| “ | The planet or the people?
— Gaia motto
|
” |
Gaia is a nihilistic, omnicidal cult and terrorist organization, one of the two primary faction in the visual novel and later anime, Rewrite. Gaia revere the Earth as their god and believe that it is inevitable that human actions will eventually destroy the environment. For this reason, Gaia seek to eradicate the entire human race, including themselves. In order to achieve this goal, Gaia intend to capture a mysterious entity known as the "The Key", essentially the embodiment of the "Will of the Earth" which takes the form of a girl named Kagari, and expose her to the "Song of Destruction", a song which has the impact of forcing the Key to cause all human life on Earth to cease to exist. Opposed to this are a military organization known as Guardian, who use both conventional military hardware and superhuman agents, with the goal of eliminating both Gaia and the Key.
Battle vs. Brotherhood of Steel (by SPARTAN 119)[]
Post-Apocalyptic Boston
It was one of many parallel universes in the web of timelines that Kotarou Tennouji had lived, and yet it was among the strangest. In this one, he was born not in the late 1990s in Kazamatsuri, Japan, but in the late 2050s in the Boston- apparently his ancestors had immigrated to the US in the 1960s in this timeline. Furthermore history had different path in the 20th century- shortly after World War II, the transistor was never invented, and would not be until about a century later. Instead of miniaturizing computers, technology turned to miniaturizing nuclear reactors, creating such marvels as laser weapons and household robotics. Culture also shifted, leading to a world where culture norms did not change significantly since the 1950s, and the Cold War never ended, albeit with China eventually replacing the Soviet Union as the primary enemy of the US.
In spite of all these changes, Kotori Kanbe was still Kotarou’s childhood friend, apparently her ancestors had also immigrated at about the same time as Kotarou’s in some strange twist of fate. Kotarou and Kotori grew closer as they grew up together, and eventually ended up married.
While Kotarou knew this happiness was temporary, he could not help but live in the moment- perhaps it was the only thing keeping him sane in this endless cycle of reincarnation. And end it did, but this time, it was not the machinations of Gaia, the nihilistic omnicidal ecoterrorist group that ended human civilization in so many past lives. Instead, on October 23rd, 2077, the Chinese bombers and missiles rained nuclear annihilation on the US. Kotarou fled to Vault 111, a fallout shelter near their home in Sanctuary Hills, taking Kotori and their son, Satoshi, with them. What Vault-Tec neglected to tell him when he reserved the space in the bunker was that his family became unwitting guinea pigs in an experiment with cryogenic stasis.
While the world burned above him, Kotarou stayed frozen in the Vault, until one day, he awoke from his frozen sleep to a scene of violence all to familiar to Kotarou in his countless past lives. A group of men in hazmat suits, led by one who looked like some kind of soldier or something, but definitely not the US military, or Gaia or Guardian for that matter. They unfroze Kotori and Satoshi. Kotarou was trapped in cryopod as they seized his son. When Kotori resisted, the leader of the group pulled out a revolver and shot her in the head, killing her instantly. Before Kotarou could fully grasp what happened, the cryopod froze him yet again.
When he woke up, the first thing was the cryopod containing the remains of his wife- proof that this all had not been some horrible dream. Kotarou knew at this point that, if he committed suicide or died in some other way, he would be reincarnated in another world, yet, if there was even a chance Satoshi was still alive, even in the nuclear hellhole of this world, he would not abandon him. And those who took Kotori from him, whoever they were, they would pay.”
It had been two years since then. Kotarou had travelled across the wasteland, fighting off raiders and mutants armed with his trusty Gatling laser and power armor, as well as the same mysterious powers- his “Aurora” and “Rewrite” that he had in his past life, though he never showed his powers to anyone- the only people who saw them were raiders and mutants, and none of them lived the tell the tale. He had joined with a military force that reminded him a lot of Guardian, the Brotherhood of Steel, and with the Brotherhood at his back, he had avenged Kotori, killing her murderer with his own hands, and then destroyed the Institute, the shadowy organization that kidnapped his son.
Yet, his triumph was marrred by yet more tragedy. He was forced to kill a friend, the very man who introduced him to the Brotherhood after he discovered him to be a “synth”, an artificial human used as an Institute agent. And at the end discovered in the end that the man behind the Institute was his own son, Satoshi, having become director in the 60 years after Kotarou was refrozen. He was forced to kill him as well.
And yet, even after all this, Kotarou had not seen any sign of Gaia, Guardian, or that girl, Kagari, in this life. He was no closer to the answer to how to fullfill his promise to her to find a way to save both the Earth and humanity.
’’A destroyed highway near the edge of the “Glowing Sea’’
Sakura Kashima, the “Holy Woman” of the cult and nihilistic ecoterrorist group “Gaia” looked out over the radiation-ravaged landscape of ruined buildings, wrecked cars, and irradiated waters. Standing with her were a small group of Gaia cultists.
