This isn't quite a repost, because I made a few revisions to it. But it is a fic which is very timely to repost now. -------------- The Year of the Jackpot by Ken Arromdee Being the youngest mecha pilot in Tokyo would be slightly more of an honor, thought Noa Izumi, if she couldn't count the total number of pilots on two hands. Still, she was very proud that someone as young as herself was hired to be the pilot. Good grades, a few connections, and a lot of luck got her into a job that most of her friends looked at with envy. And the luck was the biggest part. Izumi had missed the original eligibility date by just a few months. But when the Earth Federation had formed in January, all member governments were mired in red tape for months, so when the Patlabors were finally ready in early 1999 she was over the minimum age requirements. A lucky break involving some impromptu piloting when she applied then got her the job. A few months later, Noa got the first inkling of what was going to happen to her that year. An astronomer named Amamori had observed an asteroid at some distance, and established that it was likely to hit the Earth. This made front-page news, and Noa hoped that it wouldn't hit Tokyo. For that asteroid to crash into a city would cause a major disaster. Luckily, it didn't hit Tokyo, which was a good thing for Noa Izumi; she imagined just what it would be like to clean up the mess using Alphonse, and shuddered. Instead, the crash happened far away from any civilization. On a place called South Atalia Island, off the shore of North America. While it devastated huge tracts of land in its wake, it luckily for humanity missed all the major population centers. Shortly after the crash, the rumors began. The most fantastic of them was that it was all a cover-up, that the crash wasn't an asteroid at all, but a ship of space aliens. However, the incident quickly faded from the general public's consciousness after a few wars, plane crashes, and other more normal news events that happened all the time. Izumi parked Alphonse in a hangar, checked out, and went home, changing her clothes for an upcoming party. This party was mainly for high school students--but she had been invited along with several other friends of the new students. Almost a reunion. Besides, she didn't look any older than them. She knocked happily on her friend's door, and stumbled into a brightly lit living room filled with paper, streamers, posters, and banners. The banners read "Goodbye, students!", "Welcome, students!", and one which puzzled her a bit, "Day of Lavos." The words were helpfully followed by a traced picture of some kind of monster. "What's this?" she asked at the crowd. A young dark-blue-haired girl, who was holding a beer even though she was obviously only around age 13 and younger than even the high school students, explained. "It's a game! The world will end in the year 1999 unless a team of brave heroes save it!" "You mean that asteroid thing? You think it was really aliens?" asked Izumi. "Yeah. Who knows, maybe the aliens came to resurrect Lavos! it could mean the end of the world is coming!", said the girl in a teasing voice to her newfound friend. "That's silly", replied Izumi. "There's nothing _really_ special about the year 1999 just because it's a funny-looking number...." Amid all the partying, someone had forgotten to turn off the television. There was a news broadcast on, a special report showing the live launching of the spaceship Moonlight SY-3 to the moon. The United Nations Scientific Committee had been frozen for months by the red tape like everything else, so this was the first moon rocket in some time. Mostly, nobody was watching the report. Izumi had put her arms around a long-haired boy only a year younger than herself and prepared a passionate kiss for when the rocket's countdown reached zero. "Kamui-chan...", she sighed. The kiss went great from her side, even though Kamui hardly responded to it. The rocket didn't. It launched, and flew fine for long enough that the news continued on to the weather report. But then a deceptively calm and collected voiceover began. Izumi looked up from her embrace with Kamui and glanced at the screen briefly. Kamui used the opportunity to get free. "We interrupt this program for a special bulletin, dated today, September 13, 1999. Moonlight SY-3 has encountered some unknown anomaly in its guidance system..." Kamui got up to turn off the television as the bulletin was interrupted by a _second_ bulletin. The newscaster read it with practiced blandness, but its contents were alarming enough that nobody let Kamui turn it off. "This just in. It appears that the problem isn't in the guidance system of SY-3. There's been an explosion at a nuclear waste dump on the moon, and the moon is no longer in orbit around the Earth. SY-3 has been ordered to return to its base on Earth and not to try to chase our errant satellite. We emphasize that there has not yet been any loss of life or severe injury on the moon, and the base is not contaminated. It is hoped that some way will be found to return the scientists to Earth soon. We repeat. The moon is no longer in orbit around the Earth...." Even high school students could understand the meaning of that. Izumi glanced out the window at the moon. Was it her imagination, or had it already grown smaller? She watched, filled with a mixture of fascination and horror as the suddenly silent party-goers gathered around her and looked out at the sky. Kamui