I know what you're thinking... 117K of Saotome Gambit lemon? Woo-hoo!
Eh, sorry, but no. The lemony bit is Chapter Two. Read the rest at your
own peril.
-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: TSG-19.txt
"My drive's malfunctioning!" Sayuri protested.
"Punch out!" Ranma ordered her.
"I can't just abandon my ship!" she shouted, anger and panic seeping
into her voice. "You're the one who did this to me!"
"Screw the fighter!" Ranma shot back. "Do you want to die? Punch out!"
"Do it!" Yuka ordered. Then, her voice meek, she added, "Sayuri, I'm
sorry..."
Sayuri ejected as the crippled Corsair stalled, then tumbled into
a death dive for the sea. Ranma watched her until she separated from her
ejector seat, her olive drab parachute opening and filling with air. Once
he was satisfied that she was going to make it, he marked her location on
the map, then clicked the 'talk' button on his HOTAS to address Yuka.
"What's it gonna be, Yuka?" he asked her. Her Corsair was within
ten kilometers now, the radar threat indicator warning him that he was
being painted. His Phoenix Hawk was scarred by laser fire - a few more
heavy laser hits from her were going to do him in. "Do you wanna join
Sayuri in the drink?"
"I'll do worse than put you in the water, Saotome," she snapped in
return. "I'll put you in your grave!"
He watched as her Corsair accelerated on full burn to close the
distance between them, and his hands clenched the controls a little
tighter than before in anticipation of her attack. If this was how she
wanted to do things, then that was her decision.
"Have it your way," he replied. His Phoenix Hawk LAM transformed
from Airmech to Battlemech Mode, and hovered in the sky on twin plumes
of superheated air.
___________________________________________________________________________
J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:
BATTLETECH: THE SAOTOME GAMBIT
PART NINETEEN
by J. Austin Wilde
Safety Control Rod Axe Man,
Fission Park Press
wildeman@psn.net
http://www.psn.net/~wildeman/
The characters and situations of Ranma 1/2 are the
creation and property of Rumiko Takahashi and
Shogakukan/KITTY/Viz Video. Battletech and its
related materials are the property of FASA, inc.
No infringement of copyright is intended nor
should be inferred by this work of fanfiction.
*SPECIAL DISCLAIMER*
Chapter Two contains sexually explicit material,
so if you're underage, or if this is not your
preferred cup of tea, please consider yourself warned.
___________________________________________________________________________
Chapter One
Above the Aquila Sea
Planet Tiber, Palatine System
The Federated Shiratori
16 April 3025
By hovering in Battlemech Mode, Ranma was making himself an easy
target for Yuka's lasers. At least, that was what he hoped she would
believe. The best he could hope for in a fighter to fighter dogfight
would be to wear her out in the chase, and so he chose against going
back to Fighter Mode just yet. He wanted a quick resolution to this
duel, to draw it out played in her favor.
He watched her climb several thousand meters above him, and guessed
that she planned to make a diving attack, firing at medium range and then
making a break turn to get clear before he could muster a counterattack.
She probably feared a repeat of his SRM attack on Sayuri more than
anything else, and with good reason. Two well-placed Short Range Missiles
had shot down an otherwise intact fighter.
The trick to defeating her would be to draw her closer to him than
she preferred. He hoped she would take the bait he was offering, and go
for a low angle pass at high speed.
She didn't disappoint. Her lasers began streaming through the air
at him as he juked and dodged, his LAM's thrusters flaring in every
direction, and making the 50 ton transformable battlemech a fiery midair
dervish. What few beams creased his hull threw up brilliant bursts of
sparks and flame, but even she had to know how poor the hits were.
Frustrated with him, she circled back, trying to bracket the LAM
decisively in her sights before she made her break turn to escape.
Again he dodged her shots, the LAM pulling stunts of free-fall
prowess she would have thought impossible. Most damning of all was
his refusal to shoot back, as if daring her to cut her passes closer.
Biting down on her lip, she made a third attack on him, her guns
erupting from all stations and sending blooms of waste heat into the
turbojets for additional thrust. The beams criss-crossed around the red
and black Phoenix Hawk, stitching lines of white hot fire in the sky, but
never reaching their intended marks.
Ranma executed a beautiful midair veronica as she passed, his mech's
left arm swirling with heartbreaking grace over the fighter as if holding
a giant red cape, and goading her to still closer passes.
"Ole!" Ranma cackled over the tac net.
"Arrogant ass!" she shot back.
The Corsair screamed back at him, its lasers spitting trails of
ionized atmosphere around him. The LAM seemed to melt around the paths
of the beams as she approached, and she grit her teeth in even greater
frustration. She would ram him if she had to!
That moment's desperate oath cost her, for with a whirling pinwheel
motion, the LAM spun clear of her final attack using the daring _pase de
pecho,_ allowing her Corsair to pass as close to the Phoenix Hawk's torso
as possible without contact, to hook its arms out at her fighter as he
stalled.
Ranma just managed to catch Yuka's Corsair as he fell, the Phoenix
Hawk's arms grappling with the fighter, its metalshod fingers digging into
the armor plate for purchase. The effects of the maneuver were felt almost
immediately, as the tremendous drag of the LAM forced Yuka into a stall as
well. For a moment he felt as if her fighter's wings would snap, or that
the myomer bundles in his arms would part, but the stout Corsair held with
a tortured groan of metal and composite, and the LAM's arms stood fast with
a high pitched squeal of protest.
"What are you doing?!" she screamed at him.
Ranma didn't answer her, as he was locked in conflict with his LAM's
controls to gain a better hold over her as they began to plummet out of the
sky. He slid the left hand over her cockpit canopy at last, and knew his
work was almost done.
"I'm not giving you the same choice Sayuri got," he growled finally as
the two fighters fell into a sickening dive. "You punch out now, and you'll
be squashed like a bug against my battlemech's hand!"
"You'll kill us both!" she cried, aghast. Every instinct she had was
screaming for her to eject, but with the Phoenix Hawk's armored hand covering
the canopy, it would be certain death.
"No, only you," Ranma replied. "My LAM can always jet away, and I'll
hold on to you to the bitter end to make sure you won't be able to pull out
of this dive."
They began to tumble now, a twisted mass of metal that trailed streams
of condensation as they fell. Ranma watched as his altimeter spiralled madly
towards zero, satisfied that Yuka was doing the same. He fought against the
sickening sensation of the acceleration forces acting upon him as he tried to
maintain his sense of equilibrium. If she didn't crack, and soon, he doubted
that he would be able to make his escape.
Fortunately for him, she did.
"What do you want?!" she screamed at him over the commo.
"I want you to call off the dogs!" Ranma shot back.
"What?"
"You know exactly what I'm talking about," he snarled. "I'm sick of
your shit, Yuka. You don't say another unkind fucking word to me ever again,
got it? And no more talking trash to Akane about me or my Dad! The same goes
for Sayuri!"
They continued their fall towards the sea, acceleration forces plucking
at his LAM's grasp on the Corsair. He had to hold on with all his battlemech's
might, knowing that this was the most crucial moment.
"I'm waiting!" he yelled at her. "If you don't do exactly as I say - and
right fucking now - I will see you die at the end of this fall! If you ever
go back on your word, then I swear, Yuka, that I will kill you with my bare
hands!"
Yuka made a strangled cry of exasperation.
"What was that?!" Ranma demanded.
"Let me go first!" she returned. "We'll never recover from this if you
don't release me now!"
"I'm willing to take that chance," Ranma replied, his voice cold and
unyielding, and his hatred for the girl flowing through every syllable. "Now
swear it!"
"All right!" she screamed. "I swear!"
Ranma held on to her for a bit longer, twenty seconds from the end.
"That didn't sound sincere enough," he told her.
"Goddammit, *please!*" Yuka begged. "I swear!"
He reached out with his mind, seizing the myomer bundles of his Phoenix
Hawk with his will, and forcing them to do his bidding. The LAM arched its
back, presenting its thrusters at the desired angle, and fired. The sudden
blast of thrust threw him into his seat straps as it stabilized their fall.
He released the Corsair a moment later, falling free before he rolled over
into Airmech Mode and soared clear in a rush of plasma.
He watched Yuka's desperate recovery maneuver with mixed feelings,
wanting to see her pull out of her dive, and yet not minding if the girl
crashed. Hatred did not come easily to him, but Yuka had crossed a line
that he hadn't even realized he had drawn between them until this afternoon.
It was with some regret that she managed to pull out with at least
twenty meters to spare.
Perhaps her brush with death would convince her of his sincerity, he
thought as he climbed back into the sky. She could always come back for him
now that she was in control of her fighter again. He watched, hoping that
she would do the right thing. If she didn't, then he would have no choice
but to kill her.
She climbed to five thousand meters, and began to head back for the
mainland.
"I'll pick up Sayuri," he said to her she made tracks for the
_Palomino._ He was exhausted from his maneuvers, but he kept his voice
fresh for her. She didn't need to know how close she had come to succeeding.
"You bastard," she grunted at him. "Don't think you can get away with
this, Saotome."
Ranma felt a flash of anger well up within him. "Get away with what,
you dumb broad?" he demanded. "Once I turn over my flight recorder for
examination, we'll see who started this, and which one of us was out to
kill the other..."
He knew he had her beat with that one. She would have to come back at
him for the kill to prevent his flight recorder, with its voice channels,
from exposing her as the one who had started the battle. He knew he had
unnerved her with the ease at which he evaded her attacks, and didn't
expect another direct confrontation.
She continued on.
"I meant what I said, Yuka," he sent after her. "Go back on your word,
and I'll kill you."
She did not reply.
* * *
He found Sayuri close to where she had ejected. She was floating in
an inflatable survival raft barely large enough to hold her in a supine
position. A cloud of yellow-green from her dye-marker drifted in the water
with the current in a long plume of color, mingling with the tangle of her
released parachute and its shroud lines. Only a few bits of her Corsair
floated on the surface with the waves; the rest of the starfighter had sunk
to the bottom of the sea.
He brought his fighter down for a low pass. She did not wave to him,
though he saw her head turn to track him warily. Did she really think he
was planning on wasting her in the water?
The Phoenix Hawk transformed to Airmech Mode and flew back to the raft.
He hovered nearby, the airmech's hands extended, before slowly powering down
his engines. As the LAM touched the water, he quickly shut down the turbojets
and closed the jet intakes. The airmech settled into the sea up to the
wingroots with a splash.
Once he was certain the LAM was stable and sufficiently buoyant, Ranma
popped his canopy and unstrapped himself. Sayuri watched him from twenty
meters away as he pulled himself up onto the hull of his 'mech.
"Are you hurt?" he called to her.
She didn't answer him.
"Hey, look, you're a thousand klicks from land, and in the middle of
nowhere," he yelled. "Assuming this planet has any kind of wet navy on hand
for a rescue, it'll be at least three days before a ship could reach you. I
doubt they'll have any rescue choppers with that kind of range."
Sayuri remained silent.
"I'm offering you a ride home!" he continued. "Take it or leave it -
and just hope there aren't any storms coming as you enjoy a few days of
starvation and exposure."
She looked down at herself for a moment, as if cursing, and then began
to clumsily paddle her life raft towards the LAM.
Ranma pulled her up onto the hull of his 'mech. She was still dripping
wet from her splashdown in the sea, and from the look of her, that water was
cold. One good wave over the hull would have turned him into a girl on the
spot. Sayuri kept her eyes away from him, and her face blazed with both shame
and scorn.
"Are you okay?" he asked her again.
She whirled on him. "What do you care!?"
Ranma stepped back a pace. "Excuse the hell out of me, lady!" he
retorted. "In case the shock of ejecting made you forget, you and your
psychotic girlfriend were the ones who decided to come out hunting for ME.
You're lucky I wasn't out to kill you, lady, or you'd be fish food right
now! Hell, the way you chicks came after me, I probably should have killed
you!"
Sayuri, cold and trembling inside and out, looked away.
"I know that," she muttered. "You made your point. Let's just go."
Ranma agreed with that sentiment. Now came the hard part.
"There's only one seat in the cockpit, so you'll have to sit on my lap.