“In this world, mankind long ago brought ruination upon not only itself, but the entire planet. Life held on and adapted to this destruction, and yet, so too did the cancer of human pollution. If we do not intervene, mankind will surely rise again to destroy the world they have already so devastated. We must sacrifice our lives to redeem ourselves for the sins of our race, and cleanse the world of the destruction we have caused. For the Earth to live on, we must make the choice between the Planet or the People!”
Airship Prydwen, hovering above the ruins of Boston Airport
Elder Arthur Maxson, the young, charismatic leader of the Brotherhood of Steel stood at the front of the briefing room behind the bridge of the Prydwen, sillhouetted against the ruined Boston skyline.
“Soldiers of the Brotherhood, one week ago, we achieved a great victory when we destroyed the Institute”, Maxson began his speech, “In so doing, we have saved humanity from technology gone astray.”
As Kotarou listened to the speech, Kotarou wondered why he was still here. He could easily just leave- he was sure he could evade any Brotherhood troops sent to stop him, or eliminate them, if it came to that.
For that matter, with Satoshi and Kotori both dead, what was left for him? No doubt his friends from Kazamatsuri all died centuries ago in the atomic bombings, if they existed in this parallel universe at all. He hadn’t even seen any sign of Gaia or Guardian, let alone that mysterious girl, Kagari, the key to the whole mystery of his repeated reincarnations, and the once chance for both mankind and the planet to survive. He might as well just place his laser pistol to his forehead and pull the trigger. After all, he knew full well by now that he would just be reborn in another timeline.
And yet, some unexplainable feeling told him to stay, as though something told him that if this briefing would be the key to everything in this world…
Kotarou’s musing were interrupted as Maxson continued, “A few days ago, we found a mysterious energy reading unlike anything we have seen before. We cannot allow the possibility of any remnant of the Institute, or any other abuse of technology to remain. I will personally lead the operation along with Sentinel Tennouji. All troops on the expedition are to be fully equipped for combat. If anyone resists, they will be shown no mercy. We move out at 0800 hours tomorrow morning. Ad victorium, brothers!”
“AD VICTORIUM!”, Kotarou, along with the rest of the assembled Brotherhood troops called out in response.
The Next Day, Outskirts of Boston
Kotarou walked through the now-familiar ruins of the Mass Pike, towards the outskirts of Boston, clad in his power armor and armed with a Gatling Laser. Walking ahead of the Brotherhood troops was their massive robot, Liberty Prime, and four Vertibirds, including two gunships- just brought in from the Capital Wastelands, flew overhead.
Up ahead, on an overpass, Kotarou saw them: About 15 people clad in white- Gaia's choir, central in the ritual that would end the world, along with 15 regular summoners clad in red. He alone knew who these people were...
"Gaia is here!?", Kotarou said.
"What!?", Elder Maxson replied, "Sentinel Tennouji, Do you know these..."
The Brotherhood Elder was interrupted when a horde of creatures, including black dogs and what looked a bit like Deathclaws to the eyes of the Brotherhood soldiers charged at them. Kotarou recognized them at once as Gaia's familiars.
"OPEN FIRE!", Maxson ordered as he raised his custom Gatling Laser, Final Judgement, as Kotarou spun up his own similar weapon. Flashes of red light blazed not only from Kotarou and Maxson's laser weapons, but those Brotherhood soldier, burning through the flesh of the incoming familiars and cutting them down one by one. Glowing green balls of plasma flew through the air at the familiars, as hails of 5mm minigun rounds chewed the charging dogs to pieces.
At the same time, some of the summoners joined the fight with their own personal weapons. Most of them carried 10mm pistols or AK-47s, possibly acquired from those raider at Nuka-World, but one of them had gotten his hands on an old Soviet-made RPG-7. The rocket streaked through the air and impacted one of the Brotherhood power armor soldiers, blowing through his armor and killing him, along with two light infantry.
A Brotherhood light infantryman with a laser sniper rifle retaliated by picking off the Gaia rocket gunner with a well-placed headshot, before the overpass erupted in a hail for fire from miniguns, Gatling lasers, and missile launcher.
This storm of fire killed two Gaia summoners, and forced the rest to scatter and take cover. At the same time, however, death swooped in from above. About 25 dragon-like creatures dove down from their perches on skyscrapers, slashing at BoS troops with their talons.
The Gaia flying familiars killed several light infantry, but could not pierce the power armor with their talons. As the Brotherhood troops turned their weapons skyward, the flying familiars were quickly dispatched. But there was something higher in the sky that would prove more of a problem: Four Gaia Leaf Dragons.
