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Independence Day: Chapter 4, They Arrive.
by
Rebecca Ann Heineman
Based on the film "Independence Day" By Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, Ranma 1/2 and the characters therein are the property of Rumiko Takahashi. 801 T.T.S. Airbats characters created by Shimizu Toshimitsu.
I don't own these characters. Please don't sue me, kill me or take away my precious. You hobbits can't have my precious!
July 2nd, morning...
General Grey put down the phone handset after his conversation with the
Secretary of Defense. He wasn't thrilled about the meeting with the
president he was ordered to arrive at in an hour. He sighed in
contemplation as he mentally prepared himself to bark out his orders in
answer to the most unusual threat he had ever faced. "Amanda." His
assistant stood at attention by his side. "I need a car outside in
fifteen minutes to take me and several men to the White House. Major, I
need you to collect all information you can about whatever this thing is
and feed me the information when I call you. Colonel, assign some men to
meet me at the White House in a hour with every scrap of intelligence
we've got no matter how trivial it may appear. I'll be briefing the
president on this situation and I want the most up to date information I
can give him."
Major Danowitz nodded to acknowledge his orders. "I'm on it." He walked
off to check on the fax machine for more recent news from NASA or NORAD.
Colonel Richardson stared at the lit table the men had their meeting
around to brief the General on what amounted to an alien visitation. He
shook his head at the sheer insanity that he was witness to. "I can't
believe this is happening."
Grey mocked him since he was going to present the president with what
amounted to the plot of a sci-fi novel. "You can't believe this? Heh, I'm
going before president Whitmore, telling him effectively that Marvin the
Martian is paying us a visit and I'll look like a total idiot if this
turns out to be an elaborate hoax. Mark my words men, if this is
someone's sick idea of a joke, I'm personally locking up the bastard
responsible for this for the rest of his miserable life."
Richardson kept his eyes glued to the picture of the sphere floating near
the moon. "And if this isn't a hoax? What do we do then?"
General Grey stood at attention then dropped his gaze to the pictures on
the table. He wordlessly collected the 8x10 slides and slid them into a
manilla envelope. He without uttering an answer, turned to leave the
building to go to his meeting with the president of the United States of
America.
The Colonel watched his commanding officer walk away and disappear around
a corner with his assistants in tow. "That's what I figured."
They strapped themselves into deep cushioned chairs for the final leg of
their journey. Alerts were sent throughout the ship as the aliens
prepared for the shock and heat of aerobraking though the atmosphere of
their new home. The entire bottom of the ship was painstakingly covered
with a thin material that would protect the belly of the city sized ship
and allow it to survive the friction of entry until it was safely over
the landing area.
Contact was made with the upper atmosphere with the flat bottom of the
craft bursting into a huge ball of smoke and flame. The ship gave a
shudder as millions of cubic meters of air was displaced and the ship
lost velocity. All over the earth, streaks of what looked like doomsday
comets were seen hurling across the sky from the dozens of saucers
arriving. Soon their true nature would be known to the population of the
Earth.
Captain Garret took a sip of his coffee during his pre-dawn break as he
stared into the computer display of his 757 jet liner. He looked out the
front window at the endless darkness as his plane flew on auto-pilot
toward the city of Tokyo Japan from San Francisco California. He sat down
his mug into the cup holder and turned the page of his magazine.
Commander Jacobson, the copilot, noticed the sky was brightening above
them. "Captain, there's something odd going on outside." He checked his
watch. "It's not time yet for the sun to come up." He put down his
logbook then visually scanned the horizon for the source of the orange
glow.
"Hmm?" Garret glanced at the gauges again and the main computer display
for any sign of trouble. "Don't see anything wrong with the systems." He
flicked a switch. "Radar's clear."
The aircraft gently shuddered and the outside grew brighter. The
Commander checked his seat belt. "What the hell? There's something above
us."
The Captain kicked in his years of training and took the controls. "Tokyo
control. This is Freedom Air Flight 121. Inbound Tokyo. We are seeing
a... Uh..." An orange glow came from the sky above deep within a massive
billowing black cloud. "Meteor?" The cloud was getting closer making the
jet lurch sideways from the air pressure. "Tower, I'm declaring an
emergency. Dropping to ten thousand feet. We have some sort of
atmospheric disturbance coming from directly above our position." He
turned to his copilot. "We're clear below right?"
