Private Bet #10
by Shade

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 and affiliates 
are the property of Rumiko Takahashi,
Rifts and Phase World are owned by Palladium. 
Other references belong to their
respective owners.
~~~~~~~~~

1c: Save the World, See the Galaxy, Sign Up Today!

A destiny of glory.
A fate worse then death. 
Hero. 
Villain. 
Savior. 
Destroyer.

[Choose.]

{Why me?}

[You are the one.]

{I don�t understand!}

[That is why you are the one.]

{Are these images real? Will they happen?}

[Perhaps. The future is never set, always can it change. 
In your hands lies the way. All things are possible Ranma,
 never forget that.]

{I...I see.}

[The Universe will always need protecters. Will you become one of mine?]

{I don�t know......This is so overwelming. Why didn�t you pick 
someone more suited to this then me?}

[Why would someone else be a better choice?]

{I mean look at me, I�m a loudmouthed jerk! I keep getting into 
trouble and I�m lost in a strange dimension. I�d probably mess up as a 
CosmicKnight the very first day!}

[So?]

{Huh? Don�t you get it?}

[It is your choice. It has always been your choice. 
If you fear the consquences then so be it. To accept is 
to take the greatest challenge you will ever face, in return 
all I can promise is a chance to defend the good and the innocent.
The rest is up to you.]

He thought about it carefully, this decision would probably be the 
most important one he ever made. Was it really worth it?

Then he thought of all he had seen since he had got here. The cruelty, 
the suffering and the oppression of countless beings to the forces of evil.
Here was his chance to make a difference.

For once he had been given a chance to decide 
without interference or coercion.

{.................okay, you�ve convinced me. How do I sign up?}

[You already have.]

Ranma could have sworn that the voice smiled.

{Wha......?}

Then everything went light.
~~~~~~~~~

Ranma awoke with a startled gasp. 
That dream had been so real......

Then he looked down.

No doubt about it. 
Things were going to be a lot more interesting from now on.
~~~~~~~~~~~

Two Galacitc Stanard Years Later

Ranma looked at the canopy of stars that stretched as far as the eye 
could see from the port in his room. He had changed so very much 
that he doubted even his own father would recognize him anymore.

He�d grown, not just physically but mentally and emotionally as well. 
The Neko-ken was a thing of the past, along with most of his immaturity 
and boorish attitude. After getting it pounded into his head day after day
he was able to finally admit, (grudgingly mind you) that women did indeed 
have a place in combat and that fighting was not only a �guy� thing. (1)

The Cosmic Forge had for all intents and purposes wiped
Ranma�s karmic slate clean, giving him the chance for a fresh start. 
This time without the mistakes of his previous life haunting him.

Ranma had never been one to waste second chances.

He smiled sadly as he took a drink of some distilled Narmah nectar, 
the tangy orange syrup was one of the few indulgences he still took for himself.
While he no longer required nourishment in the relative sense, 
appearances needed to be kept up and he still did enjoy the taste 
of good food.

{I�ve seen and done things that I�d never have imagined 
in my wildest dreams or my worse nightmares. It�s amazing 
how quickly you get used to the unusual to the point where 
it seems odd when nothing out of the ordinary happens. 
But now this, just when I thought the Universe had run 
out of ways to surprise me it goes and flips upside down 
on me anyway. Funny, I�ve never been afraid of going anywhere,
 be it Rift�s Earth, Phase World, Wormwood or any of the 
hundred or so worlds that I�ve been to. But now the thought 
of going home, the one I left behind three years ago scares me 
where Death himself failed to.}

Home. It was almost an alien concept to him now. For as long 
as Ranma could remember he�d been living on the road. Even
before he�d arrived in this strange dimension he�d never stayed 
for more then a couple of months in any one spot, his father had 
always been on the move to stay one step ahead of all the people 
he�d swindled or stolen from. The closest thing to a home that he
had now was his ship.

His ship.

Ranma never got tired of thinking about her that way.
~~~~~~~~~

Free World Starship 119 Untamed Stallion, a Shadowstar class 
corvette that had been �liberated� from an unnamed source. 
Originally intended for hit and fade operations and fire support roles
she�d been designed to move fast and hit hard. After Alliance 
technicians got done with her, she also had a hide thick enough to 
back up her bite and live to tell about it. 

And when Silvia had finished with her modifications.......

All the proof needed of how effective she was at what she did 
was shown at the skirmish off Antares IV. The Untamed Stallion
 took on two Kreeghor Berserkers attacking a FreeWorld 
convoy and won. The ship was in drydock for repairs for over 
a month afterwords but still, it had won.