One of the creatures fired off its elongated proboscis at a transport Vertibird, piercing its cockpit and instantly kill the pilot. The aircraft spun out of control and fell from the sky. The second transport turned its twin machine guns and a gunship fired its laser at the Leaf Dragon. It withstood the fire for a little while, but eventually was shot out of the sky.
A second Vertibird gunship fired a pair of missiles at the second Leaf Dragon, blow its head off and send its body falling to the ground below. The two gunship the focused their fire on a third incoming Leaf Dragon and tore it pieces with lasers and missiles.
The final Leaf Dragon swooped low, Brotherhood fire clearly striking it, but not bringing it down. The beast fired its proboscis at Liberty Prime... only for it to bounce off the robot's armor. Prime grabbed the proboscis with its giant arms and pulled with enough force to swing the Gaia familiar down from the sky and slam it into a dilapidated house. For good measure, the robot fired its laser at the downed creature and completely vaporizing it.
"Death is preferable alternative to Communism!" Prime said, convinced it was fighting the Red Chinese.
As soon that threat was eliminated, more Gaia familiars appeared, more raptors and dogs, but also teleporters, which disappeared and reappeared a few meters away. Liberty Prime fired off its laser again, vaporizing a whole group of Gaia Familiars as the Gatling lasers blazed and cut down the rest of them.
Some of the teleporters, however, managed to get in to the light infantry, their massive jaws tearing open throats and snapping necks. About four light infantry were killed. Soon enough, the light infantry began to fight back. One of them pulled out a combat knife as a teleporter lunged at him, and thrust it into the side of its head, killing it instantly. A few others managed to shoot the creatures at point blank range before they teleported.
Meanwhile, Kotarou spotted them, a group of summoners observing through a window of a ruined building. Kotarou fired his Gatling laser, hitting several of them and killing them, some were even completely vaporized by the heat of the laser. At once, the teleporters disappeared, their summoners dead.
Just when it seemed like the enemy was eliminated, a pair of beams of energy streaked down from the sky, blowing a Vertibird to dozens of metal fragment, before continuing and streaking across the ground, turning a two few meter-wide streaks of the concrete surface of the ruined highway to glass. Several Brotherhood soldiers were incinerated, their power armor proving no protection whatsoever.
A massive winged creature, the same one he had seen in so many past lives, swooped in to attack, as a creature like a giant cephalopod slammed into the ground in front of the assembled Brotherhood forces.
"Red Chinese aerial incursion detected, firing!", Liberty Prime said, firing its main laser again. The beam burned through the Gaia familiar known as "Kilimanjaro" and came out the other end. The heat was so intense that it would have incinerated the entire creature, had it not disintegrated into nothingness, all the other familiars did when they died.
Meanwhile, the other familiar, which Kotarou knew as one the summoner called Krivoy Rog, withstood a barrage of laser and missile fire, and even a couple mini-nukes from infantry-held "Fat Man" launchers. Then it was Liberty Prime's turn to attack, throwing a larger mini-nuke at it, engulfing it in a cloud of smoke and flames.
The cloud was parted by a pair of laser-like beams, which struck Liberty Prime in the left leg, disabling its legs. The robot could be repaired, but the more pressing concern was the massive creature attacking them, which was filled its gas bladders with hydrogen and levitated into the air.
Kotarou prepared to "Rewrite" his body, the give him the power to destroy the creature, but he was interrupted by a whistling sound. He looked up to see a mini-nuke fly into air intake of the armored beast. The shell exploded, setting off all the hydrogen within the creature in a massive fireball, raining fragments down from the air.
Kotarou looked to Elder Maxson himself only a recently fired Fat Man launcher.
"The looks like the last of them... for now", Maxson said, before turning to a group of three Brotherhood power armor units, "Paladin, take your squad and secure that building to the north. Everyone else, hold position and stay alert, there could more of them!"
Suddenly, a figure in a tattered hood appeared, not like that of the Gaia summoners, looking more like a typical wastelander.
"Stop!", a Brotherhood Knight Captain ordered to the figure, "You are entering the area of an active Brotherhood of Steel operaton!"
The figured stopped moving, before removing the hood to reveal a head of purple hair and a familiar face. "Kotarou Tennouji", the girl said in a female voice.
"Lucia... Konohana?", Kotarou replied, "Is that really you?... But how... I never knew you in this world?"
"Sentinel!", Elder Maxson asked, "Who is this person, and what do you mean this world?!"
"No time", Lucia said, "Come with me.", before she ran off with all the speed of the Guardian superhuman she was.
As Kotarou ran after her, Elder Maxson yelled after him, "Sentinel Tennouji, where the hell do you think your are going!? Return to your position at once!"
"Elder", a Brotherhood Field Scribe interrupted, looking down at a handheld scanner, "I am picking up the same anomalous signal as before, but stronger. Sentinel Tennouji and that woman seem to be heading right towards it."
