[Episode 36073] [Episode 36073]
Hotaru was happy to accompany her new sempai as Ranma escaped from the clutches of the rest of his Seraglio and hid out attended a breifing as the Yamato entered orbit around the ball of ice known as Glacia. He was grateful that at least one of his new bodyguards wouldn't want to do anything perverted with his body; though he wasn't sure what good anyone thought the little girl would do as a body guard.
"So what are we looking at here?" Ranma asked.
"The climate of the Ice moon of Glacia is practically a glacial ocean," General Grim explained. "Humans of your species would freeze to death in three minutes without protective gear. Even the Glacians preferred to avoid the surface as much as possible and settled in subterranean, or rather sub glacial, citadels carved out of glacial ice. This is one such city, or rather, what's left of it."
General Grim was a fellow who looked to be carved of living rock. Ranma knew from all too intimate experience with Princess Graphite, that silicon based mantle was as flexible as skin but as tough as stone. He couldn’t help wondering about applications of the breaking point technique used by or against Vulcanian humanoids. At that moment, though, he had other things on his mind.
"What happened to the people?" Ranma demanded as the robot drone prowled through deserted ruins. The architecture of ice as a building material was interesting but Ranma was certain it shouldn't look that sterile.
"Unknown," Grim said grimly. "These are the first images we've had since the invasion. During the last year of your predecessor’s tenure we started loosing contact with various settlements on Glacia. Nobody the Glacian's sent to investigate returned. Then we sent heavily armed troops with the same result. As the zone of silence spread the rest of the moon was evacuated. Hopefully the robots you designed will be up to the task."
"Mmm..." Ranma commented. "Yeah, hopefully."
While the Mongonian's attributed the new designs to a sign of otherwise hidden genius, Ranma had just sketched them into the computers and believed they did the design work. But if he wanted giant robots built like gundarms, ziods, droids or whatever, then by all but forgotten Great Will the fabricators would develop the capability to build them.
Unlike the clunky robots of Ming's era, the units sent to investigate Glacia were designed for stealth and speed rather than shock troops and the Ai was somewhat more sophisticated than his "crush, kill, destroy, there will be no surviors," programming. Those attributes stood them in good stead as they prowled the deserted streets and alleys of the ice city. But for all that they had nothing to report beyond unussual abcenses.
"It's like a ghost town," Hotaru observe with a shiver and moved closer to her sempai for comfort. "It's scary." Senshi of silence, harbringer of death and destruction, she might be, but she was still a little girl.
"The abandoned city is well preserved," General Grim noted, "as the temperature has plummeted well below what even the Glacian's would consider comfortable. But there appears to be nothing to preserve! Even the hydroponic farms have been stripped of vegetation; which does not look promising for those hoping to find survivors, even though there are no bodies left behind."
"Okay," Ranma considered after a somber pause, "but what about whatever did this? Didn't they leave any tracks?"
General Grim frowned. "The 'ground' is solid ice. Yet even so, heavy machinery, even transport vehicles, should have left some sign. But the only trail is that of destruction of doors and walls."
"Oh good," Ranma said, then explained. "At least it is physical."
"True. That indicated that the enemy is is not a virus or occult phenomenon," Grim agreed.
"'Kay," Ranma said. "So what next?"
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(Posted Wed, 26 Mar 2003 13:24)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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