-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: TSG-26.txt
"It looks like we ain't ever getting off this mudball," Ranma said,
fingering the collar insignia that marked him as a Mechwarrior Captain
of the Nerima Confederation. "No chance of ever passing the paperwork on
to higher authority, so what's the point?" He threw the collar device away,
glittering in a slow arc as it fell to the grassy field far below them.
"So we made it to Ryuugenzawa. Screw it. I resign anyway."
Akane was speechless. When she finally found her voice, it was
tremulous and weak.
"I-I refuse to accept that," she said to him.
"Get used to disappointment," he returned. "Maybe you'll understand
me better that way."
He sprang to his feet, startling her with his swiftness, and stepped
past her to drop down the dorsal hatch.
She raced after him. "You swore an oath!" she cried.
"So what if I did?" he retorted from the bottom of the ladder.
"You didn't just swear it to the Confederation," she returned, her
voice cracking with emotion. "You swore it to ME...!"
He looked up at her, his blue-grey eyes trembling.
"Let's get one thing straight between us. I didn't betray you, Akane,"
he said in a quiet voice that she somehow heard crystal clear over the din
of the repairs. "You betrayed me..."
___________________________________________________________________________
J. Austin Wilde and Fission Park Press proudly present:
BATTLETECH: THE SAOTOME GAMBIT
PART TWENTY-SIX
by J. Austin Wilde
Safety Control Rod Axe Man,
Fission Park Press
wildeman@gci-net.com
http://www.gci-net.com/users/w/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 Five contains sexually explicit material,
so if you are not eighteen years of age, or if you
have some kind of neurotic aversion to sex, you
can just skip to the last scene break.
___________________________________________________________________________
Chapter One
Nerima Confederation DropShip _Palomino_
Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System
The Magistracy of Canopus
14 June 3025
"What are you talking about?" Akane demanded. "How did I betray you?"
Ranma started walking away. "If you can't figure it out by yourself,
then there ain't no point in me pulling teeth to explain it."
Akane jumped down the ladder to catch him.
"That's right, Ranma!" she challenged. "Just run away! It's what you're
good at, isn't it?!"
He tossed her a casual wave, not even looking back.
"Coward!" she spat at him.
He froze up at her accusation, then turned slowly to face her.
"Says who," he grunted.
"I do," she retorted. "You might be brave on a battlefield, Ranma, but
whenever something comes between us, all you ever do is run away. You don't
have the guts to face me and answer a simple question."
The pained expression on his face told her that her barb had hit the
mark. Would he keep running? she asked herself in that moment, wanting the
jerk to show some spine, and fearing that he would disappoint her once
again. She didn't want to chase him off, and yet she felt that he needed
a good kick in the ego if he was ever going to grow up.
More than anything, she wanted to hear that she was important to him,
that the reason he was so out of sorts was because he was hurting inside at
something she had done or said. Even if she was the cause of it, at least
it meant that he felt the same way about her as she felt about him. She
wanted so badly for Ranma to love her that his hostility was tearing her
apart.
"I just want you to be happy," he said at length.
Akane stiffened at his cryptic reply.
"How is resigning your commission supposed to make me happy?" she
demanded. "Don't you realize how proud you've made me because you accepted
it?"
His expression shifted from defiant to ashen-faced. Akane wanted an
answer from him, but the words kept spilling from her lips.
"I don't know what I did or said to make you so angry with me, Ranma,
but I apologized," she went on, her voice beginning to crack again. "Why
can't you forgive me?"
Ranma looked away.
"You wouldn't understand," he muttered.
"Explain it to me!" she pleaded. "I'll listen!"
"No!" he shouted, anger seeping back into his voice. "I can't explain!
It ain't that easy! It's better if you just forget it, all right?!"
She took a step back from him, edging against the cold steel ladder
that led up through the dorsal hatch.
"It's not all right, Ranma," she said quietly, her eyes fixed at her
feet. "And I can't just forget it. All I want is a simple answer. You say
I've betrayed you. Then you say that you just want me to be happy. You say
all these things, and yet nothing else you've done or said since we returned
to the _Palomino_ has made any sense to me."
"There ain't any simple answers!" he retorted, his voice beginning to
crack as well. "*I* don't even understand all this, so how can I explain
it to you?!"
"You could start by talking to me instead of shouting!" she riposted,
her pensive demeanor flashing into outrage. Her hands balled up into fists
as she started towards him.