The ship itself sported a formidable 
(and in most cases highly illegal) 
array of energy and solid projectile batteries 
along with several missile and torpedo launchers.
A pinpoint defense system had been crammed in 
along with a revolutionary binary forcefield. The 
FTL system was faster then most standard military 
and commercial drives, easily allowing the ship to 
catch its intended target or run from larger opponents.
Its cutting edge sensor stealth system along with the 
latest in electronic countermeasures gave the ship its 
nickname �Ghost Horse�. Last but definitely not least was 
the launch bay. Holding four fighters and half a dozen 
power armors, this was where the true strength of the 
Untamed Stallion lay. The versatility provided by this 
small but well armed force had proven to be extremely 
effective in the various missions carried out by the 
unconventional ship and her unconventional crew.(2)

Over the past two years several other useful upgrades 
had been made. Four phase cannons taken from pirates 
supported by the Kreeghor on Epsilon II now supplemented 
the ship�s already formidable defenses, a true cloaking system 
from the planet-sized ship of Glarg the Devourer of 
Midsized Planetoids (Although they still hadn�t gotten 
all the bugs out of it yet)and several others ranging 
from �sorta semi-legal� to �so blatently illegal that 
you�d better make sure that your ship is never ever 
boarded by customs� had been installed as well.

But the crowning achievement had been the Universal Codebreaker, 
a piece of equipment no bigger then a toaster that could crack the most 
advanced Confed, Kreeghor, or Federation encryptions. That one 
little gadget was worth almost as much as the entire ship; Ranma had 
chosen wisely not to ask where his chief engineer had gotten it.
The result could have been horrible, she might have told him.

The FWS Untamed Stallion had been the terror of the Kreeghor
shipping lanes, with over two hundred successful raids credited 
to it and over a thousand confirmed kills, one hundred and fifty 
of them capital ships. The daring exploits of Captain Saotome 
and his heroic women had spread far and wide to every bar and dive
a ship could reach. There was a remote planet of  jelly-like aliens that 
didn�t even know what a human was and even they had heard about 
Ranma and his legendary luck, both in battle and with the opposite sex.

If the taletellers had bothered to ask Ranma about it he�d say 
that they had it backwards. It wasn�t luck, it was a curse!
Of course along with the truth came hundreds of false or exaggerated
rumors and stories of the women the Captain had seduced, what 
Saotome and his crew really did when they were off duty, and the history 
of the mysterious man named Ranma.

Popular opinion was that he was a transformed Dragon or a True Atlantian 
or some other kind of supernatural being in disguise. Others said he 
was a godling that had been imprisoned by the Kreeghor before being 
freed by the Alliance. Some speculated that Ranma was a member of a previously unknown humanoid race that had only recently been 
discovered by the Alliance.

None of them believed that Ranma was just a human. 

A human reborn in Cosmic Fire to become a champion of 
Justice and the Light.

A human with a billion credit reward for his death, courtesy of the Empire.

A human with a trillion credit reward for his capture, courtesy of a 
planet of beautiful amourous females that wanted to make Ranma their next Adam.

A human that had forever altered the face of the Multiverse and 
saved it from destruction more then once.

