Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Tycho ❯ Chapter 2 ( Chapter 2 )

"There is no reason good cannot triumph
as often as evil. The triumph of anything
is a matter of organization. If there are
such things as angels, I hope they are
organized along the lines of the mafia."
-Winston Niles Rumfoord,
Sirens of Titan

"When the night has come,
and the land is dark,
and the moon is the only light we'll see,
I'll be alright, just as long as you stand by me."
-The Drifters

Tycho Shipyards, Tycho System
10.19.43
0900 Hours

Sabre was his name-the name most knew him by, anyway. He stood at six feet three inches, weighing in at 225 pounds, all of it muscle. His sandy brown hair and light blue eyes contrasted with his battle-scarred face. He was 26 years old, but the effects of war made him look much older.

"Colonel," a female voice chimed through the ship intercom, "we will be docking with the Agamemnon shortly."

Lost in his thoughts, Sabre hadn't noticed the view in his porthole was filling up with the massive frame of the flagship of the Galactic Coalition. She was the largest space-faring vessel ever constructed. At ten miles long, she dwarfed the second largest ship, the Braxis, by over six miles. It had a crew of 850,000, sporting the most advanced weapons, communications, astrometrics, medical facilities, AI, and everything else that was in the realm of technology. The need for such a large warship had come due to the war the Coalition was currently engaged in.

The Galactic Coalition was the greatest civilization in known history. It had existed for 750 years and had flourished and prospered through almost all of that time. It consisted of 250 colonized planets and over fifty billion citizens, including Nameks, Saiyans, humans, Thrakans, Vortan, Danti, and a handful of other races. What was common among them was the fact that all had been removed from their home planets and relocated to the five inhabitable worlds of the Coalition's home system, Tycho. No one knew why, or how, they were taken from their homes. All they knew was that the race that had brought them here was long gone. However, their technology was not.

Each race was in still rather primitive and barbaric when they were brought to the Tycho system. Tens of thousands of each race were placed on the planets, left to fend for themselves. They remembered nothing of their journey nor of the beings that transported them. Each race was shocked to encounter each other, for each had believed they were unique in the universe. All had thought themselves the pinnacles of creation. They were wrong.

Of all the races, the humans had the hardest time adapting. The other races were far stronger, and nearly all of the humans were wiped out in various wars fought on each planet. Hundreds of years passed before the humans were finally shown mercy. By that time, each planets' inhabitants had managed to work the technologies left to them. When they took to the stars, they realized there were four other colonized worlds in the system, each containing about the same ratio of species on them. It took another few hundred years of warfare to finally sow the seeds of what would become the Galactic Coalition. While humanity on Earth was in the dark ages, the Coalition was colonizing nearby solar systems and terraforming worlds.

For the last two centuries, after the end of the AI wars, the galaxy had settled into a relative peace and things were progressing well. When the wars ended, the dissident artificial intelligences had been eliminated, and all future AI's were programmed with failsafes to ensure the AI's would not revolt again. In a compromise, the leaders of the Coalition had agreed to allow the AI's more freedom than ever before, including giving all androids full rights and privileges of organic beings. The AI's seemed to be placated by the decision.

The current war now was with the "Necrons" as they were dubbed, because of their solid black ships and soldiers. Just like out of a science fiction novel, no one knew who they were, or where they came from, they simply seemed bent on destruction. When they found a planet with life on it, sentient or not, they either bombarded it until it was a barren wasteland, or they invaded it. Either way, in the end, all life would be extinguished. The war was not going well. The Coalition was losing.

Sabre was on his way to the flagship to finalize the plans for the Coalition's last stand at a planet known as Gargantua. Gargantua was the largest planet in the known universe. According to the laws of science, a planet with that much mass should collapse on itself and become a sun or black hole. (For comparison, the planet was as large as Pluto's orbit around the sun.) The only thing bigger than this planet was the sun it orbited around. X-395, the name of the sun, was fifteen times the size of the planet. How either of these two objects could exist could not be explained by science. The planet was so big that it had ten-year days and ten-year nights. When the sun set and rose on the planet, it was said to be one of the most beautiful sights in the universe. This planet had no moons, but scientists speculate that perhaps by some freak of nature that the planet had absorbed its moons, thus increasing its size, but that was just pure conjecture. Its massive size had generated gravity distortions powerful enough to rip holes in space-time.

These phenomena, known as jump points, were found naturally in the universe, but around this planet, there were an unusually high number of them. Normally, the amount of jump points was relative to the given area of a system. A larger sector may have two or three jump points. The few million kilometers around Gargantua had eight.

Already, over two billion lives had been sacrificed in the Necron war. Those were just the military's confirmed losses; civilian causalities were thought to be three times that. The situation was grim. The Coalition had lost sixty-five percent of its prewar territory and half of its operational forces. Gargantua was their last bastion of hope. That was why they need him for a mission.