The copilot scanned the displays for other aircraft. "I've got nothing
below us. We're clear."
"Good. Hit the signs and send the call." He pushed the controls forward
to put the plane into a dive.
The copilot turned on the 'fasten seatbelt' lights. He called over the
stewardess in the first class section over. "We have a code five. Please
get the passengers into their seats." She nodded, then went to alert the
crew that the plane could violently pitch.
The Captain turned on the intercom. "This is your Captain speaking. We
are experiencing unexpected turbulence and request that you return to
your seats and fasten your seatbelts. Flight crew, we're at code five.
Thank you." He shut off the mike and muttered. "That bull should take
care of them for a while. Descending to ten thousand feet."
The plane began a rapid descent while the clouds below reflected the
eerie orange glow from above. A shockwave slammed the aircraft causing it
to lurch to the right. Commander Jacobson turned on his radio mike.
"Tokyo control, this is Freedom Air 121, we've hit turbulence and are
losing control." He grabbed a map as the aircraft shook more violently.
"Crap. The closest airport is Tokyo International."
The speaker cracked out a reply from Japan. "Say again 121. Your signal's
breaking up."
The pilot pushed the yoke forward to drop the plane faster as a loud
rumbling filled the plane that was not coming from inside the craft. "I
think we're going to ditch. Alert the crew."
"God damn..." Jacobson stared out the front window as the entire sky was
filled with fire and smoke directly above and in front of their plane.
The cloud was moving faster then they were and overtook their craft
leaving them behind.
"I think I've got it." The plane stopped shuddering as they reached
fourteen thousand feet and were under the wake of the object. "We're
stable." The Captain let out his breath that he held as he was fighting
the aircraft for control. "Just what is that thing?"
"Tokyo control. This is flight 121, there is some kind of storm cloud or
meteor or something heading to Tokyo."
"121, we have it on radar. What do you see?"
"It's big, orange and made of smoke. Looks like a giant meteor."
The two pilots sat watching the phenomenon in awe totally forgetting the
panicked stewardess behind them. A full minute passed as the pilots
simply sat in their seats watching the object fly away from them. The
radio came back to life. "All inbound aircraft to Tokyo and Yokohama
airports are to immediately divert to Okinawa. Do not attempt a landing
in the Tokyo or Yokohama airports. All craft are to divert..."
The pilots stared at each other in dismay. "Well, there goes Tokyo."
"How much longer?" Daisuke lay upon Hiroshi's bed while his friend
tinkered with his pirate satellite decoder box.
"Just another minute. I think I've figured out a way to filter out this
jamming." Hiroshi flicked the switch and the Playboy channel came on his
TV set with vertical bars of distortion still present and blocking his
view of female flesh. "Argh! I thought I had it too."
Daisuke flipped the Dragonball Z manga he was reading to the next page.
It was far more interesting than watching Hiroshi accomplish nothing for
the last few hours. "It's a good thing Ranma bailed on us. He had the
right idea."
"Shut up. I know what I'm doing." He traced out the schematic diagram
again. "Maybe I need a new ROM. Yeah, that's it, I need the latest
version of the decoding software. I know just the guy who can give it to
me." He pushed his chair from his makeshift workbench next to the TV and
wheeled over to his HAM radio set. "Martin over in Auckland has a working
box and I'll ask him what he did." He turned on the power supply to his
antenna.
"New Zealand? Don't you know that it's... Oh no! It's past four in the
morning! You had me stay up until four in the morning!" Daisuke tossed
aside the manga. "Miss Hinako is going to suck us dry in class for this."
"Ok! Ok! It'll be worth it I'm telling ya." Hiroshi turned on his radio
and the speaker immediately filled the room with chatter. Someone
speaking in Russian came on the line speaking a kilometer a minute in an
obvious panic. Someone else speaking in Hindu came on then someone spoke
in French.
A man with a Hawaiian accent came on the speakers. He didn't sound nearly
as bad as Principal Kuno. "It's completely covering the sky! Jesus Christ
it's huge. This is Honolulu Hawaii reporting a meteor westbound across
the pacific. The wake is still... Oh dear god. There's another one going
east bound."
