Greetings, Latin D!
Hey, Morgan!
And hi to both of you!
Figured I'd jump in on this discussion for a bit.
Anyway, I'd like to thank Trevor Hoffert, Wanderer D, Henrique M.
Holschuh,
Larry F and Con_Man for prereading. Without them, you could find lots
of (not so) interesting errors in the fic.
A finer bunch of gents never lived! Although, they DO make my job as a
C&C'er much, much harder...
I love them! Besides, it's not like you didn't have anything to say about
this chapter. ^_~
___________________________________
SILENT BATTLES
A Ranma 1/2 / Robotech crossover
by Latin_D (latin_d@uol.com.ar)
___________________________________
Chapter 6: Choices And Memories
supercarriers Daedalus and Prometheus were missing. After being made
airtight and operational once again, both carriers had been linked to
the battle fortress in record time, and were now integral parts of it.
Ah, yes, the SDF-1 as we all know and care for her is finally in one
piece.
It just ain't the same without those aircraft carriers hanging on either
side. Not to mention how difficult it would be to pull off the Daedalus
Manuever without a Daedalus to use. ^_^
More than difficult, it'd be suicidal. ^_^
Now that I think about it, they could use the Prometheus, and create a
Prometheus Maneuver! Talk about alt unis...
Now, THAT would be difficult... The Daedalus was actually an assault
ship, not an aircraft carrier, so it had landing doors in the bow. The
Prometheus was an aircraft carrier, so if they pulled a "Prometheus attack",
they'd have to blow a very large hole in the front of the ship so they could
attack through it. That'd play havoc on the old air-tight seal, eh? ^_~
crossing
the unique stargate and completing the transition from the far-off
Earth. The irregular-shaped, cylindrical Zentraedi spaceships
multiplied by the minute, more numerous than the visible stars.
Did anybody else ever find it funny that the SDF-1 was basically under
attack by a bunch of pickles? I mean, LOOK at those ships, and tell me
they don't look like giant pickles! How can they be menacing?
I think the reflex cannons, laser cannons, light lasers, laser turrets,
missile turrets, and thousands of battlepods they contain have something to
do with it...
As many before me have said: Silly-looking? Of course... But I wouldn't
tell
that to a Zentraedi commander if I were you.
Very true. They don't have to look spiffy to kick ass! Besides, it's
not like the Zentraedi had a lot of choice in the matter, since they
couldn't build ships themselves.
Finally, it was over. The largest Zentraedi armada ever
Err... No.
This is just Breetai's unit. I believe the closest a count McKinney gives
is
"several hundred thousand ships". True, he DOES refer to them as "the
largest armada ever assembled" himself, but there's a tiny problem with
that. Namely, the Grand Fleet and Imperial Fleet.
Remember the Grand Fleet that Dolza comes after Earth with? To quote
Exedore, "four million eight hundred thousand ships with the destructive
force of a supernova". That is the biggest Zentraedi armada ever. When he
is
placed back in command of the hunt, afer Azonia's failure, Breetai is
given
command of the Imperial Fleet, nearly one million ships. Both of these
fleets existed at the time, and both are MUCH larger than this "largest
armada ever assembled".
Er... Yes--and no. I had this same discussion with one of my prereaders.
That was me. See? Told ya!
Y'see, while it's true that both the Imperial and the Grand Fleet are
immensely larger than this one, I believe they had never been used before.
Dolza says as much when he arrives to Earth, and is very surprised about
the
power of his own armada, remember? I called it the largest Zentraedi armada
ever "reunited", and that may be the problem. Ever "deployed", perhaps?
The Zentraedi had come, and a cat and mouse game of galactic
dimensions was about to begin.
I think you mean "galactic proportions".
Um, I've heard "dimensions" used as synonym for "size" and "extent" many
times before. Like in: "A problem of enormous dimensions." So, unless the
adjective ("galactic" in this case) makes that structure impossible, it
should work all right. I'll check it up.
I didn't mention that one when prereading because it is a valid
expression. It's just a matter of personal preference which one you say.
that could scare him; neither dangerous animals (cats did
not count in his mind), nor dragons and other supernatural beings, nor
even homicidal demons could phase him in the slightest. That is, until
he started living with the Tendos. It was then that Ranma had
encountered one of the true horrors of life: an enthusiastic woman.
A terror that every anime male shares.
For reasons beyond my grasp...
You're still young. You'll learn...
Besides, there was something about Lena that reminded her of
her
mother. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact they were
ARRRRGH! >_<
Oooh, this sounds bad...
Okay. You're my friend, so I'll warn you this time. I don't mind whether
you
refer to the female Ranma as a he or a she. That's not what this is
about.
However... PLEASE STICK WITH ONE! In the last paragraph, Ranma was "he".
Now, Lena reminds "her" of "her" mother. You do it a few more times later
on, too. You even switch in mid-sentence once or twice. Please, please,
watch that.
My bad! This was the problem. In my initial draft, I used only feminine
pronouns for the whole scene. However, one of my prereaders believed it was
confusing, especialy because it was the first time I mentioned Ranma in
this
chapter. Another good point he made is that I shouldn't assume that readers
would remember that Ranma was in a she in that moment, as that had happened
last chapter.
That was me again. However, I won't take the rap for this one, because
what I said was to change ALL of the references to Ranma to male, and simply
say that he was in female form at the time. You wrote back and told me that
you'd decided to use male pronouns in the first few paragraphs, and then
switch to female after that. So it's all your fault, nyah, nyah! ^_^
As you may recall, my reasoning for the change was to avoid the
confusion between references to Ranma and Lena, which your version ended up
keeping.