You gotta problem with that?"
He could see that she did, but she kept it to herself. Without another
word, he jumped into the cockpit and held out his hand for her. She took it
silently, and he steadied her over from the hull. Once he was securely
strapped into place, he gestured for her to get comfortable.
She settled into his lap without comment. Her weight was a surprisingly
pleasant sensation for him in spite of their mutual animosity towards each
other, though he decided that it was best to ignore her as best he could. The
outer fabric of her pressure suit was still wet, and dripped into the ejector
seat padding. His cockpit was going to smell like the ocean for awhile.
He lowered the canopy and checked the engine status. Everything looked
good. "Hold on," he advised her, and placed an arm around her waist to steady
her.
"Is that really necessary?" she growled.
"Fine," he spat, taking his hand off of her. "Hit your head against the
freakin' canopy or something. See if I care."
She dragged his hand back into place. "Just get me home."
He pulsed the HEPLAR drive, blasting the LAM free of the sea in a cloud
of steam and spray. Once he was clear, he opened the jet intakes and spooled
up his turbines. As the LAM picked up speed and gained altitude, he eased off
the plasma drive and shifted over to the jets.
Sayuri remained silent on his lap as they transformed to Fighter Mode
and punched through the sound barrier for home. Ranma knew that it was going
to be a long trip.
* * *
The Phoenix Hawk LAM settled on the tarmac with a shriek of turbojets.
The techs were waiting for him, as were Doctor Tofu, Akane, Ryouga, Akari,
and Genma. The looks on their faces betrayed their feelings of shock and
confusion over what had just taken place. Yuka was last of all to be seen,
standing close to the DropShip, her face drawn and sorrowful, yet masking
the turmoil she must have been feeling with her defeat.
Ranma powered down his battered LAM before raising the starred canopy
to face the music. He was certain that no matter who was really to blame,
he would be the one everyone turned on. The real question would be how Yuka
and Sayuri would act once they were safe from his wrath. He doubted they
would be anything less than his bitter enemies.
Sayuri squirmed uncomfortably in his lap as the canopy locked into the
'up' position. She turned to face him, her eyes bitter and despondent.
"Let me out," she told him. He let go of her waist and threw the yellow
and black lever that extended the retractable boarding ladder.
"I'm sorry about this," he repeated to her. "But you didn't give me much
choice."
She closed her eyes for a moment, then stood up in the cockpit to
throw her leg over the side. "The truth, Ranma, is that you've got no reason
to be sorry for what happened."
Her show of humility surprised him. "Huh?"
"I hate to say this, but you were right. If Yuka and I hadn't come after
you, this wouldn't have happened," she said to him. "I can't stand you as a
person, Ranma Saotome, but I can't blame you for shooting me down, either."
She clambered down the boarding ladder, ignoring the queries from Doctor
Tofu about her condition. Ranma watched her walk stoop-shouldered past Akane,
her shame and humiliation looming over her like a storm cloud. Yuka could
offer nothing for her, knowing that she was the one who had put her friend
up to this.
Ranma unstrapped himself and stood in the cockpit. His neurohelmet came
off, then the 'snoopy cap' liner that contained his commo headset. These he
placed carefully on the ejector seat before slipping over the side to land on
the tarmac.
He faced Doctor Tofu first.
"Are you hurt?" the doctor asked him. Ranma was surprised to find that
Tofu wasn't making any snap judgments about blame.
"A little beat up," he replied. "I'm okay."
Tofu grunted acknowledgement and turned to find Sayuri again. The
process of ejecting from a fighter was rarely without some form of injury,
and she had spent at least a little time in the water before being rescued.
Genma was next. He approached Ranma with a measured stride, his face
stern and tightly drawn.
"What happened up there, boy?" he asked in a gruff voice.
Ranma faced his father. "Why don't you ask Yuka?" he challenged.
"I did," he replied.
"And...?" Ranma pressed.
"Now I want your version," Genma told him. "This is a very serious
matter. An expensive piece of equipment is destroyed because of you, boy,
and a pilot has been Dispossessed. You know better than most how that
feels. On top of that, the morale of the crew is in the gutter, and you
go off and shoot down one of your own pilots - and come near to killing
the other one!"
Ranma cursed. So much for Yuka telling them the truth.... He wondered
how long it would take her to break her other promise.
"It seems like you've already made up your mind as to what happened,"
he said to his father. "What's the point of asking me at all?"
"You do what you're told, boy, and nothing less!"
"Go to hell!" Ranma shot back. He was nearly trembling as he continued.
"I'm sick of listening to you, Old Man! I'm sick of getting caught up in
your half-assed schemes and your bullshit philosophy on what it means to be
a 'true mechwarrior'! I'm sick of being a pawn that you can manipulate to
get the things you want, and I'm sick of having to live up to standards that
you could never live up to yourself!"
His eyes fell upon Akane, who watched their exchange in pained silence,
before returning his hateful glare to his father.
"If it was just me you were fucking over with your moronic quest to
find Ryuugenzawa, that would be one thing, but no, you have to go hurting
other people too. Akane should never have come with us, Pop, and you know
that!" He gestured with his hand towards the DropShip. "None of these people
should ever have come with us! They had lives, friends, careers, a country
they actually cared enough about to fight for! Instead of leaving them alone
to live those lives, you sucked them into this nightmare! You fucked them
over, too!"
He took a step towards his father, his hands clenching and unclenching
in nervous tension. "You know what?" he went on, looking at the crowd of
_Palomino_ crew that observed them. "I've come to a decision. One that I'm
sure everyone here but you will agree with. I'm outta here. I'm leaving."
He called to Yuka and Sayuri, who stood silently by the DropShip. "I give
up! You win!" he shouted to them. "I've got nothing here, no reason to stay,
so why the hell should I even bother?"
He threw up his hands and started walking for the distant starport
terminal. Genma's meaty paw caught him on the shoulder and spun him around
before he could take two steps, hostile eyes narrowing at him.
"Ranma, if you weren't my flesh and blood, I'd kill you right here
and now for saying those things..."
Ranma drew back in a rage from his father and dropped into a fighting
stance. "Not if I kill you first, Pop!"
He lashed out at Genma with his foot, catching the heavyset man in
the stomach. It should have been a crippling blow to the solar plexus, but
amazingly it didn't elicit more than a grunt from the elder Saotome. Even
Ranma looked surprised at how ineffectual his strike had been.
Genma wordlessly returned with a brutal flurry of punches and chops
that connected more often than not against Ranma's hastily erected
defenses, and slammed the pig-tailed mechwarrior backwards to the hot
tarmac - bleeding, bruised, and stunned.
"I didn't want to have to do that," Genma told his son scornfully.
"I may be fat and old, but I'm more than a match for you, boy. Now get on
your feet and stop feeling sorry for yourself. I raised you better than
that."
Ranma pulled himself to his feet, ignoring his father's offered hand.
"This ain't over yet," he grunted. He assumed his fighting stance
once again.
"Ranma, think very carefully about what you're doing," Genma advised
him.
"There ain't nothing to think about," Ranma returned. "You've done
all my thinking for me. Just like my duel with Yuka and Sayuri, you just
assumed you knew what was best for everybody, and went ahead and did it.
Well I got news for ya, Pop: it didn't work for them, and it ain't gonna
work for you!"
It was Genma who made the next move, a feint with his leg followed
by a straight punch to the sternum. Ranma's circular block deflected his
father's blow, and he counter-punched to no effect. The two pulled back
into guarded stances, each measuring the other and looking for an opening
to exploit. They had been fighting each other for years, and they knew the
other's strengths, weaknesses, and habits.
All things being equal, it promised to be a long battle.
"I've said it once, and I'll say it again," Genma told him as they
circled warily. "You're just like your mother. All heart and no brains.
Can't you see that this kind of open defiance of me will only make things
worse with the crew?"
"You're blind, Old Man," Ranma countered. "Can't you see that it's
already too late?" His eyes flicked to Akane, who watched them gravely
from a safe distance. "Hell, I'm surprised that Akane hasn't booted
you out of command already and taken over. We know who the crew would
listen to if they had a choice."
Ranma's words stunned Genma like no blow could have done. In the
opening he had been given, Ranma struck with vicious force, a high kick
at the very limits of his extension that slammed the elder Saotome's
head back and sent him spinning in a daze to the tarmac.
"Good bye, Old Man," he told his father. He stripped out of his
pressure suit and left it on the tarmac as he walked away from the
DropShip _Palomino._ He had no money, and now that Ukyou was gone, he
was fresh out of friends on this planet. None of these concerns mattered
to him, though, for he was finally free of his father's influence.
"Go after him, Akane," Sayuri told her, an urgent hand on her shoulder.
Akane turned in disbelief to her friend. "What are you saying?"
The Dispossessed pilot looked down at her feet. "If you feel anything
at all for him, you need to go after him," she said. She looked up, her eyes
brimming with tears. "I was wrong, you know," she continued. "Wrong to go
taking matters into my hands that were none of my business."
"I-I thought you hated Ranma," Akane pointed out to her.
"Hate?" Sayuri asked herself. "Maybe I do. I don't know, actually,
*what* I feel for him... Pity, anger, even a sense of gratitude to him for
having the chance to kill me and choosing not to take it." Her eyes followed
the retreating Ranma across the grassy field. "All I know is that I was
wrong to try and take him from you, and for that I've paid dearly. I lost
my fighter, Akane, and much worse; I lost my right to be your friend."
Akane blinked in surprise. "Sayuri?"
"It's true," the girl went on. "It's true, and I'm so sorry, Akane.
I should never have presumed what was right for you and what was wrong.
That was your decision to make. I don't know what Yuka has told you yet,
but the truth is that we went out after him. Ranma only acted in what he
thought was self-defense."
She took this revelation in silence. Yuka's refusal to discuss the
matter in detail now made sense.
"If you love Ranma," Sayuri added while Akane pondered the implications
of what she had learned. "Then I won't stand in your way. Just do something
about this mess before you lose the jerk for good."
Akane turned to follow Sayuri's mournful gaze. Ranma continued
walking, head held high, seemingly without a care in the world.
He had said good bye to his father, the man he had just lambasted as
the most vile and hated influence in his life, but he had nothing for her.
Perhaps that was because he felt she had already told him what she thought
about him in the Crew's Mess that morning, and so there was nothing else to
be said.
Perhaps it was better to let him go, no matter how much it might hurt.
"I-I don't know," she said haltingly to Sayuri. "I don't know what I
feel for him right now..."
Ryouga watched Ranma leave. In his heart he felt conflicting emotions
wrestling for control over him. On the one hand, he was rid of his old enemy
from 7th Grade. On the other hand, he felt like he was losing the closest
thing he had ever had to a friend.
There were other issues, but with Akari standing worriedly by his side,
it was difficult to face them. He had strong feelings for the lovely young
technician - the girl who wanted to marry him, no less - and yet he could
not deny his attraction to Akane - a girl who was no longer engaged to Ranma,
and therefore unattached.
As he pondered the miserable state of affairs that was his heart, he
realized that the expedition to Ryuugenzawa might be called off, and with
it, his hopes of finding a cure for his condition. The only other option
was to return to the Commonwealth, and to an uncertain fate indeed. He had
to have a cure. He could not ask either of his loves to marry him as anything
less than a whole man.
Chapter Two
Free Trader _Don Maestro Domingo Diaz de la Vega y Martin
de Valencia y Avila el Conquistador y Gruzado la Montana,_
Bangalore System Nadir Jump Point
Bangalore System, the Federated Shiratori
16 April 3025
Shampoo did not like her cat body, but it did have its uses. It had
delivered her from prison on Tau Ceti, for one thing, and she could also
skulk about the ship without drawing any attention to herself. Apparently
the crew of the _Domingo_ had not been informed of her Jusenkyo-altered
form.
The crew were an unsavory lot, and none of them were of Chinese
ancestry. She supposed that helped conceal their identities as agents
of the Jusenkyo Commonwealth, but she would have preferred it if they
spoke a language amongst themselves that she had a better grasp on.
Spanish was not her forte.
