Mighty Morphin Mecha Rangers Chapter 29 Preview

Battlegrounds of War

"Aim down your sights Luna!" As usual, every single shot fired by the Blast Impulse either missed or was deflected by the enemy shielding. The enemy mobile suit, a gundam with four funnels controlled by it's pilot, didn't even seem to need it's I-Field based on the Blast Impulse's terrible accuracy. "I thought you were practicing!"

"I was! The recoil of this gun is too strong!" Sei Iori's partner shouted back while the Gundam MK-Forever flew toward's Sei's Build Gundam MK-II with a twirling Hyper Hammer. Sei retreated and attempted to ward off the enemy with his beam rifles, only to see each shot get deflected by the MK-Forever's I-Field. "Hang on! I've got her in my sights!"

"Don't bother! You'll just hit me!" Fortunately, Luna actually fired through the Forever's blind spot and forced it off of it's attack path. "Oh, you were practicing."

"Shut it kid!" The two battle partners regrouped with the Blast Impulse's guns smoking from overheating. "Any sign of Ral?"

"Nah...I think he's still caught up with Asemu and Reiji." Sei commented, checking the portable sensor array that he set up to keep a closer eye on the overall situation, "What about Commander Noin and Cagali?"

"Look up!" Processing the sudden change in the situation faster than her younger oldtype partner, Lunamaria Hawke unloaded her unit's GMF39 Quadruple Missile Launcher in direction of the fast moving Aile Strike Rogue. Any missile that threatened to come close was shot by the unit's beam rifle as their enemy continued her charge. As the faster unit came in between two slower gundams, Sei opened fire with both of his rifles and saw his attack get deflected into Luna by a Proto Fin Funnel's shield. Seeing the opening, the Aile Strike bashed it's shield into the Impulse's head to knock the gundam off of it's feet.

"Luna!" Sei fired with both his rifle and his bazooka. As expected, the Proto Fin Funnel barrier deflected the beam, but couldn't retain enough power to stop the missile that impacted and exploded upon the Rogue's shoulder. Forced to drop it's shield due to a broken arm, the Rogue prepared to retreat, but had it's upper half blown off by the point blank assault of the Blast Impulse's Kerberos Rifle. The Proto Fin Funnel flew off to return to it's owner, but Sei shot it down before it could get far.

"Nice Luna! You finally hit something!"

"Point Blank is impossible to miss. Thanks for giving me an opening." Impulse stood on it's feet while the MK-II decided to take the Rogue's shield.

"Does that mean you'll-"

"Tell ya what? We win this match and you'll get that date."

"Hell yeah!" Sei cheered while Luna signed upon picking up incoming targets nearby. Targets that were busy fighting each other rather than her and Sei. "Between Reiji, the Hound, Mr. Ral, Commander Noin and Major Mass? We're screwed, kid."

"You do know that I can read your thoughts right?"

"Shit!" Sei and Luna were caught off guard when the Mk-Forever Gundam kicked down the MK-II and used it's Four Funnels to target and destroy the Impulse Gundam's Kerberos Rifle.

"How many times do I have to tell you guard your thoughts?" Major Mass chided Lunamaria while continuing to strike the two gundams with her gundam's funnels. Sei threw the Rogue's shield at the Mk-Forever and the gundam avoided it as if the pilot saw it coming. Instead, the shield went towards Lunamaria's head...

____________

Teppelin City

"Prisoner 19852011." The Spiral King declared from his throne. "Come forth to your judgement."

"I hear you, boy." Heavily chained and sedated, but no less willful, the mighty Lion Beastman was brought before Lordgenome with large ape-men and rhino-men holding the chains to the cuffs upon his body. "I would have you refer to me by name."

"The dead have no names."

"I'm not dead yet." A black spiraling drill pierced through the thundercat's chest and out his shoulder. The beastman remained standing despite the blood that gushed from his body after Lordgenome pulled back the spear.

"That can be arranged considering your treason." Lordgenome stated, his generals seated around the audience chamber laughing at the humiliation of the mighty beastman once known as the King of the thundercats. The thundercats were a proud pantera-based subsection of the beastmen who were capable of harnessing a limited amount of spiral energy, perhaps they predated the current batch.

