on?" she asked. "One minute I'm at the reception after your marriage then I'm here, wherever here is."
Rick frowned. "Minmei, that was eighteen months ago," he answered.
Minmei gasped. "Eighteen months? You're joking right?" Rick shook his head, he definitely wasn't joking in fact he wished he was. "Isn't time travel supposed to be impossible?"
"Supposedly but then how often since the initial arrival of the SDF-1 did we see the impossible become possible."
Minmei acknowledged that point with a nod. "What are we going to do? How are we going to get back?" she asked only just supressing the impulse to panic.
"I don't know," Rick admitted, "but one things for sure we need to find some shelter, given what's going on," he gestured to the chaos around them, "staying here on the street would not be a good idea." Minmei nodded in agreement and felt her shoulders drop in relief trusting Rick to look after her as he always had.
Abruptly the communicator on his left wrist chimed and vibrated. After slipping his sidearm back into his belt holster he checked the offending device, frowning as he did so as no one in this apparent time should be able to access it. The moment the screen came to life he smiled slightly as he realised that neither himself nor Minmei were alone. There were a number of additional RDF/REF identification transponders broadcasting, with one broadcasting brighter indicating either a rendezvous point or an emergency locator beacon – the watches computer wasn't sophisticated enough to differentiate the two signals, especially at this range.
"Looks like we're not only ones who've been transported back to whatever year this is," he said to Minmei. "I'm picking up eight additional location beacons. Including one set up as a rendezvous point."
Minmei smiled happy to learn that despite the circumstances they found themselves in, however they'd been sent back in time, that they weren't alone. Others were here as well. Her smile turned into a frown as she saw Rick scowling slightly, clearly puzzled by something he was seeing. "What is it, Rick," she asked.
"Something strange three of the signals are moving incredibly quickly," Rick answered, "they're heading right towards us. They should come into this street any second now." He looked in the direction the signals would appear from, Minmei followed his gaze and waited.
After a moment three high-tech looking motorcycles, two a soft grey colour the other a quite vibrant red, came around a bend and entered the street. At the sight of them Rick's eyes widened in a combination of shock and recognition. Cyclones, he thought incredulous as seeing working models of the infantry mecha meant to replace the current Tornado battle bike which, while a powerful machine and capable of limited mechamorphosis it, wasn't powerful enough to face enemies as powerful as the Invid in infantry combat, but that's impossible. They're still in the early prototype stage of development so how can these three be here?
A marked suspicion began to grow in his mind, even as the group of veritech motorbikes slowed and came to a stop. They were being ridden by an eclectic group of people if ever there was one. Two of the riders were males, one wearing the kind of durable, functional clothing that had become popular in the years since the Rain of Death with people who lived in more remote areas without or with only limited access to one of the major population centres like New York which had escaped the Zentraedi bombardment or those established afterwards like Monument City. The other wearing an REF uniform that looked similar to the ones they'd been thinking of introducing to the Expeditionary Force and the whole RDF – replacing the slightly more flamboyant ASC inspired uniforms that were the current standard. Both men were wearing an armour over the top of their clothes that looked like a hard version of the current CVR-2 flexi-armour REF infantry and veritech fighter pilots wore. Like the Cyclone itself he recognised it as being CVR-3 armour, which like the mecha it was meant to work with, was still undergoing R&D testing.
The other two riders were girls. One with long honey blond hair, wearing a red bodysuit with white highlights. Like the two men she was wearing a hard body armour over the top but while the boys armour was a mixture of the normal cream, grey and olive tones hers was red. The final rider, who was on the back of the uniformed man's Cyclone with her arms wrapped securely around him, had pinkish red hair and was wearing a brown jacket with a light blue tank top underneath and jeans.
For a moment more nothing happened and Rick got the distinct impression that they were as surprised to see him as he was to see them. Which he could kind of understand as from the uniform the one man was wearing, and the Cyclones themselves, they probably came from a point further down the timeline than he and Minmei did. Finally though the uniformed man who, from his position in the pack of bikes, appeared to be the leader flipped up the translucent blue helmet visor revealing the face of a young man in his mid-twenties.
"Admiral Hunter? Miss Lynn? Is that you?" the man asked a note of equal parts uncertainty and suspicion in his voice. Rick carefully studied him noticing the unit patch – which he understandably didn't recognise but which – a badge that indicated one of the Martian facilities and the rank insignia of a lieutenant commander. Bit young for the rank though I can't say anything about that since I was a full commander and leader of Skull Squadron by the time I was twenty-four, he thought.
"Yes," Rick confirmed, "and you are?"
"Lieutenant Commander Scott Bernard, 21st Combat Wing, Mars Division sir," the man answered.
"Hey Scott," the other man said. "Any idea what's going on here yet? First we all wake up here wherever here is and now this?"
"I have no idea, Rand," Scott admitted.
"We've all travelled in time," Rick explained, "as to my uniform well that's easily explained as from Commander Bernard's uniform and your mecha you're from a future point in the timeline than myself and Minmei. For me the year is 2024."
" 2022 for me," Minmei added helpfully keeping close to Rick as she wasn't quite sure what to make of these strangers yet, though the fact that at least one was another soldier was comforting.
"We're from 2044," Rand admitted, "how did we get here? Wherever and whenever here is?"
"I have no idea exactly where we are but I have a good idea when look around," Rick answered. "From the style of these vehicles we're in the mid nineteen nineties, just before the Global Civil War really kicked off and before the arrival of the SDF-1. And if I had to guess from the air temperature we're somewhere in what were the southern states of the old United States of America."
"How can you tell, sir," Scott asked curious.
"Because I grew up in Northern California. Until I was nineteen I never left for more than a few days to go to various amateur flying competitions or performances of pop's air circus," Rick replied before smiling slightly nostalgic as he remembered to his days with his father's flying circus. He'd been so innocent back then, so naïve and more immature than he'd liked to admit. Had still been when Roy had sent him that fateful invitation to attend the commissioning ceremony of the SDF-1, an invitation that had changed his life so dramatically and irrevocably; after all if he'd not attended he'd have never become a soldier and would never have met his beloved wife.
