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As always, C+C is craved. My email is: sommer@3rdm.net

Prologue

Dr. Fujinami watched intently as the experiment went through the process one more time. “I like the way it’s going,” he said to the only other person in subbasement three’s main lab.

“I concur,” Dr. Kanemoto said, her heart skipping a beat as she watched the experiment unfold.

It was all coming together at last. Keiko Kanemoto almost wanted to leap in joy, but instead allowed herself to think back on the last few years, now that there was a real chance of a breakthrough on the project. She had been working for Genom since her graduation from MegaTokyo University’s Science Department, getting high marks for her revolutionary ideas on dimensional field interfaces.

She had faithfully worked for them for seven years, always obediently doing the work assigned to her and never causing any problems. It was after those seven years that her world was completely changed; she received a transfer (along with a promotion and a tripling of her salary) to her new obsession. Her superiors took her off the project she was working on and relocated her from the general labs in Genom’s main headquarters to one of the secret field laboratories in the main city itself. The reason for the secrecy was not because the work was dangerous; it was just that her superiors had deemed the project top secret, not allowing the faintest hint of it to be leaked to anyone, even her fellow researchers. The more isolated the lab was from prying eyes, the better.

The first time they showed her the project, she had been in awe. Before that moment, she had believed that she had learned all that there was from the professors at the university, and they were among the best in the world when it came to dimensional technology, but she was floored when she discovered the project’s advanced field theories. It was obvious someone else had developed the system up to that point, but when she pressed her superiors as to who had created it, they told her not to be concerned and to just figure out how to make the system workable. One did not question orders from that high above, so she began her work on the fields, confident she could create a portable system within three years.

Three years became five, and still her progress was limited, frustrating her no end. In spite of this, her superiors never tried to remove her from the project or inferred she was not trying her best. Then, when it seemed she had hit a wall that she could not overcome, they assigned a partner to her: Michael Fujinami, who had graduated at the top of his class. Kanemoto had been less than enthusiastic about being partnered up with someone that was twenty years her junior, certain that in spite of his marks, he wouldn’t have the first clue as to how the interface system worked. Surprisingly, Fujinami had lacked the arrogance she had come to expect from meeting the last few ‘top guns’ from the university. He had listened to her intently, soaking up everything like a sponge. That, combined with the fact he also had a pleasant personality, caused Kanemoto to warm up to him. In the three years they had worked together, they had developed a close friendship and mutual respect for one another. For the last three years the duo had worked on the dimensional interface system, and at last it seemed they had made the breakthrough they had been waiting for.

Then the warning systems went off.

The two looked at each other in surprise as the foot-thick, titanium security doors slammed shut, completely protecting and isolating the lab from the rest of the building. Fujinami reacted first, heading to the main security panel and tapping into the external cameras.

“What’s going on?” Kanemoto asked, looking over her partner’s shoulder as she tried to get a closer look.

“I’m not sure!” he snapped. In all of the years he had been on the project, they had only had a problem with intruders once. Some young punks thought the parts store that was the front for the secret lab would be an easy place to knock over. He could only imagine the shock the thugs must have had as they came face-to-face with the security boomers that guarded the installation. Now someone was trying to break into the lab again, right at this most critical juncture. It seemed too much to merely be a coincidence.

“Ah ha!” He had discovered where the disturbance was. At first, he had assumed (and hoped) it was another simple break in. However, it was clear that was not the case. The point of entry had been one of the side walls of the building, that was next to the alley. Not that the intruder had entered through a window, rather, he had gone through a wall. The dust from the wall’s destruction was still obscuring the scene, but only for a moment. Already he could see the forms of five security boomers moving to intercept the intruder. More units would arrive moments after that.

Things were under control.

As the dust at last settled, Fujinami could make out the intruder, or in this case, intruders. Five slightly larger than human-sized figures were standing in the huge hole that had just been made. His first thought was that they might have been boomers, but upon getting a good look at the styling of the metal-clad figures, he quickly came to another conclusion.

“It’s the Knight Sabers!”

Kanemoto looked at him in shock. “How can you tell?”

