[Episode 233747] [Episode 233747]"Hiromi-sama?"
Hiromi perked. "What is it, Hitomi-san?"
"Sensors now detecting a Neptunian cruiser with escorts approaching us," Hitomi reported. "The cruiser's IFF beacon marks her as RNDS Exodus. The flagship of Crown Princess Pukaze."
Hiromi nodded. "The current head of the armed forces of the Kingdom." She sat back in her chair, a slightly amused look on her face. "Wonder what she wants."
"No doubt, Onē-san, to ask us to chase this monsters out of our shared solar system," Kōgetsuei said as she looked over from her seat to Hiromi's right.
"HAH!"
Eyes locked on the image of the chief observer of the Church of Lum in Tomobiki, who was now shaking in an apoplectic fit. "You disagree?" Hiromi teased.
A hoarse laugh. "And why not?!" He pointed at her. "It is YOU, Moroboshi, who will be driven out of this system! Driven away from all under the Goddess'…!"
His lips continued to flap, though no voice was escaping him. Hiromi sighed as she gazed to her right, noting that Bunjaku had touched a key on her work station. "My eternal thanks, Ayami-san," she said, a grateful smile crossing her face. "Hearing such mindless nonsense from that barbarian was giving me a headache."
However, it wasn't a proper two-may mute…
"'BARBARIAN?!'" the chief observer howled.
"She's teasing that idiot."
"Noticed, huh?"
Hōsen and Shimei turned to gaze on Kōro as the latter relaxed in her command chair on the bridge of Bismarck. "This is normal?" the tōshi from Rakuyō asked.
"Oh, quite normal," the reborn leader of Nan'yō affirmed with a nod. "Anything that casts members of their so-called 'one true Faith' — even words! — in a bad light can make them lash out and do anything in response." She then sighed. "Unfortunately, that moron did affirm one thing. If Oyuki's cousin is coming up here, she's going to try to order Hiromi-sama to back off and allow those idiots to make their way to Earth so they can continue to probe into the diaries of Hiromi-sama's friends in Tomobiki! All just to allow them to add more chapters to their 'holy book,' the Book of Lum." She tsked as she wagged her finger. "And oh NO! We mustn't do anything to upset the Niphentaxians! Even if they invade the privacies of dozens of unsuspecting people…even if they gladly destroy their own people's lives to suppress any attempts at trying to promote a little freedom…" — she then scowled — "…and even if they murder five million innocent people just to try to kill a dictator who once tried to put a hit on their precious 'goddess'…and with a BIOLOGICAL WARFARE agent atop that…!"
Hōsen and Shimei both paled on hearing that. "You are KIDDING me!" the latter hissed.
"Oh, no, Mimōko," Kōro said before looking over. "Naoko-chan, have you done what Hiromi-sama normally wants to be done in these cases?"
A pretty green-haired girl with blue-grey eyes looked up from her station. "It is done, Michiko-sama. All Avalonians aboard the target ships have been detected and fed into the materialiser sensors. With improvements Ayami-sama made to the materialisers, we could transport them aboard Bismarck and the other ships, leaving the obedience collars behind."
Both visiting tōshi tensed. "What obedience collars?!" Hōsen demanded.
Naoko gazed dispassionately at her. "Collars designed to ensure no Avalonian may escape Niphentaxian control, Shikuko-sama," she calmly answered. "They are built with micro-explosives that could easily decapitate someone when detonated. And are controlled remotely by the security officer of a Niphentaxian warship."
Hōsen and Shimei both turned stark-white. "Oh ye GODS…!" the latter croaked.
"Jam the collar controls," Kōro ordered. "Once jamming is in effect, energize!"
"Hai!"
Naoko's fingers flew over her work station controls…
Meanwhile…
"Built with the same general technology as the Eternal Voyager?!"
