Brother
by Rick Spiff 
A S.E.F.U. Project

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                       Episode 1: Enter Korindoth

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Disclaimer: I don't own Toryama-sama's characters, just James, Ed, and
the bad/good dudes they bring with them.

Warning: Sharp language (somewhat sharper than DBZ), violence, gore
(more than DBZ), and maybe a little sexual innuendo. I would rate this
fic a heavy PG-13, but not R. Enjoy!

Quick note:  *Stuff in here is
people's thoughts, not said out loud.*

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James hunched over the ship's intercom, speaking to his friend and
crew mate below decks. "Ed, are you ready for landing?"

A deep voice came from the small speakers, answering James with a small
grunt. "Well, I've just about got it all loaded. Just the grenade
launchers left I think."

James nodded, "Okay, the 'chutes look okay?"

"In perfect working order." Responded Ed.

"All right, be up here before I synch orbit."

"Right-O." Ed confirmed, before signing off.

James leaned back in his chair, eyeing the small planet displayed on the
ship's main view screen. The circular bridge, just large enough for
three people, was lit by the light of the main screen, the planet's
vegetation coloring the room green.

"Data read." Said the computer in a simulated voice.

"Give me a quick run-down, DAVE." James ordered.

DAVE, the ship's on-board computer, was a remarkable piece of
engineering that James himself participated in. An advanced A.I. that
filled the gaps normally covered by a standard crew, it allowed James
and Ed to go virtually anywhere without having to worry about toting
extra passengers on their ship, the _Legacy 2_.

"K-778 is the second planet in a three-planet system. The other planets
are both gas giants, with the innermost planet featuring a heavy-metal
core. The stage three sun that sits at the center of this system is
highly stable and will be for some five billion years to come. K-778,
better known as Korindoth, has a moderate climate throughout the
planet's surface. Surface temperatures range from 2 degrees to over 30
degrees Celsius. Average precipitation is one hundred centimeters per
rotation. Most of the planet is covered in large lakes and long rivers
that break up a heavy foliage cover, including 1,000-year old forests."
There was a pause from the computer's voice. "It is rather like
primitive Earth, James."

"I know. Land of the dinosaurs. Keep going."

"No intelligent life on the planet. Nothing larger than your hand on the
surface. Simple shell fish prolific in the lakes. Chances of higher
order life developing are slim due to the lack of true oceans. Pity. A
garden of Eden. Rotation period: 21.8 hours, approaching dayside. Cycle
period: 312.24 days. The gas giant, K-779 would appear to be a giant
blue glowing dinner plate. Six times the size of earth's moon from the
surface."

James nodded. "Thank you DAVE."

"No problem. Jump-suit orbit in twenty minutes. Anything you want me to
keep warm?"

"Some tea, and make sure you have a good bombardment window." James
quipped.

"Transition time is forty minutes at optimal burn." DAVE stated.

"Noted. I'd rather have fire support than a quick out; it'll take forty
minutes to EVAC from the surface, DAVE."

James checked his orders one last time. Ed Flemming and James Rahn,
special operations group 442 were assigned to a backwater nesting
operation; the two were to land on the planet quickly, clear any enemy
presence, and place a marker beacon on the surface so a coming supply
fleet would know the planet was safe. Any resistance was to be dealt
with accordingly, but if a strong enemy presence was found on the
surface, all transmissions were to be encrypted and they were to assume
that a large fleet was nearby.

*Too simple.* Thought James. *We're gonna get hammered.*

James made a quick check of the remainder of the ship's systems, just in
case DAVE missed anything. The computer never did, but thoroughness was
necessity, not luxury.

----------

In a distant corner of space, an alliance of twelve races closely
resembling humans had formed an Alliance. Called the Terra-Cor Alliance,
or the TCA for short, they had banded together to fight a vicious race
of warriors called Skeemdians. The Skeemdians had six limbs--two of
which they normally walked upon--and bad attitudes. With technology to
match the interstellar races of the TCA, the Skeemdians attacked with
the intention of conquering the humanoids.

