Story Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Throughout history, many conflicts have come and gone, but few could compare to that which raged long ago between the Pokémon that inhabited the land and those of the sea. Under the guidance of the mighty lords Kyogre and Groudon, both factions battled in each other in a ruthless, relentless skirmish to expand each other's domain. For years both sides were even, and no advance was made by either that wasn't immediately pushed back. It was not until this terrible stalemate finally annoyed one far mightier that the war would see its end, however...
The skies went dark, and a roar made everyone clashing gaze up to the skies to see the legendary Dragon descend from his own domain. With a single roar in display of his might, Rayquaza caused the two to stop battling. As punishment to all the damage their deranged ideals had caused, however, Kyogre and Groudon were sealed, lost for ages to come...
With time, they, and the war they had provoked, were forgotten, and the world regained the balance it was always meant to have. And with humans taking their role as the Pokémon's trusted friends and partners, the long-lived rivalry between land and sea came to an end; the gap between them bridged as members of both factions would share their time and lives with each other in company of their trainers. It was the dawn of a new age; the beginning of something wonderful... It seemed as if peace had, at long last, been found in a previously-troubled world...
But such peace will never last forever.
In time, humans who were dissatisfied with the world, or blinded by their own ideals, sought to gain the power of the Legendary ones, becoming no different from what they had been. And soon, Kyogre, Groudon, and the war had returned. Not in the primal state from before, but in the shape of humans, and their trusting Pokémon.
It didn't take long for it to end, however. A heroic youth took care of the situation quickly, by calling on to the only one that could end the feud of land and sea, just like he did in the beginning of time: Rayquaza.
Both raging titans were sealed once more, and the ones who had summoned them, seeing the consequences of their actions, were quick to repent and abandon their ways. Hundreds of years passed once more, and two more foolish humans summoned the sleeping ones yet again...
But this time, no one arrived to stop them... The war, the losses, the destruction... Perhaps it was only fitting that humanity as a whole ceased to be. The conflict continued, and has, in fact, never ended to this day. Though they were not always engaged in physical combat, the Pokémon of the land and sea, now on their own, each sought out their own advancement, picking up the pieces from the now-gone human race. Territorial divisions and disputes, the Space race, the Arms race upon realizing their natural abilities were no longer enough to harm each other... On any possible aspect, each side sought to reach further beyond, if only to prove to the other what they were capable of doing and strike fear upon them.
That was so long ago no monument still standing has any memory of it. Time and technology have advanced, and the Pokémon themselves have, truly, reached for the stars. Spacefaring and colonization were difficult at first, but with the more advanced ships everything was simplified.
The problem?
The war never ended.
Up to this day, it rages, now across the stars, growing far away from the Earth where it began. In the vast black of space, Kyogre and Groudon's followers continue to antagonize each other, competing for control over new planets, for their resources, and sometimes for the simple act of one of their ships chancing across one of the others. War had grown, and it was no longer just the land and the sea who struggled; Pokémon whose interests were jeopardized by the conquest of one faction rushed to join the other. In such a way that the sea's forces now consist of Water, Ice, Ghost and Dark-types, all who would be damaged by the perpetual droughts and sunlight Groudon brought forth, and the land's forces having Ground, Rock, Fire, Grass and Steel types who lived the opposite situation. Those types and species that did not join a side either continued their lives on Earth or dedicated themselves to space travel, commerce and sometimes even piracy, being allowed a relative peace now that the fight had gone away into the galaxy.
Why explain all this? Because this is, precisely, a story of that new war. Of the battles, misadventures, and hardships those who fought in it went through...
I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR OFFICE DUTY
April, 15, 3046 AA, 2100 hours.
Cpl. Irene Edge, 47th unit
TAV "Heart of the Ocean", en route to a classified destination.
Stars filled the black of space, expanding as far as the Dewott could see from the window of her quarters. Looking out idly, she was waiting eagerly for a chance to be deployed into active duty. But not any kind: Actual combat. The last few missions had involved excavations or searches on meaningless planets that either held no threat or presented a small number of Land soldiers or local fighters that others would quickly dispose of before she got a chance to join the fray. Now she had been selected along with hundreds more to go on a classified mission that also marked the maiden voyage of the Heart of the Ocean, the Destroyer that the whole mechanics crew and regents had deemed the fleet's pride and joy. And with fair reason, perhaps. The mass driver technology they had captured from the Land, coupled with their own signature weapons, and the fact the whole ship was practically coated in them and lost no speed or maneuverability for it was, indeed, a wonder. They had even gone as far as to say it could take on eight enemy vessels at once and still emerge without a scratch. She could believe everything but that last bit.