Ranma stood his ground. How the hell was he supposed to explain anything
to her when he didn't understand how he felt?! Six months ago everything had
been so simple in his life. It was true that he was broke, Dispossessed, and
a fugitive from the Jusenkyo Commonwealth, but at least then he knew where
everything stood.
The moment Akane had been forced upon him, all that had changed. What
little comforting certainty in his life had been turned upside down, and
for what? He had a fiancee that didn't want to marry him, a responsibility
to her that never seemed to end, and a host of enemies because of it. For
what? he asked himself again.
He had risked his life for her over and over.
He had killed for her.
That was part of his turmoil, he knew. As a mechwarrior in an age of
constant war, death was an unavoidable part of the job, one that he had
been taught to accept. Before losing the family 'mech, he had racked up
four victories against aerospace fighters, and only one of those pilots
had bailed out. He had destroyed two battlemechs, with neither mechwarrior
opting for survival if it meant joining the ranks of the Dispossessed. He
could accept that they had chosen to stay and die with their crippled
battlemechs - that was their decision, not his. He could accept that fate
had ended a pilot's life with the sudden brilliance of an exploding fuel
cell, or an ammunition explosion, or that one unlucky beam that penetrated
the cockpit armor. They had chosen to play the dangerous game of mechanized
warfare, and they had known the risks.
As a martial artist, however, he had a responsibility to limit his use
of force to the minimum of what was necessary to resolve a conflict. The
ascending ladder of force ingrained into him as a youth: take no violent
action when peaceful means were available; fight to contain rather than
injure; injure rather maim; maim rather than kill; and take a life only
when no other response was effective or prudent - these tenets had existed
in an uneasy cohabitation with the reality of combat using giant war
machines and weapons that could not be recalled once released.
That same uneasy cohabitation in which he had lived his life came
apart the moment he had seen Akane beaten with the butt of a rifle. The
homicidal impulses that had flowed within him had been no blind fury, but
a cold and very personal hatred. Though there was no conscious debate over
the matter as he rushed down the hill, he had come immediately to an
inescapable moral certainty that those men did not deserve to exist for
what they had done to Akane.
Now he had three more lives called to their accounts because of him,
and all for a girl who had thrown herself at some other guy the moment
the dust had settled. Six months ago, he wouldn't have cared, but now...
He froze up as Akane approached him. He couldn't say that he didn't
care anymore. He might deny it to her, but he couldn't deny it to himself.
If she was bossy, hot-tempered, and unfeminine at times, she was also the
closest thing he ever had to a friend. Not even Ryouga, with his on-again
off-again rivalry, had come close to being the friend that Akane was. She
mattered to him; her happiness and well being had become the most important
things in his life - and she had rejected him and everything he had ever
done for her sake over some clown she had known for what, four days?
He had every right to be angry with her. The betrayal was hers, not
his, and as for his oath, what good was it when given to a person who had
so heartlessly cut down the trust that had grown up between them?
Akane was uncomfortably close to him now, her eyes boring into him as
she looked up at him. It was easy to stew over what she had done to him,
but explain it to her? He couldn't even explain to himself why he let it
hurt him so much!
Doctor Tofu had admonished him to be honest with his feelings, first
to himself and then to Akane, but that was easier said than done. Even if
he understood his feelings for her, what kind of idiot would set himself
up to get slammed like that? Akane had chosen, and it hadn't been him.
What he felt didn't matter any more.
It didn't matter, he realized. That made what he had to say a little
easier.
"It's like I told you," he began. "I just want you to be happy. If
this Shinnosuke guy makes you happy, then I can live with that. Just don't
ask me to like it."
Akane was dumbfounded for a moment.
"W-What are you saying, Ranma?" she asked him.
Ranma rubbed the back of his neck anxiously. "I'm just saying that
if you want me to, I'll step aside." He closed his eyes, not daring to
look at her. "If he means that much to you, I won't get in the way. We've
still got a lot of work to do here if we want to survive, so it ain't like
I'm leaving again. I just can't be your Lance Commander anymore."
A long silence passed between them before Akane spoke.
"I can't believe you're saying this, Ranma. Do you really mean it?"
He bit down on his lip, his eyes cast to the deck.
"Yeah."
Another silence passed between them.
"You are a complete idiot," she said to him tonelessly.
Ranma bristled, the rollercoaster of emotions he was on lurching
from total surrender to attack.