Another voice came on while the first was still talking. "I'm in Okinawa
Japan. My dad just got called to base. I think they went to Defcon three
or something. What's happening to my daddy?"
The TV's picture blanked out with a picture of the American Emergency
Broadcast system on the screen. The two Furinkan students were in shock
as to what was going on. A newscaster came on the tube. "This is CNN
reporting. We've just gotten word that an asteroid is flying over the
republic of Russia. Here's a live feed."
The picture changed to a camera in St. Petersburg with the sky lit up
with a slow moving fireball lazily arching across the sky. A news
reporter spoke in Russian with an English translator. "The object appears
to be a comet or meteor but is moving too..."
Bzzzz. Hiroshi changed the channel.
A picture of an American newscaster was on with the caption live from
Honolulu HI. "... can see, the object is moving west toward Asia. All
flights have been grounded and we've got..."
Bzzzz. Hiroshi changed the channel.
",.. the coast of Japan. We're awaiting word from NASA ..."
Bzzzz. Hiroshi changed the channel.
"Megaman! I shall defeat you!" Cried out the enemy of the saviour of the
world. Megaman stood in all his glory to face his opponent when the TV
changed to a scene in a news room. "We interrupt this program with an
important bulletin."
Daisuke looked at Hiroshi with a look of sadness. "I guess we're not
going to watch the Playboy channel tonight. Are we?"
Cologne was sleeping in her futon when she shot awake. She sat up in
complete trepidation and suspicion. "Hmm... Something's not right." She
stared out the window at the rustling tree branches. She saw nor heard
anything out of the ordinary but every fiber of her being told her that
danger was coming. "I must consult the elders." She reached over to her
dresser drawer and got out her little black book. The amazons may have
been married to three thousand years of history and culture. But they had
telephones and an Internet connection in the village in China. They
weren't stupid.
Ukyou slept like a log dreaming of serving okonomiyaki to a customer with
Ranma by her side. It was another wonderful dream for another wonderful
night. She turned onto her side to get comfortable as the room vibrated.
She popped her eyes open and bolted upright. "Oh great, an earthquake."
She waited until the shaking stopped before she got out of bed. She knew
the earthquake safety procedures so she put on some slippers and went
downstairs to check on the gas line. She spent two minutes checking and
smelling for any gas leaks then went outside to check the mains.
Ukyou went over to the gas gauge and shone her flashlight at it. There
was no odor or any unusual noise like gas flowing though a pipe.
Satisfied that her restaurant was safe she took a look around the alley
and heard a helicopter fly overhead. She watched the chopper cross the
sky and saw a circle of blackness where stars were supposed to be.
She squinted her eyes and realized what she was looking at. She ran
inside to her bedroom to turn on the TV to figure out what she just saw.
She watched TV for an hour then packed a bag and headed to the Tendo
Dojo.
Ranko slept like a log mumbling in her sleep. "Mom, pantyhose can be
manly." The room vibrated as a deep bass rumbling filled the air. Shortly
the microquake stopped.
Mr. Panda snorted and growlfed.
Mrs. Saotome who stayed the night opened her eyes then looked around.
"Hmm. I must of been dreaming." She turned to see Ranko sound asleep and
smiled at the young girl. She pulled up the blankets to cover the red
head. "Don't worry Ranko, Auntie's here for you." Nodoka lay back down to
catch some sleep.
Nabiki stared out the window of her room. She woke to the vibrations and
was about to check the house for earthquake damage when she saw the cloud
fly in from the east and a sight that she would never forget in her life
appeared before her.
A city sized spacecraft emerged from the cloud and was now hovering
directly above downtown Tokyo. The ship was so large that she couldn't
see from one side to another. Nabiki had her headphones on and was
intently listening to the news on the radio. She meticulously took notes,
listing all the cities that these things were arriving at. She already
had listed Los Angeles, Washington DC, London, Moscow, Beijing and
Berlin. The night was young.
Ranko's eye's fluttered open since her sleep was interrupted by a strange
noise. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and yawned to greet a new
day. Ranko examined her bedroll for any signs of her mother who wasn't
anywhere in sight. "Hey, pops. Last one out gets to make the bed." She
darted out the window to take her position on the roof to do her daily
beating of her father.
