From: gryphon@bigwpi.WPI.EDU (Don't Let's Start)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.anime
Subject: UF: Altered Appleseed Act ]I[
Date: 29 Sep 92 18:56:40 GMT
Organization: Intrusion Incorporated.  Boldly going where we ought not be.
NNTP-Posting-Host: bigwpi.wpi.edu

ACT III

Scene 1.

Ben and company are heading into a Friendly's, chatting and
almost managing to forget that at least one of them is
probably going to die before the night is over.  Ben is
mulling over the menu when Vaughn shouts something and kicks
his knees out from under him.  A particle beam zips over his
head, neatly charring off a bit of hair and blasting out a
potted plant.  Everyone screams and scatters, Deunan and
Briareos duck and draw their hold-out weapons, and Vaughn
stands in the middle of the room looking around.  He spots
Kei in one of the booths, covered behind the seat and firing
over it, smiles, and waves.

Vaughn: Morning again, Kei, fancy meeting you here.  Can I
buy you a milkshake?

Kei: ?!!?!?!

She shrugs and fires a couple more times, each time nearly
hitting Ben as he crawls rapidly toward the rear of the
restaurant.

Ben: Why do I bother?  Why why why why why?
Deunan: Freeze!  ESWAT!  You're under arrest.  Put down your
weapon and come out with your hands on your head.

Kei puts a shot into the molding next to her head, setting
off a fire alarm.

Briareos: Well, it was worth a shot, I suppose.

Vaughn: I suppose this means I don't get my burger now.

Kei breaks cover, running toward the rear after Ben, who is
escaping out the back.  She puts two shots into the doorframe
as he gets outside; Deunan shouts a warning, then fires two
shots at Kei as the latter tears the door open again.  One
shot clips her shoulder, making a rather unhappy camper of
her.

Vaughn: Ow!  Now why'd you have to go and do that, Deunan?

Deunan: Shut up!  (She runs for the back, motioning for
Briareos to do some cop thing they've got worked out in
advance.  He complies, heading out the front and running
around the building.  Vaughn looks confused for a moment,
then walks toward the back, waving nonchanantly at mundanes
cowering under tables and pausing to pick up Kei's discarded
burger.  She won't be needing it now, after all...she's too
busy.)

Outside, Ben has stolen someone's motorcycle (poor them) and
gone zooming off down the street.  Kei follows suit, neatly
body-checking a young man in red leathers off a really cool-
looking street machine, revving it, and roaring off in a
small lightning storm.

Kaneda: Hey!  (He doesn't have the opportunity to say
anything further, as Deunan and Briareos rather unconcernedly
step on him running after the two bikes.)

Briareos is keeping up with the two cycles rather well;
Deunan pauses to kick another kid off his bike, a rather
crappy-looking blue thing with an off-center headlight, and
roars off after Ben and Kei.

Tetsuo: Hey!

Vaughn walks by.

Vaughn: Don't worry, it'd just get you into trouble anyway.
Trust me, you're better off without it.

Vaughn continues nonchalantly after the four others, figuring
he'll catch up later.  Doing mach speeds in the city is
generally considered bad, after all, let alone warp.

The chase is, to say the least, interesting.  Kei's machine
vastly outperforms either Ben's or Deunan's, and, well,
Briareos's too, I guess you could say.  He almost catches her
at one point, but misjudges his leap and goes rolling into
some trash cans, to lie there for a while contemplating the
inside of his head, at which point Vaughn helps him up and
they continue on.  Kei is, of course, still shooting at Ben
the entire time the latter attempts to use his superior
knowledge of the city to out maneuver her.  He turns into a
subway station, keeping himself kinda under control down the
escalator and leaping out onto the tracks.  Kei doesn't even
hesitate to chase him.  Deunan wonders briefly why she's
doing this before following the both of them.  Meanwhile,
Briareos has commandeered a jeep and he and Vaughn are
following above ground, using some kind of odd cyber-tracking
thingamabob.  As he enters another station, Ben sees an
oncoming train; shouting something that sounds suspiciously
like "FUUUUCK!", he manages to get his bike up onto the
platform.  Kei does the same.  Deunan shouts something
unintelligible as she's semi-blinded by the headlights of the
train, but manages to duplicate the feat; the three cycles go
up another escalator, scattering mundanes everywhere, and
burst back out onto the street, where Deunan almost gets run
over by Briareos in his jeep.

