Across the threshold: NU RHO GAMMA 02

Across the threshold: NU RHO GAMMA 02

Earlier that morning... 

About an hour before the agents met up with the Bucketheads, Chipp sat outside the ship, reading the  as Katie next to him. "Chipp," Katie said, "Yesterday when Eric and Rian attacked us, there was this guy claimed to be the son of Darkoni." "Excuse me?" Chipp asked. "He was the ceasarian guy in silver armor who joined in yesterday's rumble." Katie explained, "but he looked like a clone of you, like a literal clone of you! Did you sign up for some cloning program back in high school?" "What? No!" Chipp answered getting up, "Katie  I live in a single back on Jason rd, how am I going to raise a clone?" (On Mars Primax, clones are legally the offspring of the genetic donner though it is (censored) expensive.) "Well the guy looked exactly like you,  I mean EXACTLY like you, sheep voice and everything but younger." After some troubled pondering he asked, "Did he say what his name was?" "Kaiser the 2nd." Katie answered, "You know him?"

Now...

"ALTERNATE REALITIES!?" Katie exclaimed as the agents all gathered at the two parked C.P.D.F. ships, "Your not pulling our legs here are you?" "It's true." Hoot confirmed, "Bartch told me when you and Matt went to look for Rian." "WAIT! What!?" Katie exclaimed, "How much!?" "The basics." Hoot admitted, rubbing the back of his head, "Evil clone from another universe." "And you're telling us this now because?" Matt asked just as flabbergasted as Katie. "The chief ordered us to keep it quiet as to not cause public outrage." Scott explained crossing arms, "Otherwise it would be a pr disater for the C.P.D.F. How do you think Darkoni looked like ol grape face (Chipp)?" "They said that it was a GALE corp droid!" Katie answered, "Not some evil doppelganger!" "Hey what the (censored) are you yelling about!?" Beo exclaimed from inside the leftmost ship. "(Nothing you trigger happy Ludditie!)" Q exclaimed. "Sorry, Beo," Chase said,  "it's C.P.D.F business, we'll inform you when we're allowed to." "What!? " Beo exclaimed, "So the kid count!?" "James?" Scott asked the youngest sirian, "Are you going to tell anyone?" James answered by making zipping gesture with his mouth before tossing away a imaginary key. "Yep!" Scott called out with a grin, "He counts!" "(Why did we bring him again?)"  Q asked Chipp. "We're low on men." Chipp answered, "Besides, Scott recommend him." ("No why did we bring him here?)" Q expanded on, "(To this place? Specifically?)" "Oh," Chipp answered, "erm... forgot he's still a trainee." "If you're done talking about my little brother Can we get back on track please?" Scott asked causing the two to jump. "Right! Darkoni right!" Chipp started clumsily with a clap, "Let's start from the beginning!"

 "He's an alternate version of me from a universe where the Red Dragon army won the 5 year war." Chipp explained as his face turned grim, "His mision was to collect the Dimension keys so that they could bring a massive Red Dragon Armada from that world to ours. Fortunately,  we managed to stop them just in time but we have reason to believe that some of that fleet managed to get through to our world. Remember their last few incursions?" "(Censored)!" Katie cursed, "GALE Corp was working on a teleportation device when we raided their main building!" "So this Kaiser guy is you alternate self's son?" Wisey asked. "Nah," Chase said, "he seemed to be the same age as Chippy when we last saw him helmet-less (In his 20s)." "He could be a clone," James said, "like me!" "Could be," Bartch said, hand on chin, "he did seem to be in his 20s. Chipp, he wore silver armor with tubing all over and even carried a pair of blue swords. He must have been that guy who helped the knights back in the Dirsh museum." "If that was him," Chipp said, "then he must be on the knights' side." "(Should we tell old English guy?)"  Q asked. "Let's tell him everything but the alternate reality part." Chipp stated, "Until we get authorization, we should-" "JOHNSON!" a voice called out causing the group to to jump and turn to see an angry white furred catira woman followed by the bucketheads, "What the (censored) are you doing here!?" "Ah (censored)!" Chipp said breaking from the group, "Oh hey Ripley is it? Why are you here?" Sarah Ripley, a 40 year old white furred catira with red streaks in her hair, marched up to the ceasarian and grabbed him by the collar. "It's Vice Cheif Sarah to you creep! What the heck is this I'm hearing about Gamma Squad being in Gulliver Town! Answer me God (censored) it!"