He pointed at the view screen. “There are five figures, in what appears to be hardsuits, that are obviously female from the styling of what they’re wearing, getting ready to hit us. How many women do you know go around attacking Genom operations in hard suits?”

“I though there were only four of them,” Kanemoto pointed out.

“Maybe they added a new member!” Fujinami shouted out in panic as he watched the armored warriors move into action.

The first one to move was in a blue hardsuit (at least he assumed it was one. Combat weaponry was not a field he was familiar with). As she leaped towards the boomer closest to her, large wicked looking blades popped out of the forearms. Her movements were so swift that the boomer only had a chance to get its arm up to block the blow, unable to even bring its weapon systems to bear on her. Blue drew her arms back and brought the blades forward in a slashing motion, slicing through the arm and torso of the boomer like they weren’t there. A second double-slash cut through the head and neck, severing it from the body. Blue didn’t hesitate and was past the metal form, as well as the other boomers next to it, and into the corridor beyond before it hit the ground.

Green went in the same direction as Blue. Fujinami could see that it was the largest of the intruders, almost the size of one of the security boomers. It took a laser blast in the chest from one of the boomers, which didn’t even serve to slow it down as it grabbed the nearest metal automaton and wrapped it up in a bear hug. Fujinami watched as the boomer opened its mouth, preparing to release an energy blast at point-blank range at its assailant. There was a slow build up of redness from the gaping jaw, but just as it appeared to be ready to unleash the blast, the glow faded. A moment later a spray of fluid and wires shot out of its mouth as the boomer was snapped in half. Even with the limited knowledge of boomers that the scientist possessed, he was still stunned by the display of strength the hardsuited warrior demonstrated.

While that was happening, Red and Yellow took action. Each raised their arms as one, as though they were in perfect synchronicity, and released blasts from the palms of their hands. From Red, tongues of white-hot fire shot out, encasing the boomer she was aiming at in a fiery aura. The robot fired off two errant blasts from its hand blasters, both of them barely missing the warrior, before its metal casing melted, frying its insides.

Yellow unleashed a trio of beams from both of its palms, each a different color. The beams of light twisted together to form one as they lashed forward, blowing off the head and upper torso of her target.

The last one took action at the same time as Red and Yellow did. Gray raised her arms as well, allowing Fujinami to see four cylinder-like objects on each of the forearms. From the cylinders, small flashes of light began emitting from them. The scientist wasn’t certain as to what was happening until he saw the holes form on the remaining boomer in that direction. It did manage to get a shot off from its mouth cannon, striking Gray in the chest. He saw the woman recoil, and then unleash another volley of solid slugs at the boomer, insuring its destruction.

The entire fight had taken less than four seconds.

Yellow and Red left down the corridor opposite the direction Blue had taken. Green remained behind to check on the damage done to Gray. Fujinami could just make out some circuitry that was hanging out from a damaged section of Gray’s torso, when Gray’s head jerked up to look directly at the security camera above. She raised her arm, and Fujinami saw a flash right before he lost the picture.

Fujinami felt his heart sink. He stared at the static-filled screen for a long time before turning to see that Kanemoto was as pale as her lab coat.

“Did you send a signal to headquarters?” she asked

Fujinami nodded his head. “We have over twenty boomer security units here—“

“Fifteen,” Kanemoto corrected.

Fujinami nodded. “Maybe they’ll be able to hold them off long enough for help to arrive.”

It was then he heard a noise from directly outside the entrance. A minute later, sparks began to fly from the inside of the door as a laser began to cut its way through.

“Then again, maybe not.”

Charles Argot, one of the chief investigators for Genom, was not a happy man. He had planned on taking the day off with his children, whom he never seemed to have enough time for, when his superiors called him in to investigate a scene. It had an Alpha Priority signal, meaning he had to respond. He gave his apologies to his wife and asked her to make the excuses to his children as he went to investigate the scene of the incident.

With a tired sigh, he looked over the destruction that had taken place in the remains of the main lab once again. The intruders had done an excellent number on the whole place. Almost all of the security tapes had been erased, including the recorders in the security boomers’ heads. Only the external camera, housed in the building next to the secret lab, had evaded destruction. The central computer bank had been wiped clean, and a particularly nasty virus had been downloaded into it. All of the hard data on the project had been taken or melted into slag. And as to the only two scientists that had been working on this particular part of the project…well, judging by the shape of the bodies, and that there was very little blood around, it appeared they had died quickly.