Epilogue: A few minutes later, South Boston Military Checkpoint
Kotarou was breathing heavily as he reached the destination Lucia had led him to. They had run flat out for dozens of city blocks before finally making to the South Boston Military checkpoint. It seemed someone had wiped out the Gunners occupying the place and managed to turn of that annoying radio broadcast that had, as far as Kotarou could tell, been running on loop for the last 200 years.
Then, Kotarou saw them: in addition to Lucia, were all his friends from his past life, people who, incidentally . "Shizuru... Chihaya... Akane... It's really you!.... But how?"
"Really Kotarou, you didn't think the apocalypse could stop the great Akane Senri?!", Akane said.
"We had a little help from a friend", Shizuru Nakatsu, a small, soft-spoken girl was was actually a Gaia superhuman and expert marksman said, as she pointed to the checkpoint, out of which another familiar person, a girl in a black dress, with short silver hair, and red ribbons running around her arm, which Kotarou knew from experience were actually made from a deadly energy, making them lethal weapons.
"Kagari!", Kotarou said, running towards her, widening his arms with the intent to embrace her.
"Foolish homo sapien", Kagari said in her usual cold voice, "If you try that in your power armor, I could be seriously hurt!"
"Sorry", Kotarou said quietly as he stopped moving, "In any case, I brought you all here as you are the last hope for this world tainted with sadness.".
In the midst of Kagari's speech, Kotarou was interrupted by a familiar male voice, "Hey Kotarou, am I not worthy of your recognition!?"
"Yoshino... all of you are here too!", Kotarou said, turning to his old friend Haruhiro Yoshino, as well as his gang, which he referred to as the "Wolf Pack", "And I see you've found yourselves some new toys as well."
The "Wolf Pack" had traded in their metal pipes and baseball bats for more potent weapons- Yoshino was carrying a plasma rifle, and rest of them had either a similar weapon, or an assault rifle or laser rifle, except for the big guy, who was armed with a 5mm minigun.
"The wolf pack is with you, Brother!", Haruhiro replied, holding his rifle in a position like a salute.
"Incoming!", Shizuru Nakatsu, who was now standing on the roof of the building, armed with the same Barrett M82 .50 caliber rifle she had in one of Kotarou's past lives.
The sound of Vertibird rotors filled the air as Kotarou ooked out over the open space between the military checkpoint, he saw a familiar group of soldier dressed in power armor- the Brotherhood of Steel.
"Sentinel Tennouji!", Elder Maxson called out, "What is the mean of this!? According to this sensor, that... thing your are standing near is an abomination and a threat to the survival of humanity that must be destroyed!"
- I was staking out the target in preparation to eliminate it
- Wait... this isn't what you think it is...
- Selected Option: Sarcastic
"Oh, Elder Maxson", Kotarou said as he wrapped his arm around Kagari, being careful not to injure her with his power armor, "Meet my fiancee, I would like to invite you to our wedding in two weeks!"
(Lucia disliked that, Kagari disliked that, Shizuru disliked that, Chihaya disliked that, Akane disliked that, Yoshino liked that)
"Pervert", Lucia said, as Kagari edged away from Kotarou, giving him a dirty look.
"I will not stand for this insubordination!", Maxson yelled back, "I order you to eliminate this abomination".
- I will make short work of this abomination. Ad Victorium Elder!
- (Charisma Check, Hard) Wait, you're making a huge mistake, she is not the enemy!
- Selected Option: If you want to get her, you have to go through me!
(Kagari loved that, Lucia liked that, Shizuru liked that, Chihaya liked that, Akane liked that, Yoshino liked that)
"Fine then!", Elder Maxson responded, "I shall enjoy killing you, traitor!"
As he spoke, Kotarou used his Rewrite power to increase his strength for the coming battle. With his enhanced strength, he could hold the Gatling laser one-handed, while summoning his "Aurora" claws with the other. At the same time, Shizuru took aim at Brotherhood Gatling Laser gunner with her Barrett, Yoshino and his gang took aim with their weapons, Lucia drew the katana that was her favored weapon, and Chihaya picked up a ruined car with her superhuman strength, preparing to throw it.
Elder Maxson was not intimidated by the Kotarou's mysterious power or Chihaya's inhuman strength, and instead gave the order: "All units, Open fire!"
Lasers and bullets flew in both directions. In a few moments, the would all be over, but the fate of the world be irrevocably changed....
WINNER: Brotherhood of Steel
Expert's Opinion[]
The Brotherhood of Steel won this battle because of the superior firepower of their weapons, which ultimately allowed them to overcome Gaia's familiars. The Brotherhood's victory was also supported by their superior training and military discipline. Another contributing factor was the fact that killing the summoner would destroy a Gaia familiar.