She confirmed that the _Domingo_ was in the Bangalore System, and
that it had been tasked with making a delivery to the Palatine System some
important starship components for the damaged merchanter the Saotomes were
believed to be using. She wondered if their tasking for the job was the
work of Providence, or had it been deliberately arranged? In any event,
it would be another ten hours before the DropShip carrying the goods
returned to the Jump Point. Preparations for Jump were already commencing.
Mousse had not said as much, but she supposed they would infiltrate
the starship while it was in Drydock. It would be easy to get aboard then,
as the crew would be used to seeing strangers and paying them little mind.
Mousse had not said much of anything of late.
She was still unsure of whether or not they were in the good hands
of her great-grandmother. Mousse had made a good argument from the jail
cell, but now that she was free, she had been able to puzzle out the
affair with a little more clarity. She needed to get him to talk.
It was possible that he had seen through her shameless attempt to
seduce him in the communal shower, but was it possible that he could have
that kind of willpower to resist?
With a tired *meow,* she decided to retire to the ship's Grav Deck.
Free-fall could be disorienting enough as a human, but as a cat with a
finely-honed sense of balance, it could be positively bewildering at times.
As she sprang into the elevator that would take her to 'C' Deck, she was
spied by one of the crew, who gave her a look bordering on puzzlement and
suspicion.
The elevator doors slid closed behind her, and she waited with dread
for them to open once more and admit the suspicious crewman for a closer
examination of her. After some moments it became clear that the man had
written off the experience as a fluke. Cats simply did not do things like
press elevator 'call' buttons...
The elevator brought her down into simulated one-half gravity. Through
her keen feline senses, she found that she could distinguish between the
real pull of gravity upon her body over the tug of centrifugal force created
by the spinning Grav Deck. Although she could not easily put the differences
between the two into words, she could now understand why birds had never
been able to adapt to living in space.
Mousse was waiting for her in the small stateroom they shared. His
head turned to face the door as it opened, his eyes squinting at first for
a sign of her before he realized that she must have been in her cat body.
He looked down at the pink and purple smudge of color that meowed at him
from the doorway.
"<Where have you been, Shampoo?>" he asked her.
She stepped inside the room silently, pausing once to groom herself
before meowing a curt reply.
The nearsighted mechwarrior produced a pot of hot water for tea that
he had kept going on a small electric hotplate. Shampoo tensed, wondering
how hot it would be. The fact that she would return naked to her human
form in front of him no longer concerned her after the shower episode.
Mousse could use another eyeful of her lovely body. He simply had to break
down eventually!
He poured some of the water upon her, and in a cloud of steam, Shampoo
appeared on the carpet. Her long purple tresses serendipitously covered her
in places demanded by modesty, and a raised thigh crossed over her other
leg took care of the rest - but only just.
"<That was very hot, you know,>" she protested lightly.
Mousse set the pot back on the hotplate.
"<I'm sorry for that,>" he replied.
Shampoo stretched out her arms over her head, the muscles in her chest
drawing tight and lifting her breasts in a way she hoped Mousse would find
inspirational. As the locks of wet purple hair fell away from her bosom, she
saw that even in his half-blind state, he could still appreciate her.
"<You should be,>" she returned. "<But I forgive you anyway.>"
She rose then, continuing to stretch out. The experience of returning
to her human form always left her feeling somehow freed from restraint.
Mousse looked away uncomfortably.
"<This ship can't get us to Palatine soon enough,>" she remarked as
she dried herself with a towel lying on the lowermost bed of the double
bunk. She then slipped into a white silk robe embroidered with tigers,
butterflies, and pastoral mountain landscapes in rich shades of green and
grey thread. The cool silk against her warm bare skin gave her an electric
thrill that she found inappropriate to the situation. A seduction intended
to break down a man's reticence did not work when the would-be seducer was
too horny for her own good. She had started this with no intention of ever
actually giving in to his desire for her.
"<I'm told that we'll be Jumping there within the day,>" Mousse said
to her, his voice projecting a forced calm.
"<I heard the same thing up on the Bridge,>" she agreed. She lay back
on the bed with her legs up, her arms crossed behind her neck, and a sultry,
languid expression on her face.
"<So you were out spying,>" he remarked. There was disapproval in his
voice now.
"<Of course I was spying,>" she said with a laugh. "<What else is my
cat body good for?>"
Mousse didn't have an answer for her. It was up to her to carry on the
conversation, she decided.
"<Have you given any thought to what we'll be doing when we reach the
Palatine System?>" she asked him.
Mousse adjusted the pair of glasses perched on his brow. "<We'll
infiltrate their JumpShip prior to undocking and locate the Saotomes'
quarters. Then we'll steal everything relevant to Ryuugenzawa and kill
them on the way out.>"
"<Very pat,>" Shampoo scoffed. It was the best she had been able to
come up with herself, however. "<How do you plan to get anywhere near the
ship, much less get aboard without being noticed?>"
"<I suppose you have a better idea?>" he asked her, obviously upset
over the ease with which she had attacked his plan.
Shampoo gave him a heavy-lidded look.
"<I presume you have some form of alternate identification for us?>"
Mousse nodded.
"<I think I'd be better off playing the part of Ship's Cat,>" she told
him. It wasn't a pleasant thought, but the Saotomes were bound to recognize
her as is, and even if her appearance were disguised, there was no getting
around her distinctive way of speaking when conversing in the hated Standard
language.
Mousse nodded again. "<What about me?>"
Shampoo regarded him for a moment. It was possible that he could bluff
his way aboard as one of the shipyard workers, but their best chance of
finding what they needed and getting it would probably occur after the ship
left drydock for the Jump Point. Circumstance would not permit him keep up
the charade that long.
"<They saw you for just a few minutes on Capra, and without any other
Joketsuzoku around you, they'll probably never make the connection if they
saw you again on Tiber,>" she told him. "<Then there is the fact that your
Standard is much better than mine. You could easily pass for a local if you
put your mind to it.
"<I'd say that your best option is to stow away and lay low until I
can find what we need,>" she continued. "<I'll have a much better chance of
spying out the ship and the two Saotomes than you will. When we're ready to
act, I'll come get you, we'll steal the data and kill the Saotomes, and then
we'll make our escape together in a life boat.>"
"<Life boat?>"
"<You don't think we can do this all while we're still in drydock, do
you?>"
Mousse shook his head slowly. He wasn't much of a schemer, no matter
what Herb might have thought of him. Shampoo's plan was sketchy, but better
than anything he had been able to come up with. The truth of this insane
mission be known, he was happy just to be alone with Shampoo. The more
distance they put between themselves and the Commonwealth, the more he
dreamed of simply running off with her and never returning.
There wasn't much chance of that, he knew, but it was nice to be able
to dream again. Shampoo was convinced that this was a ploy of Cologne's, one
last chance to redeem herself, and she was going to succeed or die trying.
He knew the truth about their mission's origins, having been recruited by
General Herb for this assignment in exchange for sparing Shampoo from the
cruelty of life as one of the evil hybrid's personal slaves.
"<No, I suppose not,>" he said finally. Do I secretly want us to fail?
he asked himself. If we fail and somehow escape with our lives, we can never
return to the Commonwealth. Shampoo and I will be lost, adrift without a home,
and maybe, just maybe, she'll want to stay with me in exile.
Am I sabotaging our efforts on some subconscious level because that is
what I'm really hoping will happen?
"<What is it, Mousse?>" she asked him.
"<P-Pardon?>" he replied.
She looked him over from the bed, her long bare legs exposed past
mid-thigh by the opening in the white silk robe she wore. "<You seemed to
drift off for a moment.>"
"<I was thinking,>" he remarked idly.
"<Oh?>" she chirped. "<About what?>"
He looked her over again. She was absolutely beautiful lying there,
naked except for the robe, and they were alone - not to be disturbed until
the starship reached the Palatine System. He wanted her desperately, but her
seeming forwardness since the day she had joined him in the communal shower
bay had made him wary.
He had known Shampoo for most of her life, and he knew when she wanted
something. Right now she wanted something, and he wasn't so sure that it was
him. Before his torture at Herb's hands he would have jumped at the chance
to give her what she wanted, even knowing that she was manipulating him. Now
he knew better. The pain he had endured had not diminished his love for her,
but it had opened his eyes to the greater truth about her. That in itself
had led to pain more intense than any of Herb's tortures, but it was a pain
that he was willing to face if it meant ultimate happiness with Shampoo.
"<Nothing important,>" he replied. "<Just letting my mind wander.>"
She gave him a coy look. "<I'm not distracting you, am I?>" she asked
him.
"<Of course not,>" he returned.
"<Are you sure?>" she pressed. She gestured to her robe, which seemed
to be getting smaller and smaller on her as he looked, and continued, "<I
can always wear something more conservative...>"
He marshalled his will. "<It doesn't bother me,>" he insisted. "<Wear
whatever you want.>"
She rolled over onto her side, the neckline of her robe falling open
to reveal an abundance of cleavage. "<I never thought I was bothering you,>"
she said to him. "<I simply wondered whether I was *distracting* you.>"
"<A little,>" he said, swallowing hard at the sight of her.
A feral gleam lit in her eyes, and he cringed inwardly upon beholding
it.
"<Poor Mousse,>" she said, clucking with mock sympathy. "<It must be
terrible for you to be cooped up with me for weeks on end.>"
"<I'm fine,>" he tried to assure her. His quavering voice did little
to sound convincing.
Shampoo looked at him for a long moment before speaking.
"<Do you still love me?>" she asked him.
Her question, so directly offered, shocked him more than anything else
he might have felt in that moment, and he was compelled to give her the
unvarnished truth. A truth that he was only just coming to terms with on
his own.
"<Yes,>" he replied. "<But I'm also afraid of you.>"
Shampoo wasn't prepared for the powerful sincerity of his answer. Of
course he still loved her, but he feared her as well?
"<Afraid?>"
Mousse looked away from her. "<I know that loving you has only ever
brought me pain,>" he said flatly, as if even in recognizing the truth of
his feelings, actually vocalizing them was something he was still reluctant
to do. "<I know that you're trying to seduce me for some reason, that your
sudden interest in me isn't really genuine, and I'm afraid that I'll do what
I've always done - give into you, and then suffer for it...>" He rose from
his chair and started towards the far end of the room near the door. "<I
fear you for what you can do to me, Shampoo, and how easily you can do it.>"
She watched him bow his head toward her, and then start to step through
the door.
"<Mousse, don't go,>" she said to him. She wasn't going to lose to him
like this.
He paused to look back at her.
"<I have to,>" he replied.
She rose, surprising herself with how swiftly she did so, and caught
him around the chest before he could escape. She drew close to him, and as
her breasts pushed into his back, he shivered with delight. She could feel
him paralyzed with anticipation, which was just the way she wanted him.
"<I never wanted you to fear me, Mousse,>" she whispered to him, her
lips brushing against his ear.
"<Sha-Shampoo, I...>"
"<Hush,>" she admonished him. "<This isn't a time for words.>"
She drew him back into the room, the airtight door closing as one of
the ship's crew walked past. He followed her back into the room stiffly,
seemingly frozen between the fear of being used by her, and the fear that
her intentions were actually genuine.
They weren't, of course, but that didn't mean she wasn't going to
enjoy making love to him. For all of his faults, Mousse was a handsome
man, and she was no stranger to the joys of sex. Her coy seduction had
failed to move him, indeed had nearly driven him away, and now it was
time to show him what he had been ready to give up.
With her arms still wrapped around him, and her teeth nibbling gently
on his ear, she began to loosen his white robes. He gasped at the touch of
her teeth, and she felt his hands rest upon her own as they did their work.
"<Yes, Mousse,>" she whispered to him. "<I do want you. It has to be
now. There won't be any time for this after we Jump, and the future holds
no guarantees.>"
Once his robes were loosened, she ran her hands under the folds of
cloth to caress his smooth, muscled chest. She drew closer to him for an
embrace, kissing her way down his neck to the junction with his shoulder
before withdrawing just enough to let the robes fall from his body.
She found herself growing excited by the heat of his skin and the
smell of the faint musk that had formed since his recent return from the
showers. It pleased her to know that she had driven him to such nervous
tension that she could smell his sweat so soon after bathing.