Since no one had been told where they were going and no orders had been issued, Irene had spent most of her time either napping, eating, or picking fights with others at the mess hall to ensure staying in shape from the other two. She was quite fond of the napping and the eating but she couldn't afford to be less effective in a fight; something she was fond of, as the record in the pads next to each room's door stated:
Efficiency Records, Units 40-49:
Er, Eyja (E) 70719
Dade, Atlan (E) 69870
Kael, Heckler 67421
Black, Tryde (E) 65325
Edge, Irene 65300
The list went on for all military personnel aboard, but she was proud to be among the top five, especially since those marked with an (E) were true specialists, indeed, and she was less than 50 points from one of them.
Irene continued to look out the window. The lights in the room were so dim... And she just had lunch, too... She couldn't help feeling groggy all of a sudden. Maybe just a little nap... Who would notice? After all, it's not like she'd be getting any assignments soon...
...
...
...
She sprang in surprise, landing on her feet with one of her Scalchops ready upon a sudden flash woke her up all of a sudden, only to find herself looking at the broadly-smiling-yet-rough-looking Swampert who was holding another digital pad, except this one had a picture of a sleeping Irene on it rather than data.
"You look mighty cute when ye'r sleepin', Irene!" The Swampert chuckled at her reaction.
"Dammit, Heckler!" Irene huffed in annoyance before sitting and leaning on the windowsill once more, "You're really stupid at times..."
"Wouldn't get too sleepy if I were you, beautiful," the Swampert replied, "Sydney just called us over to engineering. Says he wants us to try something out."
"Well, Sydney can go-"
"And we gotta report to briefing in an hour, too!" Heckler cut her sentence as he patted the Dewott lightly on the shoulder, which she still managed to feel.
"Fine, whatever," Irene retorted as she got up and followed Heckler out of the room down the metallic blue hallways, "I mean, who needs to sleep? It's probably as stupid a thing as breathing, anyways..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Heckler chuckled once more before looking back at the pad, "Like a little baby..."
...
"What do you think?" a Vaporeon asked in a relaxed, happy tone as he saw the Dewott and Swampert donning the shining electric blue armor he had made for them.
"And what are these things for again?" Irene asked annoyedly as she looked at the metal plating on her left shoulder, "I mean, other than looking odd as all armor does?"
"It's no common armor, Irene!" Sydney the Vaporeon cheerfully answered as he walked back and forth between some monitor screens before looking at the Dewott, "I made these specially for you two from spare bits of standard issue stuff and extra material I found lying around here and there... They can take a much bigger beating than the average ones! Plus, they're so light I bet you can't even feel them on you!"
"Definitely can't feel 'em," Heckler observed, staring at the plating on his chest, "Ye'r a wizard, Sydney!"
"And that's what upsets me," Irene added, "I mean, what's this?" She reached into the armor on her thigh and pulling out a small handle from which a semi-circle-shaped glowing blade emerged.
"Replacements for your scalchops!" Sydney answered, "Much stronger, too!"
"Well, I prefer old-school," The Dewott holstered the blade and pulled one of her actual scalchops from under the armor and held it high on her right hand, "As for how strong it is..." She slammed it against her left shoulder with such force even her vision went blurry while Sydney yelped in surprise. She couldn't deny it: The metal was strong. So strong the armor that covered the arm she would have lost trying to prove her point had been left with nothing but a dent that had many small cracks forming around it, not counting she was just left with a numb yet extremely pained arm herself.
"What are you doing?! That's brand-new stuff, Irene!"
"Well, I found a flaw in your design," Irene nonchalantly answered as she walked away, removing her left shoulderplate and throwing it away, "You should work on your magic, wizard ."
"I worked a whole week with no sleep to make that..." Sydney sighed, "If I had wanted you guys to have average stuff I would have waited for the armory to issue you some regular junk..."
"Well, I think it's mighty fine!" Heckler smashed his steel-coated fists together, feeling something on his hand crack as he did, "Thanks fer everythin', Sydney! Gotta go off to briefing!"
