Kōri City, Triton; the Royal Palace…
"WHAT?!"
For the crown princess and heiress apparent of the Kingdom of Neptune, this simply couldn't have happened at a worse time.
"I'm afraid it's true, Your Highness," the Minister of the Chamber — he was the government officer in charge of all matters concerning the Central Warp Chamber that helped ensure that life on Triton could continue and not be buried under endless snow — affirmed with an apologetic bow. "All attempts at trying to warp snow and ice to Earth are all redirected to Mars. The last thing we could send to Earth directly was Miss Lum's…suicide note." He tried not to make a face on speaking about the poor Oni warlord's daughter who had been made to face the wrath of the Great Dragons of Noukiios a week Earth-time ago; Oyuki had been distressed beyond belief when news had arrived from Uru concerning Lum. "I dare not consider what might happen if we attempt transport of a person or anything else towards Earth. The technicians are analysing the warp controls. They believe…"
"Someone has hacked into them to ensure we could never go to Earth through the Chamber ever again," Oyuki finished for the middle-aged government officer before her.
"Yes."
Oyuki shuddered before she literally deflated before the older man's eyes. To have THIS happen in the wake of what just happened to that Urusian battlewagon not an hour before…not to mention a few cargo ships and other vessels that had — as was common practice throughout the worlds of the Galactic Federation — used the gravity well of Sol to slingshot their way either towards Toshitto or Gomiana without the need to carry out many fuel-intensive course corrections. Such things had been permitted by the Men In Black as long as those travellers stayed clear of Earth itself; even after the Tag Race a year before between Lum and her now ex-husband, travellers making their way between the Federation's two main wings always did their best to avoid the third planet in this solar system. But now to force THAT on people…!
"Has there been any news concerning the crew of the Repia?" Oyuki then asked.
The Minister shook his head. "None, Your Highness. It appears Miss Lum's ex-husband is now in deadly earnest. And has other allies beyond the ch'uokyek of Noukiios. I doubt Noukiite technology would be able to shield off the inner worlds of a whole SOLAR SYSTEM from any form of intrusion. Not even the Vosians are that capable…"
A knock. "Your Highness?"
"Enter!" Oyuki bade.
An elderly maid walked into the room. "Forgive me for disturbing you, Your Highness, but we received a signal from Hunter Commander Nassur of Home Base," she said with a deep bow. "He is coming here right now from Earth as we speak."
Oyuki's chestnut eyes went wide. "Nassur?! Why was he on Earth?!"
"He was sent to Earth to obtain Miss Lum's so-called 'Stormtroopers' and transport them to Uru," the maid explained. "They were not with him when he signalled in."
Oyuki took that in before she nodded. After the events of a week ago, Lum's father had — when he wasn't spitting out curses towards Ataru for what he had done to the warlord's precious child — been in a near-panic over what the reaction of the leader of the Galactic Federation's most militarily powerful state would be once he heard what the "Great Evil" had done. It gained credence when the Intergalactic News Network came out with the report on the aborted "Second Tag Race" after Prince Rupa and Carla had granted an interview to Milan Domo concerning last week's events; while there hadn't been any news from Phentax Two concerning this event, the Niphentaxian ambassador to Kōri City — a passionate member of the Church of Lum — had vowed the vengeance of the Fates on Moroboshi Ataru after the news of Lum's suicide attempt got out. "I see. Have him come here at once the Renegade lands. Maybe we can find some way to prevent an all-out invasion of Earth by Ōgi's warriors in response over this."
A deep bow. "Of course, Your Highness."
A half-hour later, a Bird of Prey-shaped craft landed on a field close to the Royal Palace. A hovercar came up to the Renegade to allow its famous owner to board it, and then jetted its way to the Palace. Within minutes, the most famous expat Vosian in recent interplanetary history was ushered into Oyuki's chambers. "Hunter Commander," the crown princess said as he politely bowed to her. "Welcome back to Kōri City."