"Whatever," he growled back. "Maybe I should go find Ukyou. What do
you care, right?"
Akane stabbed a finger into his chest. "Do you really think that I'm
in love with Shinnosuke after everything that we've been through together?!"
She shouted this at him, at last understanding what was bothering Ranma, and
furious that he would think so little of their friendship to come up with
something so stupid.
"It sure as hell looks that way," he shot back, leaning into her
stabbing finger to practically yell it in her face.
"That's impossible!" she cried angrily, thrusting her face right back
in his.
"Oh yeah!?" he roared, his eyes just centimeters from hers. "Tell me
why it's so goddammned impossible!"
She shoved him away with both hands, slamming him roughly into the
opposite bulkhead. "Because, you moron! The only guy I happen to be in
love with is YOU!"
Ranma could only stare slack-jawed at her as he slid down the bulkhead
to the deck.
"Akane -- y-you... you love me?"
She whirled away from him, her face flushed and her breathing coming
in huffs. "Don't ask me why," she added, her voice full of heartache.
"Because I should probably have my head examined for feeling this way." She
trembled with emotion, her fists shaking at her side. After some moments of
this, in which Ranma remained immobile and silent on the deck, she turned
her head to look over her shoulder at him. "Damn you, Ranma Saotome! You
are the only man in the universe who could make the way I feel about you
come out like an indictment!"
Ranma watched her storm off down the passageway, but did not try to
stop her for the simple expedient of his brain having seized.
* * *
Genma Saotome observed his son down on all fours, searching through
the grass surrounding the DropShip for something he had apparently lost.
"What do you think you're doing, boy?" he asked gruffly. "There are
a hundred more important things you could be doing right now than this."
Ranma glanced up at his father with a look that could have frozen
helium.
"I dropped something," he grunted. "Gonna make something of it, old
man?"
Genma blinked in surprise. "Tell me you didn't start wearing contact
lenses without informing me about it, boy," he growled. "I knew it was a
crap shoot that you inherit your mother's sharp eyes instead of my lousy
nearsighted ones, but you can't be going blind on me now!"
Ranma returned to his search. "Yeah well, don't sweat it. I ain't
looking for a contact lens."
Deciding that it was not worth his trouble to press the matter, Genma
shambled off, leaving his son to continue what he was doing.
Ranma watched his father go. He felt his defensive anger subsiding as
he returned to his task, replaced with a feeling of anxiety brought on by
his disastrous encounter with Akane. They had been in fights before, but
this one had ended in a way that none of the others ever had. For one thing,
he had never felt like such a heel as he did at that moment.
He was in uncharted waters now, and all because of a confession that
he had never imagined Akane would make to him. He tried to come to grips
with the simple, elegant fact before him, and found it anything but simple
or elegant.
Akane loved him.
A tingle of pride ran through him at the thought - pride and something
more. Yuka and Sayuri had been the first to point out Akane's true feelings
for him, but at the time there seemed to be little evidence to back up their
claims. Now, having heard it firsthand from Akane, he could no longer deny
the matter to himself.
He honestly did not know what to do about that. Love was something that
had always been an abstract to him, something that other people felt. His
life as an itinerant mercenary had little room for love, and in traveling
exclusively with his father for almost the entirety of his life, he had
never been able to assimilate the reality of love between two people the
way almost everyone else did: by observing and emulating their parents. He
could not even remember what his mother looked like most of the time, so
how was he supposed to remember how she and Pop lived together?
He marked it as yet one more failing in his father's attempt to raise
him. What were you supposed to do when someone was in love with you? More
importantly, how were you to know if you felt the same way?
He suspected that he did. There was nothing conclusive about the
matter, no heavenly chorus singing hosannas from on high, just a funny
feeling deep inside him that he felt the same way about Akane as she did
for him.
For one thing, he had never put someone's happiness ahead of his own
the way he had Akane's. He hadn't been kidding around when he said he
would step aside and let Shinnosuke have her - if that was what Akane
wanted. The thought of letting her go like that hurt; hurt more than he
imagined it was possible for a thought to hurt, but he was willing to do
it for her.
For another, he had never risked his life so carelessly for another
person before he met Akane. He was no stranger to peril, and a soldier
protected his buddies, but looking back on the things he had done for her
made him wonder if his head needed examining. Sane people did not take on
trained assassins unarmed, insult the de facto warlord of the Furinkan
Combine to his face, sneak into Goddess Empress Azusa's Collection of
Cute, or drive their battlemechs to fiery oblivion to save a person's
life.