muttered something about Dragons and old friends and excused himself from the party early, not even caring about what was happening up in the sky. Everyone else watched while the fat crescent shrank and shrank as the moon drew farther and farther away from the Earth. It happened slowly, but inexorably. Many of the students felt that it was the end of an era. Perhaps someday they would be explaining to their children that once the Earth had this thing called a "moon", which hung in the sky and glowed, which lovers and nature watchers and poets looked up to, and which was forever gone. After a week without the moon, life continued on in the city. The loss of the Earth's only natural satellite was something that everyone remembered in the back of their minds, but which didn't have much effect on everyday life. Izumi glanced upwards where the moon used to be, bored more than anything else in her task. It was a pretty mundane one--to use Alphonse to check out a mysteriously damaged section of city, looking for survivors and for signs of what caused the damage. She privately hoped that Kamui hadn't gotten hurt when it happened, since he had headed towards that very same area of town when he left the party. The music coming from Alphonse's radio was interrupted by another special bulletin. In a fit of silliness, Izumi wondered if the moon could have come back. The bulletin started. "This just in. Astronomers have found a large, planetary object moving swiftly towards the Earth." Izumi couldn't believe it; had she guessed right? "At first, it was believed to be a return of our lost moon", continued the announcer with his bland Tokyo non-accent. "But the strange object is too large, and it appears to be in a long elliptical orbit. Astronomers have estimated its period at a thousand years. The moon may be gone, but a new planet has been discovered. Scientists are analyzing its spectrum to determine if it might be inhabited by life...." By next morning, newspaper headlines the world over heralded the new discovery. "Moon Out, Planet In?" read the Asahi Shinbun. An American tabloid a week later gave its own spin on the event: "Trade Old Celestial Objects for New?" Day after day, the new planet's orbit brought it closer to the Earth. It was becoming clear that there _was_ life on the planet. In large telescopes, seas were visible, as well as areas of color very similar to that of the Earth despite despite the new planet's impossibly far distance from the sun. And then, at about the distance of the asteroid belt, it began to transmit a signal to the Earth. It seemed the new planet was not only inhabited, but inhabited by malign humanoids, and not only by malign humanoids, but malign humanoids who broadcast in radio frequencies, and NTSC television signals, and spoke Japanese, obviously something they'd learned from Earth's own radio transmissions. Several aliens who resembled tall, thin, human beings appeared on viewscreens throughout the world. They stood with a regal bearing and gravely announced to the people of Earth their fate. "This is the planet Lar Metal. We've been *braaaaaap* secretly ruling your Earth, coming nearby every thousand years. We must choose *sqqqqqqqqqkk* a new queen, and then we will take what we want *bbbbbrrrrrggg* from your planet. If you resist, you will be destroyed!" The people at SV2 were watching this during their lunch break. One of the smarter engineers, realizing that all incoming transmissions were recorded, fiddled with the machines to get the Lar Metal recording and send it through several pieces of equipment that he wasn't even supposed to use. "I want to try something", explained the engineer over a bento box at lunch. "That static... it doesn't sound right. More like a weak signal interfering with a strong signal, not just noise. Let's see what that other signal's really saying." Under the engineer's deft fingers, the machinery produced results as if by magic. He finished by typing in a few computer commands, and the speaker came to life again, this time emphasising the voice from the 'static'. "This is the empire of Baranoia." "Paranoia?" asked Izumi. The sounds continued. "The Earth will be ours. Ignore Lar Metal for now, you face the wrath of *blip bloop*." "There's still static!" said the engineer as he turned the sound down. "Let's try that _again_. I've filtered out the Lar Metal signal but we're still getting something else on top of it." He fiddled with the controls and turned the volume up. This time, the sounds were clear except for a bit of more normal noise; there were no other signals. "We are the Kilaak. We are native inhabitants of the solar system which includes the Earth, who live in a volcanic asteroid in the main belt between Jupiter and Mars. The voice took on a faintly embarassed tone. "Our original plan was to invade the Earth for its resources. But our plans were changed. An alien race known as the Dolbuk entered the solar system twelve of your days ago. We have beaten them back, but our asteroid is devastated, and we ask to be admitted on Earth not as conquerers, but as refugees. On top of that, the empire of Baranoia has used our asteroid for a robot test base. We will gift the Earth with our advanced technological knowledge, if you provide us with a temporary home." "A single ship of ours is heading towards Earth. We would be glad to answer any questions once it arrives." As Izumi headed home later that day, a young girl stopped her. She seemed to be about 13 