"Your Highness. I would say it's a pleasure to be here, but I'm trying now to prevent a Mother of All Fight Scenes being unleashed on this planet, so I'll be brief," Nassur coldly declared as he fixed her with a very icy stare.
Oyuki blinked. "Sir, be assured…"
It hit her.
"'Mother of All Fight Scenes?!'" she cried out.
Nassur nodded. "Yes. You see, Moroboshi Ataru had a choice a week ago. It was either the Noukiites…or the Yizibajohei." He paused to allow Oyuki — as well as the maid who had escorted him into this room — to scream out in reaction to his saying THAT particular demonym. Much that it annoyed him that most people in this part of the galaxy would soil their clothes on hearing of the crazed metahumans of Yiziba — while there was more than enough reasons TO fear that race, they didn't unleash the Mother of All Fight Scenes on anyone without good reason; the Urusians learned that the HARD way 250 years ago — he was determined to get the message slammed home as thoroughly as possible, so now was NOT the time to be nice. "He chose the Noukiites. If I was in his place, I would have chosen the Yizibajohei." He ignored the fresh gasps of horror from his host. "It would have relayed the message a lot more thoroughly, of course."
After taking a moment to calm herself, Oyuki stared wide-eyed at her guest. "How…?" she squeaked out as she felt her heart thud in her chest.
"He disappeared from Onishuto Cathedral six months ago when Lum-cha tried to force him to marry her after your little tiff with Elle," he explained. "For two months, he couldn't be found by anyone. I found him about two weeks later at the Okusei Academy; he was recovering from being caught in the middle of the Battle of Morningstar Plain." As his host turned white on hearing that Lum's ex-husband had been involved in that bloody battle that had forever broken the back of the outlaw gangs in the Noukiite Outmarches, he added, "He had just encountered Lum-cha's sister Hensō-cha. And was told many things. Including how to divorce an Oni should he decide that false marriage Lum-cha tried to make him acknowledge grew too much for him. Which obviously happened last week as you all know."
She blinked. "Lum-cha is your FRIEND…!"
"That did NOT give her the excuse to threaten the TOTAL DESTRUCTION of a PLANET'S BIOSPHERE just because she's having a lover's spat with her boyfriend!"
Oyuki winced on hearing that icy declaration; Nassur hadn't raised his voice towards her, but the anger he clearly felt at his former student's actions was apparent for all to see. As the maid scurried out of the room in terror, the expat Vosian sighed as he called on decades of training and experience to get control over his emotions. "Before you start accusing me of betraying Lum-cha, Oyuki, let me advise you of this: News of what Lum-cha was willing to provoke got to Lupica-cha right away. She contacted me and asked me to bring Lum-cha and Rupa to heel if they didn't see reason and remove those mushrooms themselves. Of course, when I got there, I noticed that local magical groups had thrown up a containment shield around Tomobiki to keep those mushrooms there…not to mention a special charm to make Rupa believe all of Earth was under threat. So I held back to watch everything from low orbit. Ataru divorced Lum-cha and chased her and all of you off the planet with the help of Lord Nengmek'i and his friends. He then summoned the Lady Infinity to remove the mushrooms that were there with the Infinite Wave and restore the town back to normal. Around that time, a starbase self-destruct device that Lum-cha's so-called 'most faithful' buried somewhere in Tomobiki was removed and placed under the control of Ataru's sister Hiromi-cha. She was the one who received the suicide note that YOU sent to Earth today before the Lady Academician set up that field at the Ceres orbit line." His eyes narrowed. "You hurt an innocent woman, Oyuki. Just like all the times you and Benten and Ran and Lum-cha and everyone else who's gone to Tomobiki have hurt people there because you just couldn't CONTROL YOURSELVES! And now you wonder why Ataru turned to the Noukiites and Yizibajohei to help keep you people away from Earth?!"
Again ignoring Oyuki's shriek of fear on hearing THAT race's name again, Nassur coldly smiled. "It's because you're all MONSTERS to him, Oyuki," he declared, which made Oyuki gape in stunned disbelief at him. "And despite his own feelings for Lum-cha — feelings she effectively DESTROYED last week when she threatened all of Earth FOR THE THIRD TIME! — that general opinion of all of you was always there deep in his mind.