He mentally shook himself, there would be time to get nostalgic later. "So who are your other companions Commander Bernard," he asked.
"Oh right sorry sir," Scott answered cheeks colouring in embarrassment as he realised he'd not really introduced everyone. He gestured over his shoulder at the oddly quiet pink-haired woman. "This is Ariel, the motor mouth by there is Rand."
"Hey," Rand objected.
"Pretty apt description for you," Rook commented smirking, which earned her a glare from the wisecracking Argentinean. A glare which had absolutely no effect on the blond haired half-Zentraedi woman. She looked over at Rick and had to admit he looked very handsome though she couldn't say she cared for the somewhat flamboyant uniform though it did fit the uniforms favoured at the time he and Minmei apparently came from. "I'm Rook by the way, Rook Bartley."
Rick raised an eyebrow. "Any relation to Kyle Bartley?" he asked curious as last time he'd seen the former pilot he'd just gotten married to an ex-Zentraedi warrior named Vala Norri.
"My father," Rook confirmed.
"Sir are you the source of the signal we were following," Scott asked, "after we woke up we picked up an REF homing signal and started heading towards it."
"No that's coming from somewhere over in that direction," Rick pointed down the street. "We were just about to head there ourselves."
"Oh, well hop on we can all go," Scott suggested.
"Sticking together would be a good idea," Rick agreed. "Alright Minmei why don't you hop on behind Ms Bartley. If that's alright with Ms Bartley."
"No problem," Rook agreed.
"No problem giving a lift here either," Rand added seeing the sense in them all sticking together at least till they figured out just what the hell was going on here. And why himself, Rook, Scott and Ariel were the only ones of their group here. Since they'd woken up here, wherever it was, there had been no sign of Lancer, Annie or Lunk nor had they responded when attempts were made to contact them via radio. Something which had set mental alarm bells ringing for all of them.
"Commander Bernard I'll send you the coordinates to the rendezvous point," Rick stated activating his watch and forwarding the coordinates of the rendezvous point to the navigation system of Commander Bernard's Cyclone.
"I've got them sir," Scott confirmed as they flashed up on his control panel's mini-map screen. A screen he really didn't have much chance to use while battling the Invid as they'd shot down all the RDF's GPS satellites after they drove the remains of the ASC naval forces that had beaten the Robotech Masters away from Earth. Thus he hadn't thought to check for the beacon coordinates on that particular system, assuming it could link to the more primitive and less accurate GPS systems of this time.
"Then we better get going," Rick decided before escorting Minmei over to Rook's Cyclone and helping her climb on. A few moments later he was climbing onto the other Cyclone behind Rand.
Seconds later they were all on their way again, racing towards the homing beacon all hoping they would at last get some answers as to what they were all doing here.
~~//~~
Stargate Command
Cheyenne Mountain Complex
That Same Time
Major General George Hammond was lost in thought as he stood by the briefing room windows gazing down at the silent, dark Stargate. Just over five hours ago Colonel O'Neill and the rest of SG-1 had, in defiance of the Congressional shutdown order currently on the SGC, overridden the security systems and travelled through the gate to a set of coordinates that Dr Jackson had brought back from an alternate reality. A reality in which Earth was being steadily bombed into oblivion by the forces of the Goa'uld System Lord Apophis in retribution both for the trouble they'd caused Apophis personally and the death of Supreme System Lord Ra.
An attempt to send SG-2 and SG-3 to retrieve them, so that both Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter could face court martial for their blatant defiance of orders, had failed. The coordinates had refused to lock a second time. At first they'd thought that Captain Carter had left a little viral surprise for them in the dialling computers, she had after all written the software they ran on and would thus know how to breach the firewalls and circumvent the anti-viral safeguards without being obvious about it, to prevent them following them. But that had soon been ruled out when they'd been able to successfully dial the Alpha Site. Which meant that for some reason Doctor Jackson's coordinates simply were no longer valid and he didn't want to think what that could mean.
"Sir," a voice said from behind him as the reflection of Master Sergeant Norman Walter Harriman appeared in the ballistic glass.
"Yes," George asked turning to look at the other man. Immediately he noticed the grim look on the other man's face which instantly set all manner of alarm bells ringing in his head.
"Sir near orbit radar reports that a large anomalous contact has just appeared in the sky above Northern California," Harriman reported. "There was no warning, one minute it wasn't there then it was. Whatever it is it's in a geostationary orbit directly over a small town called Sunnydale."
"Any idea what it is," George queried a look of concern appearing on his face as he spoke.
"We believe it to be a ship. A very big ship. However we did not pick up any sign of the vessel approaching, which means it's probably been there for a while just cloaked somehow."
"How big a ship?"
"From the radar reports the vessel is over seventeen hundred meters long and five hundred and eighteen meters wide. We've tried to contact them but so far there has been no response from the crew. We're trying to get a hold of one of the observatories in the Sierra Nevada's to see if they can get a look. Also I'm afraid that's not the only bit of bad news that I have."
Never rains but it pours hey George, he thought. "Go on," he said to prompt the other man knowing he wasn't going to like whatever else he had to say. Hell he didn't like what he'd heard already; that a ship just over five times the length and just under seven times the width of one of the Navy's Nimitz-class supercarriers had mysteriously appeared in orbit, without any warning whatsoever, was cause for great concern.
Especially as it wouldn't take long for someone on the ground to spot it – a ship that big would be easy to see from the surface with any half decent pair of binoculars – and tip off the media. Which could at best start a media feeding frenzy about first contact and at worst lead to a public panic. Neither outcome was something the US Government and Military would want to deal with just now; or ever which was why they'd kept the existence of the Stargate a secret even after the threat of the Goa'uld became known.