For that matter, what was a normal person doing on his hands and
knees, scrabbling through the grass looking for a worthless piece of
metal he had just thrown away? - Now THAT was an epiphany, one that
made his head swim as he searched vainly through the grass.
Was love really a form of insanity? he wondered. Do I really love
Akane, or am I just plain nuts?
The truth was that he didn't know the answer to that question. If
the question had been put to him another way, such as which was worse;
being in love with Akane Tendo, or being absolutely bonkers, he still
wouldn't have an answer, and wouldn't be entirely convinced that being
in love with Akane didn't automatically mean that he was bonkers.
He halted his search for a moment at another striking thought. If
being in love with Akane was really just another way of saying that he
was nuttier than a fruitcake, was being crazy really so bad? He had to
admit to himself that even a smile from her made him feel lightheaded
sometimes. To get a hug from her was practically overwhelming. A kiss...
He started to break out in a sweat. Kissing her was... well... he didn't
have words for that.
He wanted to feel that way again with her though, and if he didn't
find that lousy collar device, he was going to blow it for good. One thing
was for certain at this juncture in his exploration into the nature of
love, and that was that love made people do damn-stupid things.
"I've *gotta* be nuts for doing this," he grumbled aloud.
"You'll get no argument from me," Ryouga said suddenly from behind
him.
Ranma turned his head to see Ryouga standing there, watching him
root around in the grass.
"Don't ask," he said to the fanged mechwarrior.
Ryouga folded his arms across his chest. "Ask about what?" he
returned. "The fact that you're crawling around in the grass when
there's work to be done?"
Ranma's guarded expression soured considerably at this. "Don't get
me started, Ryouga. This is important."
Ryouga returned the look he was getting from Ranma. "If you say so. I
was just coming over to see if I could help."
"Ha! Don't make me laugh. I don't need to go looking for you as well.
With your sense of direction, you'd get lost and wander off in no time."
Ryouga narrowed his eyes at his rival. "Fine, Ranma." He brandished
a shiny piece of silver and brass between his fingers. "I guess you won't
be needing this..."
"Ryouga!" Ranma gushed. "Buddy! Pal! Old friend! Not so fast, man!
I was just kidding!"
The fanged mechwarrior snorted something under his breath and started
to leave.
"Hey, Ryouga!" Ranma cried in a pleading voice. "I apologize already!
Don't go, man!"
Ryouga Hibiki remained where he was for the moment, clearly enjoying
Ranma's grovelling. He tossed the collar device into the air absently, and
caught it with a similar ennui.
"I was going to ask you how you lost it," he said finally.
"Maybe I should ask how you found it," Ranma returned.
Ryouga shrugged again. "I was helping with the repairs along the
starboard side of the hull when I saw it fall out of the sky. At first I
thought you had simply dropped it."
Ranma remained silent, allowing Ryouga to continue.
"I just ran into Akane a few minutes ago, and she was upset, Ranma."
His eyes bored into his rival. "Usually when she gets upset, I don't have
to look any farther than you for the cause of it."
Ranma continued to remain silent, though the guilty look on his face
spoke volumes.
"That's when I realized that you hadn't dropped it," Ryouga went on,
the tone of his voice taking a harder edge. "You had thrown it away."
"It was a mistake, Ryouga," Ranma returned. "Can't you see that's why
I'm here, looking for the damn thing?"
Ryouga nodded slowly. "That's what I thought," he agreed. "That's why
I came to return it to you." He clenched the insignia in his fist. "At first,
I was coming to ram it down your throat."
Ranma stood up, ready for Ryouga to do just that.
"I want an honest answer from you, Ranma," he said in a low voice.
"And you'll give my collar device back to me?" Ranma countered.
"That depends on your answer. Will you tell me the truth when I ask?"
Ranma looked away for a moment.
"Lay it on me, Ryouga."
Ryouga crossed his arms at his chest. "I want to know if you really
care about Akane," he said, a question that did not surprise Ranma in
light of recent events. "I want to know if you love her the way that she
loves you."
Ranma stiffened.
"The truth?" he squeaked.
"The truth," Ryouga said tersely. "Don't lie to me, Ranma. That's all
I ask."
Ranma stood silent for some time.
"The truth... is that I don't know."
Ryouga's eyes crossed in a fury. "You call that the truth!?" he yelled.
