Introduction:
Unbeknownst to most people, there were multiple parallel worlds formed from the discovery of powerful technological artifacts in a Japanese construction site. In one world, a teenager named Kazuki Yotsuga was sent from his home universe to a parallel one, in which giant robots constructed from the technological artifacts battled each other for the control of the Earth. Kazuki lent his support to the Earth Defense Force, and defeated the RaRa Army. By this point, his home world and the robot world were about to collide and annihilate each other, so he risked his life by destroying his robot and other self Zinv. The two worlds were then combined to form a synthesis world, where the former enemies lived side by side in a bizarre peace. Kazuki and Zinv survived.
In another world, the war between the Earth Defense Force and the RaRa Army still rages. There, however, the war has taken a decided turn for the RaRa Army. The Earth Defense Force lacks the piloting prowess of Kazuki Yotsuga, and a new pilot, Kent Slade, has arisen for the RaRa Army. Only his closest friends know that he is from a third parallel world, unrelated to the synthesis world. Kent Slade is the designated pilot for Himc, a lumbering but incredibly destructive and heavily armored combat robot discovered inside the artifact and renovated by the RaRa Army.
Cmdr. Sanada, the leader of the Earth Defense Force, has recently gained new hope for his side. Kent Slade lost his equipment that would enable him to return home. Cmdr. Sanada recovered the ruined equipment and is now planning to use it to visit two parallel worlds. One of them is Slade's original universe, and the other is the synthesis world.
Kazuki Yotsuga and his friends and family in the synthesis world were present when Himc and an Earth Defense Robot were accidentally transported into and out of the synthesis world by a freak event of nature. They recognized such dimensional transferrances as the sign of multiple worlds colliding, and realized that the war was still raging in other worlds. He and his friends are gathering data to determine if the worlds will collide. They are prepared to do whatever they must to save all the universes: even if it means hazarding the life of Kazuki a second time.
Advent
Chapter 1
Dr. Sanada gave himself a tired grin. He was, at least, doing what he loved, research into a parallel world. It seemed ironic that the war which had stolen all of his research time was now the thing that impelled him to research parallel worlds.
Unfortunately, there was not enough time to work on a full dimensional transporter, not even time to complete the half-ready one in his basement. Most projections showed the territory his house stood in would fall to the RaRa Army within a month, and the Earth Defense Force base soon after. Dr. Sanada would not allow that to be the end for the Earth Defense Force. He had many things up his sleeve, from this project to several others. None of them, however, had a great chance of success. Himc and its pilot were just too good. At this point, even if Himc could somehow be defeated, he and the Earth Defense Force would face the prospect of having to retake the entire planet, territory by territory.
Bitter was the thought of having to flee, but he was a commander and he owed it to his people to provide them that option. If the parallel world he hoped to access through this device could not yield him aid in the war, it might prove a safe haven for his army.
He could tell that the device was a product of his counterpart, his duplicate in the other world. The manufacturers were the same ones that he used in this world for work on both his parallel world devices and spare parts for the Core Robots. Representatives of those manufacturers had been with him and assured him they would be ready to build a duplicate of the device in plenty of time.
More than that, it was built in the manner that he would've designed it, for the most part. Dr. Sanada's design was very distinctive, and it was stamped indelibly upon the ruined device he was working on, the device that D had recovered from the crater some time ago. There did seem to be another presence in its design though. Someone thoroughly practical had insisted upon trimming all of Dr. Sanada's usual excesses. The other hand had also been responsible for great elegance and usefulness in the design. The very idea of programming this signaler was a very good one which that someone must've had, since Dr. Sanada had never been any good at programming- he had needed the help of the other scientists and engineers at the base to do it for the new one.
He had submitted the final design for the signaler to the manufacturing representatives, and they had given him their assurances. Now Dr. Sanada was working on the next part of the plan. Since it did look like this device was made by his counterpart and another person, it was almost certainly meant to signal his counterpart in the other world, and his counterpart's Super Ultra-Deluxe Parallel World Transporter would then return the signaler to that other world. His plan was to send an emissary to that world, and to yet another world he had detected that time when Himc and Core Robot Unit 2 disappeared and then reappeared. He could tell that Himc and Unit 2 had gone to a different universe than the one the signaler originally came from because of what settings he could still make out on the ruined device. Hopefully his emissary would be able either to get aid or determine if either world would be a good hiding place.
To assure his emissary's ability to return, he needed to program his Super Ultra-Deluxe Parallel World Transporter to be able to transport people to different parallel universes. The program, which someone else was writing, would allow the user to determine which universe they wanted to go to. Right now Dr. Sanada was finishing up some research that should give the programmer the last bit of information necessary.