One hand returned to his chest, stroking at the nipples as the other
began to tug at the sash of her own robe. As the cord fell out of its
loosely tied knot, she pressed up against him again, and the feel of his
body heat through the silk of her robe to her breasts brought a flush of
color to her face and throat.
Yes, she was going to enjoy this, she realized. That it also suited
her personal goals was lost to the moment.
She kissed his shoulder now, moving up to his throat, and then
drawing tight to him to place her lips against the hard line of his jaw.
Mousse gasped with each tender kiss, his body trembling as he stood
rigid in her embrace.
"<Relax,>" she whispered to him. Thoughts of taking her robe off
were put aside as she reveled in the feel of him moving against her
through the soft cool silk.
Slowly, gently, she turned him around. He was not like the pleasure
men the Joketsuzoku maintained for their female troops, the men with
whom Shampoo had experienced most of her lovemaking. They were professionals,
common born but handsome, and each with a certified vasectomy to preserve
the integrity of the Breeding Program. Mousse was neither common born nor
sterile, and he was far from experienced.
"<Have you ever done this before?>" she asked him as her lips sought
out the depression above the point on his chest where the sternum met his
collarbones.
"<N-No...>" he replied haltingly, his face fixed straight ahead
to the far bulkhead.
"<I thought so,>" she replied. The men of the Joketsuzoku had their
own pleasure girls under similar circumstances as the women. It surprised
her to think that he could have resisted the temptation to try them. "<You
were probably saving yourself for me, weren't you?>"
"<...Yes...>" he replied between gasps.
"<Touch me,>" she returned. "<I want to feel those strong hands of
yours on my body.>" She laved her tongue over his chest, lashing out at
his nipples with a tender ferocity that sent shivers down his spine.
He cupped her breasts through the robe with both hands as she
nibbled at his collarbone, sending a shiver of her own through her, and
eliciting a murmur of pleasure that encouraged him further. The dual
sensations of massage and body heat made her lose even more control over
herself.
After some moments of this, she could stand it no longer, and dove
without warning for his dark trousers, seeking him out behind the tightly
woven cotton, and lingering for some time there while offering him the
kind of stimulation her peers would have found scandalous for one of the
Joketsuzoku women to employ. Mousse threw back his head in rapture, his
hands stroking her long purple hair as her head bobbed and turned
enthusiastically at his waist.
It took an exercise of will to stop what she was doing before the
inevitable, for despite the stigma of the act imposed on her by her peers,
she had always enjoyed going down on a man. She relished it for the tactile
sensations such contact afforded her as much as the pleasure she derived
from its effect on her partner. Looking up at him with her fiery violet
eyes, she drew him down with her to the carpeted deck. Her hand clutched
him tightly as he kicked his trousers off the rest of the way, and his eyes
were wild with anticipation of what was to follow.
"<Lay down,>" she whispered to him, still holding him tightly as
she pushed him gently the rest of the way to the floor. He lay back as
ordered, his chest rising and falling with panting breaths of anticipation.
She straddled him, letting herself rub against him as she leaned over to
kiss at his throat and chest. She could feel his hips moving beneath her
in a desperate attempt to continue with the affair, and she placed a finger
to his lips in reproach.
"<Not yet,>" she said with a teasing smile. "<Patience, Mousse.
You've waited so long for this moment already. You can wait just a little
longer.>"
She continued her cycling motions forward and backward, alternately
kissing his throat and his belly as she moved over him. He could feel the
intense heat and wetness of her contact with each shifting of her weight,
and he gasped desperately for her to take him inside of her.
"<Do you really want this?>" she asked him in a husky voice. After
rubbing up and down the length of him for so long, she was almost as
desperate to continue as he was, though she wanted to remain firmly in
command of him.
His plaintive cry in the affirmative was all that she needed.
She took his arms and placed them behind his head, holding them down
at the wrists with one hand as she guided him into her with the other.
She eased herself back, still pinning his arms as she did so, gasping
with delight at a sensation she had not enjoyed for some time, and Mousse,
never before.
She lingered for a moment, savoring the feeling of him inside her,
and looking at him with hungry eyes. Then she started moving, slowly and
methodically, over the top of him.
Mousse began to thrust clumsily at her with his hips, but again she
protested his unwelcome interference with a touch of her finger to his lips,
insisting that he lay there beneath her and let her do all the work. He
relented silently, and she began to move again, easing him out of her gently
before driving herself against him with growing force.
She could tell by his groans that he was close, and in truth she wasn't
far behind. It had been far too long since the last time she had a man, and
she had to admit that Mousse made for an excellent fuck; he was strong,
handsome, and compliant. As she rode him towards climax she regretted not
having the nerve to do this sooner.
His arms began to flex beneath her at the end, and with all her strength
she could not hold him down any longer. He reached for her silken-robed hips,
clenching them fiercely as he cried out in a hoarse, incoherent voice with
her one last drive against him. She could feel an intense warmth flooding
into her, compelling her to an orgasm equally satisfying.
She fell against him then, spent with exertion as he continued to spasm
weakly inside her. Her brow was wet with perspiration, her hair falling over
his face in purple waves. She could feel him stroking the back of her head
tenderly as she tried to catch her breath.
They remained silent for awhile, each lost in their own worlds of
thought and fantasy before Shampoo drew herself upright, still straddling
him. They had hours before the Jump alarm sounded, and she looked forward to
seeing how much stamina Mousse had. From the dreamy look in his eyes, she
knew that there was already no way he could hold anything back from her now.
Chapter Three
Nerima Confederation DropShip _Palomino_
Landing Pad #6, Aquila Starport
Planet Tiber, Palatine System
The Federated Shiratori
23 April 3025
Akane Tendo, youngest daughter of Grand Duke Soun Tendo and the Heir
to the Nerima Confederation, found herself facing the lowest point in her
nineteen years of life. Her country was all but overrun, the expedition
that was the Confederation's last hope had fallen completely apart around
her, and the guy she was in love with had left her for good.
She pondered this sad state of affairs over tea in the Crew's Mess,
having no idea where Ranma was. It had been a week since the duel with Yuka
and Sayuri, and he had not returned. He hadn't taken anything with him, not
clothes, or money, or what meager possessions he had. Not even his Phoenix
Hawk LAM, which had remained on the tarmac after Akari and her techs
repaired the damage sustained in the duel. Akane had felt certain at first
that he'd come back for that.
Since then, she realized why he hadn't come for the LAM. It had never
been his to begin with. He had refused to accept it as a gift from her
father, instead taking custody of the machine as a loaner to be returned
when they found Ryuugenzawa.
It's only been seven days, she thought to herself. And I miss the jerk
already...
She had other things to worry about besides Ranma, but the egotistical
fool always remained foremost in her thoughts. There was the morale of the
crew for one thing, which was also at an all-time low. Though the repair
parts for the _Dragonfly's_ Jump Drive had finally arrived, and the process
of installing them begun, it seemed as if the expedition was already done
for. With the siege of Capella, there wasn't even a home to return to.
Genma wasn't helping matters. Once the elder Saotome stopped looking
for his son in the city and accepted the fact that Ranma wasn't coming back,
he had self-destructed. He was currently passed-out drunk in his rack, a
fact that wasn't doing the crew's shattered morale any favors.
She folded her hands together on the table and sighed. What could you
do when you had run out of hope?
The crackle of the quarterdeck watch's voice over the 1MC echoed in her
ears as she pondered this.
"_Dragonfly,_ arriving!"
She looked up at this announcement, shocked to think that Captain
Ninomiya had come on board. Didn't she have enough to do with the primary
repairs to the JumpShip underway?
She had her answer a few minutes later when the Captain, in her child
body, flitted up to her table in the Crew's Mess.
"May I sit down, my Lady?" she asked Akane.
Akane blinked. She wasn't used to Captain Ninomiya addressing her so
formally.
"Of course!" she replied.
Hinako did so, fishing a chocolate bar out of her purse as she sat,
and wolfing it down with an intensity that frightened Akane. When she was
finished, her face was smeared with gooey brown streaks that Akane had to
resist wiping away.
"Great news!" the starship captain said to her.
"What is it?"
"The siege is broken!" Hinako shouted triumphantly. "I just received
that message from the Consulate office."
Akane's eyes widened in astonishment. "Are you certain?"
"Yup!" Hinako chirped. "Prince Kuno took most of his forces out of the
system to stop a League invasion of the Combine, and I guess we were able to
break up what he had left behind."
"That's... That's..." Akane stammered.
"Amazing?!" Hinako finished for her. "Sure it is, but who cares? It
means there's still hope!"
"Hope..." she said quietly. "It's been a long time since I've felt that."
"Seize that moment!" Hinako told her, her arms flapping excitedly. "It's
the reason why I came down to the planet again."
"I don't understand."
The starship captain jumped up onto the table in the beginning throes
of a chocolate rush. "I know how bad morale is down here - trust me, if my
crew weren't busy busting their asses to get my ship operational again,
they'd be the same way - and I know one of the reasons for it was because
of the siege. Now that the Combine is on the defensive, we have a chance to
succeed again!"
Akane looked at the eight-year-old dancing a spastic jig on the table
and shrugged. "I still don't understand, Captain. Why are you telling this
to me? I'm not in charge."
Hinako stopped dancing and stomped her foot in frustration. "Remember
what I said about you taking command of the mission?"
"Yes," Akane replied. "You said it was a bad idea. Mutiny, even."
"I changed my mind!" the little captain cried. "You're the only one left
who can pull it together."
Akane cocked her head at Hinako. "What about Commander Saotome?"
"I hear he's drunk most of the time since his walking disciplinary
problem of a son skipped out on us," Hinako replied. "That makes him derelict
in his duties, and necessitates his immediate relief." She tapped Akane
roughly on the nose with a chocolate-smudged finger. "Tag! You're it!"
Akane blinked twice in silence as Hinako's finger rested upon the tip
of her nose.
"Me?" she squeaked.
"Who else?" Hinako returned, her arms sweeping out to her sides. "Do
you think *I'm* qualified to lead this kind of mission? I'm just the bus
driver!"
Akane leaned back in her seat. Captain Ninomiya was right, who else
could take charge? The question now was, what could she actually accomplish?
Despair hung over her a moment as she realized the enormous gravity of her
situation. Leading the 1st Nerima Guards was nothing compared to this! With
the Guards she had a staff - plus the grizzled veteran, Colonel Mukaida - to
look after her and help with the decision-making process. Here she would be
on her own.
But who else could take charge?
"I'll do it," she said solemnly. As she spoke the words, she was filled
with a new resolve. The melancholy which had afflicted her was gone, replaced
by a surge of hope. "We're going to complete the mission. We're going to find
Ryuugenzawa. I just have to do a few things first before we can get started."
"Such as?" Hinako asked her, proud that she had put her faith in the
Tendo Heir.
Akane stood from the table, her eyes resolute. She knew what she needed
to do.
"The first thing I have to do is explain to Commander Saotome that I'm
in charge now," she replied. "That won't be easy, but I think I have a way
to convince him."
"What else?" Hinako pressed.
"That's the really hard part," Akane admitted. "I don't know where he
is at this time, but I'm going to find Ranma and drag his sorry butt back
to the ship." She closed her eyes for a moment. That was definitely going
to be the hard part... "I need him, Captain Ninomiya, for a lot of reasons,
and I'm not going to let him run off and leave us in the lurch."
Hinako nodded happily in agreement. "You'll make a fine Grand Duchess
some day," she observed.
* * *
"Get up."
Genma Saotome growled at the insistant prodding in his back. He did not
register in his drunken fog, that the voice who addressed him belonged to
Akane.
"Piss off," he muttered angrily.
"Don't you tell me to 'piss off,'" Akane warned him. She stabbed at his
shoulder again. "Get your sorry carcass out of bed. I have some important
news for you."
Genma rolled over in his rack. It was Akane, all right.
"Has the boy returned?" he asked her.
"No," she replied curtly. "I want you to get cleaned up and meet me on
the Flight Deck in twenty minutes, Mister Saotome. If you don't, I'll have
the In-Port Watch come down here with a fire extinguisher and blast you out
of bed."