But Destiny wasn�t through with Ranma Saotome, not by a long shot.(3)
~~~~~~~~~~
 
Three years ago he would have been ecstatic
to find that he was going home. Now all he felt 
was a bittersweet sense of nostalgia for his planet of origin. 

The vision that had come to him last night had been crystal clear though.

It was time to go back.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The worst part was he would have to leave his ship, and more
importantly his crew behind. He�d miss them all, in a way 
they�d become like a surrogate family to him. 

Ayla and her steady shoulder that he could always count on.
Perky Tania with her cheerful smile no matter what the current crisis was.
The challenging chess games with Silvia, as well as the heated and often quite loud 
arguments the two had had over the tinkering she wanted to do to the ship.

A hundred memories swept over him, good and bad, of the times 
he and the crew had had together on and off of the ship. 

This wasn�t the first time he�d left the them behind, but 
this would be the first time he wasn�t coming back.
They were not going to take this well. If he was lucky 
the girls would settle for just maiming him when he told 
them he was leaving.

With a silent plea he looked up to the ceiling.

{It�s not my fault! I didn�t ask them to all fall in love with me!!!}(4)

For a moment he thought he heard a quiet chuckle in response, then 
dismissed it as his imagination panicking at the thought of the future 
pain that his loyal crew was going to inflict on him in.....

Ranma checked his chrono-unit.

.....less then fifteen minutes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fifteen Minutes Later

A brief moment of stunned silence followed the Captain�s announcement.

Alas, it wasn�t going to last.

�WHAT??!!?!?!?!!!�

If anyone had been watching the Untamed Stallion from the 
outside they would have been treated to the once in a lifetime 
sight of a starship doing better then lightspeed suddenly jumping
like a cat with a firecracker up its.....tail.

{Well, they�re taking this better then I thought they would.}

Somehow that thought wasn�t very comforting to Ranma. 
Perhaps it had to due with the blue glow that was now being 
emanated by the bridge personnel, an event he suspected was being 
repeated all over the ship as the crew got over their shock and went
from stunned to �Someone is going to be in a whole world of hurt 
once we find out who�s responsible for this�. 

{Better think of something fast Saotome.}

�Uh...that�s all I�ve got to say. It�s been an honor serving 
as your commanding officer, I�ll miss you all.� 

{Doh! That didn�t come out right.}

�RANMA!!!� That would be Lily, the security officer looked l
ike a feral hunter ready to rip her unlucky prey limb from limb 
and she wasn�t even in her feline form yet.
 Damn, this wasn�t going to be pretty. She was strong 
enough to literally hurl him across the bridge and while it wouldn�t 
hurt much it would be rather....awkward. 

Of course he might be better off that way.......

{Oh Gods. Please, not the �adorable hurt puppy eyes
 with shining tears in them� routine!! Anything but that!!!}

*Sniffle*

Ranma decided that the Universe must hate him.

�Y..you�re le.leaving us?� Tania looked like she�d 
burst into a flood of tears any second.

�Captain?� Ayla sounded shaken, this was the first time he 
had ever heard her speak with anything but absolute confidence.

The rest of the bridge crew was looking at him too. 
What was he supposed to do now?!

Time for the tried and true 
Saotome Anything Goes Final Attack.

�I�ll be in my quarters if anyone needs me. 
Commander, you have the bridge.�
 
The fearless Captain Saotome fled before anyone could reply.

(To be continued)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


(1)This took a bit longer then you�d think,
   despite all the changes he�s undergone he�s still Ranma.

(2) Trust me, you have not seen the last of them.

(3) Foreshadowing is so much fun and I�m just getting started.

(4) Yes, this will come back to haunt him.

The Mentioned Crew of the FWS Untamed Stallion

Commander Ayla: Chiang Ku Dragon, one of the few remaining 
in this Dimension. Desperately in love with the Captain but keeps 
her feelings pretty well hidden.Very, very competent as well as 
an accomplished tactician. This is NOT someone you want 
as an enemy. Normally assumes the form of a stern but devestatingly 
attractive red-haired green eyed woman in her mid-twenties.

Communications Officer Tania Sha�isti�a:  She�s blonde, blue-eyed, 
and got pointed ears. She�s an Elf; handy with sword and bow but 
hopeless with any weapon more advanced then that. 
Took to radio and laser link communcation like a fish to water. 
Radiates cheerful cuteness on a level equal to high grade plutonium.
Like the rest of the crew she�s got a crush on Saotome.

Chief Engineer Silvia: A Phantom, member of a race of intelligent life 
composed of pure energy although they can take a material form if they 
choose to. They�re known as the TV otakus of the universe, primarily 
because they�ve watched so many old shows that they have a tendency to 
mimic or imitate their favorite characters. Silvia is one of the more level headed ones, although she has a weakness for a syndicated sci-fi show that was very popular a couple millenium ago. One of the results of this is a fascination with all advanced technology, especially engineering. The other is her insistence on speaking with a pronounced Scottish accent since �all great engineers are Scots�. Constantly making improvements to the ship, however her improvements often have a habit of failing at the worst possible moment. On the other hand she�s also able to juryrig repairs on the spot with little more then spit and thread, a talent which has often saved the Untamed Stallion when its chestnuts were roasting in the fire. Nobody knows why she looks exactly like a green-haired version of Ifurutia.

Sergeant Lily: During a mission on Rifts Earth Ranma rescued a girl 
under attack by a Coalition extermination squad. Turned out that the 
girl was actually a were-panther, having nowhere else to go she 
tagged along with him. Eventually wound up going back with him 
to the Free Worlds where she joined up. Shortly thereafter she was 
assigned to the Untamed Stallion at her request. Originally from 
South America, her human form is much like her panther form, 
sleek and deadly curves with a temper to match.

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