But the thundercats grew proud and rebelled against Lordgenome many thousands of years ago. They left to a world call Thundera where they created their own home free from Lordgenome's command and ignored the Spiral King's demands for submission. When the Spiral King's last nerve was struck, he destroyed Thundera and enslaved any who were not slain. Claudus was imprisoned within the prison of a thousand drills for his treachery and was only recently released.

"If you wanted me killed, you've have done it by now boy."

"You do not deserve that dignity. In any case, I have a purpose for you." Lordgenome spoke with a small smile. "A chance for you to redeem yourself and your people for your treason."

"My people did nothing wrong." Claudus spoke as a true king, matching both his great, broad size and the bearing of a leader. His face bore several scars, among them one that ran horizontal across his nose and even cut into his massive red mane. "We have not to apologize for."

"That stubborn nature of your's will have your people killed."

"Then we die with honor rather as slaves on our knees."

"I told you he wouldn't budge, Lordgenome." Lady Adiene laughed. "Let me have his head and be done with it."

"No."

"He mocks you father! He does not beg as he should!" Verg shouted, his shark-jaws spitting out blood and bone from a recent human meal. "All traitors must die! He is no better than the humans!"

"Do not mock me!" Claudus shouted as his guards found their burden increased due to the force of the lion king's anger. "Do I look like a hairless ape? Even now I could destroy you as I would a boar!"

"Hey!" A boar-beastman commander yelled in protest.

"I wasn't excluding you." Claudus growled with a smirk that barred his teeth.

"You can't eat that boar, he's one of my subordinates." Cytomander muttered boredly. "Feel free to eat one of the workers if you want."

"Traitors don't get to eat, remember?" Guame reminded his junior members of their king's council. "Then again, he may able to eat if he behaves."

"What do you want of me Spiral King?" Claudus mockingly asked. "Who do you wish for me to kill?"

"There are a group of humans known as the Gurren Brigade who have rebelled against me."

"Humans? You're sending me to kill humans-"

"They are led by two powerful spiral warriors." Lordgenome continued. "They've killed two generals and defeated Terios, Guame, Adaine and Viral in battle. Worst yet, they inspired a mass rebellion of humans from their mines. The rebellion can be dealt with, but the Gurren Brigade will continue to inspire more of such action if it is not dealt with."

"Where is this brigade and why haven't you killed them yourself?"

"I toyed with the idea briefly, but upon inspecting them for myself, I decided that they weren't worth getting my hands dirty." Lordgenome explained to Guame's confusion and concern. "They will be a better challenge for you and they've gathered allies in a city called Angel Grove."

"Groove."

"Grove."

"They pronounce it as Groove-"

"I think that's stupid, so we're calling it the Grove." Lordgenome stated and Adiane wisely chose to concede. "Once Terios' agents report back, you will go to the Grove and destroy the Brigade along with anyone who stands in your way."

"And if I refuse your demands?"

"I kill your son-" At that moment, Claudus broke his bonds and flung his guards at the Spiral Generals with great strength before leaping for Lordgenome.

_______________

Ruins of Angel Grove

"Where are we now?"

"According to my navigation data, we are entering the assembly station for the Grove." Dorothy stated as she, Simon and Roger stepped into a large open area already overgrown with rust and vegetation. Rotation tiles were twisted and bent, windows broken and dirtied, and the floor was sprayed with wide splashes of orange.

"This must be the manufacturing facility." Roger figured while the three stepped down broken-beyond repair steps that sometimes broke apart from the slightest touch. Roger could tell that this place was old, but he had never seen a facility in such a brittle and damaged condition. "This looks big enough for a military production line."

"For what?"

"From what I heard, Second Impact was what caused a surge in kaiju attacks."

"Kaiju?" Simon asked and then he remembered something. "Oh yeah! That's what japanese people call giant monsters!"

"Exactly. How did you know about that?"

"Aniki and Nia have been teaching me japanese...but I still suck at it."