Genma blinked in a stupor at her. He was too confused by the situation
to take offense at her presumptions, and too drunk to really care.
"Whatever," he mumbled, and went back to bed.
"I'm not kidding, Mister Saotome," she said to him.
Genma awoke with a start as a gout of frozen carbon dioxide gas ripped
through his sheets and nearly smothered him. He coughed and spluttered,
cursing furiously as he rolled out of his rack and landed hard on the deck
below.
"Hit him again for good measure, Tad," he heard Akane tell someone.
A second blast from the fire extinguisher sent him howling to his feet.
He faced off against Petty Officer Howard, CO2 extinguisher in hand, and a
smug looking Akane Tendo. Doctor Tofu stood behind them, a loaded syringe
in his hand.
"Are you awake yet?" she asked him.
"What's the meaning of this?" Genma demanded.
"It's time to dry out, Mister Saotome," Doctor Tofu added before Akane
could reply. He held up the syringe.
"I asked you a question," Genma pressed. "What the hell do you people
think you're doing?"
Akane crossed her arms over her chest. "As of noon today, I have
officially relieved you of command. I thought you might want to sleep a bit
more before I broke the news to you."
Genma's eyes crossed in bewilderment.
"W-What?"
"You're relieved," Akane told him. "In your drunken state you've been
incapable of command. Doctor Tofu has attested to this in the Ship's Log, and
Captain Grant of the _Palomino_ and Captain Ninomiya of the _Dragonfly_ stand
by my decision to assume command of the expedition. They're waiting up on the
Flight Deck for your acknowledgement."
"You're nuts!" Genma replied. "Does your father know about this?"
Akane wasn't going to let him squeak past with that angle.
"We've been unable to establish a direct line of communication," she
lied. It was a half-truth actually, as she had not bothered to try. Genma
was about as upset as she had guessed he would be, and now it was time to
soften the blow. "In any event, as the ranking member of the Tendo family
present, I have assumed command until such time as the man designated by my
father to lead the expedition is able to return to his duties. Doctor Tofu
Ono, as the Chief Medical Officer, will make that determination based on
your ability to remain sober."
"This is twice in three weeks that you've been too drunk to function
as the commander, Mister Saotome," Tofu cautioned him. "You've spent the
last three days completely intoxicated."
"And until that determination?" Genma asked bitterly. First his son
betrays him, and now the rest of the crew!
"Until then, I will remain in command," Akane told him. "You'll act
in the capacity of my advisor, of course, but I'll be the one calling the
shots."
"Ha!" Genma snorted. "See how well you find Ryuugenzawa without my
help," he challenged her.
Akane gave him a tired sigh. "I'm not trying to make an enemy out of
you, Mister Saotome," she assured him. "I'm trying to do what's best for the
Confederation. If that means taking command until you can sober up and stay
sober, then I'll do it."
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't just walk off the ship and
leave you here without a single decryption key," he said to her, knowing
that it was his ace in the hole.
Akane stepped up to him, her dark brown eyes uncharacteristically hard
as she looked at him. "I'll tell you why you'll stay," she began. "Because
I'm the only one who can get Ranma to return, and you know it!"
Genma took a nervous step backwards. Akane was putting out a level of
intensity that he had never experienced firsthand.
"I don't see how," he muttered. "The boy's probably already off the
planet by now, working as a mercenary or something."
Akane had to concede that possibility, though she considered it unlikely.
"Perhaps," she allowed him. "But I'm the best chance you've got of getting
your son back. After that, we'll get the last key, and from there we'll find
Ryuugenzawa. That's all I'm interested in, Mister Saotome. If you can stay
dry for the next couple weeks, then I'll gladly give you back your command.
As for the rest, you'll get your title and your share of the wealth when we
find Ryuugenzawa - just like my Dad promised you."
She looked him over. "Well, Mister Saotome?"
Genma grunted in thought.
"Bring back Ranma," he said to her. "And you'll get no complaints from
me."
* * *
"Hey, thanks a lot," Ranma said to his newfound friends.
"We could use a good scout," the dark haired one, Daisuke, replied.
"You fit the bill perfectly."
"Besides, with moves like yours," the light haired one, Hiroshi, added.
"You could probably earn a double share as the Colonel's bodyguard while in
camp."
Ranma nodded with a grin. The two recruiting officers for Ryuu's Rangers
were offering him exactly what he needed: a job with decent pay and a good
bonus schedule, a new passport so he could get off the planet without any
hassles, and most importantly, their first assignment was garrison duty on
the planet Dray, although a battalion-sized detachment would be sent out of
the system on a raid against a rival noble house within the F-S. The regiment
would be leaving Tiber late that night.
"I must admit," Daisuke told him. "That I was surprised to hear your
name. What with that other Ranma Saotome getting engaged to Grand Duke
Tendo's daughter, Akane, and all."
"God, she is SO hot," Hiroshi chimed in. "That other guy is one lucky
bastard." He looked at Ranma. "Almost makes you wish you were him, huh?"
Ranma blanched. "Uh yeah," he replied. "He's a lucky guy all right."
He decided to change the subject. "So where do I report?" he asked the
two.
"Landing Pad #25," Hiroshi told him. "You need to be there with your
stuff and ready to move out no later than twenty o'clock local time. Scout
Major Beauregard will be your immediate superior, but you'll be attached
to the Headquarters unit. Once you check in with him, you'll get a week's
advance on your pay, your uniforms, and your basic gear issue."
"I'll be there," Ranma replied. It was a newly formed regiment of mixed
units that he was joining, which was always a risky proposition for a
mercenary, but also promised him the greatest chance of earning a captured
battlemech.
He had happened upon the two by chance, overhearing that a merc regiment
was signing up recruits near the starport. Most of the guys in line to be
interviewed were scrubs; farmboys looking for glory and a way off the planet
who couldn't appreciate how lucky they were to live on such a lush green
world as Tiber. They'd end up as grunt infantry most likely - and probably
get themselves killed while being thrown up against a battlemech lance -
though Ranma overheard a few who had come through the local tech school and
who could get in as apprentices.
As for himself, he'd shown off a few of his flashier martial arts forms,
dropped a few names of people and units he and Pop had worked for in the
Federated Shiratori, and even mentioned Ukyou once or twice as an old friend.
Mentioning Beauregard had been the real stroke of luck. The guy was a hard
man to work for, as he and his Pop had discovered, but the guy remembered
good scouts when it came time to pass out the bonuses, and he had always
been friendly with the two of them. It also gave Hiroshi and his partner a
solid reference on him that they could tap on-world. He knew he'd get in as
something other than the poor bloody infantry.
"I don't think this will be a problem," Daisuke added, "But I'm required
to tell you that the standard withdrawal clause in your contract is good until
twenty o'clock tonight. After that, you're in for the full two years."
Ranma waved him off. "Don't worry about me, man," he told them. "There
ain't nothing keeping me here." I'm not even going back for my stuff...
Hiroshi stood from the table at the small restaurant where Ranma had
just enlisted, and saluted him. "Welcome aboard, Scout Lieutenant Saotome!"
Ranma returned his salute. He was surprised when they had offered him
a commission on the spot, but he wasn't about to refuse. Ryuu's Rangers must
have been short a few hands, but he supposed that was to be expected in a
new unit. Again, it meant more opportunity for him to gain rank, and with
his mechwarrior and aerospace piloting skills, to eventually get promoted
into a battlemech or fighter slot.
He was striking out on his own, and it felt good. No more Pop to boss
him around, no more Ryuugenzawa to give him nightmares, no more crazy
training techniques to threaten his life, and no more stupid engagements
that he wanted nothing to do with.
No more Akane, either...
He winced at the thought. As much as he couldn't stand her most of the
time, he actually found himself missing her. A little.
It was better that he left, he told himself. Who do you think you're
kidding, anyway? She hates your guts. All she cares about is that stupid
fairy tale called Ryuugenzawa.
"Who needs her!" he said tersely.
"Excuse me?" Hiroshi asked him nervously.
He forgot that they were still at the table.
"It's nothing," he said to them. "Don't sweat it. I'll be there tonight,
I just need to get my things together." It wasn't quite true, as he didn't
currently own more than the clothes on his back. He just needed to take one
last walk around the place to get Akane out of his head for good.
Daisuke looked to his comrade and shrugged. "Great! See you there."
He found himself in Aquila Park, watching the last of the paddleboats
meander through the lake towards the rental docks as the star Palatine
dipped low in the sky. It was not due to any conscious decision on his part,
it was simply one of the few places on Tiber he was familiar with, and his
feet had taken him there on autopilot. He still had a few hours before he
needed to get back to the starport.
Two years, he thought to himself. That was how long his term of service
in Ryuu's Rangers would be good for. Two years to distinguish himself and
earn a battlemech. It was possible, but he'd have to work for it, and a
lucky break or two couldn't hurt him.
Things in the Confederation would be resolved by then, he figured, and
it might be feasible to return to Sian and see his mother for the first time
in nearly twenty years. It was galling to think that she would be living in
a Combine vassal state by then, but it couldn't be helped. Pricks like
Tatewaki Kuno popped up throughout history. They shook things up, conquered
a bunch of territory, then bit the big one. Sooner or later the dynasties
they had forged would collapse under their incompetent successors, and the
cycle would begin again. He didn't figure that Kuno's empire would last very
long even if he managed to conquer the entire Inner Sphere.
He might even run into Akane while he was on Sian, he mused. She'd
probably be trying to get some futile insurgency movement going, and getting
a lot of folks killed for nothing instead. That was assuming that she wasn't
busy having Kuno's babies...
He stifled a laugh at that one, trying to imagine how stubborn,
arrogant, and violent the children of any union between Akane Tendo and
Tatewaki Kuno would be. What a riot! The only kids who'd be worse were
Akane and Ryouga's!
That wasn't nearly as funny, he realized suddenly. He brushed it
aside with a grunt. Good luck, Pig-Boy, he thought to himself. She's all
yours.
He still had time to kill, he realized, looking at the distant clock
on a banking tower. If he had a few imperials to rub together, he'd go get
something to eat. As it stood, the meal Hiroshi and Daisuke had bought for
him at the restaurant had been his first good one since he left the
_Palomino._ He had lived off what he could get on the streets for the last
week, and that wasn't much. If he had been a local, he would have been
eligible for a little welfare, a prospect that galled him until his stomach
really started to get the better of him. Fortunately, Ryuu's Rangers had
started signing people up before he became desperate enough to try his
luck with the planet's bureaucracy.
I might as well report in a little early, he thought idly. At least
then I'll be eligible for some chow.
* * *
Ryuu's Rangers Headquarters DropShip _Lionheart_
Landing Pad #25, Aquila Starport
Planet Tiber, Palatine System
The Federated Shiratori
23 April 3025
Landing Pad #25 was where the Union Class DropShip _Lionheart_ stood.
It was the regimental command ship, and home of the lead company in the lone
'mech battalion. The other two battalions were armored vehicles and infantry,
respectively.
_Lionheart_ was pretty beat up, he noted, but it looked functional. He
couldn't think of too many mercenary units whose equipment wasn't a little
shabby looking, and he had worked for units who looked much worse. Depending
on the assignments he drew, and a lot of luck, the regiment this Colonel Ryuu
guy had put together could stand a good chance of becoming successful. Ranma
was willing to take that chance.
The guard at the base of the DropShip challenged him as he approached.
He identified himself, and waited while the man consulted with the DropShip
proper to see if he was on the access list. After a moment's pause the guard
waved him through with the admonition that he was to meet with someone as
soon as he came on board.
Ranma agreed, figuring it was Major Beauregard wanting to welcome him
aboard and talk to him about old times.
He climbed up the ladder into the 'Mech Bay, pausing to look at the
company's battlemechs in their storage cocoons. They looked good, not the
patchwork of armor and bad paint jobs he had seen in other units. The bay
itself was clean and orderly, another good indication that this was going
to be a first class outfit to fight with.
Hiroshi met him as he walked towards the elevator bank that would take
him up to the main decks.
"Hey, Lieutenant!" he called to Ranma. "I didn't expect you so soon.
