(NOTE: This has NOTHING AT ALL to do with any of the previous flame-wars, but it's a something-else option so it's okay. This is a non-anime thing. This is a _story_, not fanfic, per se. This storyline is based off of a dream that I actually had last night (April 4) just before waking up. In the dream, the storyline was taking place in a very long, epic, high-tech graphics RPG video game. BUT, no such game exists. So, I have decided to take the core ideas from the "game" in my dream and make them into a story instead. It still has video game/anime-ish OVERTONES, but as far as I know, it is based off of no actual anime or game. (Then again, I'm not the world's greatest expert on anime. All I really know is Sailor Moon and Ranma 1/2.) If anything, it vaguely, in a few ways, resembles Skies of Arcadia, only in space. If someone--I'm lookin' at YOU, Jinx!--kill this, I won't mind. I have already written down the actual dream itself with all its details elsewhere and stored it on my computer, so you won't really be destroying anything that counts. And now, on to our story.)
(Somewhere in North America, two science-fiction writers are conversing. This is just to set up the "feel" of the universe quickly and I admit it's cheap.)
"Okay, so there's this HUUUUGGEEEE solar system," began the first one.
"Twenty planets, no more, no less, all circling a five-part star-system. There is a red giant, a white dwarf, a yellow star like Earth's sun...all kinds."
"And you say ALL of these 20 planets are inhabited?" scoffed the first writer.
"Well, not quite. The inner planets have a sort of alliance or friendly neutrality towards each other going on, and are not part of the same government per se, but they can travel from one to the other without passports or what have you. The middle planets are a mix of tiny things barely bigger than captured asteroids, hot desert planets with poisonous atmospheres, and gas giants. If anybody lives there, it's not known. They are kind of a badlands or "neutral" area if you will. And the outer planets, the cold icy ones, are where the Evil Empire lives."
"Do they have a name?"
"Pff. We'll worry about that later. So, there's basically two main governments, each spread across several planets in this system, and a "neutral" area between them, of necessity rather than choice, because nobody CAN live there. And there are also TONS of moons, several asteroid belts, and many captured asteroids in random locations. Technology: Everybody can travel from planet to planet easily, but nobody has faster-than-light. Aside from their spaceships, everything else is surprisingly low-tech. The people tend to fight with medieval-style weapons or primitive firearms--only the royal guards in the Evil Empire and some policemen in the inner worlds have what we would term 'ray-guns'--and life is lived on a fairly low-key, kinda farming, small-town kind of way. In the INNER worlds. The Evil Empire has higher technology, but only the very rich and/or powerful are allowed access to it. Still, NOBODY has faster-than-light travel. If they ever did, it's been forgotten."
"Forgotten?" asked the first writer, confused.
"Oh, yes, did I mention? All the people in this huge star system are the same race--Human, or as close to it as makes no odds. They are the REMNANTS of a great empire that once bestrode entire galaxies and could safely use black holes as a source of energy...you know, all that stuff. They made colonies on all these worlds and then...something...happened...to them. Every world that COULD be terraformed has been done so so that it can be survived by humans without spacesuits or pressure domes, however, they didn't even everything out into a series of identical paradises. The inner planets are still hot jungles and deserts and the outer ones are still a winter wonderland, but they're all LIVEABLE."
"And THAT'S where this story is going to take place?!"
"You got it."
FOURTH PLANET: CALERIS. GOVERNMENT SEAT OF INNER ALLIANCE.
Morgan Havelock looked through the eyepiece of his brass telescope as he sat in the backyard of his house. He'd been hoping to get a good glimpse of Shir'ana, the 14th planet, as it came around the side of the second moon. Due to the very complex cyclical nature of the solar system, certain planets could only be seen from certain other planets on rare occasions. Shir'ana was one such example. It only appeared every 50 years, and the next time it appeared, Havelock would be a simply ANCIENT old man of--gasp!--66, so he figured he had better get a look at when he could. He peered carefully. Any time now...