Ranko started a simple warm up kata totally oblivious to the black saucer
directly to the south. She stretched and shifted getting her muscles
warmed up. She ducked as a bear claw came down where her head was. "Too
slow pops." She jumped aside to return a blow to the panda's midsection
that was blocked by a furry arm.
"Ha! Can't catch me!" She taunted her father by performing a back flip
then reversed direction to leap and land behind the bear. Mr. Panda
turned around to perform an overhead strike when he froze in alarm. Ranko
seized the opening to slam a kick to knock the bear off the roof and onto
the grass below. "C'mon, you can do better than that. What's gotten into
you?" Ranko stood at the roof's edge looking down at her unconscious
furry father. She noticed the yard was darker than normal so she turned
around to see what was casting the shadow.
Ranko's eye grew the size of saucers as she saw for the first time the
thing that distracted her father. Ukyou stood on the roof walking calmly
to Ranko. "Yeah sugar. These things are all over the world. That's all
they're talking about on the news."
Ranko weakly pointed her finger to the black metallic disc that slowly
rotated over the center of Tokyo. "Ucchan, what is that?"
Ukyou stood next to her fiancee focusing her gaze to the south. "We've
been invaded honey. Pretty impressive isn't it?"
"When? How? Why?" Ranko stuttered as she remembered what happened
yesterday. "Ah man, I had to ask how things could get worse didn't I?"
"Yeah sugar, this is pretty high on the worse scale I think. Let's go
downstairs, the Emperor is supposed to make a speech in an hour. Maybe
he's got a clue because I sure don't."
"Oh, Ucchan, my mom's here so if you don't mind, could ya please call me
Ranko today."
"Sure honey." She gave a knowing smile.
The Tendos and the Saotomes watched TV with shock and just a hint of
fear. News kept coming in from all over the world that city sized
spacecraft had parked themselves over thirty major cities all over the
world. Nabiki sat off to the side with a map of the world and stuck
thumbtacks where ships were confirmed to be hovering over.
Kasumi came from the kitchen holding a tray of drinks. "Here you go
everyone."
Nabiki sniped. "Sis, how can you be so chipper?"
"Why shouldn't I be? We've got guests and I'm certain they'll be bringing
gifts."
Nabiki stared at her map. "I wouldn't be so sure."
"You've got to look with better eyes little sister." Kasumi smiled that
special smile she reserved for weddings and birthdays. "Imagine what they
could teach us."
Akane refused to take her eyes away from the TV. "I wonder if they study
martial arts. Maybe they'd might want to learn Anything Goes?"
Nodoka wanted to be happy but couldn't find the strength. "They might.
I'm certain my son would make an excellent teacher."
Ranko sulked.
Akane stared at Ranko and gritted her teeth as Ukyou held Ranko's
shoulders in a gesture of friendship and support. "I don't know. I don't
think he's taught anyone the art yet."
Ukyou took offense to the stab at Ranma's character. "Hey, Ranma honey's
going to be a great teacher. I don't know where you get off saying
something like that in front of his mother."
"Have you seen my son?" Nodoka held out a faint glimmer of hope. "Do you
know where he is?"
Ukyou glanced at Ranko and felt bad lying to her potential mother-in-law.
"I hadn't seen him recently."
"But you've seen him? Tell me? Is he strong?"
Ukyou glowed at the images of Ranma as her husband floated in her
imagination. "Oh yes." She held her hands together under one cheek
swooning. "He's perfect." She reclined into Ranko's lap resting her head
on her legs. "He's so dreamy." She stared into Ranko's eyes as Ranko
turned away and tried to slide backward.
Nodoka got weirded out by Ukyou's display of affection that seemed to be
directed at another girl, namely Ranko. The elder turned to Akane who was
glowing a very bright blue and shaking in anger. "Akane, what's the
matter dear?"
Akane dropped her battle aura smiling a cute child like smile. "Why
nothing at all Auntie. She looked at the TV again. "Well, maybe
something."
As Nodoka was distracted, Ranko gently shoved Ukyou off her lap and
whispered into her ear. "Ukyou, be careful around my mom, if she finds
out I turn into a girl, it's off with my head. Do you understand?"