"Yeah, take care..." The Vaporeon picked the damaged piece of armor on his muzzle and walked back to his workbench... He had much to do.
MAN ALL STATIONS
April, 15, 3046 AA, 2100 hours.
Sgt. Dell Renards, 12th Fighters Squadron
TMV "Behemoth's Claw", en route to Planet Bor.
Dell walked down the red metal interior of his ship, moving around with the rest of the Land soldiers and feeling as eager as all of them. He was being sent among a few chosen on a mission for an item that would kill off the Sea for good! The Typhlosion could barely hold his excitement at the thought of being among those who claimed the final victory for his cause.
Chatter filled the entire ship; not an easy task, as, like most destroyers, it was about the size of a colony. They knew the Sea had created a new and fearsome ship, but then again, the Behemoth's Claw was no ordinary ship, either. It had emerged victorious from each of its 157 battles, and that was quite a score. The idiotic boasts of the Sea about how their new invention could wipe out five ships without a problem was the cause for which they had been sent, along with four others, to make those wet boys choke on their pride and then search the planet they were heading for.
He knew the Sea always had supremacy when it came to space and ocean engagements, but he, as a pilot, found their statement to be complete Tauros, and couldn't wait for his chance to be sent out. Just now, before heading out for a rest her thought he had well-earned after hours of maintenance to his fighter, he had been talking to the others about how he'd be taking out at least ten wetlanders before one shot managed to even graze him; and the others didn't deny it. Dell was a gifted pilot, after all.
He was feeling straight-up hungry and sleepy at the moment. If he managed to catch one nap and a quick meal he'd probably be fine, though. He had grown so used to the lack of both a small amount of them was all it took for him to feel refreshed.
But fate, like his grandfather once told him, was a bitch.
Just as he was entering the Mess hall, a voice sounded out loudly through the ship's comms.
"Attention, all personnel: Enemy target is in sight. Report to your stations at once!"
"Fuck you..." He mumbled at someone who didn't appear to even exist as he rushed back to the hangar and hopped into his fighter, readying everything for the battle that was soon to begin. He set the aiming to manual, as usual, and disabled assisted boosts for the takeoff, directing the resources both would take straight to his main weapons.
As he took off from the hanger bay out into the stars he saw the gigantic,blue, Kyogre-shaped ship ahead...
The battle was about to start.
The skies went dark, and a roar made everyone clashing gaze up to the skies to see the legendary Dragon descend from his own domain. With a single roar in display of his might, Rayquaza caused the two to stop battling. As punishment to all the damage their deranged ideals had caused, however, Kyogre and Groudon were sealed, lost for ages to come...
With time, they, and the war they had provoked, were forgotten, and the world regained the balance it was always meant to have. And with humans taking their role as the Pokémon's trusted friends and partners, the long-lived rivalry between land and sea came to an end; the gap between them bridged as members of both factions would share their time and lives with each other in company of their trainers. It was the dawn of a new age; the beginning of something wonderful... It seemed as if peace had, at long last, been found in a previously-troubled world...
But such peace will never last forever.
In time, humans who were dissatisfied with the world, or blinded by their own ideals, sought to gain the power of the Legendary ones, becoming no different from what they had been. And soon, Kyogre, Groudon, and the war had returned. Not in the primal state from before, but in the shape of humans, and their trusting Pokémon.
It didn't take long for it to end, however. A heroic youth took care of the situation quickly, by calling on to the only one that could end the feud of land and sea, just like he did in the beginning of time: Rayquaza.
Both raging titans were sealed once more, and the ones who had summoned them, seeing the consequences of their actions, were quick to repent and abandon their ways. Hundreds of years passed once more, and two more foolish humans summoned the sleeping ones yet again...
But this time, no one arrived to stop them... The war, the losses, the destruction... Perhaps it was only fitting that humanity as a whole ceased to be. The conflict continued, and has, in fact, never ended to this day. Though they were not always engaged in physical combat, the Pokémon of the land and sea, now on their own, each sought out their own advancement, picking up the pieces from the now-gone human race. Territorial divisions and disputes, the Space race, the Arms race upon realizing their natural abilities were no longer enough to harm each other... On any possible aspect, each side sought to reach further beyond, if only to prove to the other what they were capable of doing and strike fear upon them.