"Do you or don't you love her!?"
"I said I don't know!" Ranma protested. "That's the goddamned truth!"
He threw up his hands and started pacing and gesticulating in front of
Ryouga. "You wanna ask me if I care about her - yeah! You wanna ask me if
I want her to be happy - yeah! You wanna ask me if I'd die to protect her
- hell yeah! You wanna ask me if I think she's the best thing that could
have ever happened to me - I'll even say 'yeah' to that!" He stopped cold,
turning slowly to look at his rival. "But ask me if I love her? Man, I
don't even know what that really means..."
He stood there for a moment, panting and trembling as he exhausted
himself with his struggle to define his feelings.
Ryouga nodded gravely and reached out to drop the collar device into
Ranma's hand.
"You get off this time," he said quietly. "But consider yourself
on notice, Ranma: you treat her right, or there'll be hell to pay."
"She's my fiancee, Ryouga," Ranma growled, grabbing him by the
collar of his shirt and lifting him up onto his toes. Ryouga glared
down at him, his body taut, but did not resist.
"She *is* your fiancee, Ranma," he agreed gruffly. "I accept that.
That's why I'm going to make sure that you don't hurt her like that again.
Akane doesn't deserve someone like that, so you're going to have to earn
her love every step of the way."
Ryouga's declaration took the fire out of Ranma, and he let his
rival down and released him. Ryouga brushed at his tunic absently,
seemingly unfazed by what had gone between them.
"I'm in love with Akari," he said to Ranma. "She's made me happier
in the last few months than I've felt in my entire life, and I'd never
give that up. But Akane will always have a special place in my heart,
and I won't let you or anyone else hurt her."
Ranma nodded wearily. He had come to learn just how closely tied
Akane's happiness and well-being was to his own. Hurting her had only
ever ended up hurting him as well. He didn't need Ryouga to tell him
that.
* * *
"Not that anyone listens to me," Doctor Tofu Ono complained lightly.
"But you shouldn't aggravate your wounds by moving around too much."
Shinnosuke sat up in the single bed that served Sickbay. His arm was
wrapped in a sling, and a bandage oozed blood and other fluids from the
wound in his shoulder. His clothes had been set aside for laundering,
leaving him clad only in a pair of olive drab shorts on loan from one of
the DropShip's crew.
"I'm a little sore in places, but otherwise I'm fine," he insisted. "I
need to contact my grandfather. I can't just lie in bed for two more days."
Tofu shook his head. "You'll fit in just fine around here," he lamented,
thinking about Ranma and Ryouga as he did so.
Akane stepped through the open door from the passageway, prompting both
men to look up at her. She seemed more than tired or out-of-sorts. She seemed
emotionally beaten.
"What is it, Akane?" Shinnosuke asked her.
"Are you feeling well?" Tofu added.
She nodded absently, taking the only available chair without a word.
The two remained silent while she composed herself to speak.
"I'm okay," she said finally. "Ranma and I just had another fight. I've
been walking around for the last thirty minutes trying to clear my head, and
I thought I'd stop by in here to say hello."
"Ranma?" Shinnosuke asked. "That girl who came to our aid in the
forest?"
"The same," Akane replied, knowing that the issue of Ranma's gender-
switching curse was bound to come up sooner or later, and unwilling to get
into the matter right away to explain it.
"I owe her a great deal," Shinnosuke observed. "I owe all of your
friends for what you've done for me."
"Think nothing of it," Tofu returned.
Shinnosuke looked around him, proud of the fact that he was sitting
inside a spaceship. It didn't matter to him that at the moment, the
_Palomino_ wasn't capable of going anywhere, it was a spaceship, and its
crew were people from other worlds. To a young man with hopeless dreams
of the stars, it was a miracle.
His eyes fell upon Akane again, and his buoyant mood was dispelled.
She and Ranma must have been good friends to let a fight get to her like
that.
"Is there anything I can do for you, Akane?" he heard Tofu ask her,
and winced at not being the first one to say something like that.
She cast Tofu a despairing look. "I don't think so, Doctor Tofu," she
replied. "Not this time."
"Maybe you need to get away for a little while," Shinnosuke suggested.
"I was just about to return to my grandfather's house and--"
"Oh no you don't!" Tofu admonished. "Your shoulder is bad enough, but
I don't want you walking for a hundred or so kilometers on that wounded leg."
"I agree, Shinnosuke," Akane added. "You're in no condition to travel."