Putting up a surprisingly powerful defense, the TCA has been dragged
into a ten-year war against the Skeemdians, fighting all over known
space in massive capital ship armadas, and even facing off against one
another on the ground of numerous alien worlds.

James, Ed, and the rest of the human race knew nothing of this until a
year ago.

The Skeemdian fleet and the TCA fleet had been fighting not far from an
unstable worm hole. Most worm holes were short lived wrinkles in space-
time, something the TCA called a jump-gate and was routinely used for
interstellar travel by both them and the Skeemdians. As this worm hole
was very near the battle, it became activated by the fleet's ships and a
stray asteroid had slipped through.

Fired as a capital ship "killing" projectile from a planetary launcher,
the asteroid appeared in the Sol system without warning, headed directly
for the third planet of that system, a small blue planet called Earth.

James and Ed had survived by being in the right place at the right time.
On Earth, they and a small band of rebels had been fighting against the
Illuminati, a group of old men bent on running the world. So close to
victory, the group had pulled back to wait out the Illuminati, giving
them one last chance to resolve the covertly executed conflict
peacefully.

They were awaiting their enemy's surrender when the meteor struck.
Killing billions in a matter of days, life on the surface quickly became
unbearable. What rescue ships the TCA scrambled proved too little too
late. Only a few thousand people of a planet six billion strong survived
the attack. Seventeen hundred of the survivors immediately signed up for
military service, plotting vengeance against the Skeemdians.

As James and Ed had already spent most of their lives fighting a near-
hopeless war on their home world, they knew the price of victory would
be high. The two proved to be well-trained scientists as well as
excellent tacticians and skilled fighters. The two were quickly accepted
into the R&D portion of the TCA military, building weapons to protect
the future of the TCA, and what remained of the human race.

Of course, that lasted all of two weeks before Ed blew up part of the
research station they had been assigned to.

The military quickly sent them to a tiny planet in the middle of
nowhere, figuratively speaking, and left the two to themselves. In
months the pair returned with a fleet of astoundingly powerful ships, a
space station, and LOTS of weapons. So many weapons, in fact, that the
TCA scientists figured it would take years to catalog them all.

James and Ed selected the best of their ships, the general-purpose,
cloaked assault gun ship _Legacy 2_, and offered their services to the
military. Immediately the two were involved in operations all over TCA
space, right on the front lines.

The _Legacy 2_ was an amazing warship. It only had a crew of two, but
could hold hundreds of Marines for planetary landings and bristled with
enough armaments to annihilate a full-fledged battleship.

Assigned to Special Operations Group 442, James and Ed took the fight to
the Skeemdians with a ferociousness no TCA politician could have
predicted. Their success in combat had the analysts calling the war
"won." Victory should be theirs within a year; two on the outside.

So why were the two most dangerous men in the Terra Cor Alliance on a
tiny, pointless assignment to baby-sit a planet in the middle of
nowhere?

James didn't yet know, and now he wasn't sure he wanted to find out.

----------

James walked into the rear cargo bay of the ship, eyeing the heavy
trench coat that hung from a lone metal stand in the middle of room. To
one side, Ed was hunched over a portable table, checking out a spare
radio.

The "cargo" bays of the _Legacy 2_ had often held Marines, on some
occasions bombs, and even more rarely, supplies. With only two people on
this mission, the room seemed empty as they prepared for departure.

James quickly slipped into his custom-fitted Coat, ready for battle in a
matter of moments. He had dark blond hair parted to the right and cool
blue-grey eyes. His face was average, as was his height and apparently
weight. Under the Coat, James was built like a gymnast and moved with
the grace and balance of a martial arts master.

In contrast, his partner Ed was a monster of a man. He stood well over
six feet and looked to have nearly twice James' mass--all solid muscle.
His black hair was cropped short and had a small gap where a metal
support beam had hit him in the head years ago, and he wore a constant
smile that looked more than a little insane.