The sensory officer looked up from his station. "So I believe, My Princess. It is as if all these ships were the Voyager itself, only shrunk to one-tenth the physical length and not outfitted with the anti-proton cannons the Voyager used to destroy the Kamahanite Ultimate Weapon that was once intended to be used against the Mikado years ago."
Taking that in, Pukaze — she appeared to be a version of Oyuki in her mid-twenties, with a less-ornate coronet holding her silver ice ponytail in place; she was currently dressed in something akin to what samurai would wear in the battlefield of old Japan — blinked before she gazed on the forward view screen of Exodus, which showed the formation of Niphentaxian destroyers now being surrounded by the strange fleet of alien starships bearing the names of famous Earth wet-navy warships and coloured the pretty light blue of the flag of their United Nations. Why, each of them even had the UN wreathed globe symbol on their hulls! And while the idea of Earth eventually developing its own star fleet to defend itself was a welcome thing…
…that such had appeared out of NOWHERE was quite disturbing!
"My Princess?"
Pukaze looked over to the signals officer. "Yes?"
"Your pardon, My Princess, but there is a signal from Kōri City. It is your cousin."
A nod. "On screen, please."
"At once, My Princess."
The view screen then flickered to reveal the private chambers of the Heiress Apparent to the Throne of Kōri. Gazing on her beloved cousin, Pukaze was quick to see that Oyuki was QUITE upset about something. "What is it, Oyuki-chan?" the former then asked as the bridge crew all stood and bowed respectfully to her.
"Have you attempted to communicate with those ships bearing Earth markings yet?" Oyuki asked, her voice noticeably frosty.
"No, but we were about to do so. Why?"
"Because the Minister of the Central Warp Chamber just reported to me. Those ships are the source of the jamming that forces all our attempts at opening a warp to Earth to be redirected to Mars!" Oyuki hissed out. "Clearly, whoever these people are, they are allied with whoever it was that supported Lum-chan's ex-husband in what he did to her!"
Hearing that, Pukaze sighed. She had only received a second-hand report on what happened in Tomobiki an Earth week before, when — after the man had been literally backed into a corner and forced to participate in a Tag Race to save his homeworld from Yaminokuni mushrooms — Moroboshi Ataru resorted to a most unexpected response: He had crushed Lum's old horns in a classic act of divorce among her race, then took advantage of her stunned state at that act to tag her horns and win the race in mere seconds! And then — when it appeared that Prince Rupa would not use his flock of pigs to remove the mushroom plague from Earth — Ataru then pulled another rabbit from his magic hat by calling down the GREAT DRAGONS of NOUKIIOS themselves to chase all aliens off the planet once and for all!
"Oyuki-chan, honestly! Even if your friend's husband divorced her…"
"No!" the crown princess snapped, causing the bridge crew of the Exodus to gape in wide-eyed disbelief at their future queen; NEVER had any Neptunian ever seen Oyuki so incensed. "I will NOT allow that MAN to get away with what he did to Lum-chan! Make them stop whatever they're doing so I can have him taken to Onishuto…!"
"By the sounds of it, My Emperor, she doesn't like you."
Hiromi smirked; the conversation between Oyuki and Pukaze was being played on the bridge speakers of both Haida and Bismarck. "No, Michiko-san. It seems that she who calls herself 'Oyuki' can't seem to accept there are people in this universe who won't support what her friend desires," she stated. "Have you…?"
"OH, MY GOD!"
Hiromi, Kōgetsuei and Bunjaku all tensed as the sound of materialisers echoed over Haida's bridge. "Shimei-dono…" the former gasped.
"It's…not as bad…as it looks…"
Hearing that weak assertion, Shimei felt a cry of horror escape her before she knelt down to help the badly-bruised and dangerously thin girl — a girl not much older than Kōgetsuei! — that had just been beamed aboard Bismarck's main bridge.
And she wasn't alone.
THREE HUNDRED such people had been beamed out of the six Niphentaxian destroyers, all distributed evenly among the six Earth starships.