Shinnosuke was about to protest this when a voice addressed them from
the door.
"He doesn't need to do much walking," Ranma said coolly. "With your
permission, Pop and I can fly the four of us there in the Boomerangs. That
is, if you want to come along, Akane."
Akane looked up at Ranma standing in the doorway to the Sickbay, and
instinctively prepared for another round of verbal brawling. At first she
didn't know what to make of him, or his curious offer. Then, as he stood
uncomfortably in the doorway, she realized why he was really there. It was
the glint of silver and brass at his neck. Pinned to his ubiquitous red
mandarin blouse was the collar insignia he had thrown away. His expression
was outwardly aloof, but she could see the apprehension that lurked behind
his blue-grey eyes.
The tension and heartache within her melted away, replaced with a
tremendous upwelling of love. She could forgive him a hundred times over
for not apologizing to her directly, for in their time together she had
come to understand that his pride would only allow him to show so much
humility, and certainly not in front of other people. The sight of the
collar device glittering on his blouse was all the apology she needed.
She closed her eyes, nearly overcome with emotion, but determined not
to make a scene. Ranma had made it clear with his unspoken apology that he
was hers, personally as well as professionally, and that as far as he was
concerned, the fight that had taken place atop the _Palomino_ had never
happened. It was a sentiment that she agreed with whole-heartedly, and the
regret and anxiety she had felt after confessing her love to him evaporated.
She opened her eyes and favored him with a sly and knowing smile that
told him that she knew exactly why he had come to see her in Sickbay, and
that he was forgiven for everything.
"That would be fine, Captain Saotome," she added warmly, just in case
the dope hadn't read her loving look the way he was supposed to. His faint
blush in return made her feel lighter than air. "I'll leave all of the
arrangements to you."
He straightened up and tossed her a jaunty salute. "Assuming Pop
decides not to go, I can get Sayuri or Yuka to fly the other plane. We
can be ready to go in two hours."
With that, he ducked out of sight, the sound of his slippers padding
on the linoleum deck matting fading into the indistinct buzz and hum of
the repair work.
"I guess things are better between you and Ranma now," Tofu observed
dryly.
Akane was too happy to notice the concerned look from Shinnosuke.
Chapter Two
NCWS _Tautog_
Ryuugenzawa System Zenith Jump Point
Ryuugenzawa System, the Magistracy of Canopus
14 June 3025
Nodoka Saotome floated weightlessly within the confines of _Tautog's_
Bridge, watching over the shoulders of the three techs and their supervisor
manning the ship's sensors. The three men and their female supervisor studied
their displays with silent intensity, sifting through mountains of visual
data for anything that might be of importance to the ship's mission. To an
untrained eye such as Nodoka's, there seemed to be little difference between
one pixel of colored light and another; it was inconceivable that she even
try to interpret the polychromatic muddle on the host of gas plasma displays
that dominated the Sensory station.
"What are they doing?" she asked the supervisor.
The middle-aged Chief Petty Officer looked up from her own panel to
answer the question. Nodoka was a personal friend of the Grand Duke, and
while His Grace was standing on the conn discussing matters with the skipper
and Captain Hauptmann, it fell to her to keep the woman occupied. She didn't
resent having to do it, but she did think it was an indulgence best enjoyed
when their situation wasn't so precarious.
"All three of my techs are monitoring important sections of the
electromagnetic spectrum through our passive arrays. Cheng listens to the
high frequency radio and microwave bands for any signs of communications,
automated telemetry equipment, or radar use; Phelps watches the infrared and
visible light bands for an active maneuver drive, or, if we're lucky, the
glint of sunlight off a distant ship hull; and Nomura looks after the X-ray
and low-energy gamma frequencies that would be emitted from plasma ejected
by a maneuver drive that might be too distant for Phelps to notice
effectively at his end of the spectrum."
Nodoka absorbed this in silence. While she had no experience in such
matters, it was all so fascinating. She felt in some way closer to her
husband and son by exposing herself to their world.
"So you're depending on data coming in from space in order to know
what's around us," she remarked.
"That's right," the Chief agreed. "We don't want to give away our
position by using our radar. So we 'listen' on the passive EMS arrays
and scan our telescopes for close visual contacts."
Nodoka pointed to the particularly busy display of the IR-VIS bands
monitored by Petty Officer Phelps.
"And you can tell what all that color means?" she asked him.