With their Coats prepared, the two stepped up to the main air lock.

"Hey, aren't you bringing that thing?" Asked James, pointing over his
shoulder at the table Ed had been working at.

"No, just something that didn't work right in my Coat. I replaced it
along the way. What's the place look like?"

"Tropical jungles most likely. Rainy, smoggy, a lot like earth."

"DAVE said it had almost one earth gravity." Ed said, rubbing his chin.

James keyed in the sequence to unlock the massive air lock doors. "You
know, DAVE didn't tell me what the gravity was."

"I had to ask." Ed offered.

The doors slid open with a quiet humming.

"All right. The plan, one last time." James began.

"Give it to me." Said Ed, clenching his fists.

The two stepped into the air lock.

"We land by jump-suits. Parachutes open at eight hundred feet, standard
emergency procedures. Find the enemy, avoid engagement, get a head
count."

"I thought there wasn't an enemy." Ed said.

"Ed, if there wasn't, would they have even bothered to send us out
here?" James asked.

"No, probably not."

The inner doors finished closing.

"Any way, if all goes well, we send down the recovery shuttle and place
a marker, then leave."

"And if all goes badly, we take out as many of the little buggers as we
can, right?" Asked Ed.

"Right."

James and Ed pulled what appeared to be cloth hoods from their trench
coats. The hoods went all the way over their faces and sealed at the
collar. The Coats they were wearing were halfway between a walking
armored armory and space suits. The surface of the Coats could even
withstand the heat and pressure of reentry.

The jump-suits had been built into the Coats; after fully entering the
atmosphere, James and Ed would flip over and free-fall to about a
thousand feet elevation, where their conventional parachutes would open,
allowing them to land quickly and quietly. Landing over a jungle as they
were was out of the question, so they would have to be alert and steer
for one of the thousands of visible bodies of water during the descent.

After the seals around their hoods were complete, the material bulged
from inside and turned clear. It took a few moments for both to get
their gloves on, then check their suit seals. About the same time they
finished, the air lock flashed green three times, then turned red.

It was time for descent.

----------

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, a pair of small round
spacecraft were on the fast track to the surface. Similar to James and
Ed, they plunged into the atmosphere like meteors. Each spacecraft held
a single occupant: a humanoid with a tail, wearing battle armor of the
Saiyjin race.

----------

The touchdown went smoothly, a rare case with complicated military
technology, but James and Ed were safely back on the ground and liking
it. The description from Dave did not do the life of Korindoth justice.
While there wasn't so much as a blue-jay around to sing, the planet
looked replete with trees large enough to serve as apartment buildings
if hollowed out.

"Damn, this place is something else." Ed had said upon landing.

"I know what you mean. Like Vietnam or something." James said.

Ed nodded, immediately understanding the reference from a tactical point
of view. If there was to be any fighting, victory would go to the side
using the dirtiest tactics.

The stage was set, the players all present.

It was time for the show to begin.

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Preview of the next episode: The Terra Cor Alliance fighters have
arrived on Korindoth, but so have the Saiyjins. Is the Terra Cor's
greatest enemy present? Or will this be a four-way rumble?

Find out in the next exciting episode of Brother!

NEXT EPISODE: Enter the Skeemdians

----------

Author's Note: Well, as you have seen, this is a little less humorous
and a little more "gritty" than normal Dragonball Z. More explanations
are coming, but as in the anime, it will take time for them to show up.
Don't worry, just don't skip episodes and you won't miss anything.

Now, to explain the title. Basically, James and Vegeta were cast as
brothers when I came up with this story two years ago. Recently the
story has undergone a kind of revival, and once the writing began, I
decided that the familial connection had to go. It was funny, but it
could only go so far. In the end, just putting James and Vegeta in the
same story turned out to be enough.

Well, there's lots more Brother on the way. Stay tuned!



First draft: 11/8/01

    Source: geocities.com/tokyo/subway/1888/txt/Brother

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