That was so long ago no monument still standing has any memory of it. Time and technology have advanced, and the Pokémon themselves have, truly, reached for the stars. Spacefaring and colonization were difficult at first, but with the more advanced ships everything was simplified.
The problem?
The war never ended.
Up to this day, it rages, now across the stars, growing far away from the Earth where it began. In the vast black of space, Kyogre and Groudon's followers continue to antagonize each other, competing for control over new planets, for their resources, and sometimes for the simple act of one of their ships chancing across one of the others. War had grown, and it was no longer just the land and the sea who struggled; Pokémon whose interests were jeopardized by the conquest of one faction rushed to join the other. In such a way that the sea's forces now consist of Water, Ice, Ghost and Dark-types, all who would be damaged by the perpetual droughts and sunlight Groudon brought forth, and the land's forces having Ground, Rock, Fire, Grass and Steel types who lived the opposite situation. Those types and species that did not join a side either continued their lives on Earth or dedicated themselves to space travel, commerce and sometimes even piracy, being allowed a relative peace now that the fight had gone away into the galaxy.
Why explain all this? Because this is, precisely, a story of that new war. Of the battles, misadventures, and hardships those who fought in it went through...
I DIDN'T SIGN UP FOR OFFICE DUTY
April, 15, 3046 AA, 2100 hours.
Cpl. Irene Edge, 47th unit
TAV "Heart of the Ocean", en route to a classified destination.
Stars filled the black of space, expanding as far as the Dewott could see from the window of her quarters. Looking out idly, she was waiting eagerly for a chance to be deployed into active duty. But not any kind: Actual combat. The last few missions had involved excavations or searches on meaningless planets that either held no threat or presented a small number of Land soldiers or local fighters that others would quickly dispose of before she got a chance to join the fray. Now she had been selected along with hundreds more to go on a classified mission that also marked the maiden voyage of the Heart of the Ocean, the Destroyer that the whole mechanics crew and regents had deemed the fleet's pride and joy. And with fair reason, perhaps. The mass driver technology they had captured from the Land, coupled with their own signature weapons, and the fact the whole ship was practically coated in them and lost no speed or maneuverability for it was, indeed, a wonder. They had even gone as far as to say it could take on eight enemy vessels at once and still emerge without a scratch. She could believe everything but that last bit.
Since no one had been told where they were going and no orders had been issued, Irene had spent most of her time either napping, eating, or picking fights with others at the mess hall to ensure staying in shape from the other two. She was quite fond of the napping and the eating but she couldn't afford to be less effective in a fight; something she was fond of, as the record in the pads next to each room's door stated:
Er, Eyja (E) 70719
Dade, Atlan (E) 69870
Kael, Heckler 67421
Black, Tryde (E) 65325
Edge, Irene 65300
The list went on for all military personnel aboard, but she was proud to be among the top five, especially since those marked with an (E) were true specialists, indeed, and she was less than 50 points from one of them.
Irene continued to look out the window. The lights in the room were so dim... And she just had lunch, too... She couldn't help feeling groggy all of a sudden. Maybe just a little nap... Who would notice? After all, it's not like she'd be getting any assignments soon...
...
...
...
She sprang in surprise, landing on her feet with one of her Scalchops ready upon a sudden flash woke her up all of a sudden, only to find herself looking at the broadly-smiling-yet-rough-looking Swampert who was holding another digital pad, except this one had a picture of a sleeping Irene on it rather than data.
"You look mighty cute when ye'r sleepin', Irene!" The Swampert chuckled at her reaction.
"Dammit, Heckler!" Irene huffed in annoyance before sitting and leaning on the windowsill once more, "You're really stupid at times..."
"Wouldn't get too sleepy if I were you, beautiful," the Swampert replied, "Sydney just called us over to engineering. Says he wants us to try something out."
"Well, Sydney can go-"
"And we gotta report to briefing in an hour, too!" Heckler cut her sentence as he patted the Dewott lightly on the shoulder, which she still managed to feel.
"Fine, whatever," Irene retorted as she got up and followed Heckler out of the room down the metallic blue hallways, "I mean, who needs to sleep? It's probably as stupid a thing as breathing, anyways..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Heckler chuckled once more before looking back at the pad, "Like a little baby..."
...