"It's not that hard," Phelps answered her. "I learned this board
sitting on my dad's knee when I was thirteen."
"I see," she replied, not quite certain if she should approve. "You
bring children aboard?"
"On training runs," the Chief answered quickly. "This ship and all the
other corvettes in the squadron are manned by the descendents of the original
crews from the end of the Star League. We're all family here, and unless we
have an aptitude for something else, we usually learn the jobs our parents
did. I sat in one of those chairs with my parents when I was thirteen. Both
my mother and father were Sensor Techs - from different ships, mind you -
so it was pretty obvious what I was going to do when I was old enough to
sign up with the Navy."
Nodoka nodded, seeing the wisdom of it. She felt that she now
understood something of Captain Hauptmann's motivations as well, for he
had undertaken the assignment of bringing Akane home with the hope that
she would rescind the order to scrap his ship out of gratitude for his
service.
It was one thing when a vessel was assigned to you by the government,
and quite another when you grew up on that ship, the ship at least one of
your parents had called home, and their parents and grandparents before
them. Though the _Tang_ technically belonged to the Nerima Confederation,
it really belonged to the dozens of families that had scrupulously cared
for it over the last two hundred years, men and women who were losing their
heritage and their legacy to a decision implemented by a cold, impersonal
bureaucracy for the simple expedient of saving money.
Hauptmann was risking his life for a chance to save his ship.
She turned her head to see him conferring with Soun, Kasumi, and the
commander of the _Tautog,_ Captain Olivera. She did not know the details of
their discussion, but she was certain that it had much to do with the fact
that the _Dragonfly_ was not at the Jump Point when they arrived in the
system.
Soun Tendo studied the small holotank representation of the system
at the conn with a deep frown. The JumpShip carrying his daughter and the
rest of the expedition was not at the Jump Point. Since they were unsure
if they had actually beaten the Furinkan Combine fleet to Ryuugenzawa, they
were reluctant to probe deeper into the system with their radar for a sign
of them.
"I don't think we have any choice but to proceed deeper in-system,"
Hauptmann remarked.
Olivera grunted thoughtfully, then sipped from his sealed mug of coffee
through a straw that was deeply stained with use.
"I concur, but I'm also concerned about the level of solar activity
this system's primary is putting out. Once we drop down into the ecliptic
plane, the interference will make it difficult for us to spot anything with
our passive sensors."
"That could work in our favor," Kasumi returned. "If the Combine fleet
*has* arrived before us, they would have a hard time detecting us as we
approached."
"I'd like to wait until we get a good-sized solar flare, one nice and
heavy with particles," Olivera said after another thoughtful sip. "We could
slip in behind it and ride it out from the sun."
"That shouldn't be too difficult to accomidate," the Astrogator said,
handing Olivera a report. "Based on my observations, that neutron star
companion should be swinging back around the primary to face the planet
as we speak. It'll kick up a few good blasts of matter and energy as it
continues its orbit."
"Dear me," Nodoka remarked as the three sensory stations began to
light up in one quadrant. Whatever had happened, it had stirred up a great
deal of energy across the electromagnetic spectrum.
The supervisor gave them a cursory inspection, satisfied with what
was happening, and reaching for her intercom mic.
"Conn, Sensory; Detecting intense solar activity at this time.
Estimated particle density reaching our position will be low."
Olivera watched the solar flare form on his sensory repeater display.
It was a monster all right, full of alpha particles and free hydrogen
that would smash into Ryuugenzawa's protective magnetic fields like a
runaway train. It would be invisible to the naked eye by the time it
reached the planet, but not to the instruments of any hostile elements
that might be waiting for them. To hostile sensors, it would be almost
opaque, and with the _Tautog's_ hull stealthing and emission control
measures in place, they would be well hidden. Though it was moving at a
speed much faster than the _Tautog_ could hope to reach in such a short
time, once they dipped down into the ecliptic plane, nothing within that
plane ahead of the flare could hope to see them, and there would be more
flares to come that would overtake and screen them.
"Sensory, Conn; aye," he replied over the intercom. "Sensory, Conn;
start a track on that flare." He looked to the Astrogator. "Plot a course
that'll put us behind it with a minimum of acceleration and still let us
remain covered out to the planet."
The Astrogator nodded. "Aye, sir. That shouldn't take but a minute."
He went back to his station as data from Sensory flooded in. A few prompts
to the Astrogation Computer brought forth a solution to the problem.