Wait. What was that? Havelock turned up the focus on his telescope and took a closer look at section 42-b. There was something there! It was moving! It was way too small to be a planet, and besides, it wasn't the right shape..what WAS it...?
Dashing into the house and almost tripping over his mother as she sat in the living room doing a jigsaw puzzle, Havelock grabbed the bigger, more powerful telescope that belonged to his father, the one he was told he must NEVER use because it was expensive and he might break it. However, his father wasn't here, so what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him, and so, over his mother's protests, Morgan scampered outside with the other telescope.
There. This oughta do it. Now, let's look at that sector again...
Morgan GASPED. It was...it was....it was an Imperial Warship! Already at the 14th planet and heading inwards! They were going to start another war!
And the Inner Alliance, a collection of fat, complacent farming planets, was just ripe for the picking.
"So, did you see Shir-ana in your telescope last night, Morgan?" asked Kella, bouncing along beside him. Her coppery-blonde hair was done up in a style that first piled rather high on her head, then turned into a braid until about halfway down her back, then _split_ into SEVEN thinner braids that each curled up at the end in a different direction, reaching down to her butt. Always seven, never more, never less. She said she only did that to get it out of her way, but Havelock KNEW it was for effect. Still, she was his best friend, and he himself was a bit on the wacky side too, so he never said anything about it. "You were up all night. I saw the lights on in your house at 27:00 in the morning."
"And just WHAT were you doing by my house at 27:00 in the morning?" demanded Havelock with mock severity.
"DUH! I live next door, stupid!" Kella whacked him with her slate. "But, no, seriously, did you see it?"
"Well, I saw SOMEthing, but it wasn't a planet..." and he told her, quietly.
Kella's eyes got very wide and she darted her glance around, careful not to attract the attention of any of the other high-school students near them. "Are you SERIOUS?" she whispered. Several girls stared at her. Kella's idea of a whisper was like her idea of a subtle, non-attention-getting hairstyle--calculated to MAKE people notice. "I mean, Imperial ships go patrolling throughout the outer planets all the time."
"Yes." Morgan answered in a more genuine whisper. "It's been several generations since they last attacked--they've had plenty of time to build up their space-fleets again. I think this is IT, I think it's for real this time!"
"What are we going to do?" whispered Kella back.
"I'm going to go warn the Prime Minister. Maybe we can still prepare our own defenses before it's too late."
"WHAT?!" laughed the guard, so hard that he almost fell over backwards. "Let YOU, a 16-year-old boy, in to see the Prime Minister without even so much as an appointment? You have GOT to be kidding me!"
"But I've got important information!" yelled Havelock, tossing his shoulder-length brown hair over his shoulder in frustration. He was inwardly seething...well, to tell the truth, OUTWARDLY seething as well--he'd always been a hot-tempered, emotional boy, and not able to control his outer demeanor as well as he'd like. This was IMPORTANT! Caleris and the other inner planets had practically nothing but small, delicate, solar-sailing ships without any weapons or armour--if they didn't start making warships FAST, they'd all be pulverised easy as anything when the Empire got here!
"Run along, little boy," said the guard, bending to tousle Havelock's fluffy hair. "And stop watching so many space-operas right before bed. Enemy invasion, indeed..."
Morgan was about to RIP into the guard--even though he KNEW he was only 5'5", he didn't like being called "little"--but thought better of it at the last second and only stomped away, clenching his fists in rage but saying nothing.
"So." Kella popped out from behind the tree where she had been hiding--per his request. "What did the Prime Minister say?"
"Never even got to see him." grumbled Havelock, still furious.
"But this is important, if you're right! What do we do now?"
"The only thing we can do--steal a ship, fly to the Empire's space, find out what they're doing and bring back evidence to PROVE it!"
"You're not serious, are you?"
Silence.
"You ARE serious!" Kella sighed. "Okay. Just let me stop by my house and get my hacking equipment, if we're going to be stealing ships. I've been out of practice for a while.
What happens next, dear readers? (And I won't be able to get back to this for a least a couple days, so PLEASE, don't kill all the options!)
Wed Apr 4 22:34:37 2001