They eventually reach Olympus's airport; Ben utterly ignores
airport security, bashing through the gate and zooming out
across the runway.  Kei is right after him and Deunan right
after her.  The jeep doesn't even notice the severe tire
damage spikes which the cycles evaded, and Briareos runs the
machine across the tarmac on sparking rims as Vaughn admires
the trail they're leaving.

Just before Ben banks his cycle around a sharp corner into an
alley between two hangars, Kei fires a couple more shots at
him; one of them appears to connect and the bike goes over on
its side, skidding into the side of one of the hangars with a
resounding crash.  Ben scrambles to his feet and runs
erratically into the alley.  Deunan grimly applies more
throttle, desperate now to catch the red bike before Kei can
do something really mean, like run Ben down with it.

As she clears the corner, she realizes she needn't've
worried; both Ben and the other cycle are gone.  The jeep
skids to a halt by her a second or two later, slamming into
the hangar as well.  Briareos and Vaughn jump out as Deunan
gets off her cycle.

Vaughn: Interesting.  Where'd they go?

Deunan: I don't know...I think she hit him once or twice,
though.  Where the hell--

She is interrupted by the sound of turbine engines starting.
A couple of seconds later, with a tremendous crashing roar, a
fighter aircraft comes crashing out of the hangar to their
right, utterly ignoring the puny corrugated aluminum door.
It taxi es rapidly to the ramp, pivots with rudder, and sits
for a moment as its engines heat up for takeoff.  Vaughn
immediately recognizes it.  It's built a bit like an F-14,
but for the larger engine sections, the odd bulges at the
nose, and the huge booster jets on its back.  Its black and
white paint job is accented by blue striping.  Under the
cockpit window is a Robotech Defense Force logo; on its
tailfins are painted WWWA symbols.  "PILOT CMDR B HUTCHINS",
the lettering under the RDF logo reads.  An eight-ball is
emblazoned on both wings and the number 1 on the side of the
boosterpack.

Vaughn: Hmm.  Didn't know he still had that.

Deunan: What the fuck--?

Briareos: I haven't seen anything like that in...well...a
while.  Reminds me of something I saw on TV once when I was a
kid.

The VF-1FS Hyper Valkyrie powers up; Ben, in the cockpit,
rams the throttle open and it blasts down the runway.  As the
gear clears the ground, it retracts, and the Valkyrie
immediately shifts to Guardian mode, at which point Deunan
falls on the ground and Briareos's jaw drops (?).

About then, another of the hangars makes a decent impression
of an exploding structure as Kei blasts out of the roof in
some form of hugemongous flying powered armor, somewhere
approximating the size of the Valkyrie.  To Briareos and
Deunan, it's the biggest landmate they've ever seen.  To
Vaughn, it's a Gundam Mobile Suit.

Vaughn: Well, nothing to do now but sit back and watch the
fireworks...

Kei raises her machine's right arm, which is holding a large
rifle-like device, and as she gains altitude, sights in on
the receding Valkyrie.  Then she fires, and the Gundam's beam
rifle taps the plasma in the central power reactor to make a
nifty charged particle beam, which it then spits at the VF.
Ben shouts something loud and obscure, pops the Valkyrie back
into fighter mode, and dodges to the left, banking around in
a very tight turn.  His fingers tap a couple of triggers and
missiles dro p from under his wings, corkscrewing
picturesquely toward the Gundam.  Kei blocks the missiles
with her left arm shield as her beam rips apart a couple of
blocks further into town.

Ben: Shit...I'm hosed...I wish I had an Alpha, just so I
could Scott Bernard her for effect...

