Up until the day he and his father had crested that hill, arguing about taking their chances back in China or going on about this big secret his father had waiting for him in Tokyo, Ranma Saotome's faith in the martial arts had been absolute.
That had been maybe one minute after they'd seen the odd low-flying plane. Then there'd been that bright flash and the two of them had run to the top of the hill.
The two of them had turned around and fled back down the hill the moment Ranma had realized what that movement to the East was. The next set of flashes hadn't caught them unawares, though the wind and sonic boom of the shockwave were uncomfortable indications of what had just happened behind them.
Thermonuclear war. Missiles from China. Martial arts had been woefully inadequate for that kind of fight.
His father had pulled out a couple of unexpected dividends, unsealing two entire schools of martial arts in order to scout out nearby positions. Though they'd been expecting Chinese shock troops and not expecting refugees.
One of them had been a computer geek who'd been able to get some information. Somewhere in Hong Kong some company had come up with a Windows alternative, and then released a virus that could learn. The idea had been that the virus would infiltrate Windows and upgrade itself to deal with patches, then only that company's software would run.
The virus learned too well. The Machine became sentient. There were radio operators who apparently spread the word, the networked computers were locked out initially by geeks like Nasahiko, but within four hours it was obvious the attention of the Machine was elsewhere.
Then the computer operators still hiding behind their firewalls and scrambled lines began going offline abruptly.
Nasahiko was dead now. The Terminators had initially gotten surprise. They'd lost a lot of people before he and his father had managed to stop the three invaders.
Ranma was now much more formidable, and much less innocent. Holding a friend who'd taught you everything you needed to know about electronics and machines while he bled to death from multiple gunshot wounds kind of negated the whole innocent gig.
He knew Anything Goes indiscriminate grappling. He'd learned the two styles his father had initially come up with, the Way Of The Silent Thief and the Way Of The Noisy Thief. He'd developed the style of Anything Goes Computer Hacking, and the Way Of The Modern Thief had been jointly developed by himself and his father.
Anything Goes meant just that, so grabbing the robot weapons, removing the safeguards and booby traps, and reconfiguring them for human use - all fair game.
His walkie-talkie crackled. "Sergeant Saotome, we've secured the perimeter."
"Roger that," said Ranma, bouncing his signal off a part of the building he knew was empty.
No boom, so it was likely legit.
"Nuku, assist Mister Saotome," said the "mission specialist" with Ranma.
"Yes, papa-san!"
"We stick to the plan," said Ranma. "Grab the prototypes and any notes and such we can find, then get the heck out of here before the charges start going off. We got fifteen minutes."
"Ah, if only Kyoko could have seen how they remodeled," said Professor Natsume.
"Mom's not dead," said the child along with their group.
"No but she's with another group," said the child's father.
"Fourteen minutes," said Ranma, smashing through a wall to bypass the trapped door. "Go."
Genma fretted. He did that a lot. This time was a little different though. "I have to go."
"Captain Saotome, we're on a major offensive here," said the General. "Though I knew this time would come."
"I have to see for myself," said Genma. "My old friend's place might have survived."
"Survived the bombs? Survived the fallout? Survived the kill squads?" asked General Oe. "Take one of Natsume's enviroscanners with you. Use your stealth techniques. Avoid confrontations."
"I expected more of an argument," said Genma.
"We've both seen people go off on these things, they have to see the results with their own eyes." The General clasped the older man's shoulder. "Don't do like the majority and fail to return."
Ranma drove. The truck creaked and groaned as he floored it and they left Mishima Heavy Industries. "Everyone OK back there?"
"Yeah Sergeant," came Ryunosuke's voice. "Pops is just inputting some data into them units."
"Good," said Ranma. The sooner they were reprogrammed, the sooner they'd be activated, the sooner they could assist in their own defense. "What exactly are they?"
Professor Natsume's voice answered him. "As we feared, these are:"
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(Posted Wed, 09 Jun 2004 11:01)
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