When he heard the airlocks cycling, Sabre stood up and proceeded to the exit of the shuttle. He was the only passenger aboard. Two young lieutenants met him at the gate and escorted him to a transporter pad. The ship was so massive that transporters were needed to move around the ship efficiently. He silently hoped to God that the lieutenants were not a representation of the entire crew; they looked as if they had just left the Space Academy.

Sabre took up position in the middle of the pad. One of the Lieutenants joined him, the other activated the console. A glowing blue light surrounded him and his body was dissolved, transmitted, and reassembled on the bridge of the Agamemnon. He was glad the Lieutenant hadn't beamed him into a wall.

The captain was expecting his arrival. "Colonel," greeted the captain curtly, "come into the conference room, everyone is waiting."

The captain was a Saiyan female named Arestra who looked to be about thirty or so. She was a good two inches shorter than him, and wore the standard captain's uniform of the Galactic Coalition, with the addition of various medals and ribbons signifying that had the experience necessary for this command. Of course, nearly everyone in the service knew of her. She was one of the few captains to successfully engage Necron forces, but had also pulled off the miraculous defense of the Vega system.

He followed her well muscled frame to the conference room and saw that all the remaining leaders of the Coalition were present. After he took his seat, General Vastu, the official leader of the Coalition's armed forces, spoke up.

"Time is brief, so I must dispense with the pleasantries. Colonel, we have outlined a plan that should hold back the Necrons, at least for a little while. Why you are here will be explained shortly." Admiral Gridden, CINCCOMSF (Commander In Chief, Combined Space Forces) began the briefing. A large, three-dimensional picture of Gargantua appeared on a holopad in the middle of the conference table.

"As you all know, we are making our final stand here, on and above the planet Gargantua. We are currently in full retreat from the main battle line in the Corprulu system. Elements of the 3rd, 9th, and 11th fleets will stay behind to buy us some time. For them, it is a suicide mission, they know this."

Sabre recognized that the fleet elements remaining were all-Sayjin regiments. Those dumb Necron bastards were going to be in for it.

"Our remaining forces will assemble in orbit above the planet. This group will consist of all the combat forces we have left. It will stand at 31 carrier groups with full fleet assets. As we speak, our Army and Marine Corps are digging in fortified positions on the planet. We are centering them at this point here," the admiral gestured to a flashing red blip on the image. It was just above the equator.

"The gravity on the planet is highest there, at about 140 times standard gravity. It is the most strategically viable point to defend because they will have to come to us. Hopefully, they'll waste some energy before they hit our MLR (Main Line of Resistance). What's left of our ground forces are all on the planet."

One general spoke up.

"But sir, what will prevent them from simply unleashing an orbital bombardment?"

It seemed like a logical question.

Gridden responded. "We have set up enough air defense weapons to shoot down any bombs that they throw at us. If anything tries an atmospheric penetration for 5,000 miles around the base, it will be ripped to shreds before they even know what hit them. Our main concern is the beam weapons and the soldiers. Which they will undoubtedly land on the undefended areas of the planet."

The admiral addressed the former first.

"We are going to implement a large-scale planetary shield system, as is common on all of our inhabited planets. As you know, the Necrons' beam weapons only require a few seconds of concentrated fire to break through them."

This was known all too well. Thousands of colonies had been destroyed already, the shields providing little hindrance to the Necron invaders.

The admiral continued. "Our R&D has developed a new type of shielding that absorbs more energy than it reflects. Hopefully, if this technology works as it is supposed to, the more power they throw at it, the stronger the shields will become."

Everyone shifted in their seats. This technology had been in development for years, but it was projected that the Necrons would wipe out the Coalition before the technology could be implemented.

"As you know, our space forces are roughly equal in strength, although their numbers have always been superior. The only bright spot in this whole god-awful space mess is our trump card, the Agamemnon. As for the ground forces, this is where you come in Colonel. You are going to have a new outfit at your command."

The colonel felt it necessary to point out the obvious.

"What the hell good is that going to do? We all know even I can't take on their cyborgs." He found that out the hard way.

Early in the war, Sabre was the commander of a special ops unit, 1st Angel Corps. Their job was to drop in behind enemy lines and disrupt communication and supply routes. All went well in the beginning. His squad was comprised of the strongest fighters in the Coalition, and each had special training and an ability that complimented the squad as a whole. The first twenty missions went off with out a hitch. Then things changed. They ran into Necron cyborgs that were more powerful than they could have imagined. Only two of the 15-member unit survived, himself included.

"If all goes as planned, which it probably won't, we have about six months before the Necrons hit Gargantua. You and your outfit will train until then."

"Understood."

"As for your new unit, It will consist of yourself, Colonel D'Jana, and nine others you will meet and recruit in a days."

"I have to recruit them? Are they new graduate recruits or are they Androids?" He was skeptical of who his new subordinates would be, because his men had been the best of the best.

"Neither. They are not from around, for lack of a better term, here."

"Okay," Sabre responded, "where am I going to find them?"

"I think you will be most pleased with where you are going."

"Oh yeah, where's that?"

"Earth."

The Admiral continued the briefing, but Sabre didn't hear a word.