ALL dangerously underfed and bruised.
ALL dressed in — even in the eyes of Ryomō Shimei and Ryofu Hōsen, who often wound up losing ALL their clothes in the course of their more intensive fights with other tôshi! — scandalously skimpy uniforms that had no real place on starships.
And ALL of them…
…looking as if they had just been fished right out of Hell Itself.
"Wh-who are y-you, s-sister?" another woman, looking to be in her early twenties, stammered as she gazed on Enjutsu Kōro while Bismarck's bridge crew of seven Avalonians moved to render what aid they could to them.
Kōro smiled. "I'm On Michiko, sister," she said as she gave them the Noukiite-style left fist-in-right palm salute. "Currently, you're aboard the Earth Defence Force Starship Bismarck. Since your enslavement by the Niphentaxians is an act of complete, utter barbarism, we decided to liberate you and give you your freedom."
Hearing that, the just-arrived Avalonians blinked in shocked disbelief, and then many reached up automatically to their throats. Instantly grasping empty air where they had been obedience collars that had — right from the days they emerged from gestation and mental programming — kept their lives forever chained to the engine rooms and other dangerous spaces of their "masters'" ships, many blinked in disbelief before they broke down in tears, hugging each other and their saviours for all they were worth.
Suddenly, a deep rumble was heard as lightning sparked in the air.
"WHO — DID — THIS — TO — THEM?!"
Kōro's and Shimei's eyes snapped over to gaze on Hôsen…
…and then they went wide.
On Haida…
Both Bunjaku and Kōgetsuei quaked with terror. "Onē-san…!" they burbled.
Hiromi remained quite calm as she watched the scene aboard Bismarck on the main view screen. "How many times did that scene replay itself?" she quietly mused as she watched the current incarnation of the mightiest warrior of the Three Kingdoms fully awaken to her true power. "The Battle of Hǔláo Pass. The Siege of Cháng'ān. The campaign against the Hēishān. The Siege at Púyáng. The Battle of Xiàpī." A shake of the head. "All she — all he! — ever desired was to fight and prove himself to be the best. To be the hero for all." She closed her eyes. "And now, after who knows HOW many reincarnations later, she will have it!"
Her eyes then snapped open, both orbs glowing…
"Shikuko…no! Oh, no, please…! Not THAT…!"
Save for Bismarck's original crew of Avalonians, there is not a dry pair of underwear anywhere as many sets of eyes stared at the shuddering mountain of lightning-sparking, ki-charged flesh that, eighteen years before, had been born under the name "Sebone Shikuko." As veins literally grew out all over her, Hōsen's aqua green-blue hair seemed to writhe like the snakes on Medusa's head as her eyes burned with unholy fire. Around her, the very air burned, causing her clothes to smoke and sear, though nothing caught alight within that cauldron of unleashed, generations-old FURY!
«HŌSEN-DONO!»
Hōsen seemed to jolt as that thundering voice boomed in her mind, her eyes wide with shock as she felt a soothing calm reach into her. "My Emperor…"
«BEHOLD THE TRUTH AROUND YOU!» that voice bade, making Hōsen's eyes rake once more over the shivering and weeping freed slaves that had just been beamed aboard the Earth starship from their living hell among the Niphentaxians. «SEE THEIR WOUNDS! FEEL THEIR PAIN! HEAR THEIR CRIES FOR HELP! REINCARNATION AFTER REINCARNATION, SINCE THE DAY YOU LIVED AS LORD FÈNGXIĀN HIMSELF, YOU FOUGHT TO BE THE BEST, TO BE THE HERO ALL COULD TURN TO IN THEIR TIME OF NEED! ONLY BASE POLITICS, DARK TREACHERY OR THE WEAKNESS IN THE BODIES OF SUCCESSIVE REINCARNATIONS HAS STOPPED YOU! NOW A WHOLE RACE CRIES OUT FOR A HERO! A WHOLE RACE IS ENCHAINED IN SLAVERY, TRAMPLED UNDER THE BOOT OF DICTATORS! WILL YOU STAND BACK AND ALLOW THEM TO SUFFER?!»