Oh, well. Now that you've stubbed your toe on it, you should remember
next time! ^_~
So I changes all the feminine pronouns (if you say I changed in
mid-sentence, then I must've forgotten some) and made that reference about
him being in his cursed form before switching. I was sure that would be the
right thing to do, that everyone would be happy with it, and that it might
even bring peace to the entire world... I was wrong. ^_^
Anyway, I'll go back to referring to Ranma as a she during the entire
scene,
and trust my readers to remember such details. Thanks for the catch!
'I really should already have answers for this kind of
questions,' Ranma thought, silently berating herself. "Uh, well,"
Yeah, you think he... er, she... (Damn! Now I'M doing it!)
But you're doing it on purpose. ^_~
I could kick myself, because I always forgot to mention this one: the
phrase should be either "these kind of questions" or "this kind of
question". You've got a plural ending on 'question' that isn't supported by
the rest of the sentence.
'Who's this Kyle?' silently wondered Ranma, and decided she
Kyle, dear Ranma, is the guy we all want you to go and kick square in the
nuts. Trust us, you'll enjoy it as much as we would. He's an ass. I'm
pretty sure Kuno could (and WOULD) beat him like a human pinata.
Is it me, or you really hate Kyle? ^_^
So what's not to hate? He went from being a bitter, angry, abusive
young man to being a bitter, angry, abusive young drunkard without ever
lightening up into 'bearable' at any point I can remember!
"Sensors register defold activity, sir!" Vanessa's voice cut
through the bridge with infinite clarity.
No, there's no such thing as "defold" activity. Like how nobody can ever
un-explode a bomb. Folding is folding, no matter what end of it you're
watching.
You think so? The anime wasn't precise (not even close) but according to
McKinney's descriptions (which may not be the most accurate, but they're
still canon in this fic), the spacefold is a process with a beginning and
an
end. The application of energy needed to leave the space-continuum may not
necessarily be the same that when entering to it.
But this is a can of worms I don't want to open, so I'll simply use
"spacefold activity".
I have to disagree with this one. There very definately is such a thing
as a 'defold'. The ships perform a 'fold' operation to get into hyperspace,
which they can travel through for a considerable amount of time, depending
on how far they want to go. The 'defold' back into normal space is a
seperate operation. In Macross terms, a 'fold' is specifically entering
hyperspace from normal space, and a 'defold' is specifically entering normal
space from hyperspace.
As far as I can recall, they didn't have to maintain themselves in
hyperspace once they'd performed a fold, so if they didn't defold, they'd
theoretically stay in hyperspace forever. For an example from another
series that used the same concept, look at Babylon 5.
Minmei's umpteenth retelling of her adventure in the bowels of
the starship was cut short as a smiling Roy Fokker walked into the
restaurant.
Speaking of the restaurant, you've neglected to point out that it's open
for business now. This is some time after Rick and Minmei were found.
Rick is also awake, and Roy should be here to talk to him about joining
the RDF.
Ah, yes, I will correct this. In fact, it's a very good suggestion, as it'd
give the readers some reference on the timeline.
Definately. I missed the time cue entirely, and thought this scene was
supposed to be on the same day as the rescue.
Roy strolled up to the table shared by the Lynn family and
Ranma
and flashed one of his patented grins. Ranma's trained eye observed
the
secure, confident, evenly-measured steps he employed, knowing them to
be
reserved to accompished martial artists, and made a mental note to get
him as a sparring partner.
Heh. Yeah, between Roy Fokker and Max Sterling, I often wondered if Kyle
was
really as hot as he seemed to think he was.
Um, I don't know about Roy. In fact, as you well know, I hadn't remembered
about his martial arts background until you told me. So I'm going to take
advantage of the lack of referenced and punctual information to make as
good
as I want. ^_^
But, taking into account that brawl at the White Dragon (the day Kyle
arrived to the SDF-1, IIRC), Kyle is definitely a better fighter than Max.
Since they never fought against each other, we may never know...
Hand-to-hand combat was Max's specialty. He really wasn't much better than
Rick at shooting (if at all), but he was excellent at dodging incoming fire,
and once he'd closed on the enemy, he tore into them so fast that it was
hard to follow his movements. Only Miriya could come close to matching him
in close combat, and even she finally had to give it up as a lost cause (she
surrendered to him, on the basis of 'if you can't beat him, marry him').
Presumably, he's got the martial arts skills to base his fighter combat
skills on, so I think he'd be an excellent choice if you want someone to
make Ranma break a sweat in a sparring match.
Of course, part of it may just
be my utter disgust and hatred of Lynn Kyle. The only thing that guy ever
did right was die. ^_^
Heheh. If you keep this up, I may try to show the good, benevolent and
honourable side of Kyle's character, just to piss you off... That is, if he
actually has one. ^_^
He kept it _very_ well hidden.
With someone like Ranma Saotome added to the mix, you can't stay in canon
for long. I look forward to seeing how old enemies and familiar tactics
start to get twisted around, and I want to see how Rick and Ranma
together
overcome these new problems. The whole war could go in a new direction,
and that is what I want to see.
There will be changes, as that's what crossovers are all about. In my rush
to get to the funny, interesting parts, however, I rushed Ranma's internal
struggle and forgot about Rick and Lisa--my bad, again.
Rushing Ranma's internal struggle is my beef with the scene; it still
seems like he came to the decision to join the RDF too abruptly. Really,
with his past in this story, it should have taken him a week or two after
Roy brought up the subject, and I really think he'd need a better reason
than anything shown in this chapter. Of course, I've said all that
before...
Ja mata,
LarryF
http://lwf58.tripod.com/