"You didn't do anything to disprove that fact."
With that, he turned and walked to the doorway. As Oyuki watched him go, he then stopped to gaze over his shoulder at her. "Word of warning, Your Highness. Send any living being through the Warp Chamber at Earth, they'll be teleported into Sol and burned alive," the expat Vosian finished. "You're not facing the skirt-chasing idiot you've always seen Moroboshi Ataru as. You're now facing a man who has the blood of over a THOUSAND PEOPLE on his hands, forced on him at Morningstar Plain. As I said before, he was being nice to you. Don't bet on that ever happening again. The crew of the Repia and all those other ships destroyed today learned that the HARD way."
And with that, he walked out of the room, leaving an ashen-faced crown princess of Neptune behind, who was simply stunned speechless at what she had just learned.
About thirty minutes later, Renegade came to a landing in the rolling fields outside the Invader home on planet Uru near the capital city of Onishuto. As Nassur stepped out of his ship to walk towards the UFO-shaped home, he found himself patting his back yet again on allowing Avalonian shipwrights to get at his vessel's engines to improve them to the point where he could realistically be anywhere in the local cluster within an hour; before he had begun interacting with the bioroid heiresses of the Fourth Republic of Sagussa in earnest, Renegade would have made the forty-four light-year voyage from Sol to Oniboshi in about ten days. And while it was possible that Oyuki might have called ahead — or travelled through the Warp Chamber — to warn Lum and her family of what was coming, Nassur believed he had a good read of the heiress apparent of the Kingdom of Neptune.
NO sane sentient being wished to be called a MONSTER of all things!
Especially by a man who had a reputation for honesty and fairness…
…and who had worked hard for DECADES to EARN that reputation.
To learn that Moroboshi Ataru — a man who had, despite his overactive libido, treated Oyuki with respect — actually harboured THOSE beliefs towards her…
No doubt, Oyuki was still in her reception room at the Royal Palace in Kōri City, either too shocked to do anything or crying her eyes out.
And while Nassur didn't like the idea of hurting people…
…sometimes, one had to be cruel to deliver a necessary lesson or three.
Nassur himself knew that quite well.
Fortunately — unlike Lum — Oyuki was just too well disciplined to consider ending her life at the edge of a knife applied to her wrists.
Thinking about that, Nassur grimaced.
He HAD been hurt when he learned what Lum had done to herself.
And while he really didn't KNOW Ataru as a person, he DID know enough of the lad to realise that — despite whatever anger and betrayal he probably now felt because of Lum's actions a week before — he would never wish Lum any real harm.
Hopefully, Lum could be made to realise that as well.
Hopefully…
Nassur perked as his brainwave tracking powers clicked in — such visibly demonstrated by his eyes glowing — as a familiar pattern surged out of the Invader home and flew towards him. Before Redet Invader could land before the expat Vosian and give his normal back-jarring slaps to the spine, Nassur's pistol cleared leather and fired a warning shot past the large Oni's head, which made Invader balk as he stared wide-eyed at his daughter's former combat teacher. The visitor from Home Base then relaxed himself as his eyes returned to normal as he glared at Lum's father.
"Captain, if you wish to see the Mother of All Fight Scenes unleashed AGAIN on Uru, you better take heed to what I'm about to tell you," Nassur warned.
Invader's eyes went wide on hearing that…
A minute later…
"WHAT?!"
Nassur relaxed in his chair. "You heard me."
The members of Invader's immediate family — plus Aruka Ran, Shigaten Benten and Lum's cousin Redet Ten…not to mention Invader's grandfather Traveller, which had shocked Nassur; the man had just upped and DISAPPEARED twenty years ago without a trace! — all were staring wide-eyed at the visiting bounty hunter. All of them — save Traveller, who had actually met the then-incarnation of Infinity in his travels as a subaltern over a century ago — looked ready to dive under the nearest bed or other convenient object to hide themselves from the potential threat of "They Who Must Never Be Named." Whatever emotions any of them felt towards Lum's ex-husband — If Ataru was ever Lum-cha's husband in the first place, Nassur mused — had vanished under the potential threat of Yiziba once more turning its attention towards Uru.