years old. "Hello, sempai!" Izumi finally recalled where she had seen that face and heard that voice before: at the party. Izumi greeted her back. "Hi!" "Is it fun to work with giant robots?" asked the girl. Izumi nodded. "It's great! Especially Alphonse! Do you think you'd like to pilot one someday?" The girl shook her head. "It looks dangerous to be inside one. But I'd like to do something related." "Are you entering high school? You must be awfully smart if you're entering high school at that age." "My father says he thinks I'm almost as smart as he is, sempai! He's an important scientist. He's even going to Antarctica next year! Uh, by the way, Sempai..." "Hai, what?" asked Izumi. "And you don't have to call me that." she added. "I'd like to watch the aliens on television with you. My parents had another argument today and I told them I was going to visit a friend now. They'll get better soon but I don't want to get between them now...." "Oh, that's bad. I guess I can't avoid having you come with me." "Really? Thank you, Sempai!" Izumi invited the girl into her apartment and they sat down to watch the press conference. Izumi offered her a drink, and she finally picked an orange juice in lieu of a beer. Both watched fascinated as the ship from the surprise second group of aliens landed and disgorged its inhabitants, seemingly humanoid beings who demonstrated that they could become snakelike lava creatures. "Excuse me. Mr. Alien, you say you meant to conquer Earth?" "We've put that all behind us. We come as refugees from a war-ravaged asteroid." He pointed to his spaceship. "We admit having originally intended our conquest to start with the base on your moon. We hope you will not hold that against us." "Are you responsible for the loss of the moon, then?" "To the best of our knowledge, you Earthpeople did that to yourselves with your nuclear waste. The moon would do us no good gallivanting through the galaxy; we are after all fellow inhabitants of the solar system." "Do you have any connection with the other aliens from this Lar Metal planet?" "We've checked our records. Lar Metal really did pass through the solar system a thousand years ago, but we know little about its mission and inhabitants. We know that they are not us, they have no connection to us." "The Earth is crowded. What will you do if we can't provide space for you?" "Our life processes operate best at high temperatures, and we could use locations such as the interior of that mountain", said the alien, pointing towards Mount Fuji. "These areas are useless to you. We can also provide you with advanced spacecraft technology and a means of controlling the giant monsters that live on your Monster Island. If this isn't enough, we may have to go elsewhere after all. Perhaps even Lar Metal." "If we do let you settle here, will you help us against Lar Metal? And against Baranoia?" "If we are allowed to settle in Mount Fuji, we will donate all the help we can. Much was destroyed by the Dolbuk, but there are still things we can do. We are not sure we can help against Baranoia, but we can help find technology that can." The 13 year old clapped. "Yay, that's great! We'll get these aliens to help against the other aliens!" Izumi added "Because they fought other other aliens!" The first light snowfall spread white over the city. Everyone had gotten used to the aliens--the many aliens that had all chosen that year to invade--the threats, and the loss of the moon. Earth was even fighting back on its own, having created a fighting team, the Ohrangers, to take care of Baranoia, the most immediate threat. But they wouldn't be enough to completely protect the planet; they were only five people. Meanwhile, Noa Izumi returned to work, life as a Patlabor pilot continuing as usual. But one day.... "Congratulations!" said Shonohara to Izumi when she arrived at work. "What?" "I said, congratulations!" "On what?" "Oh, on getting the mission." Oops, thought Izumi. She must have missed something important. Better go find someone in charge who can tell her what's going on. She ran off. Ota, standing just inside the hallway, pat Izumi on the back. "Congratulations!" "Uhh, yeah, thanks!" Weirder and weirder. She passed officer Clancy in the hall. "Congratulations!" said the New Yorker. Izumi thought that was a little odd. Clancy almost never acted that way. Someone stuck his head out of an office. She didn't recognize him. "You're Izumi-san, right? Congratulations!" She finally reached the office of the person she was looking for. "Chief Gotoh?" "Oh, I guess you're here to pick up the mission plan and start practicing, and by the way, congratulations!" He handed her a thick manila envelope. Izumi sat down and opened the envelope and read its contents. Strange... very strange. One SV2 police officer was to be randomly picked for a special government project... see enclosed envelope. A photograph of a starfield was enclosed, as well as several documents stamped "Top Secret". She read the documents. "In July 1999, an alien spacecraft landed on South Atalia Island near North America. This has been announced to the public only as an asteroid impact, until now. Analysis of the spacecraft's trajectory shows that the aliens who created it, who were called the Zentraedi, had a base on heretofore unknown planet at the edge of our solar system, which has been code-named Lucifer. The planet Lucifer is home to advanced technology, which may be useful against the invading planet Lar Metal. The