"Deep space radar has picked up two large blips passing Saturn, projections indicate that they're on a direct course to Earth. Radar calculates that at their current rate of speed the contacts will reach planetary orbit in just under four hours. NASA's repositioning Hubble now so we can get a better look at them."
Oh shit, George thought looking away from him, back down at the Stargate, a cold knot of dread forming in his stomach. He had no idea what the first contact could be, though it was almost certain to be a ship, but he had a very good idea what the incoming ships were, who they belonged to and why they were coming to Earth. For a moment he wondered if the two groups were connected but then decided against it, as if the first ship over California had been Goa'uld then they would already be under attack; from that position the first ship could effortlessly decimate the most populous state in the union before moving on to wipe out the entire West Coast all the way up to British Columbia and Alaska. Hell if that ship had been there for a long time, just hidden by a Star Trek-style cloaking device, and had had hostile intentions they would likely have all been dead long ago.
"I guess Doctor Jackson is lucky," he said softly.
"Why's that sir," Harriman asked curious.
"That he's not going to be here to see his nightmare come true a second time," George replied, before turning and marching back into his office and picking up the red phone. A phone that connected straight to the White House. "This is Major General Hammond. I need to talk to the President."
"Yes sir please stand by," a White House operator responded immediately. After a moment there was a click and President Marcel came on the line.
"Yes General Hammond what is it?"
"Sir we have a very serious problem."
~~//~~
Sunnydale
California, A Few Minutes Later
Riding on the back of the Cyclones, in spite of the chaos that seemed to be reigning over this small town, it didn't take the assembled Robotech soldiers and the members of Scott Bernard's resistance cell long to reach the source of the homing signal. Twice during their journey some of the various alien creatures had tried to accost them, only for a few well aimed warning shots from the proton cannon on Rand's Cyclone to persuade them that they were too much trouble to attack. Which was something Rick was thankful for as he climbed off the back of the aforementioned Cyclone.
The source of the signal appeared to be coming from within an area walled off with white plasterboards like those used on construction sites prior to the Rain of Death. Which from the signs and warnings was what was beyond the barrier. Both the display on Rick's watch/wrist computer and the navigational systems on the three Cyclones confirmed that to be the case.
"How to do we get in," Rand asked seeing nothing but a wall of white boards covered in various signs and warnings though he wasn't that familiar with their meanings. After all in the time he came from building on a large scale by anyone other than the Invid – who'd been building more and more hives as their numbers increased before Ariel convinced the Regis to leave Earth to its rightful inhabitants – like this had been completely non-existent, most people being barely able to keep their homes from falling down. "Switch to battle armour and flyover?"
"That would be a bit of a waste of energy and we can't afford to deplete the power cells on your Cyclones too much given the protoculture matrix won't even be on the planet yet," Rick pointed out, "there will be an entrance somewhere around here we just need to find it."
Without waiting for a response he began looking for the entrance. He quickly found it took metal mesh covered gates bound together by a bolt along with a thick heavy duty chain and padlock. "Over here," he called back to the others while taking his laser pistol from its quick-draw holster on his belt. A single well-aimed blast was all it took to slice through the links of the chain. With the tension broken and the weight of the padlock pulling on the other end the chain unwound and dropped to the deck with a clank of metal. A moment later he had the bolt pulled back and the gates were opening on very squeaky hinges.
"Someone's bound to have heard that," Scott commented as he felt Ariel slip off the back of his Cyclone already knowing what he was going to do next. A flick of a switch and the Cyclone began to change, standing up quickly he felt it wrapping around him forming into a complex suite of powered armour that made a single modern infantry soldier more powerful and dangerous than an entire battalion of pre-Robotech troops even with armour support. From behind him he heard Rook persuade Minmei to get off before she and Rand copied his action.
The faint whirling sound of mechamorphosis behind him had Rick spinning around, just in time to see the three Cyclones shift into armour mode making each of the riders look like a vastly scaled down, but still extremely dangerous, battloid. It was the same sort of principle the Tornado had worked with though nowhere near as well hence why Dr Lang and the Robotech Research Group had started Project: Cyclone. He couldn't help but smile slightly as the part of him that would always be the cocky pilot said 'cool' and 'I have so got to try that'. "Good thinking," he said aloud a clear note of approval in his voice.
"Sir might I suggest we scout inside first," Scott asked.
"Good idea commander proceed."
"Yes sir," Scott acknowledged before leading Rand and Rook into the building site. It seemed to be abandoned but only temporarily as everywhere he could see stacks of building materials covered in tarpaulins or still encased in plastic wrapping to protect it from the elements. Cautious they moved deeper inside.
They soon found the source of the homing signal they'd been following.
Sitting on a large concrete slab in the centre of the site were six Alpha fighters with Beta fighters attached to the back. All six Alpha's had their cockpits open waiting for pilots to climb aboard, the Beta's with the doors to their small passenger compartments open. There was however no sign of the pilots and according to a check of the thermal emissions all the veritechs were cold, like they'd been here for a while long enough for the heat signatures of their engines to dissipate completely.
"Sir," Scott said activating his comm. system. "The sites clear and we've found the source of the beacon signal."
"What is it," Rick's voice responded.
"There are six Alpha/Beta combination fighters here," Scott replied "the fighter in the leader position is the one broadcasting the homing signal."
"Any sign of the pilots?"
"No sir, and these fighters' engines are completely cold. They've been here awhile."
"Very strange why bring a group of fighters here then leave them completely unattended," Rick commented. "This mystery just keeps growing and growing. We'll be right there in a few moments. In the meantime get in one of the fighters and see if you can access the flight computer."
Even though he knew the admiral wouldn't be able to see him Scott nodded. "Yes sir," he acknowledged before signing off and going down onto his knees, before giving the command for the Cyclone to disengage from armour mode.