Most folks like to do a little last-minute partying before they start a new
hitch."
Ranma shrugged. "I didn't have anything better to do, so I thought I'd
come down early and get squared away."
"Fine with me," Hiroshi agreed. "Let's hook you up with the Major first,
and then the Quartermaster will issue uniforms and gear. The ship's Master at
Arms hasn't posted the berthing list yet, so I don't know where you'll be
sleeping, but you can check the M.A.A. Shack if you want."
Ranma called up a mental picture of the Union Class. "That's on Deck
Two, all the way outboard to port, right?"
Hiroshi nodded. "You've been around, all right. The Colonel's holding
Officer Call in the Wardroom at 19:00, and since you're here, you should
attend. He'll probably want to see you for a few minutes afterwards. You're
the only new commission to come out of Tiber."
"Is the Colonel a cool guy or a jerk?"
Hiroshi shrugged. "He's kind of moody. Your best bet is to speak when
spoken to, and say as little as possible."
Ranma gave him a 'thumbs up.' "No problem. Hey, uh, Hiroshi, I was told
by the guard that I was supposed to see someone when I came on board. Would
that be you, or would that be Major Beauregard?"
Hiroshi turned away for a moment. "Uh, yes and no. Yes, you're supposed
to see me. Yes, you're supposed to see the Major. And no, that isn't who they
were talking about down on the landing pad."
Ranma became uneasy. "What's up?"
Hiroshi gave him a nervous look. "It seems a representative of your
former employer is here... Is there something you didn't tell me during the
interview?"
Ranma began to bristle. Not here and not now, dammit! "Describe this
so-called 'representative.'"
"Well, she has short dark hair and..."
"That's enough," Ranma spat. "Dammit, Akane!"
"Akane? Yeah, I think that was her name," Hiroshi noted, his face
clouded with an unnamed concern. "So... you know her?"
"Yeah," Ranma grunted. "Though most of the time I wish I didn't."
"Is there some kind of problem?" Hiroshi asked. He was paid a hefty
bonus for recruiting officers, and he didn't want to lose the one he would
get for hiring Ranma.
"The only problem is in her head," Ranma replied. What the hell did she
think she was doing here? "Where is she?"
"Crew's Mess," Hiroshi replied. "Please tell me there isn't any problem
with you joining up with us." He looked a little harder at him, knowing that
there was something terribly wrong with the situation. "Oh shit," he breathed.
"You really *are* Akane Tendo's fiance... aren't you. What are you doing
here?"
Ranma knew that he couldn't give anything less than the truth at this
point, as there was nothing he could say to convince Hiroshi otherwise. He
also understood Hiroshi's situation, and knew that the man stood to gain
some money by hiring him. "I *was* her fiance," he replied. "I'm not anymore.
Look, don't sweat it, man. I'll meet you at the M.A.A. Shack in a few minutes,
okay?"
Hiroshi nodded hesitantly. "So that's really HER sitting in the Crew's
Mess?"
"Yeah," Ranma replied. "Tell anyone about it before we leave the system,
and I'll break your neck..."
Hiroshi nodded again, his face pale because he understood how serious
Ranma was. "Not a word," he replied. "No one would believe me anyway." He
continued on his way towards the ladder to the outside. Ranma stepped into
the elevator and punched for Deck Three.
The Crew's Mess on a Union Class DropShip was only a little larger
than the one on the _Palomino,_ despite the _Lionheart's_ much larger
complement. He could see Akane sitting at a table, a cup of tea before her,
and an escort from the ship standing behind her at a discreet distance. Her
eyes met his the moment he stepped into the room, flashing for a moment
under the fluorescent lighting.
"What are you doing here?" he asked her, wanting to get straight to
the point so he could send her on her way as quickly as possible. "And how
the hell did you know I was here?"
"I should ask what you're doing here, as well," she returned. "Finding
you was fairly easy, actually. There was only one mercenary unit hiring in
the city, so when I asked if you had signed up with them, they thought I
was your old employer. At first they weren't going to tell me anything, but
I managed to persuade them."
"I work here now," he replied, stabbing a thumb at his chest. "Stop
wasting your time and go."
He could see her holding her breath for a moment, and could almost hear
her mentally counting to ten before she finally answered him.
"Your employment hasn't been terminated with the Confederation yet,"
she said to him.
"Employment?" Ranma barked. "I was never employed by the Confederation.
It was more like I was shanghai'd by my Old Man. Besides, I quit, remember?"
"You aren't working for your father anymore," she replied evenly.
"You're working for me. I haven't let you go yet."
"Says who?"
Akane bit her lip nervously. "Ranma, I took command of the expedition
from your father today. I'm running the show, and I want you to come back
to the ship with me."
"You're in charge?" he cackled. "Gimme a break. Did Yuka and Sayuri
put you up to that?"
"No, they did not," she said tersely. "Ranma, I'm asking you to return
to the ship and continue the expedition with me." She looked around the room
for a moment. "I realize that I can't make you, so don't worry about me
trying." Her voice cracked slightly as she continued. "It seems as if you
have a good job lined up here. I won't take you from that if you don't want
me to."
"They made me a lieutenant," he replied, his voice not nearly as
forceful as he would have liked it to be. "I've never had a commission of
my own before." He made a sweeping gesture of the room. "I got this job on
my own, Akane. No help from Pop. I'm doing this for me, for the first time
in my life I'm doing something just for me, and it feels good." He offered
up his hands in a plea. "Try to understand that."
Akane looked down at her tea.
"Okay..." she whispered. "I said I wasn't going to force you to come
back with me, and I'm not." She looked up at him again. "Can I ask you a
question before I go?"
Ranma felt his chest tighten up. "Sure."
Akane stood from the table and looked into his eyes.
"Ranma, am I the reason you left?"
He looked for a moment as if he had been struck.
"Wh-What are you t-talking about?" he stammered.
She steeled herself and repeated the question, knowing that everything
she had planned to say to him in order to bring him home with her was going
out the window, and knowing that she was powerless to stop it.
"I just want to know if I was the one who drove you away."
He clenched the back of his neck, sweat beginning to bead on his brow.
"There were lots of reasons why I left," he replied.
"But was I one of them?" It was almost a plea.
He looked away. "Yeah."
Her face drew tight for a moment, tiny lines forming at the corners of
her eyes, her chin trembling ever so slightly.
"Good bye, Ranma," she said to him softly. "Good luck in your new unit."
She brushed past him on her way out of the Crew's Mess, the delicate
smell of her hair lingering in her wake.
"Good bye, Akane," he returned, not daring to look back at her.
She kept up a brave front until she was out on the tarmac and walking
towards the ship's truck from the _Palomino._ Then the tears started to fall,
and she had to stop for a moment to compose herself before her driver, Tad,
saw her. She was the leader of the expedition now, and a leader had to be
strong for her people, no matter what she felt inside.
She had botched her last chance with Ranma by getting mired in a
confrontation with him. She had meant to be concilliatory, but the moment
she had seen him so happy in his new unit, a feeling of jealousy and
resentment had come over her that she could not contain. She could only
blame herself for losing him, and the anguish that realization caused her
sent hot teardrops spilling towards the pavement.
The pain of loss and guilt stabbed at her as she wiped away the tears,
and took the last few steps to the truck. She would move on without him. She
had to go on. If Tad noticed her distress, he gave no sign of it. Managing a
fresh voice, she instructed him to take her back to ship. He had the sense
not to ask where Ranma was.
Chapter Four
The Wardroom, DropShip _Lionheart_
The Wardroom was crowded by the time Ranma found it. The ship's officers,
along with the regimental headquarters staff, the three battalion commanders
and their company and lance/platoon level commanders, and their aerospace and
scout detachments, were present. Ranma was surprised to see several officers
from units he and Pop had been members of in the past. To his delight, he
remembered them as good commanders, not necessarily bright or gifted
tacticians, but dedicated men and women who looked after their people and
took pride in getting the job done right.
Major Beauregard caught him before he could get too far into the room.
He was a heavyset man edging past middle age now, though his jowly face and
pugnacious nose were instantly recognized by Ranma.
"Saotome!" he called to him. "Come stand over here, son, where I can get
a good look at you!"
Ranma made his way past the other officers to reach his new superior.
"Scout Lieutenant Ranma Saotome, reporting as ordered, sir." He wanted
to make a good impression.
"Get a load of the kid," Beauregard cracked to a captain-ranked
mechwarrior as he tossed back a jaunty answering salute. "Son, you sure as
hell didn't learn those kind of manners from your father," he added to Ranma.
"Speaking of the lying, thieving cheat, where is he?"
"I'm on my own, now," Ranma replied.
Beauregard clapped him on the back. "Glad to hear it, son. Probably the
best decision you'll ever make in life." He turned back to the captain. "I
remember when Saotome here was thirteen. He and his dad signed on with Ford's
Regiment for the River Campaigns on New Rhodes..."
"Is this going to be another one of your 'no shit, there I was' stories?"
the captain asked, only half-joking.
"Do I have any other kind of story?" Beauregard riposted. "Anyways, no
shit, there I was, ass-deep in mud on the banks of the Palanquin River, just
north of the city. Ford's main line of attack had stalled, and he was looking
for a way around the network of defenses the Count of New Rhodes had set up
to stop him from getting over the river.
"So naturally, he called for his scouts to go out and take another look.
Now it was just me, the kid here, and his no-account father, and we were
testing the depths of the river and how soft its banks were to see if 'mechs
could get across without getting mired. Now as I said, I was ass-deep in mud
at the time, and with the strong current of the river, it didn't look good.
The Count must have opened up the flood control dams upstream to give us a
hard time of it.
"We had already surveyed about ten klicks upstream from Ford's positions,
and there didn't seem to be much chance of making a crossing. The Count's
people held the bridges, and it looked like he was going to have to take them
the hard way, knowing his enemy would blow them if it looked like he might be
successful."
Beauregard clapped Ranma on the back again. Ranma, who was lost in the
recollections of that day, nearly bowled over.
"And that's when the boy here spots something we missed," the major
remarked. "There was this big, rusty flat-bottomed barge coming down the
river, and sure as shit, it goes right to this little finger pier on the
other side of the river which Ranma had spotted." He gestured to Ranma.
"Now the way you see him here, he's got a little meat on his bones, but back
then he was this stringy little fuck who looked like the wind might blow him
away if he wasn't tied down to something. Strong as hell, but damn, you could
play the xylophone on his ribs every time he inhaled."
Beauregard nudged him in the side as he said this, making Ranma blush
uncontrollably. He certainly didn't remember himself looking like that!
"So Ranma here says to us, 'I'll swim across the river, and steal the
barge. We can float downstream a bit to meet up with the regiment, and they
can use it as a ferry for the 'mechs to get across the river and take the
bridges from both sides at once.'
"Now Genma and I laughed, 'cause we both thought there was no way he
could even swim the fuckin' river, what with the distance to the far bank
being a little farther than a Wasp could jump, plus the strong current,
much less overpower the barge operators and steal the damn thing. But just
to show us up, he strips down to his underwear and jumps in the water.
"He's more than halfway across the river, strugglin', but hackin' it,
when an infantry patrol about squad size spots him from a low hill on the
opposite bank. I don't know what made them think he was an enemy, maybe
they were just bored and needed to shoot something, but they started openin'
up on the kid with rifles and light machine guns when he's still got about
fifty meters left to reach the opposite bank."
By this time Ranma had noticed that the other conversations in the
crowded Wardroom had ceased, and that everyone, including Colonel Ryuu,
was listening to Beauregard's story. The major, knowing that he was playing
to a much larger audience, raised his voice slightly to be heard.
"Now if'n it had been me out in the river, I woulda hightailed it outta
there and swam back the way I came. But not Ranma. The little sumbitch just
swims harder, bullets kickin' up big plumes of water around him where they're
skippin' across the river at him. Genma gets pissed that they're shootin' at
his kid, breaks out with his Twenty, and starts shootin' back. A couple APEX
rounds from his 20mm catch the squad's attention, and they start tradin' fire
across the water with us from about two hundred meters. A few of 'em keep
taking potshots at Ranma here, but the heat's off, and he keeps going.