"NEVER! SEKITOMA!"
A burst of hot flame exploded around Hōsen as a beautiful red phoenix soared onto Bismarck's bridge right at the tōshi's back…and then, right before Shimei's and Kōro's wide eyes, morphed into the shape of a beautiful red-furred battle horse with a mane and tail of the purest gold. At the same moment, lightning coalesced over Hōsen's head, allowing a gigantic jǐ composed of a red oak shaft leading to a head composed of outward-facing crescent blades and a long spear at the end. As the tōshi's hand snared that and she found herself on her trusty mount's back once again, a howl that could wake the dead exploded from her lips before Hōsen and Sekitoma disappeared in a flash of flame and lightning right through the bridge viewports…
…leaving a wide-eyed Shimei staring at where her cousin had just been.
"Fāngtiān Huàjǐ…the Sky Piercer…!" the Nan'yō tōshi whispered…
"My Princess!"
Pukaze's head snapped over. "What?!"
"I'm detecting an unusual life form — maybe TWO of them! — having just phased off the bridge of Bismarck, now heading at the flagship of the Niphentaxian formation," the sensory officer declared. "From what readings I can detect, one appears to be Earth human, but I can't comprehend what the other one is! And the energy levels that are emanating from both of them…"
He fell silent. "What?!" Pukaze urged.
The younger man turned to stare in white-faced horror at her. "The levels are virtually the same as many of the Unspeakable Ones, My Princess."
Silence.
"They-Who-Must-Never-Be-Named?" the signals officer gasped.
"HERE?!" the first officer cried out.
As the bridge crew began to panic, Pukaze spun around to gaze at the image of the six Niphentaxian destroyers currently surrounded by six starships supposedly from Earth. Seeing a beam of energy race from the bridge of Bismarck right at the forward-most destroyer, the commander of the Royal Neptunian Navy could only gulp.
THEM?
ANYTHING in the known galaxy would be more welcome here than THEM…
"What is that…?"
Hearing the awed whisper from one of the Avalonians who had been beamed aboard Haida, Hiromi could only breathe out as her eyes misted over. On the view screen at the forward end of the bridge, a scene straight of out a slaughterhouse played out as the bridge crew of the helpless Niphentaxian destroyer found themselves facing the uncorked fury of a berserker tōshi known to friend and foe alike as Ryofu Hōsen.
"Hopefully, my sisters, the only lesson your former 'masters' will need to be taught," she whispered as she watched the sharp blade of the Sky Piercer decapitate both the chief observer of the Church of Lum and the admiral of the destroyer squadron in one wild sweep as the doomed bridge crew tried to escape their oncoming executioner…
Aboard another of the destroyers…
"Why are we doing this?! What's wrong?!"
"Don't argue!" Juhzi screamed out as he guided his co-workers towards a bank of escape pods. "That's Ryofu Hōsen that's attacking that other ship!" He moved to open the chambers. "Somehow, Moroboshi won the alliance of the tōshi of the Seven Schools to his side! If she comes here, we're ALL doomed! Get in!"
Hearing that, the small group of observers blinked as their minds absorbed that dire message from their co-worker, and then they leapt into the pods, slamming the hatches closed behind them as they fired the launching mechanisms.
In seconds, the pods had burst free of their mothership just as a comet of energy smashed into the destroyer's side from its sistership, now devoid of life…
"They're being murdered over there…"
Hearing the now-weeping sensory officer, Pukaze blinked as she turned to stare at him, and then she sighed before gazing on the image on her main view screen. Finally, she then turned to the signals officer. "Which ship is the Terran flag?"
The young man blinked, and then he turned to gaze on his work board before looking up. "I believe it is the Haida. Do you wish to communicate with them?"