Ukyou blushed at the thought of what Mrs. Saotome could have thought by
her show of affection to her Ranchan. "Sorry."
Akane waved to everyone in the room. "Quiet! The Emperor is coming on."
Nabiki grew even colder in her quest for information. She was writing
notes on a pad of paper that was rapidly running out of empty space.
The TV showed a podium with a caption saying that it was live from the
Imperial Palace. The Emperor of Japan approached the mike and gently
tapped it to make sure it was working. He gave a very light bow to the
camera.
"My people. It is a great day for Japan. We have been honored to have
been selected as one of the hosts for a race of beings who have travelled
the stars to visit our world. I humbly request that we welcome these
travelers with open arms and open homes. I expect that we will in the
coming days share our wealth of history, culture and knowledge as they
will do the same for us."
Nabiki muttered. "Presumptuous isn't he?"
Akane held her finger to her mouth. "Shhh..."
A small picture in a picture appeared with the Emperor being in the
larger picture and a camera scene from outside the Imperial Palace where
the ship was directly overhead was in the little one. "Directly above my
home, sits a testament to a people who have achieved what we on Earth
have been trying to achieve for almost a century. They can travel across
the stars." He had a look of awe and paused dramatically for effect. "Due
to the circumstances of today, I must make these general announcements.
All schools and public buildings will be closed for today and vehicle
travel through downtown Tokyo will be suspended. All rail service will
stay in operation and I request that my people do not crowd around my
palace. We need to make our new friends comfortable. We shall show them
our unique way of life and hospitality befitting a most honored guest.
Thank you my people for hearing my words and showing our new friends that
we are worthy of their respect and kindness."
He took a step back and gave a gentle bow to the camera. The signal
changed to the main newsroom. "That concludes the Emperor's speech. Here
are excerpts from the United States President's..."
Akane hit the mute button. "Well that didn't say anything."
Kasumi picked up the empty tea cups. "What do you mean?"
"Well, what to they look like? Do they look like E.T.? Mr. Spock?"
Ukyou laughed. "I know, it's a race of purpled haired Amazons!"
Ranko raised her arms in shock and sheer terror. "Don't you even joke
about that!"
Akane glanced out the back door that had an excellent view of the ship.
"I wonder if they could teach me the Vulcan nerve pinch?"
Ranko went back to her usual cocky self now that martial arts was the
topic of conversation instead of something useless like alien visitors.
"Heh, like you'd be able to master that pressure point technique."
Akane huffed. "What? You know how to knock someone out by squeezing their
neck?"
Ranko crossed her arms while puffing out her chest like a typical male.
It was a rather stupid pose for a buxom female. "Akane, watcha gotta do
is strike the nerve clusters to knock someone out, not mimic somethin'
out of a dumb TV show."
"Well excuse me Miss I know everything."
Nabiki slammed a book down on the floor. "Will you two macho chicks shut
up for a minute. I'm trying to think over here."
Nodoka fingered her katana in case Nabiki decided to continue her assault
on helpless books and move on to other targets. "What are you thinking
about?"
Nabiki held her face in her hands. "They're not here to be our friends."
She tossed her pad of notes aside. "It's no different than a hostile
corporate takeover."
Kasumi kneeled next to her sister. "No, they're here to be our friends."
Nabiki turned into her Ice Queen persona. "No they're not. They wouldn't
do a show of force, they'd radio the world leaders and appear on TV in a
tiny craft or even just a TV broadcast." She looked at the TV which
showed a picture of a ship over the Empire State Building in New York
City. "They're showing us that we don't matter one bit." She collected
her things around her end of the table. "I'm leaving town. If any of you
wish to join me, pack now." She walked towards the stairway.
Soun cried like a baby pouring a fountain of tears. "Don't leave us!
Daddy needs you!"
"Then Dad, pack your bags and travel light. Only bring food, batteries
and two changes of clothes." She surveyed the people in the room.
"They're going to take over and make us all slaves or food or something
that I don't want to think about. They're not here to exchange fashion
tips." She ran up to her room. She had to put her plan into motion if she
was going to survive.
Author's Notes: Please review my story. It makes me feel oh so happy and I'll stop nailing little paper dolls on your backyard fence.
Last edited on March 6th, 2003