"So he gets to the far bank, runs down the pier, kicks the crap outta
the barge operators, and drags the skipper back to the boat to make him
drive the thing. Before the grunts on the hill even know what's going on,
he's got that pig moving out into the river and headed downstream to Ford's
lines. We kept up a little fire to keep the squad busy, then we got the
hell outta there ourselves."
Major Beauregard looked at Ranma with a stern nod of approval. "The
kid's stupid, stubborn, and brave. A bad combination, but I'm glad he's
here. Maybe without his dad around I can teach him some sense."
"Did it all work out?" the question came from Colonel Kumon Ryuu, a
man only a little older than Ranma, with a dark brooding expression on
his face that spoke of a great tragedy in his past.
"Well sir," Beauregard said to his commanding officer. "Saotome here
got the barge down to Colonel Ford's lines, and they were able to put a
fast-attack 'mech company on the other side of the river before the Count
knew what was up. We took the bridges, but in the end it didn't matter.
One of the Count's men knifed him in the back while we was takin' the
bridges, and our employer called us off the attack - seeing as how he was
next in line for the Count's seat, he had just been elevated, and the
planet was now rightfully his. It took a week or so, but the diplomats
and the lawyers worked out the transfer of power, while we cooled our
heels."
Colonel Ryuu nodded silently. He knew all about the power politics
in the Federated Shiratori since the Cult of Azusa came into existence,
and the old order of things had been turned upside down. He knew painfully
well how the nobility had been split into two factions; those who opposed
the Cult's malign influence and were stripped of their holdings in battles
like the River Campaigns, and those who supported Empress Azusa and her
rabid followers, and reaped the rewards of their loyalty.
"I'm glad to have a man like you in my service," he said to Ranma.
He looked about his officers, taking them each in turn under his gaze.
"You're all good men and women," he said to them. "I wouldn't have hired
you if you weren't."
The officers accepted his compliment with proper silence.
"Our first assignment is two-fold:" he continued. "Our infantry and
armored units are still getting up to speed, so when we reach the planet
Dray, I want them to concentrate on training. We have a lot of raw recruits
to work with, and I expect all of you to get them proficient.
"I know there has been talk of sending our 'mech assets out on a raid.
Let me confirm this now. You'll get the full brief after we leave the system,
but for now understand that this is a punitive raid, fast and hard. I'm not
looking for salvage, but if you can get it without endangering the mission,
do what you can."
He gave his 'mech commanders hard looks. "We're getting paid for this,
but this is also very *personal.* Scorched earth, gentleman. I expect nothing
less."
Ranma nodded with the rest of the officers. He wanted to be with the
raiding party, not training a bunch of scrubs, and figured that Beauregard
would want him there too. As the Officer's Call went on, he was thankful
for Beauregard's war story. It had recalled a time when he had done something
important on his own, and he saw how it had placed him in good standing with
the rest of the Wardroom. They knew they could trust him under fire, that he
would get the job done.
His initial anxiety at finding acceptance within the regiment passed.
He was in. With Beauregard's help, he was one of them, and he was determined
to earn that acceptance himself at the first opportunity.
He watched the clock as it ticked towards 20:00. He would be commited
to Ryuu's Rangers in just a short while.
A pang of regret bit into him at the thought, and he fought it down.
He was doing the right thing by leaving the expedition. All he had ever
done was cause them discord. Akane was in charge now, which gave him mixed
feelings, but he decided that it was better that way too. At least she
wouldn't let Pop try to cheat and steal from them anymore. My place is
here, he told himself.
Now if he could only make himself believe that...
* * *
Akane Tendo watched as the DropShips of Ryuu's Rangers soared aloft
on brilliant columns of plasma fire into the midnight sky. The rumble of
their drives filled the air, and a hot wind blew through her hair. Ranma
was gone.
Mister Saotome had been livid when he learned of Ranma's refusal to
return, forcing her to have him restrained before he did something stupid
like march over to the _Lionheart_ to have it out with him. She was
starting to understand that her relationship with him was going to be a
rocky one, and that she might never be able to return command of the
expedition to him.
The DropShips faded high above her into a constellation of bright
blue-white stars. She watched them slowly dim in the sky, feeling an
emptiness inside her that time itself could not seem to fill. In spite
of her sorrow and regret at his departure, she wished him well, and hoped
that one day she might see him again.
"He's gone, isn't he?" a voice, Doctor Tofu's, said to her.
She turned to find that he had joined her on the tarmac near the
Phoenix Hawk LAM, his eyes cast up to the sky and the departing DropShips.
"I'm afraid so," she replied softly.
"I don't know what I can say to make this any easier for you," the
Doctor said to her. "I know how you felt about him."
She blushed, thankful for the night to conceal it from him.
"That's not something I can afford to think about right now," she
replied. "I have to put him behind me for the sake of the mission. The
Confederation is depending on us."
Tofu placed a warm, reassuring hand on her shoulder. "That's all very
true," he agreed. "But I know that it's hurting you. If you need someone
to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, I'm always there."
Akane touched the hand upon her for a moment before turning and
giving him a hug.
"I'll do that," she said quietly. "Thank you, Doctor, for all you've
done for me."
Tofu nodded in her embrace. "You should get back aboard the ship,"
he said to her. "It's late, and we have a lot to do tomorrow."
She released him and took a step back. "I will," she returned. "But
first I want to say good bye to him one more time."
Tofu bowed his head for her.
"Good night, Akane."
"Good night, Doctor Tofu."
She watched the doctor return to the DropShip. It had been through
her time with Ranma that she had been able to let go of her crush on Doctor
Tofu. She had lost the handsome physician as a potential lover, and gained
him instead as a friend and a source of invaluable counsel. As she stood on
Tiber, with the Confederation still in danger, she was glad to have him the
way he was.
It wasn't easy for her to approach the Phoenix Hawk LAM as it squatted
in Airmech Mode upon the tarmac. She felt that Ranma's will, which had
coursed through the battlemech's circuitry over a week ago, continued to
linger like a revenant. With an unsteady hand she touched the armor plate
of the fuselage, the aligned crystal steel cool and unyielding, the smell
of the paint still fresh in the air from the repairs, and was convinced
that his fiery spirit actually was infused in the LAM, refusing to leave.
You should have taken this, Ranma, she thought to herself. I know the
reasons why you left it behind, but you could do far more good with it than
it will ever do sitting here without you. The last man other than Ranma to
fly this Phoenix Hawk LAM had been her grandfather, Grand Duke Kentaro Tendo,
a man she barely remembered from her childhood, but who had been revered
throughout the Confederation as a daring mechwarrior. For all of his faults,
Ranma would have been a worthy successor to her grandfather.
She climbed up the boarding ladder to the cockpit where he had sat
in that fateful duel with Yuka and Sayuri. The salty smell of the sea
surprised her as she settled into the ejector seat, as did the faint smell
of sweat that could only have been Ranma's. Her hands closed over the
throttle and stick as his would have done, the surfaces gently worn with
age to the point where she could feel exactly where his fingers would have
rested, and she pictured the smile he would have had on his face as he tore
a path straight into the sky.
She had known of his love of flying since that first morning on Capra,
when he had taken her along for a trip in the Boomerang. It was true that
his father had ordered him to take her along, just as it was true that by
the end of their flight he'd had no regrets about doing it. He had taught
her the rudiments of piloting, and then trusted her to take the controls
and show him what she had learned. She cherished those brief moments that
he had given her.
It seemed that all they had together were brief moments. Most of the
time they were busy with other things, and always there was the engagement
that hung over them, forcing them together when they hardly knew the other.
Was it any surprise that their relationship had ended the way it had? She
knew the answer, and yet always in her mind she replayed their disastrous
encounter aboard the _Lionheart,_ looking for a way that she could have
salvaged the moment.
Could she have stopped him from going with the Rangers if she had
told him that she was in love with him?
She honestly did not know the answer to that question. Knowing him,
it could have frightened him away from her that much faster. If such a
confession had brought him back, would it have only been out of guilt?
She didn't want him coming back out of guilt. She wanted him to choose
her.
That's what it came down to, she realized. I wanted Ranma to choose
me, because that would have eliminated all the doubts I have about my
feelings for him. I needed him to validate my love, and he didn't. He
left me.
The urge to put her fist through the cockpit display seized her,
and she had to fight it back with all her will. Getting angry hadn't
solved anything with Ranma, it had just made things worse. She couldn't
afford to make any more mistakes like that.
She understood all the reasons for him leaving her, and they made
sense. She couldn't deny that he had made valid points for his reasons,
but in the end, when she had asked him if she had been the one who had
driven him away, he had said yes. She couldn't escape the fact that she
had pushed him away, out of anger, jealousy, and... fear.
Fear was such a powerful component of her feelings for him. She had
been afraid that he would take the 1st Nerima Guards from her. She was
afraid that he and his father were frauds, bilking the Confederation for
all they could get. She feared that he loved Ukyou, and felt nothing for
her. All of these fears had seemed so real, and yet now that he was gone,
she awoke to the fact that none of them were justified. Even the fear
that he felt nothing for her wasn't true, she had seen it in his eyes
and heard it in his voice when she called off the engagement.
If only she had one more chance with him, she lamented. I wouldn't
waste it.
"Hey, Tomboy," Ranma'a voice growled up at her from the tarmac.
"You're gonna need a few more flying lessons before you're ready for
that thing."
Akane turned and looked down at him, not believing her eyes.
"RANMA!"
She threw herself out of the cockpit, landing in his stunned embrace,
and hugging the stuffing out of him.
"You're supposed to be gone!" she cried. When he didn't immediately
respond, she realized that it was because he wasn't able to breathe. She
released him reluctantly, afraid that he might vanish before her eyes if
she did.
"Yeah well, I changed my mind," he replied as soon as he was able.
She could feel the heat blazing from his face after their embrace. "A guy
can do that, you know."
She looked away shyly, almost ashamed with her outburst of joy at
his return, and yet thrilled with the way Ranma had been nearly overcome
by it.
"What about your commission with Ryuu's Rangers?"
He made a dismissive gesture, but she could see how much it had cost
him to let it go. "No big deal," he replied. "I told 'em what was up with
you and me. Nothing about Ryuugenzawa of course, but hell, one of their
Recruiters had already figured us out by then. Colonel Ryuu didn't want
to do it, but Beauregard persuaded him to agree. They said I'm welcome
back anytime I want."
Akane didn't know who this Beauregard fellow was, but she blessed him
anyway. "I don't want to know how it is that you've come back, Ranma," she
said to him. "I'm just glad that you are."
Ranma hunched his shoulders in a half-shrug. "Yeah well, I gave up
a lot to do it. I had a pretty good feeling about those guys. With a little
luck, they're gonna be big."
"I know what that commission meant to you, Ranma," she told him. "I
really do. I know how proud you were to get it."
He gave her a guarded look. "Look, let's get one thing straight: I'm
back, but things are gonna be different between us from now on. I'm not
doing this for Duke and Country anymore. I want to be paid for my services."
She frowned at him, her temper rising in spite of the joy she felt at
his return. It took a moment for her to collect herself, and to look at the
situation from his point of view. She sensed that there was more to it than
what he had said. It seemed like he was looking for a way to save face for
himself.
"I'd be happy to pay you," she replied with a sly smile, "but I'm not
interested in hiring any more mercenaries. They're too unreliable."
Ranma blinked twice. "So what are you getting at?"
"I'm offering you a commission in the Confederation Army," she said.
"Are you interested?"
He was not prepared for her offer, but he replied warily. "What kind
of commission are we talking about?"
"Regular Army," she returned. If she was going to have him, she was
really going to have him. No reserve commissions! "How does Mechwarrior
Captain sound?"
"R-Really?" he squeaked, and then the wariness returned. "You aren't
just giving me captain's rank to make me feel better about giving up being
a lieutenant are you?"
"Ranma," she returned, feeling her self-confidence rise. "I'm offering
you captain's rank because I think you're worth it, and for no other reason."
He relaxed slightly, then grinned. "Hell, as long as you're offering
me what I'm worth, you might as well make me a colonel!"
She returned his look with one of gentle reproach. "I think 'captain'
sounds about right."