"Why do you want to access the flight computer, Scott," Rand asked watching his blue haired friend stand back up clad only in his CVR armour now, before pulling the Cyclone upright into its normal motorcycle form.
"The fighter's computer should contain a record of where these veritechs came from and how long they've been here," Scott replied walking up to the closest Alpha and hopping in before beginning to tap away at the controls.
"Oh yeah I forgot about those," Rand answered mentally kicking himself for forgetting it, the flight data records were one of the first things Scott and Lancer had taught him and Rook about when they'd taught them how to fly Alpha fighters. And not just how to fly them; but fly them in combat and make full use of their mechamorphic abilities and vast arsenals of weaponry.
Scott made a surprised noise. "That's odd," he said scowling at the screen.
"What is it?" Rook asked.
"There is no data here," Scott replied, "navigational records are completely blank beyond stored coordinates that is. It's almost like the navigational computers not been used, power usage records, engine power and performance records everything is blank. It's like this fighters never been used before."
"So what it just appeared here like we did," Rand asked.
"Very likely," Scott agreed before frowning. "And it looks like us and these fighters aren't the only ones caught up in whatever this is. Tactical navigation is picking up an identification transponder on a fleet frequency – it's coming from low orbit."
"Can you tell who it is," Rick asked as he came up with Minmei and the still silent Ariel in tow, clearly having heard what he'd just said.
"Yes sir I can," Scott confirmed checking the screens. "It's the SDF-3."
~~~///~~~
Authors Note: Another chapter bites the dust. The first groups have met up but where is Buffy/Lisa? Who else has been affected by the spell? How is their presence going to affect the upcoming attack on Earth by Apophis? You'll have to tune in next time to find out. Evil aren't I… lol.
~~~///~~~
Chapter Two
The wave of magic unleashed by Ethan Rayne swept across Sunnydale like a silent, invisible tsunami of arcane energy. As the wave encountered those costumes which had been previously enchanted by Ethan Rayne reality shifted and warped. Face paint became skin, masks became bone, muscle and flesh instead of simply moulded, coloured plastic while simultaneously altering – sometimes radically – the biology of the costumes wearer into that of whichever ghoul, demon or monster they had originally dressed as.
Through his viewing pool Janus observed the spells energies spreading, changing and warping reality according to the tenants of Ethan's spell. As the spell reached the Scoobies, and a few other individuals he'd chosen for this particular task, he reached out with his power and began to more precisely sculpt the outcome of the transformations as they began to take place. Before extending another tendril of his power reached across the dimensional barriers to a reality where the anime characters they were dressed as were real people.
In an instant he created a precise copy of one of the key ships of the series humanity in the dimension he was concerned with knew as Robotech. Precise down to the smallest detail, with one critical exception he didn't duplicate any of the crew as that was far beyond his abilities as only the Creator was capable of creating and duplicating souls. After making a few more minor changes to the ship, including the installation of a very specific piece of technology, it was ready. So with a quick tug of power he removed his copied ship from its reality and deposited it in a high orbit of the Scoobies dimensions Earth, adjusting its quantum and magical signatures as he did so, so no one would be able to tell the ship hadn't been created by the chaos spell cast by Ethan Rayne. One final task, he thought quickly transporting a handful of craft from the bigger ship to the Sunnydale before he withdraw his power and sat back to watch.
And see what happened next.
~~//~~
Sunnydale
A Few Moments Later
Admiral Rick Hunter groaned softly as he opened his eyes to find himself lying flat out on an asphalt surface. Ugh what hit me, he thought sitting up and looking around in incredulous confusion. He appeared to be on Earth, somewhere in small town America if he guessed right, but he didn't understand how that could be. The last thing he remembered was being aboard the SDF-3 Pioneer as she orbited a newly liberated Tirol; he'd been with Lisa, the rest of the senior expedition members and Cabell to determine what was to happen to the planet now that it had been abandoned by the Robotech Masters before being devastated by the Regents attack. So how had he gotten back here to Earth, tens of thousands of light years from the Valvierre System and Tirol?
Deciding he would get no answers sitting here on his butt he stood up and gazed around. His confusion only grew as he recognized vehicles that hadn't existed since the Rain of Death, their manufacturing companies – like so much else – having been wiped from existence by the apocalypse Dolza had unleashed on the helpless planet. Had he somehow been transported back in time?
His apparent temporal dislocation wasn't the only thing that was strange about his current circumstances. There were aliens the likes of which he had never seen before running around causing absolute havoc. He couldn't help but jump as a car alarm went off behind him, startling him as it was a sound he hadn't heard since before the Rain.
"Okay Rick what have you been swept up in now," he said to himself. A loud roar from off to the right caught his attention and he turned to see what looked like a stereotypical werewolf coming towards him, salvia dripping from its fangs and feral yellow eyes alight with primal hunger and a fierce predatory intelligence. You have got to be kidding me, he thought. A werewolf! Or at least an alien that looks like a werewolf, and who looks like he wants to disembowel me right here. Better dissuade he/she/it whatever of that notion. Without hesitation he withdrew his sidearm and fired a warning shot.
A bright whitish-blue beam of compressed, supercharged photons shot out from the SAL-9 Laser Pistol, striking the ground directly in front of the werewolf-like alien. Instantly and with a resounding crack the intense focused energy of the beam vaporised a chunk of asphalt throwing up a cloud of noxious smelling steam and smoke. Immediately the 'werewolf' ceased its approach emitting a confused puppy-like yap, it sounded so bizarre that he couldn't help but chuckle. Before firing another shot, deliberately aiming past. The lycanthrope winced as the laser passed close enough to its body for the creature to feel the intense heat of the beam against its fur covered skin as well as smell the ionisation trail left by the passage of the intense stream of energy.