"What do you think?" a Vaporeon asked in a relaxed, happy tone as he saw the Dewott and Swampert donning the shining electric blue armor he had made for them.
"And what are these things for again?" Irene asked annoyedly as she looked at the metal plating on her left shoulder, "I mean, other than looking odd as all armor does?"
"It's no common armor, Irene!" Sydney the Vaporeon cheerfully answered as he walked back and forth between some monitor screens before looking at the Dewott, "I made these specially for you two from spare bits of standard issue stuff and extra material I found lying around here and there... They can take a much bigger beating than the average ones! Plus, they're so light I bet you can't even feel them on you!"
"Definitely can't feel 'em," Heckler observed, staring at the plating on his chest, "Ye'r a wizard, Sydney!"
"And that's what upsets me," Irene added, "I mean, what's this?" She reached into the armor on her thigh and pulling out a small handle from which a semi-circle-shaped glowing blade emerged.
"Replacements for your scalchops!" Sydney answered, "Much stronger, too!"
"Well, I prefer old-school," The Dewott holstered the blade and pulled one of her actual scalchops from under the armor and held it high on her right hand, "As for how strong it is..." She slammed it against her left shoulder with such force even her vision went blurry while Sydney yelped in surprise. She couldn't deny it: The metal was strong. So strong the armor that covered the arm she would have lost trying to prove her point had been left with nothing but a dent that had many small cracks forming around it, not counting she was just left with a numb yet extremely pained arm herself.
"What are you doing?! That's brand-new stuff, Irene!"
"Well, I found a flaw in your design," Irene nonchalantly answered as she walked away, removing her left shoulderplate and throwing it away, "You should work on your magic, wizard ."
"I worked a whole week with no sleep to make that..." Sydney sighed, "If I had wanted you guys to have average stuff I would have waited for the armory to issue you some regular junk..."
"Well, I think it's mighty fine!" Heckler smashed his steel-coated fists together, feeling something on his hand crack as he did, "Thanks fer everythin', Sydney! Gotta go off to briefing!"
"Yeah, take care..." The Vaporeon picked the damaged piece of armor on his muzzle and walked back to his workbench... He had much to do.
MAN ALL STATIONS
April, 15, 3046 AA, 2100 hours.
Sgt. Dell Renards, 12th Fighters Squadron
TMV "Behemoth's Claw", en route to Planet Bor.
Dell walked down the red metal interior of his ship, moving around with the rest of the Land soldiers and feeling as eager as all of them. He was being sent among a few chosen on a mission for an item that would kill off the Sea for good! The Typhlosion could barely hold his excitement at the thought of being among those who claimed the final victory for his cause.
Chatter filled the entire ship; not an easy task, as, like most destroyers, it was about the size of a colony. They knew the Sea had created a new and fearsome ship, but then again, the Behemoth's Claw was no ordinary ship, either. It had emerged victorious from each of its 157 battles, and that was quite a score. The idiotic boasts of the Sea about how their new invention could wipe out five ships without a problem was the cause for which they had been sent, along with four others, to make those wet boys choke on their pride and then search the planet they were heading for.
He knew the Sea always had supremacy when it came to space and ocean engagements, but he, as a pilot, found their statement to be complete Tauros, and couldn't wait for his chance to be sent out. Just now, before heading out for a rest her thought he had well-earned after hours of maintenance to his fighter, he had been talking to the others about how he'd be taking out at least ten wetlanders before one shot managed to even graze him; and the others didn't deny it. Dell was a gifted pilot, after all.
He was feeling straight-up hungry and sleepy at the moment. If he managed to catch one nap and a quick meal he'd probably be fine, though. He had grown so used to the lack of both a small amount of them was all it took for him to feel refreshed.
But fate, like his grandfather once told him, was a bitch.
Just as he was entering the Mess hall, a voice sounded out loudly through the ship's comms.
"Attention, all personnel: Enemy target is in sight. Report to your stations at once!"
"Fuck you..." He mumbled at someone who didn't appear to even exist as he rushed back to the hangar and hopped into his fighter, readying everything for the battle that was soon to begin. He set the aiming to manual, as usual, and disabled assisted boosts for the takeoff, directing the resources both would take straight to his main weapons.
As he took off from the hanger bay out into the stars he saw the gigantic,blue, Kyogre-shaped ship ahead...
The battle was about to start.