A nod. "Do so."
The signals officer nodded as he opened a channel. A moment later, the screen morphed into the image of a cool-looking Terran woman that strongly resembled Moroboshi Ataru, though she currently wore a strange silver earring off her left earlobe. Noting that, Pukaze blinked before she cleared her throat. "Greetings. Do I have the pleasure of addressing the commanding officer of the Earth ship Haida?"
Those brown eyes locked on her before a light smile crossed her face. "In a way, I am. Crown Princess the Field Marshal Pukaze of the House of Kōri, I presume?"
The Neptunian woman perked, surprised by the show of civility. "I am she," she said with a smile of her own. "You have me at a disadvantage, I fear."
"So I do. I am Moroboshi Hiromi, director of the Volunteer Earth Defence Force; a representation of which you now see before your flagship," the other woman responded. "I apologise for intruding on your world's sovereign space like this, but I'm sure you'll more than agree that allowing monsters of a so-called 'church' to invade my homeworld is something I cannot, in all good conscience, allow." Her eyes then narrowed. "After all, does not your own cousin have to suffer their depravations?" she asked. "The gross invasion of her very own privacy? Many on my world suffer the very same thing. And I for one will no longer tolerate such." Her lips curled into a mirthless smile. "And since (as far I am personally aware) the presence of observers from this so-called 'Church of Lum' was NEVER condoned by the United Nations Special Committee on Alien Activities in New York — to say ANYTHING of His Imperial Majesty's Government in Tōkyō! — I am therefore doing my civic duty as a native of Earth to ensure such beings never plague my countrymen ever again."
Silence fell as Pukaze took those words in, her mind racing as that avalanche of information nearly came to overwhelm her. Set aside the fact that this woman was claiming to be a relation to the ex-husband of her cousin's friend, that she was now FULLY aware of the Church of Lum — and what was worse, more than WILLING to do everything she could to STOP them in their tracks from further preying on the privacies of all of Lum's so-called "holy friends" on Earth! — was something that would send the leaders of the Galactic Federation into a mass panic. Tack that onto the fact that this person now had a STARFLEET, potentially more powerful than anything any of the Federation worlds — even Phentax Two! — could muster to oppose it…!
Choosing her words carefully, Pukaze then said, "They will not like it."
"I'm aware of that. I'm prepared to deal with it." Hiromi's eyebrow then arched. "But tell me this, Your Highness: Are YOU prepared to deal with the consequences? Are you prepared to face up to the truths? To no longer govern your lives and those under your protection with such hypocrisy? To say one thing and ALWAYS do another?" She sat back in her chair. "You honestly believe you can entice my people into joining your 'federation' of LIES? If you really believe that, Your Highness, you are truly delusional and I will, to my dying breath, NEVER allow my people to fall victim to what those delusions allow you to do and allow you even more so to ignore." She then smirked. "Make sure you tell His Majesty that so he may pass it on to all those who need to hear. You wish us as allies? Stop hiding things from us. And yourselves."
Pukaze blinked, and then she nodded. "I will do so."
"My thanks, Your Highness." Hiromi then perked. "Oh, one other thing: Tell she who calls herself your cousin that she will NOT be allowed to bring harm on my brother because of what he RIGHTLY did a week ago in Tomobiki. If she tries to send that monster B-Boy through your Central Warp Chamber to attack Onii-san, I'll have my honoured friend turn him into a rug to grace my den." As gasps of shock and horror escaped the bridge crew, Hiromi's smile then turned lethal. "And just to make you see what my honoured friend can do, you can have Ōgi's destroyers and what remains of their crews to demonstrate how far she can and WILL go." The smile then turned whimsical. "Seeing as if — since I AM the acting Matriarch of the Moroboshi Clan — now considering my honoured friend to become my sister-in-law one day."
With a wave of her hand, Hiromi had the communications link between the Haida and the Exodus severed as we…
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