Deciding that it didn't want to tangle with this thing firing at it, knowing instinctively that it would not survive a direct strike from one of the light beams, the werewolf emitted a howl of fury and defeat. Before turning and running off to seek some easier prey to sate its gnawing hunger. Well at least it has brains enough to know tangling with a laser beam would be bad for its health, Rick thought watching the seemingly mythical creature retreat, tail metaphorically tucked between its legs.
"Rick, Rick help," a familiar female voice abruptly called from behind him, prompting him to spin around to see Minmei running up – dressed in the same stylish dress she'd worn when she'd sung at his and Lisa's wedding – a host of child-sized monsters – for lack of a better description – chasing after her. Without hesitation he acted, raising his sidearm and firing at one of the leading creatures threatening the singer/actress/somewhat little sister. The laser slammed into the creatures' torso with immense force producing a puff of smoke and flame from where its clothing was hit, even as the red-scaled, horned alien was knocked onto its ass, emitting a roar of combined surprise, incredulity, fury and pain.
The other creatures immediately froze. While the one he'd hit slowly, painfully picked itself up off the floor a vivid black smudge on its scaly chest showing where the beam had hit it. Rick blinked in surprise as a laser strike like that should have killed it outright unless its skin was some kind of natural armour, though even then the beam should have burned through. After all like all directed energy sidearms issued to the RDF/REF the SAL-9 had been designed with lessons learned from the study of Zentraedi sidearms in mind. There was no armour known to exist that the beam couldn't penetrate. Until now that is, Rick thought as the wounded creature seemed to decide to – rather than risk another extremely painful laser hit – exercise the better part of valour. Emitting a roar it turned and began running away, the other creatures following it but not before shooting fearful glances at the SAL-9 Rick was still holding.
"Minmei are you alright," he asked, looking over his one-time crush turned dear friend for any sign of injuries. Thankfully aside from being visibly frightened by the circumstances that they found themselves in – which he could well understand – Minmei seemed unharmed.
"I'm fine, Rick," Minmei answered blushing slightly at the attention. Though she had long since come to accept that she'd lost her chance with Rick when it came to love – both due to her own stupidity and interference from her anti-military nut cousin Kyle – to Lisa Hayes she knew Rick still cared a great deal about her. And vice-versa as Rick was someone she could talk to without worrying about the media somehow getting wind of it. "What's going on?" she asked. "One minute I'm at the reception after your marriage then I'm here, wherever here is."
Rick frowned. "Minmei, that was eighteen months ago," he answered.
Minmei gasped. "Eighteen months? You're joking right?" Rick shook his head, he definitely wasn't joking in fact he wished he was. "Isn't time travel supposed to be impossible?"
"Supposedly but then how often since the initial arrival of the SDF-1 did we see the impossible become possible."
Minmei acknowledged that point with a nod. "What are we going to do? How are we going to get back?" she asked only just supressing the impulse to panic.
"I don't know," Rick admitted, "but one things for sure we need to find some shelter, given what's going on," he gestured to the chaos around them, "staying here on the street would not be a good idea." Minmei nodded in agreement and felt her shoulders drop in relief trusting Rick to look after her as he always had.
Abruptly the communicator on his left wrist chimed and vibrated. After slipping his sidearm back into his belt holster he checked the offending device, frowning as he did so as no one in this apparent time should be able to access it. The moment the screen came to life he smiled slightly as he realised that neither himself nor Minmei were alone. There were a number of additional RDF/REF identification transponders broadcasting, with one broadcasting brighter indicating either a rendezvous point or an emergency locator beacon – the watches computer wasn't sophisticated enough to differentiate the two signals, especially at this range.
"Looks like we're not only ones who've been transported back to whatever year this is," he said to Minmei. "I'm picking up eight additional location beacons. Including one set up as a rendezvous point."
Minmei smiled happy to learn that despite the circumstances they found themselves in, however they'd been sent back in time, that they weren't alone. Others were here as well. Her smile turned into a frown as she saw Rick scowling slightly, clearly puzzled by something he was seeing. "What is it, Rick," she asked.
"Something strange three of the signals are moving incredibly quickly," Rick answered, "they're heading right towards us. They should come into this street any second now." He looked in the direction the signals would appear from, Minmei followed his gaze and waited.
After a moment three high-tech looking motorcycles, two a soft grey colour the other a quite vibrant red, came around a bend and entered the street. At the sight of them Rick's eyes widened in a combination of shock and recognition. Cyclones, he thought incredulous as seeing working models of the infantry mecha meant to replace the current Tornado battle bike which, while a powerful machine and capable of limited mechamorphosis it, wasn't powerful enough to face enemies as powerful as the Invid in infantry combat, but that's impossible. They're still in the early prototype stage of development so how can these three be here?
A marked suspicion began to grow in his mind, even as the group of veritech motorbikes slowed and came to a stop. They were being ridden by an eclectic group of people if ever there was one. Two of the riders were males, one wearing the kind of durable, functional clothing that had become popular in the years since the Rain of Death with people who lived in more remote areas without or with only limited access to one of the major population centres like New York which had escaped the Zentraedi bombardment or those established afterwards like Monument City. The other wearing an REF uniform that looked similar to the ones they'd been thinking of introducing to the Expeditionary Force and the whole RDF – replacing the slightly more flamboyant ASC inspired uniforms that were the current standard. Both men were wearing an armour over the top of their clothes that looked like a hard version of the current CVR-2 flexi-armour REF infantry and veritech fighter pilots wore. Like the Cyclone itself he recognised it as being CVR-3 armour, which like the mecha it was meant to work with, was still undergoing R&D testing.
The other two riders were girls. One with long honey blond hair, wearing a red bodysuit with white highlights. Like the two men she was wearing a hard body armour over the top but while the boys armour was a mixture of the normal cream, grey and olive tones hers was red. The final rider, who was on the back of the uniformed man's Cyclone with her arms wrapped securely around him, had pinkish red hair and was wearing a brown jacket with a light blue tank top underneath and jeans.