Dr. Rara would not be able to program the computer for him, and he sighed, sad suddenly at how things had turned out between them. Could they have remained friends, somehow? Of course they could have, if that idiot hadn't betrayed the entire planet!
His thoughts suddenly turned. Who was the person this device was meant for? Dr. Sanada shrugged, unable to speculate. He returned to the lovely and interesting problem before him.
Kent Slade was ensconced in a simulator. The simulator, most would say, was upon the RaRa base on an island. In reality, that island was a massive floating warship, artifact technology carefully hidden from most eyes.
Slade needed only a few more seconds to finish devastating the simulacrums of the Earth Defense Force. Kent used all the virtual weapons at his disposal, high-energy bullets, powerful energy beams, and long tentacles, systematically destroying each of the robots, new and old, in a single blow, until the simulation was won for his side.
"Mitsuki, please don't put us against him again!" Alice, one of Mitsuki Rara's three bodyguards, wailed.
"I lost too," Mitsuki Rara was being reasonable. She, her bodyguard trio, and other RaRa pilots had been piloting the simulated eight Core Robots of the Earth Defense Force, and all of them had been defeated just now.
"It must be tough to actually be in Sanada's army and have to really lose every time," Ryla, another bodyguard, mused.
"If it makes you feel any better, it's getting harder and harder to beat you guys in the simulator," Kent offered.
"We keep running away more and more effectively," Mena agreed, "but it's not really much of an accomplishment."
"Don't sell yourselves short," Kent was still affable, "hit and fade attacks are very effective."
"Thank you all for doing your best," Mitsuki Rara told everyone, "the simulations are now completed for the day."
The pilots all emerged from their simulation units and mingled, discussing and laughing and slowly moving out of the simulation room.
Ms. Kaoru Hayase had been running the simulation computers from the next room. The pilots filed past her, thanking her for her hard work and wishing her a good day. Ms. Hayase and Mitsuki Rara wanted to talk in great detail, but they would have to meet later. They needed to talk about the course of events before the events went beyond their control. Probably there was nothing they could do now, but they were not yet ready to give up.
Kent Slade neither needed nor wanted to wait for a talk with his fiancee. "You've been looking depressed lately," he said as soon as he and Mitsuki Rara were relatively alone.
"I'm just worried about what will happen," she said, looking down at her feet.
"You've said that before," Kent said, determined not to be put off. "You said it before we had even started dating, Mitsuki. In all the time that's passed since that day, you've only grown sadder." He tried to lighten the mood. "It almost makes me think that being engaged is like torture, a thought which is bruising my sterotypically overweening American ego."
She laughed at that and looked him in the face. "It's nothing like that, Kent. You are always trying to do what's right, and that's what I've always liked about you."
Kent smiled but did not back down. "If we must repeat ourselves, I've told you before that flattery will get you nowhere."
At last Mitsuki Rara answered him. "What I wonder about is what will happen in the future; what the world will be like if we do win."
"If we win," Kent said with certainty, "we'll have a bunch of flawed but good people running the world, including your parents. It'll be a world filled with flawed people, some trying to be good and some trying to be evil. Utopia is not an outcome I anticipate. It's not going to get any better or any worse, but it may have less suffering for a time. Your father will build us a transporter, so I can get back to my original world, and you and I will be free to visit our friends and families as often as we like." Slade's voice had grown fervent during these last statements, and he recovered himself with a deep breath.
"Kent, I understand, and thank you," Mitsuki Rara reassured him. Kent wasn't really sure if she was convinced or not, but who could truly know the emotional state of another? There was a call for her on the public announcement system: her father wished to see her in an official capacity.
Kent couldn't think of anything more he could say, other than, "Goodbye for now, Mitsuki."
"Goodbye, Kent," she said, and went to seek her father.
For a moment, Kent just stood there, being consciously grateful to heaven for everything he had. There was a darkness brooding somewhere in his mind as well, an idea of troubles to come. The darkness had been often dismissed from his mind, but never banished. It had come to roost ever since that first time Mitsuki Rara had tried to convince him that her parents only wanted to conquer the world.
He threw the darkness aside for the millionth time. Kent still had seen nothing to support her theories, and was certain that he was in the right. There was no need for concern. He walked back to his room.
Awaiting his daughter, Pres. Rara perused his battle plans, which he would soon discuss with her. Pres. Rara muttered to himself, "Once we conquer that area, we'll be neighbors. Stupid Sanada's house will be only meters away from our territory."