And so it goes, Ben dodging beam blasts and popping off shots
with his GU-11 and head lasers, having run out of missiles
rapidly.  His Valkyrie could easily outdistance the Gundam,
but Ben somehow doesn't think his patience will last as long
as Kei's, and leaving will just prolong the situation.  He
wants it to end.  Now.  He slows and converts his Valkyrie
fully to Battloid mode.   He hovers fifty meters away,
waiting.

Kei: You've decided to stop running?

Ben: Running?  I'm not running...I'm waiting.  (They hover at
an impasse.  Then Kei fires another blast, just as Ben breaks
left and fires off a long burst from the GU-11.  Kei's blast
takes the Valkyrie low in the abdomen, doubling it over and
knocking it to the ground, as Ben's burst tracks across the
Gundam, destroying some armor and blowing the charging coils
of the beam rifle to bits in a picturesque blue-white
fireball.)

Kei: Good shot.  Now I'll just have to dismember you.  (She
reaches back and draws the Gundam's beam saber, igniting it;
the beam blade springs into crackling life.)

Ben: Oh, shit.

Vaughn: Oh, shit.  He doesn't have a melee weapon, does he?

Deunan: How am I supposed to know?

Vaughn shrugs.  Up above, Kei hits the thrusters hard, diving
in on the grounded Valkyrie; Ben throws it aside and Kei
buries her beam blade almost to the hilt in concrete.  She
rips it free as Ben gets his machine to its feet; the damage
to the cent ral torso is nasty-looking, but not all that
debilitating.  Sirens approach in the distance.  In the
cockpit of his Valkyrie, Ben hurriedly studies the scans he
has of the Gundam and checks with his own memory.  He has an
idea.  Ducking left, he rams the throttle open and very
suddenly gains a great deal of altitude.  Guiding the Valk
through a flip, he comes down behind the Gundam, which is
already turning, and snags the other beam saber out of its
socket on the Gundam's back.

Kei: And what're you going to do with that, beat me to death?
You can't power it, idiot.

To accentuate her words, she slams her beam saber to its hilt
in the Valkyrie's right side.  The Valkyrie reacts by falling
back, aiming its feet at her, and blasting the thrusters wide
open, which effectively separates the two mecha, as well as
sending them tumbling aimlessly in alternate directions.  Ben
gets unsteadily to his feet, checking the damage; power
coupling damaged, parts of the drive train not responding...
this would take a while to fix, assuming he survived.  For
now he turns his attention toward finding a way to convince
the beam saber to work.  The power linkage for the once-upon-
a-time Valkyrie beam saber (the plan never came through)
could be made to work...he wonders, out of the corner of his
mind, if by some weird chance the connectors would match up
and he'd be incredibly lucky.

The saber springs to life.

Kei's jaw drops.

Vaughn, Deunan, and Briareos cheer.

Ben throws his machine into a run and sabers clash.
Buildings get hacked apart, mecha get kicked around, the
fight carries all the way into downtown Olympus as both
combatants use buildings for cover and fire the odd burst of
ranged fire at each other, given the opportunity.  At the
foot of the arcology, with nowhere else to go and the ESWAT
Armored Division all around them going "DARRG?!", the two
face off for their final combat.  Ben has lost all patience;
he drives his machine forward for a final attack, screaming
wildly.  The point of his blade drives through the Gundam's
shield, through its arm, and sinks deep into its chest as
Kei's own weapon rips his left arm off at the shoulder.  The
Gundam staggers back, the beam saber dropping from the
Valkyrie's hand as the arm holding that hand falls to the
ground; the Gundam's own saber flickers, then goes out, and
the machine crashes heavily to its back.

Kei sits in the cockpit of the Gundam, desperately trying to
get the emergency ejection system back on line.  All power is
off and that's making life rather difficult for the
electronics at the moment.  Ben makes his machine get to its
feet, unslings the GU-11 offhanded, and walks over to the
Gundam, standing over it.

Kei: Well, what are you waiting for, you bastard?  Kill me,
get it over with!  You've won.  What more do you want?

Ben: I don't want anything.  I'm not a murderer.  I didn't do
it.  I'm not going to kill you.  (He throws the GU-11 away.)
I love you.