"Okay," he agreed good-naturedly. He seemed to enjoy the verbal
sparring between them as they hashed out the particulars of his return to
the expedition. "So far so good, but what are my terms of service? These
things usually carry a minimum commitment before you can resign."
"I'll make it easy on you," she replied, her eyes sparkling. She knew
that she had him on the hook now, and that all she had to do was land him.
"Your minimum commitment of service will be until we find Ryuugenzawa.
After that, any requests to resign will be handled by the Army in the
usual fashion."
"Until we find Ryuugenzawa?" he asked haltingly. "That sounds awfully
open-ended to me."
"Take it or leave it," she told him with a faintly mocking grin.
He stepped back, and then circled slowly around her, his eyes cast
upwards as if in contemplation. "Gee, I don't know," he said in an
blustery voice as he circled her. "It sounds like I don't have much of
a choice..."
"Says the man who walked out on us a week ago without a 'mech or a
penny in his pocket," she returned, knowing that his protestations were
mostly a sham concocted for her benefit. "You left once... If you don't
like my offer, you can always look somewhere else again."
He hesitated, unsure if he should push his luck with her with
another smart remark.
"I'll sweeten the deal for you," she said at length. "You'll not
only hold captain's rank, but you'll also be my Lance Commander for the
expedition." She gave him another sly look. "That means you'll command
the Air Lance as well as the regular 'mech forces."
She could see that he approved. Her gesture had tacitly established
her feelings about Yuka and Sayuri's interference, and in his favor.
"Deal," he said finally. "Except there's just one more thing we need
to talk about."
"Name it," she replied, secretly pleased at how well she was handling
him.
He levelled his gaze at her.
"What about the engagement."
She didn't how to respond at first. "What exactly do you mean?"
"I'd just as soon not think about it," he said to her. "It makes
things too complicated between us."
Akane had to agree with that sentiment. Nothing drove a wedge between
them faster than their parents' stupid promise to unite the two families.
She loved the idiot, but she wasn't ready to marry him just yet. At least
not until she was certain of his feelings on the matter.
"Let's agree to set it aside for the moment," she said to him. "It
could be argued that we are still *technically* engaged, correct?"
He nodded.
"Then for now, let's just leave it that, a technicality to be resolved
when we return from Ryuugenzawa, and not before, okay?"
He nodded again, apparently pleased with her line of thought.
"Deal."
She stepped up close to him again, her eyes shining. "We can do the
official paperwork in the morning," she said to him quietly. "But I want
you to take the oath from me right now. There's no backing out of this
after you swear, Ranma."
He raised his right hand.
"I ain't gonna back outta something like this. Not to you. Now lay it
on me."
Right then and there, under the stars of the Tiber sky, she swore
him in as an officer of the Confederation Army, the first Saotome ever
to receive a commission from the country of his birth. It did not matter
that there were no other witnesses to this act, for as Ranma held his eyes
with hers while he repeated the oath, Akane knew that it was not actually
to the Confederation, but to her and her alone that he swore his fealty.
It was an oath that would always be just between the two of them.
Chapter Five
League of Five Nails JumpShip _Seisyun_
Capella System Zenith Jump Point
Capella System, the Nerima Confederation
24 April 3025
Tetsuo Gosunkugi thanked his lucky stars as the _Seisyun_ materialized
without incident at the Capella System Zenith Point. There were no guarantees
that Kuno's forces would honor his safe-conduct pass from Comstar, even at
the risk of a communications blackout by the enigmatic organization that
maintained the Inner Sphere's HPG network.
The pass itself had been difficult to wrangle, forcing him to make a
stop in the Sol System to speak with a member of the First Circuit. Comstar
had remained silent on the issue of the Combine's invasion of the Nerima
Confederation, and its seige of Capella. They were a neutral entity, and to
openly show favoritism to one nation over another was risky. It was only
after a promise by him to increase their service contract fees that Comstar
agreed to issue the pass.
The side-trip proved unnecessary, he learned, as the Confederation had
broken the siege - with a little help from Hikaru Gosunkugi and the League
of Five Nails, Tetsuo noted proudly. They controlled the Jump Points for the
moment, at least until such time as Prince Kuno stopped chasing Hikaru and
decided to return. It was up to Tetsuo now to secure the alliance between
the Confederation and the League - and shut out the Furinkan Combine for
good.
His prize hostage was the key to success. Shogun Kuno, though he was
completely insane, provided the leverage necessary to get his son Tatewaki
to end hostilities against both countries. The daimyo were getting restless
about his conduct of the war, and angry that he had left himself open for
such a daring invasion by the League. Kuno could ill-afford to let the Shogun
remain in League hands if he wanted to remain in command of the Combine's
armies.
As for Tetsuo, the sooner he turned over the Shogun to Grand Duke Tendo,
the better. Let the Duke negotiate the exchange with the Combine! He was sick
of the Shogun's neverending luau.
"Your Excellency, we have been granted permission to depart for Nerima
under armed escort."
Tetsuo looked away from the viewport to Captain Mariko Konjou, a petite
blonde completely dedicated to her duty, but as his spies reported, she had a
questionable affection for Combine Prince Tatewaki Kuno. If it was love,
Tetsuo knew, it was an unrequited love. Mariko was otherwise a sterling
example of League Navy competence - even if she had a tendency to sometimes
spell out her orders in cheerleader fashion.
"Thank you, Captain," he replied. "When will the escort ship arrive on
station?"
Mariko inclined her head towards the viewport.
"They're right off our starboard beam at a distance of five thousand
kilometers."
Tetsuo looked out the viewport again. There was nothing out there but
stars.
"Where?" he finally asked her.
She floated over to his position and pointed out the viewport for him.
He followed the graceful sweep of her arm, down the tip of her extended index
finger, to a spot where the stars winked out of existence for a moment before
sparkling back to life.
"A WarShip?" he asked her. He knew the Confederation had a few left,
all of low displacement of course, but he had never seen one of them up
close. For good reason, all of the Successor States guarded their handful
of remaining WarShips jealously.
"The NCWS _Tautog,_" she confirmed. "Balao Class corvette."
He shrugged, knowing little of ship classes, but appreciative of the
Confederation ship's menace.
"Make preparations for my DropShip's separation," he ordered calmly.
"Have Shogun Kuno and his party moved to their quarters aboard." Let Nabiki
deal with *them* for awhile, and see how quickly her smug look went away!
"Already done, your Excellency," Mariko replied.
Tetsuo smiled nervously. In a few days he would face the greatest
diplomatic challenge of his career. He could not fail, the future of the
entire Inner Sphere hung in the balance!
* * *
Furinkan Combine WarShip _Imperator_
Gamma Draconis System Nadir Jump Point
Gamma Draconis System, the Furinkan Combine
24 April 3025
General Prince Tatewaki Kuno found little solace in the round of
morning exercises taken aboard his flagship, for he was a man suffering
many indignities of the flesh and spirit.
His fleet had failed day after day to destroy the upstart Gosunkugi and
his forces - who plagued the Combine border march near the Commonwealth with
criminal tenacity. No sooner would he receive word of a raid on one of his
systems and send his fleet hither, than the curs would flee from him, and
deny him satisfaction. The conflict so close to the border had aroused the
Amazons, as he had feared, and now he faced the threat of pre-emptive strikes
by them to blunt an anticipated invasion by the Combine.
The shrill witches knew better, of course, but they were not going to
allow this opportunity to snap at his heels pass them by. It was to their
advantage to keep his army from their rightful conquest of the Confederation.
He expected them to employ such base measures to check his ambitions.
"Curse you, Hikaru Gosunkugi, for the thorn thou hast been in mine
own side," he muttered to himself. He knelt before his portraits of Akane
and the Pig-Tailed Girl in contemplation of their beauty and charm, but his
thoughts turned ever towards the destruction of his foe. The hated name of
the foul sorceror, Ranma Saotome, had scarcely crossed his lips these days,
as he directed his wrath towards the scion of House Gosunkugi.
His failure to succeed was all the more infuriating to him because he
knew that his was the superior force, in numbers and in skill. Only through
treachery had he been defeated; the treachery of Gosunkugi, of his sister
Kodachi, by her ninja manservant Sasuke, he even suspected Nabiki of having
some hand in this!
Tatewaki took a calming breath and continued his reflection upon the
virtues of his two loves. Even as he compared the buxom delight of the Pig-
Tailed Girl to the savage beauty of Akane Tendo, dark thoughts of his
failures haunted him, denying him what little joy he could derive from the
contemplation of the Inner Sphere's two most beautiful women.
He slammed a fist down upon the tatami matting of his personal chambers.
Damn the Gosunkugis and their hated League! A pox on them all!
Since the cur Gosunkugi would not stand and fight, he had to find some
other way to drive him from the Combine. The Confederation, seizing upon his
distraction, had already liberated the Capella System from his forces, and
he faced another wearisome battle to occupy it. Gosunkugi could not be
allowed to strike at him from the dark while he was joined in battle for
Capella.
They had to be stretching their supply lines thin, he reasoned at length.
To continue these incessant raids meant the expenditure of fuel, ammunition,
food, and other materiel. Perhaps the solution to his problem was not to face
them on every front, but to starve them until they were forced into retreat.
He visualized a chart of the local space. It would mean delaying his
return to Capella, but he had the ships and the troops to heavily garrison
every system within one Jump of the border with the League. If he called up
reserves from within the interior, he would have enough left over to give
him a mobile strike force to keep them busy.
Yes, he thought with barely-restrained glee, drive them on, yet deny
them the things they need to continue. Sooner or later, Gosunkugi must
withdraw his forces to the League for resupply. I shall await him in a
system over the border that he thinks is safely his, and then I, Tatewaki
Kuno, the Blue Thunder of the Furinkan Combine, shall have him!
* * *
League of Five Nails JumpShip _Impaler_
Shiro System Nadir Point
Shiro System, the Furinkan Combine
24 April 3025
Hikaru Gosunkugi looked over the reports his Army Group Headquarters
staff had piled up on his desk. Auguries he had cast on the subject agreed.
The conclusions reached were the same no matter how many times he factored
in the variables. At the present rate of materiel expenditure, his forces
would become non-effective within two weeks.
The problem was his logistical support. His forces were constantly on
the move, striking the Combine in lightning raids that burned reaction mass
for his fighters and DropShips, expended ammunition for combat, and consumed
food and medical supplies at a prodigious rate. The maintenance needs of
his ships and battlemechs also used up his stores of vital spare parts,
causing his troops in the field to spend precious escape time scavenging
as much as they could before fleeing the battlefields.
He had requested additional stores to be sent to the border between
the League and the Combine, but it would take time to assemble them, and he
didn't want such a valuable stockpile of supplies sitting in one place for
an ambitious general in his army to steal, or a Combine or Confederation
force to raid and destroy. He would have to see to it personally that the
supplies reached his fleet intact, a task he did not look forward to.
At first he had enjoyed the cat-and-mouse games he played against
Tatewaki Kuno. It was a thrill to have the most powerful general in the
Inner Sphere running around chasing his tail. Even his parents approved of
his current campaign, and had rescinded their order for him to return to
Angbad. But without his cousin and confidant, Tetsuo, around, the adventure
seemed to wane for him.
It was good that Tetsuo had departed as he did, for his was the most
important assignment he had ever been given. An alliance between the League
of Five Nails and the Nerima Confederation would do more than guarantee the
security of both nations, it would set in motion a combined series of
alliances that would pit the entire Inner Sphere against the Combine. The
Federated Shiratori was a strong trading partner of the Confederation as
well as a foe of the Combine, and the League was the Commonwealth's ally.
All four states together could check the ambitions of Tatewaki Kuno and
bring a measure of stability the Inner Sphere had not known since the
exhausted general truce following the Second Succession War.
Better still in Hikaru's mind, a wedding between himself and Akane
Tendo would create a state nearly as large as the Furinkan Combine, and
provide a measure of leverage within the combined alliance that would
assure the primacy of the newly constituted Confederated-League. This was
the task the stars had given him, he was certain. This was the way he would
take Akane for his bride, as the oracles had foretold.
END OF PART NINETEEN