It was with good reason, of course.
Two hundred-and-fifty years ago — a year after a Tag Race launched on Yiziba had ended in almost EIGHT SECONDS due to the Yizibajohei "champion," the fifteenth Rampage, being able to FLY…and thus able to tag the horns of the Urusian champion, Redet Danu, with no effort at all! — the Mother of All Fight Scenes was unleashed by TWO DOZEN of Yiziba's most powerful metahumans on Uru. Those people had left behind a devastated world, unleashed a famine which would kill MILLIONS and laid the seeds of the Union Revolution that toppled the old Empire and allowed the military junta now controlling Uru and her ten colony planets to come into being. Uru itself still bore the scars of that horrid event…and like most other places in the local cluster, to even say the names "Yiziba" or "Yizibajohei" would make people soil themselves in terror.
Of course, the truth was far more complex than that…
…but Nassur's long experience in tracking runaway criminals had long taught him that most people in the local cluster weren't interested in learning such truths.
No doubt, Ataru's sister Negako had taught him that lesson…
…and he had played up to that fact quite masterfully.
And while a part of him ached at the idea of causing these people harm…
…it was time that their attitudes towards the Terrans was changed.
If it wasn't, destruction on an INTERGALACTIC scale was bound to follow.
No sane person wanted that.
"Why…?"
That was a pale and haggard-looking Lum. Gazing at her, Nassur could tell that his former student hadn't eaten in days. Her wrists were covered in dressings; the scars from where she cut herself were still there, but healing. "A year ago, you forced him to stand alone in the defence of his people," Nassur said, not bothering to gaze on his former student. "He tagged your horns…but because he was promised the night before by his then-girlfriend that she would marry him if he won the Tag Race, his statement 'for marriage' was misinterpreted by you as an actual proposal for marriage." As Lum winced and Traveller's eyes went wide on hearing THAT, Nassur added, "A week later, you held the whole PLANET hostage to force Ataru into accepting you into his life when the Galactic Space-Taxi Company took a good amount of Earth's natural oil supply in payment to an aborted trip by your so-called 'Stormtroopers' to this planet…and they were incapable of paying for the trip." As Lum winced again and Traveller gaped in shock at his great-granddaughter, Nassur added, "Then came a week ago. You blew a little lover's spat into ANOTHER incident where you held ALL OF EARTH hostage to make Ataru confess his feelings for you publicly. As you now know, you just gave him the excuse he needed to force you off Earth once and for all. Not to mention divorce you from a marriage WHICH HAD NO VALIDITY even under YOUR laws…and declare Paragraph Ten of the Tag Race Treaty in effect for the next two hundred years. For ALL your people!"
As everyone else save Traveller gaped on hearing that, Nassur sighed. "So congratulate yourself, Lum-cha. You succeeded in ensuring Earth will never be threatened by either the Ipraedies or the Seifukusu. The Empress of Noukiios has declared that an Imperial Commandery covering the inner worlds of Sol will be created as soon as practicable, to be based on either Tengsei or Mars…and with the permission of the Men In Black, of course. The Free State of Yiziba…" — he ignored all the screams from everyone else save Traveller — "…will guarantee that. So — in an odd way — you've ensured that the Galactic Federation will remain intact and whole. Of course, all the extra fuel costs incurred by starship owners who once slingshot their ships past the inner worlds of Sol to get to Gomiana or Toshitto will hit many people in the pocketbooks, but that would be a small price to pay to ensure a Mother of All Fight Scenes isn't unleashed on Uru or elsewhere." A smirk. "As such WAS unleashed on the Niphentaxians four months ago when Ataru decided that living under the potential threat of your so-called 'most faithful' was not part of any agreement he was BULLIED into making…" — his eyes focused on Invader on saying that — "…to be married to you," he coolly added. "Phentax Twelve was destroyed as a result of that."