Kei: --!  (Words cannot describe how wide her eyes are at
this point in time.)

Ben turns his mecha around, picks up its arm, and walks away.
Kei, meanwhile, gets the ejection system to work; the head
and upper chest of the Gundam break away, convert to a small
V/STOL aircraft, and pause a moment before pivoting and
streaking a way into the upper atmosphere.

Fade to black on the wrecked Gundam.

Scene 2.

In a hangar near the one which once housed the Valkyrie, Ben
is working on it.  He's reattached the arm and is now working
on the main power couplings to the warp engines.  Deunan
enters the hangar and taps gently on the toolbox with a
wrench.

Ben: (turning) Huh?  Oh, hi, Deunan.  What's up?

Deunan: Nothing much...I just got a call from HQ.  They tell
me air traffic picked up a high-atmospheric disturbance a
while back.  Like the exit of a transatmospheric rocket, only
nothing ever came down.

Ben: Yeah...that was Kei leaving.  I picked it up on the
Valkyrie's sensor logs last night.  She's left the system,
probably because she's out of vacation time.  I'll have time
to get the Valk patched up and get the hell out of here
before she comes back.  (He finishes up what he was doing,
closes the armored cover, and starts putting away his tools.)
Make that, I had time to patch it up...now all I have to do
is pack.  (He looks around.)  Where's Vaughn?

Deunan: I don't know.  He said he was going for a walk last
night...I didn't see him again.

Ben: Well, he's left too then...probably looking for Mughi...

Deunan: Who is this Mughi person?

Ben: A really great sofa.

Deunan: ?

Ben: Never mind.

CUT TO
Scene 3.

The cockpit of what appears to be a bright red Klingon Bird
of Prey.  Kei is sitting at the controls, tapping irritatedly
on the dashboard with a pen.  There is a brief flashback of
Ben's last line to her.  A light pops on up on the upper
panel indicating that Airlock 1 has been opened.  She rises,
turning and drawing her sidearm as the cockpit door opens up
and Vaughn steps through.

Kei: You!

Vaughn: Yes you!  Stand--nonononono.  Morning.  Mughi about?

Kei: You...are very strange.  (She puts away her gun.)  I
suppose you still believe him?

Vaughn: I think he made it pretty clear today that he's not
the psychotic killer you think he is...you are after all
still standing there...not one with the already polluted
atmosphere of the planet Earth.

Kei: I know...I can't figure him...but then, the psychos are
always the unpredictable ones.

Vaughn slaps his forehead.

Vaughn: Gaaah!  By the way, the food synthesizer here can
make milkshakes, can't it?  Think I'll split a chocolate with
Mughi.

Kei: He's not here.  He's with Yuri on Yocha.

Vaughn: Damn.  You have coordinates for Yocha?

Kei: On the chart.

Vaughn peruses the chart, scribbles some coordinates on the
back of his hand, and turns, then turns back.
Vaughn: I'm going now, then...it'll take me a little while to
walk.  See you later...and I just want you to think about
something for a while...42.  Nonononono, not that.  Hang on,
it'll come back to me.  Oh, yes, I remember--think about what
he told you.  He meant it, you know.

Kei: How do you know that?

Vaughn: I know everything.  I just don't know that I know
everything all the time.  (He leaves.)

Kei sits back down at the controls and begins tapping the
open space on the board with the pen again.  She appears lost
in thought.  Eventually, a single tear runs down her cheek
and sparkles against the controls.

Fade to black.

Scene 4.

Ben stands amid the wreckage of his life, packing his things
into the storage compartments on his Valkyrie.  He is very
depressed, crying quietly, and moves with a dull resignation
to his fate.  Deunan walks over from a nearby building and
leans on a n air intake.

Deunan: You don't have to go, you know.

Ben: (turning) Yes I do...I can't stay here now.  I can't
stay anywhere in this arm of the galaxy.