For a moment more nothing happened and Rick got the distinct impression that they were as surprised to see him as he was to see them. Which he could kind of understand as from the uniform the one man was wearing, and the Cyclones themselves, they probably came from a point further down the timeline than he and Minmei did. Finally though the uniformed man who, from his position in the pack of bikes, appeared to be the leader flipped up the translucent blue helmet visor revealing the face of a young man in his mid-twenties.
"Admiral Hunter? Miss Lynn? Is that you?" the man asked a note of equal parts uncertainty and suspicion in his voice. Rick carefully studied him noticing the unit patch – which he understandably didn't recognise but which – a badge that indicated one of the Martian facilities and the rank insignia of a lieutenant commander. Bit young for the rank though I can't say anything about that since I was a full commander and leader of Skull Squadron by the time I was twenty-four, he thought.
"Yes," Rick confirmed, "and you are?"
"Lieutenant Commander Scott Bernard, 21st Combat Wing, Mars Division sir," the man answered.
"Hey Scott," the other man said. "Any idea what's going on here yet? First we all wake up here wherever here is and now this?"
"I have no idea, Rand," Scott admitted.
"We've all travelled in time," Rick explained, "as to my uniform well that's easily explained as from Commander Bernard's uniform and your mecha you're from a future point in the timeline than myself and Minmei. For me the year is 2024."
" 2022 for me," Minmei added helpfully keeping close to Rick as she wasn't quite sure what to make of these strangers yet, though the fact that at least one was another soldier was comforting.
"We're from 2044," Rand admitted, "how did we get here? Wherever and whenever here is?"
"I have no idea exactly where we are but I have a good idea when look around," Rick answered. "From the style of these vehicles we're in the mid nineteen nineties, just before the Global Civil War really kicked off and before the arrival of the SDF-1. And if I had to guess from the air temperature we're somewhere in what were the southern states of the old United States of America."
"How can you tell, sir," Scott asked curious.
"Because I grew up in Northern California. Until I was nineteen I never left for more than a few days to go to various amateur flying competitions or performances of pop's air circus," Rick replied before smiling slightly nostalgic as he remembered to his days with his father's flying circus. He'd been so innocent back then, so naïve and more immature than he'd liked to admit. Had still been when Roy had sent him that fateful invitation to attend the commissioning ceremony of the SDF-1, an invitation that had changed his life so dramatically and irrevocably; after all if he'd not attended he'd have never become a soldier and would never have met his beloved wife.
He mentally shook himself, there would be time to get nostalgic later. "So who are your other companions Commander Bernard," he asked.
"Oh right sorry sir," Scott answered cheeks colouring in embarrassment as he realised he'd not really introduced everyone. He gestured over his shoulder at the oddly quiet pink-haired woman. "This is Ariel, the motor mouth by there is Rand."
"Hey," Rand objected.
"Pretty apt description for you," Rook commented smirking, which earned her a glare from the wisecracking Argentinean. A glare which had absolutely no effect on the blond haired half-Zentraedi woman. She looked over at Rick and had to admit he looked very handsome though she couldn't say she cared for the somewhat flamboyant uniform though it did fit the uniforms favoured at the time he and Minmei apparently came from. "I'm Rook by the way, Rook Bartley."
Rick raised an eyebrow. "Any relation to Kyle Bartley?" he asked curious as last time he'd seen the former pilot he'd just gotten married to an ex-Zentraedi warrior named Vala Norri.
"My father," Rook confirmed.
"Sir are you the source of the signal we were following," Scott asked, "after we woke up we picked up an REF homing signal and started heading towards it."
"No that's coming from somewhere over in that direction," Rick pointed down the street. "We were just about to head there ourselves."
"Oh, well hop on we can all go," Scott suggested.
"Sticking together would be a good idea," Rick agreed. "Alright Minmei why don't you hop on behind Ms Bartley. If that's alright with Ms Bartley."
"No problem," Rook agreed.
"No problem giving a lift here either," Rand added seeing the sense in them all sticking together at least till they figured out just what the hell was going on here. And why himself, Rook, Scott and Ariel were the only ones of their group here. Since they'd woken up here, wherever it was, there had been no sign of Lancer, Annie or Lunk nor had they responded when attempts were made to contact them via radio. Something which had set mental alarm bells ringing for all of them.
"Commander Bernard I'll send you the coordinates to the rendezvous point," Rick stated activating his watch and forwarding the coordinates of the rendezvous point to the navigation system of Commander Bernard's Cyclone.
"I've got them sir," Scott confirmed as they flashed up on his control panel's mini-map screen. A screen he really didn't have much chance to use while battling the Invid as they'd shot down all the RDF's GPS satellites after they drove the remains of the ASC naval forces that had beaten the Robotech Masters away from Earth. Thus he hadn't thought to check for the beacon coordinates on that particular system, assuming it could link to the more primitive and less accurate GPS systems of this time.
"Then we better get going," Rick decided before escorting Minmei over to Rook's Cyclone and helping her climb on. A few moments later he was climbing onto the other Cyclone behind Rand.
Seconds later they were all on their way again, racing towards the homing beacon all hoping they would at last get some answers as to what they were all doing here.
~~//~~
Stargate Command
Cheyenne Mountain Complex
That Same Time
Major General George Hammond was lost in thought as he stood by the briefing room windows gazing down at the silent, dark Stargate. Just over five hours ago Colonel O'Neill and the rest of SG-1 had, in defiance of the Congressional shutdown order currently on the SGC, overridden the security systems and travelled through the gate to a set of coordinates that Dr Jackson had brought back from an alternate reality. A reality in which Earth was being steadily bombed into oblivion by the forces of the Goa'uld System Lord Apophis in retribution both for the trouble they'd caused Apophis personally and the death of Supreme System Lord Ra.