 As Chipp was desperately trying to recap everything to the Vice Chief Sarah with Katie's help, Wisey leaned towards Bartch asking, "Who's she?" "Vice Chief Sarah, she was Chipp's drill Sargent when he and I were cadets in North Academy." Bartch answered, "They were on reasonable terms for years." "(Is that so?)" Q said, "(Chase trained me when I was recruited.)" "And thats why we are here." Chipp finished as Sarah's face turned from ticked off to ashened. "Red Dragon's HERE!?" She asked, "In the quarry!?" "We're believe so," Katie confirmed solemnly, "But not only that, they have a hole in their ship as well so they are crippled." "Captain, Elone is it?" Sarah asked, "You sound uncertain. Why do you sound uncertain?" "They have a fighting force of about 12 people, plus a potential horde of monsters at their beck and call." Chipp explained as he regained his composure, "Fortunately we managed to gather a few bucketheads to our side along with-" "Your BEST chance at beating them!" Beo exclaimed as he marched towards the group, "Being couped up in that ship makes a draken feel claustrophobic. The codename's Beowulf by the way." "Hi?" Sarah said "Johnson?" Gesturing to Beo, Chipp explained  "Beowulf is an agent that is also against the Knights, we're on working terms for now." "So who's this?" Beo asked, "Your long lost aunt, cat girl?" "Don't call me that." Katie stated, "This is Sarah Ripley, one of the 4 Vice Chiefs of the Mars Branch of the Cross Planetary Defense Force." "Mars Branch?" Beo asked before he laughed, "Oh is that right? What is she doing here?" "I was looking into something for a friend, nothing to do with your investigation." Sarah explained, "Apparently a horde of six age eaters were spotted nearby so I came here." "Wait," Bartch asked, "does Chief Johnson know about this?" "It's alright," Sarah answered, "Karn is on it." "Deputy Cornwallis?" Hoot commented, "Man, Smitty is going to hate this!" "Well, since you're here Beo," Chipp said turning to the draken, "we have something to tell you."

Meanwhile, Omnidec walked down the halls of the Grendel wiping his brow with a green towel. "Shoot!" Omnidec said to himself as he approached the door to his room, "*groaning* What the (censored) is this (Censored)! Ever since Nu Rho arrived everything has been going to (censored)! Hopefully I can-" Suddenly he noticed Tarrot walking down the opposite way with Flip at his side. "Oh hey Tarrot!" Omnidec called out catching his fellow humonculi's attention, "Where were you?" "In the mess hall," Tarrot said pointing behind, "we talked with two of the Bloodhound squad." "Ah, those guys!" Omnidec said, "They're not bad guys once you get to know them, well except Tavo." "I noticed." Tarrot said, "Omnidec, can I talk with you in private?" In Omnidec's room, the three humonculi sat as Tarrot started, "What are your thoughts on Voidmond?" Omnidec, after some thought, answered, "It's weird that he's suddenly Verdtrus' right hand man. I just thought he had some wires crossed when we found him with Mordecai, but now I think about it, there is something off about him. For starters, how did he know about Bakore's original name." "Maybe he really is from the future?" Flip suggested, "He does look different." "Nah," Omnidec said, "that would be asinine!" "Omni," Tarrot explained, "He defeated two of the members of the Bloodhound Squad by himself in his proto state*! Not even I couldn't do that at that stage" *(The proto state is the first stage of a NULL unit's life cycle, similar protoforms from transformers) "What!?" Omnidec exclaimed Flipp looked up in surprise. "SHUT IT!" Tarrot whispered, causing the two the jump back, "Someone might be listening!" "Sorry, I get it!" Omnidec said,  "What if he's a newer model? You know one that Verdtrus and Cromdraco had neglected to tell us about?" "I checked over the cargo," Tarrot pointed out, "if he was on the ship, we would have found him by now!"  Suddenly, the three heard "You found him near our base! Don't you think that's weird?"

Looking out the door, the three found Flaron and Tameron walking down the hallway, clearly talking about Voidmond. Noticing the three, Flaron shirked back as Tameron waved saying, "Oh hi guys! What are you- " "Voidmond." Tarrot answered, "You have something to add?" The two looked at each other before walking in. Back inside, the five humonculi stood around Omnidec's bare quarters, recapping what they know about the fake garuda. "So he took two of them down," Flaron said, trying to get a grasp of the situation, "in his proto state, BY HIMSELF?" "Yep!" Flip answered, "I think he might be from the future!" "Uhhh," Tameron said before handing a bag to Tarrot, "well, when Drake and I found Voidmond, I found this in a compartment." Receiving the item, Tarrot open the bag and pulled out a gray requiem chip with no defining features. "Requiem chips?" Omnidec asked taking it out of Tarrot's hand, "Did you tell Verdtus?" "No." Tameron said, putting his hands in his pockets, "To be honest, I forgot about it until yesterday." "Flaron?" Tarrot asked, "When Voidmond spoke to you, did you notice anything off about him?" After some thought, Flaron answered, "Noting really but he did mention something about redeeming G Zero." "I see, he mentioned this when Bakore was being patched up by Chromdraco but Verdtrus just told him to stay with kaiser for now. Also he seemed to know Bakore's original name." "He what!?" Flaron exclaimed as Tameron asked, "Wait, he knows Bakore's.?" Nodding, Tarrot answered, "If he is from the future, we should at least be careful around him for now. Tameron! Get Twin Drake, he's in the armory with Bakore, I want to speak with him on something." "Wait," Omnidec called out, "who made you leader?" "Look Omni!" Tarrot said, "I was doing this more than you, so don't you start with me!" "You got it!" Tameron said as he left through the door, "I'll be back Flare!" Watching Tameron run down the halls, Flaron turned to the two humonculi and asked, "What do you need Drake for really?" Turning to her Tarrot answered, "He was with Voidmond first. I need to know what Drake knows about Voidmond." Suddenly a thump was heard outside causing the four to jump and turn to the door. Gesturing to the others to be quiet, Tarrot moved slowly to the door. Opening it Tarrot took a good look around the hallway and even behind the door before looking up. On the ceiling was a note taped above the doorway.

TO BE CONTINUED.....