“What do you make of the situation?”

Argot nearly jumped out of his skin. He had already halfway drawn his gun out of his shoulder holster before he identified the speaker. As he released his hold on the gun, a thought went through his mind as took in the other man’s form. It was a cliché, but he couldn’t help wondering how the hell someone that big could move so silently.

“We still need to do a thorough investigation, Mr. Stryker, but I feel relatively certain it was the Knight Sabers,” Argot explained to the high-ranking, six-foot ten-inch man that now stood next to him. He noted that Stryker had to have been at least three hundred pounds if he was an ounce, and was more than convinced the man had to be a boomer. Had to be, no matter what others claimed.

“How can you be certain?” Stryker asked.

Argot thought he detected a mocking tone in the giant’s voice, but he might have simply been paranoid. It was hard to read Stryker’s feelings since his voice was so deep and his face displayed all of the emotion of a piece of rock. “We only have a fleeting glimpse of them, but there is no doubt it was five female intruders, wearing what appeared to be hardsuits, that broke into here.”

“There are only four Knight Sabers,” Stryker mentioned.

“They could have added to their ranks,” Argot pointed out.

“What about the hardsuit designs? Aside from the fact they appear female, they look nothing like the Knight Sabers’ outfits.”

“They could have upgraded them. They’ve done so before.”

“Somehow, I don’t think so.” Stryker pointed to the message that had been lasered into the wall in the main lab.

Argot shook his head. “It’s probably a red herring. Something to deflect the investigation away from them.”

The stare Argot received from Stryker scared him so much he almost instinctively drew his gun. Thankfully, he suppressed the urge. On some intuitive level, he was certain that no matter how fast he was, Stryker would be quicker. And he had no wish to find out how the large man would react to having a gun drawn on him.

“I have some familiarity with the name,” Stryker informed him. “That they should happen to come upon this particular project makes me certain it’s no coincidence.”

Stryker pulled out a cellular phone from a pocket of his trench coat and dialed a number. Argot heard the name ‘Quincy’ mentioned once and suddenly decided he didn’t need to accidentally overhear something that might necessitate him ‘disappearing’.

The entire call took thirty seconds. As he finished, Stryker placed the phone back in his jacket pocket and began to walk off. Ignoring his survival instincts, Argot dared to ask the question plaguing him.

“What now, Mr. Stryker?”

Stryker turned to Argot. For the briefest of moments, Argot could have sworn he saw the tall man smile.

“The answer is simple. We are going to hire the Knight Sabers to take care of this little mess.”

Argot stared at him in surprise. He probably would have inquired further as to exactly WHY Stryker felt it necessary to hire armored mercenaries that had interfered with Genom’s plans before, when one of his men asked him to go over some of the boomer remains that were near the entryway. Argot made his way to the entry point, leaving Stryker in the room, alone.

Instead of leaving, Stryker went over to the message that had been burned into the wall, and gently ran his finger along the path of the burn marks. What he had told Argot was true. This was one of the names that had been associated with the original creator of the dimensional field/shield interface technology, technology that Genom was trying to recreate and improve upon as well. It had been over twenty years since they had last been heard from. That they would show up now, after all of these years, would only mean trouble: trouble that would have to be taken care of immediately.

He was about to leave the room when he decided to take one last look at the words. To the casual observer, they hardly sounded like a prophesy of doom, but words could be deceptive sometimes, especially to those who did not know what message they truly contained. Seven words. Simple words, but words that held the promise of things to come.

‘The Machine Gals are back in town.’

Author's notes: Yep. A BGC/Moldiver crossover, although the emphasis will be BGC. Don’t know when I’ll be able to devote the time necessary to write it out, but it got into my head and proved a distraction I didn’t need at the moment. So now it’s out.  It was put together quickly and is a little rough, but it’s the general idea I want.

Bubblegum Crisis © Artmic, Youmex, & AnimEigo.
Moldiver © Pioneer Animation.

Webmaster: Larry F
Last revision: May 21, 2007