Deunan: But why?  She backed down, she ran--

Ben: She retreated.  She'll be back, and when she gets back I
have to be gone.  Besides, there's no way I can put my life
here back together now.  I've stayed too long already.  It's
time to move on and start over.  (He slams the last
compartment.) I hear Hoth is nice this time of year...

Deunan: I'll miss you...we'll both miss you.  You're a good
friend.

Ben: Thanks.  It means a lot to me, more than you can
know...and I wish I didn't have to go...but I do.  (He
smiles.)  I think I gave her something to think about,
though...who knows, maybe all this will be resolved soon.

Deunan: What's "soon" for you, though?  I'm human, my life is
short.  You're immortal.  Bri may be here when you come
back...but chances are I won't.

Ben: I can't help that...I'm sorry.  Sometimes I forget.

Deunan: It's okay.  (There is a long silence.)  So...I guess
this is goodbye.

Ben: I guess.  (He stands for a moment, then draws her into a
hug; they stand, silent, for a long time, then separate.
Deunan gives him a quick kiss and walks slowly away.)

Ben begins preflighting the Valkyrie, removing the Remove
Before Flight tags, etc.  Briareos has come outside and is
watching him silently, arms crossed.  When Ben turns to face
him, he speaks.

Briareos: Deunan couldn't convince you to stay, eh?

Ben: I can't, Bri; you know I have to go as much as she does.

Briareos: I know.  We'll miss you.

Ben: And I'll miss you.  We had some good times, the three of
us.

Briareos: Uh huh...like last year's Christmas party, when
Deunan decided she was damn well going to beat your score at
STUN Runner, no matter how many drinks it took?

Ben: Heh.  Never STUN Run while drunk.  (He grins; the two of
them begin laughing, and don't stop for some time.)
Briareos...there's something I want you to know, before I go.

Briareos: Yeah?

Ben: The other night...Deunan and I...we didn't--

Briareos: I know.  I never doubted it.

Ben: Good.  I just wanted you to hear it from me.  From the
outside, after all, our relationship looks...strange.  Kinda
reminds me of a girl I knew in high school--well, never mind.

Briareos: Strange is one word for it...  (There is a long
pause.)  Well...I suppose this is it.  (He extends a hand,
which is shaken for some time.)  Take care of yourself.  I
hope you can work this out.

Ben: I have hope, Bri...for the first time in years, I have
hope.  (He embraces the big 'borg, then releases him.)  I'll
be back.  If it's at all within my power I'll be back.

Briareos: We'll be here.

Ben climbs into his Valkyrie, fires it up, taxies to the
middle of the rather cratered street, and blasts away,
vanishing into the sky.  Briareos stands watching his vapor
trail long after he's disappeared.  Deunan joins him and they
stand together as it starts to get dark.

Pull back slowly to a final view of the entire city in the
gathering dark, then fade to black.

THE END



Storyboard by Benjamin D. Hutchins and Vaughn Gross

Animation by Your Mind

Scripted by Benjamin D. Hutchins and Vaughn Gross from an
original story idea by Benjamin D. Hutchins

Appleseed, all characters and situations thereof, were
created by Masamune Shirow, as were the Dominion characters
and situations which made a brief cameo.

Various other characters and situations who had brief
appearances in this work were created by Katsuhiro Otomo,
Yoshiyuki Tomino, and the people who designed the mecha of
Macross and Mospeada.

                           THE CAST
                    in order of appearance
Benjamin D. Hutchins                         Ben
Deunan Knute                                 Deunan
Briareos Hecatonchires                       Briareos
J. Random Policeman                          Cop
Kei Morgan                                   Kei
Vaughn Gross                                 Vaughn
J. Random Kid                                Kid
J. Random Consumer                           Mom
Crowd                                        Themselves
Leona Ozaki                                  Leona
Bonaparte                                    Himself
Kaneda ?                                     Kaneda
Tetsuo Shima                                 Tetsuo
The Olympus ESWAT Armored Division           Themselves

The Authors wish to thank anyone they may have forgotten to
list who helped them in any way, shape or form with this
work.

This is a work of fiction (duh).  Any resemblance to persons
living, dead, or otherwise is probably a coincidence.