Kilaak, our fellow inhabitants of the inner solar system, have provided the means of getting there. "One labor will be refitted to work in vacuum, and it will ride the space monster King Ghidrah to the base on Lucifer. You will use a map retrieved from the Zentraedi spacecraft to find a certain device--see enclosed map and description. This device will be installed on a Kilaak ship and be used as a weapon against Lar Metal. Because of the enormous speed of the space monster, the mission should last no more than two days. It will be much faster than even a second generation spaceship like the D. Papairow, which is still under construction." "It's unbelievable", exclaimed Noa Izumi. "It's next Friday", replied Gotoh. The mission was the scariest one in Izumi's life, even worse than the hostage crisis she managed to defuse when she was on the regular police force. Riding a space monster like one would ride a horse... and she hadn't ever ridden a horse. And there would be no backup from the rest of the team, because of the light-speed lag. The three headed monster approached the planet and skimmed the surface, then coasted into orbit around the planet. It was all frozen white, except for a few volcanoes and a small city on the horizon.... Small city? That was it! Izumi pressed several buttons and the monster landed like a helicopter near the city. It looked a lot less small from close up. In fact, it was huge. Izumi remembered what she had been told about the race of giants called the Zentraedi, who built that crashed ship. She was sent here in a labor because the labor, a giant humanoid, could manipulate things in the city just as its natives could. The city really wasn't very big compared to the size of the dwellers; in fact, it was barely a base, let alone a city. She pulled up a map on her viewscreen, a map that had been discovered in the Zentraedi ship. Following the map and finding the device she was sent here for was little more than a thirty minute walk... for a labor that could step up steps that are yards high and open doors the size of buildings. Izumi picked up the machine in Alphonse's arms and called for the monster again. "It's time to go home, Alphonse." She waved to the approaching space dragon. "Hi, Ghidrah-chan!" Earth scientists worked around the clock to install the device in the Fire Dragon, a ship owned by the Kilaak. It was a gravity device, explained a government scientist to the press. The giants could not survive, according to the square/cube law, without some way to negate gravity. And gravity also affects the orbits of planets... if it was used on Lar Metal, its orbit could be changed and the rogue planet would never menace mankind again. The device worked. Earth won without a battle. Noa Izumi even got a ticker-tape parade, honoring her as the girl who helped save the world from total destruction, and the chief gave her a paid day off to talk to the press--this was the best possible publicity that SV2 could ever get. The next day, she returned to work, but her job would always seem slightly less exciting than it did before. Izumi parked Alphonse for one last time. "Goodbye! Next time I see you, it'll be the year 2000! I'm going off to a party." There were lots of festivities at the New Years' Eve party. After eating, music, and dancing the group of teenagers gathered around the TV set to watch the Doctor Who movie from just a few years earlier. As the year changed to 2000 in the movie, everyone knew it would do so for real shortly. It felt like the start of the 21st century, even if that was technically not going to happen for another year. Izumi turned to a television channel to see the new year change. It was showing some kind of boring variety show, which stopped five minutes before the big moment. Everyone watched and waited as the three zeroes appeared in the year. "We did it!" exclaimed Izumi's young friend, hugging her. "2000, at last!" "That was an... interesting... year for me", said Izumi. "Hai, for us all. You helped save the world! We're glad to know you!" All the students shouted in unison "Happy new year! Thanks for saving the world!" Izumi's face redded slightly. "It wasn't just me... there were the scientists and the people who used the gravity thingie and all the guys who operated the ship to take it to Lar Metal in...." The blue-haired girl smiled. "You don't have to be embarrassed, Sempai. And I'm sure the upcoming year will be a lot quieter." Izumi grinned back. "I suppose you're right, Misato-chan." The end 1999: the year everything changed. Earth Federation formed (Gundam) Day of Lavos (Chrono Trigger) Formation of SV2 (Patlabor) Ultimate fate of Earth decided (X) Macross falls to Earth (Macross) Alien invasion (Dolbuk) Alien invasion (Destroy All Monsters) Planet Lar Metal returns (Queen Millennium) Moon lost due to nuclear explosion (Otaku no Video) [Space: 1999 reference] Discovery of planet Lucifer (Gunbuster) Construction of second generation spaceship D. Papairow (Gunbuster) Formation of the Ohrangers and invasion by Baranoia (Ohranger) Plot by the Master (Dr. Who movie) Series I couldn't add due to lack of information: Cyber Planet Hyper Lun Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Author's note: Apologies for the errors I probably made. I haven't seen Queen Millennium or Dolbuk. In fact, I know nothing at all about Dolbuk aside from a single sentence found in a web search. Can anyone actually name the aliens for me? ("Dolbuk" is almost certainly wrong).