As gasps escaped everyone in the room — none of them had heard much news from the Phentax system — the expat Vosian added, "Roughly ten million Niphentaxians killed, both colonists on Phentax Twelve…and the crews of the ships of the Army of Lum. The ships themselves — not to mention all the space dockyards and construction satellites — were forever lost to Ōgi's sycophants." As people gulped — Traveller had a contemplative look on his face — Nassur concluded, "You don't have the Niphentaxian shield anymore to protect you or the others in the Federation just in case Schwartz or Belok decide it's time for you to have certain attitudes BEATEN out of your people once and for all time, Invader. I dare say it's about time that happens. So make it VERY clear to Yethis and his trench-waves; they push their luck, what was started two centuries ago will be finished. I doubt the Imperial Round will survive THIS time!"
"What are Master Ataru's terms?"
Heads snapped over to Traveller. "Grandpa…?!" Invader croaked out.
"QUIET, BOY!" the aged general snarled. "What in the Maidens' Names are people thinking these days?! Making a tag in a TAG RACE a MARRIAGE TAG?! Threatening to invade EARTH of all planets?! Actually allowing those Niphentaxian idiots to create a church in the name of YOUR DAUGHTER?! WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?!"
"What's going on here, General Traveller, is quite simple," Nassur answered. "Your great-granddaughter fell in love with a man from Earth who — while finding himself quite attracted to her in return — was not interested in pursuing a marriage while he was still a student in grade school…and came from a home where he endured at least a decade of emotional child abuse from his parents. Add that to a rather ugly streak of weird luck and being in the wrong place at the wrong time — not to mention being DELIBERATELY kept IGNORANT of certain things! — and it was going to blow one way or another. ESPECIALLY after Ataru got the chance thanks to Master Nengmek'i to visit Okusei, gained three sisters out of the deal thanks to the rather fractured nature of his own soul and the presence of two other souls inside his head for the last decade, and then decided to be a little more proactive in removing threats to his people."
"What sisters?!" Lum then demanded.
Nassur gazed on her. "Moroboshi Negako, Moroboshi Tariko and Moroboshi Hiromi are — in a way — to Moroboshi Ataru…as Redet Hensō is to you, Lum-cha." As Lum gasped, his eyes focused on Benten. "As Shigaten Kamen is to you, Benten." To Ran. "And Aruka Damasu is to you, Ran. Not to mention Mienai to Oyuki." He sat back in his chair. "They were never 'robots' as Ōgi claimed all along. They were bioroids. Four of over TWO BILLION such beings the Niphentaxians saw created over the last century that — for the most part — were treated as mere SEX-SLAVES. And that Moroboshi Ataru and his sisters helped liberate four months ago." He smirked as everyone else in the room gaped. "I believe we know the specific clauses of the Galactic Federation Treaty which forbid such forms of non-judicial imprisonment — in effect, chattel slavery — against members of what clearly is a SENTIENT RACE."
Silence fell as people there considered that. "B-b-but…!" Invader sputtered.
"Don't start with me, Invader," Nassur coldly declared. "I'm not in the mood to put up to your appeasement of Ōgi and his trench-waves. Five million of MY people are dead because of him and what he unleashed six years ago. And right now, thanks to the Moroboshi siblings, NO ONE is in any position to protect that monster anymore. Once news of the Avalonians — that's what the bioroids call themselves as a whole, by the way — gets out, I doubt Lupica-cha will object if I go to Lumukyō and drag Ōgi to Lecashuto to face trial. I answer to her in cases like this, not any of you." He stood up. "Ataru's terms are quite simple, General Traveller: Status quo. Paragraph Ten to be in effect for all natives of Uru for the next two centuries Earth time. The defensive field around the inner worlds of Sol remains in place. The Central Warp Chamber on Triton is blocked from transporting anyone in past the orbit of Ceres. And no claims of marriage by your great-granddaughter concerning Ataru."
With that, he walked out of the room, leaving a chorus of stunned people and a seething retired Urusian marine general behind while we…
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