An attempt to send SG-2 and SG-3 to retrieve them, so that both Colonel O'Neill and Captain Carter could face court martial for their blatant defiance of orders, had failed. The coordinates had refused to lock a second time. At first they'd thought that Captain Carter had left a little viral surprise for them in the dialling computers, she had after all written the software they ran on and would thus know how to breach the firewalls and circumvent the anti-viral safeguards without being obvious about it, to prevent them following them. But that had soon been ruled out when they'd been able to successfully dial the Alpha Site. Which meant that for some reason Doctor Jackson's coordinates simply were no longer valid and he didn't want to think what that could mean.
"Sir," a voice said from behind him as the reflection of Master Sergeant Norman Walter Harriman appeared in the ballistic glass.
"Yes," George asked turning to look at the other man. Immediately he noticed the grim look on the other man's face which instantly set all manner of alarm bells ringing in his head.
"Sir near orbit radar reports that a large anomalous contact has just appeared in the sky above Northern California," Harriman reported. "There was no warning, one minute it wasn't there then it was. Whatever it is it's in a geostationary orbit directly over a small town called Sunnydale."
"Any idea what it is," George queried a look of concern appearing on his face as he spoke.
"We believe it to be a ship. A very big ship. However we did not pick up any sign of the vessel approaching, which means it's probably been there for a while just cloaked somehow."
"How big a ship?"
"From the radar reports the vessel is over seventeen hundred meters long and five hundred and eighteen meters wide. We've tried to contact them but so far there has been no response from the crew. We're trying to get a hold of one of the observatories in the Sierra Nevada's to see if they can get a look. Also I'm afraid that's not the only bit of bad news that I have."
Never rains but it pours hey George, he thought. "Go on," he said to prompt the other man knowing he wasn't going to like whatever else he had to say. Hell he didn't like what he'd heard already; that a ship just over five times the length and just under seven times the width of one of the Navy's Nimitz-class supercarriers had mysteriously appeared in orbit, without any warning whatsoever, was cause for great concern.
Especially as it wouldn't take long for someone on the ground to spot it – a ship that big would be easy to see from the surface with any half decent pair of binoculars – and tip off the media. Which could at best start a media feeding frenzy about first contact and at worst lead to a public panic. Neither outcome was something the US Government and Military would want to deal with just now; or ever which was why they'd kept the existence of the Stargate a secret even after the threat of the Goa'uld became known.
"Deep space radar has picked up two large blips passing Saturn, projections indicate that they're on a direct course to Earth. Radar calculates that at their current rate of speed the contacts will reach planetary orbit in just under four hours. NASA's repositioning Hubble now so we can get a better look at them."
Oh shit, George thought looking away from him, back down at the Stargate, a cold knot of dread forming in his stomach. He had no idea what the first contact could be, though it was almost certain to be a ship, but he had a very good idea what the incoming ships were, who they belonged to and why they were coming to Earth. For a moment he wondered if the two groups were connected but then decided against it, as if the first ship over California had been Goa'uld then they would already be under attack; from that position the first ship could effortlessly decimate the most populous state in the union before moving on to wipe out the entire West Coast all the way up to British Columbia and Alaska. Hell if that ship had been there for a long time, just hidden by a Star Trek-style cloaking device, and had had hostile intentions they would likely have all been dead long ago.
"I guess Doctor Jackson is lucky," he said softly.
"Why's that sir," Harriman asked curious.
"That he's not going to be here to see his nightmare come true a second time," George replied, before turning and marching back into his office and picking up the red phone. A phone that connected straight to the White House. "This is Major General Hammond. I need to talk to the President."
"Yes sir please stand by," a White House operator responded immediately. After a moment there was a click and President Marcel came on the line.
"Yes General Hammond what is it?"
"Sir we have a very serious problem."
~~//~~
Sunnydale
California, A Few Minutes Later
Riding on the back of the Cyclones, in spite of the chaos that seemed to be reigning over this small town, it didn't take the assembled Robotech soldiers and the members of Scott Bernard's resistance cell long to reach the source of the homing signal. Twice during their journey some of the various alien creatures had tried to accost them, only for a few well aimed warning shots from the proton cannon on Rand's Cyclone to persuade them that they were too much trouble to attack. Which was something Rick was thankful for as he climbed off the back of the aforementioned Cyclone.
The source of the signal appeared to be coming from within an area walled off with white plasterboards like those used on construction sites prior to the Rain of Death. Which from the signs and warnings was what was beyond the barrier. Both the display on Rick's watch/wrist computer and the navigational systems on the three Cyclones confirmed that to be the case.
"How to do we get in," Rand asked seeing nothing but a wall of white boards covered in various signs and warnings though he wasn't that familiar with their meanings. After all in the time he came from building on a large scale by anyone other than the Invid – who'd been building more and more hives as their numbers increased before Ariel convinced the Regis to leave Earth to its rightful inhabitants – like this had been completely non-existent, most people being barely able to keep their homes from falling down. "Switch to battle armour and flyover?"
"That would be a bit of a waste of energy and we can't afford to deplete the power cells on your Cyclones too much given the protoculture matrix won't even be on the planet yet," Rick pointed out, "there will be an entrance somewhere around here we just need to find it."
Without waiting for a response he began looking for the entrance. He quickly found it took metal mesh covered gates bound together by a bolt along with a thick heavy duty chain and padlock. "Over here," he called back to the others while taking his laser pistol from its quick-draw holster on his belt. A single well-aimed blast was all it took to slice through the links of the chain. With the tension broken and the weight of the padlock pulling on the other end the chain unwound and dropped to the deck with a clank of metal. A moment later he had the bolt pulled back and the gates were opening on very squeaky hinges.
"Someone's bound to have heard that," Scott commented as he felt Ariel slip off the back of his Cyclone already knowing what he was going to do next. A flick of a switch and the Cyclone began to change, standing up quickly he felt it wrapping around him forming into a complex suite of powered armour that made a single modern infantry soldier more powerful and dangerous than an entire battalion of pre-Robotech troops even with armour support. From behind him he heard Rook persuade Minmei to get off before she and Rand copied his action.