"You'll have an easier time than most older people Simon. Picking up a second language is hard once you've grown up with only one." Roger assured the boy. "Whatever happened during Second Impact, it led to a large increase in kaiju attacks long the pacific coasts. Granted, Kaiju encounters were a rare occurrence since the Hiroshima bombing, but never like it did after the Impact. In response, several government-funded organizations each came up with their own methods for dealing with the kaiju. Some tried to capture or create their own kaiju to use against the others; Some tried making specialized mecha to fight them and others built their own personal army to defend their city."

"Kind of like how Kaiba's doing the last two things?"

"Yeah...come to think of it...he is." Roger realized and looked to see something that shocked him. "Is that..."

"A megadeus." Dorothy answered while the trio noticed the large mecha that was very similar in build and design to Roger's Big O. However, this mecha was incomplete, missing a faceplate, armor plating, parts of it's hull revealed the machine's inner mechanics and it had a missing leg. "An archetype designed and created for research purposes."

"Why not make this mecha into a fighting robot?"

"Before you go to a final product, it's always smart to make a prototype of your design." Roger explained to Simon. "Before the prototype, you build an archetype to determine if your end goal is possible. The prototype is the test model where you determine and fix or minimize any flaws, bugs or weaknesses that you find. If all goes well, you won't have to build more than three prototypes."

"So someone made this archetype to see if making a megadeus army was possible." Simon thought to himself. "Come to think of...where do megadeus' come from?"

"Obviously someone built them-"

"Unfortunate that this archetype has reached it's limit." Roger was now standing next to an attractive and pregnant young woman. The interior of the hall was no longer rusted, but was fully active with the sounds of industry and construction. "Are you sure that you remember nothing more?"

"I'm afraid not madame." Roger heard himself say, but when he turned to where he heard the voice, he saw that the speaking figure was obscured by blackness. "All I can say is that we failed to instill agency within the machine."

"I don't understand...agency?" Roger heard the woman speak. Now that he looked into her face, she was almost identical to one of his fellow rangers. "How do you instill life into something that is man-made?"

"I suppose that you would need to draw life from something else-"

"Roger?" Hearing Dorothy's voice, Roger was drawn back to the past and realized that he was standing closer to the archetype. "Roger Smith. Are you alright?"

"I...I had...a glimpse into the past."

____________________

Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

"Don't slack off maggots!" The lieutenant cried out while the base rookies continued their daily exercise. Double-barreled Abrams Tanks manuevered and dove around and over larger Manticore Missile Tanks and Scorpion Heavy Tanks.

While being fired upon.

The lieutenant often wondered why it was necessary to waste ammo for these exercises. Was their unit under an obligation to appease Michael Bay?

Considering his commander, that may be the case.

"I love the smell of explosions in the afternoon." His commander stated while staring over the tanks evasion exercise in addition to the spars between the Javelin mobile suits and their cannon-mounted variants. "It makes me feel like I was back in Vietnam."

"Most people say that it sucked."

"That's cause they were infantry. War always sucks for the infantry! Just look at the trenches in the first world war!" His commander was crazy, but his reasoning was oddly very much on point most of the time. "Me? I was in a Guntank! It was a prototype so it only had a single cannon...but that's all I needed! I'd mow down the enemy, burn them out of their holes, run them over and when I took prisoners, I made them beat the crap out of each other for fun!"

"Revenge for your dead comrades?"

"No! It was fun to watch the enemy beat each other. Then I'd kill the winners!"

"Why?"

"To demoralize the crippled losers." The commander with the WW2 era helmet laughed while his lieutenant grimaced. "Then there's that time when I lost a bet for not killing enough women and children!"

"How could you shoot women and children?" A newer private asked in shock.

"Simple. You just don't lead em as much." The commander laughed at the distant memory. "Ain't war hell? You'll see when the next war starts!"

A baneblade tank flew over the base.

"I'm not the only one seeing this am I?" The lieutenant asked as he witnessed a dented tank fly into a javelin's cockpit and cause both to explode. "I'm not the only one feeling the heat of that explosion, right?"

"I feel and see what you feel and saw." The commander calmly replied. "The base is under attack! Sound the alarm!"

"Sir! Something's hovering over the base!" A private on the training grounds reported. "And it looks like..."

"Looks like what?" The lieutenant looked up and found the answer to his question.

Then he prayed to God and asked...why?

Why was the Mazinger Z floating above them?