The faint whirling sound of mechamorphosis behind him had Rick spinning around, just in time to see the three Cyclones shift into armour mode making each of the riders look like a vastly scaled down, but still extremely dangerous, battloid. It was the same sort of principle the Tornado had worked with though nowhere near as well hence why Dr Lang and the Robotech Research Group had started Project: Cyclone. He couldn't help but smile slightly as the part of him that would always be the cocky pilot said 'cool' and 'I have so got to try that'. "Good thinking," he said aloud a clear note of approval in his voice.
"Sir might I suggest we scout inside first," Scott asked.
"Good idea commander proceed."
"Yes sir," Scott acknowledged before leading Rand and Rook into the building site. It seemed to be abandoned but only temporarily as everywhere he could see stacks of building materials covered in tarpaulins or still encased in plastic wrapping to protect it from the elements. Cautious they moved deeper inside.
They soon found the source of the homing signal they'd been following.
Sitting on a large concrete slab in the centre of the site were six Alpha fighters with Beta fighters attached to the back. All six Alpha's had their cockpits open waiting for pilots to climb aboard, the Beta's with the doors to their small passenger compartments open. There was however no sign of the pilots and according to a check of the thermal emissions all the veritechs were cold, like they'd been here for a while long enough for the heat signatures of their engines to dissipate completely.
"Sir," Scott said activating his comm. system. "The sites clear and we've found the source of the beacon signal."
"What is it," Rick's voice responded.
"There are six Alpha/Beta combination fighters here," Scott replied "the fighter in the leader position is the one broadcasting the homing signal."
"Any sign of the pilots?"
"No sir, and these fighters' engines are completely cold. They've been here awhile."
"Very strange why bring a group of fighters here then leave them completely unattended," Rick commented. "This mystery just keeps growing and growing. We'll be right there in a few moments. In the meantime get in one of the fighters and see if you can access the flight computer."
Even though he knew the admiral wouldn't be able to see him Scott nodded. "Yes sir," he acknowledged before signing off and going down onto his knees, before giving the command for the Cyclone to disengage from armour mode.
"Why do you want to access the flight computer, Scott," Rand asked watching his blue haired friend stand back up clad only in his CVR armour now, before pulling the Cyclone upright into its normal motorcycle form.
"The fighter's computer should contain a record of where these veritechs came from and how long they've been here," Scott replied walking up to the closest Alpha and hopping in before beginning to tap away at the controls.
"Oh yeah I forgot about those," Rand answered mentally kicking himself for forgetting it, the flight data records were one of the first things Scott and Lancer had taught him and Rook about when they'd taught them how to fly Alpha fighters. And not just how to fly them; but fly them in combat and make full use of their mechamorphic abilities and vast arsenals of weaponry.
Scott made a surprised noise. "That's odd," he said scowling at the screen.
"What is it?" Rook asked.
"There is no data here," Scott replied, "navigational records are completely blank beyond stored coordinates that is. It's almost like the navigational computers not been used, power usage records, engine power and performance records everything is blank. It's like this fighters never been used before."
"So what it just appeared here like we did," Rand asked.
"Very likely," Scott agreed before frowning. "And it looks like us and these fighters aren't the only ones caught up in whatever this is. Tactical navigation is picking up an identification transponder on a fleet frequency – it's coming from low orbit."
"Can you tell who it is," Rick asked as he came up with Minmei and the still silent Ariel in tow, clearly having heard what he'd just said.
"Yes sir I can," Scott confirmed checking the screens. "It's the SDF-3."
~~~///~~~
Authors Note: Another chapter bites the dust. The first groups have met up but where is Buffy/Lisa? Who else has been affected by the spell? How is their presence going to affect the upcoming attack on Earth by Apophis? You'll have to tune in next time to find out. Evil aren't I… lol.
Thinking about it one of them would need to be Lang. He's the only one who could explain the technology to the SGC in detail.
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
That's an interesting idea. Not sure if i'll actually use it but it's worth giving some serious thought to.
Dr Lang is indeed one of the others as it would have to be him or Louis Nichols who'd explains how the tech works.
I'm assuming that Rick and Lisa would want to get everybody to as safe a place they can get and secure their ship. The SDF-3 would be a friendly location to figure out what the hell happened.
They'll also want to get up there as quickly as possible once they can't raise the ship on comms. Not only is that a major combatant, flagship of the fleet, stores most of the remaining protoculture, is armed with reflex cannons and has reflex warheads on board, it is also Rick and Lisa's home. They'll want it secured if currently abandoned.
Of course there are cons to that. Something or someone (Janus, not that they know) has send them hurtling trough at least time (from their perspective) and those Alpha's and Beta's are a bit convenient. They also don't know who those other beacons are or what the hell is going on in the town. Rick might not want to split up the infantry combat power of those cyclones and one of those beacons might be Colonel Edwards (who should always be shoved out of an airlock at the earliest opportunity).
By the way. Isn't Lisa currently master and Commander of the SDF-3 with Rick as leader of the combined air wing and ground forces of the fleet?
- Location
- South Wales, United Kingdom
Yes she is. The way I resolve the rank conflict between Rick apparently being a general in Sentinels and an admiral in New Generation/Love, Live, Alive/Shadow Chronicles is to make it that he was an admiral all along and is essentially Lisa's second in command. So his responsibilities are the air wing, ground forces and the day to day operation of the Pioneer. Which frees Lisa up to focus more on commanding the entire expeditionary force.
So Lisa's a full Admiral, while Rick is 'only' a Rear Admiral.
And it makes sense that Lisa is the higher ranking, she has seniority over him, having been in the RDF/REF longer than Rick.Another fun topic for us to consider is which Sunnydalers dressed up as Robotech characters. Andrew and Jonothan are strong possibilities.
Imagine if it turns out that the Rook costume was worn by Harmony.