"Conn, Astrogation; new course ready for execution. Recommend thrust
at Ahead Standard for one-one hundred minutes; course change to two-seven-
six, minus one-five. Closest point of approach will be bearing zero-zero-
one, plus zero, at five hundred-thousand kilometers, in seven-point-seven-
five hours. Estimated time to the planet, six-four-point-two hours."
Olivera jotted this down in grease pencil on the conn's writing surface.
"Astrogation, Conn; aye..." He looked to Grand Duke Tendo. "With your
permission, your Grace, I'd like to proceed to the planet."
Soun nodded while stroking at his mustache. "Proceed, Captain."
Captain Olivera inclined his head towards his Officer of the Deck, who
would give the actual order. The OOD cleared his throat and called to his
Helmsman.
"Helm, All Ahead Standard; twenty degrees left yaw, one-five degrees
negative pitch."
"All Ahead Standard; twenty degrees left yaw, one-five degrees negative
pitch, Helm, aye." The Helmsman entered the data into his log and took over
control of the corvette from the computer. The main engines began to fire,
their thrust minimal at first, but ramping up gradually to one-gee. "Officer
of the Deck, Maneuvering answers All Ahead Standard."
"Very well, Helm."
Nodoka watched the interplay between the conn and the helm, oblivious
to what was about to happen. As the rest of the crew reached for handholds,
she realized that something was up.
"Ma'am," the Sensor Supervisor called to her. "You might want to hold
onto something for a minute or two."
"Oh?" she asked, noting that the distant scream of the main engines
was also dispelling the condition of free fall about her. She reached for
a handhold on the ceiling, steadying herself as the deck actually became
'down' for her. After weeks of free fall and less than normal gravity on
the Grav Deck, one-gee felt oppressive to her.
Her discomfort was tempered by the thought that the ship was bringing
her closer to her son.
* * *
Musk Dynasty JumpShip _Invictus_
Approaching the planet Ryuugenzawa
Ryuugenzawa System, the Magistracy of Canopus
14 June 3025
Mechwarrior General Herb watched the planet Ryuugenzawa through the
telescope displays on the Bridge as the crew carried out their duties
around him. He was in the fabled Ryuugenzawa System, three days away from
claiming the technological riches that would catapult him to dominance
over the Jusenkyo Commonwealth, and by extension, the Inner Sphere itself.
The pitiful force of the Nerima Confederation described by Colonel Mousse
could not hope to resist him.
In fact, his only concern lay in the intense solar storms that raged
from the Ryuugenzawa primary. The streams of particles and radiation
unleashed from the tortured G-type star by its neutron star companion
wreaked havoc with the sensors and communications gear of his fleet, making
it difficult to survey the planet and its surroundings for a sign of the
Confederation JumpShip. Telescopes were the only devices not rendered
useless for the moment, and detecting relatively tiny objects with them
was a time consuming and uncertain process.
As he pondered these matters, one of the ship's officers approached
him. The man was a hybrid like himself; the feline features of a jaguar
were most prominent in his yellow eyes and his lean and graceful body.
"<General Herb,>" the officer began. "<We are detecting some unusual
signals both from the planet and from a position ten light-seconds off our
starboard beam.>"
Herb raised an eyebrow at this.
"<What are the nature of these signals?>"
"<The signals from the planet are not conclusively from the surface,
but most likely from sources in orbit around the planet. We have detected
at least one large man-made object in a lunar polar orbit as well, though
we are unable to classify it at this time with only telescopes.>"
Herb considered this. "<A space station?>"
The officer shrugged. "<Unknown, General. We have detected what appears
to be a space station in geosynchronous orbit above the planet, along with
what appears to be a recharge facility and some lesser satellites. We have
received weak signals from some of these objects, but these signals appear
to be nothing more than automated data exchange and positioning system
markers.>"
"<I see,>" Herb replied. "<Nothing to indicate that someone has
detected us and is trying to communicate, then.>"
"<No sir.>"
Herb's reptilian eyes flicked to the holotank, where a hazy shimmer
of blue represented the unknown signals in space to starboard.
"<What about the other set of signals?>" he demanded.
"<It's troubling, General. Every time we train our arrays away from
the planet, the interference from solar radiation plays havoc with our
sensors. Nevertheless, we are detecting what might be radar sweeps, as
well as fragments of communications possibly following Furinkan Combine
protocols.>"
Herb's blood pressure rose a notch. "<Possibly?>" he asked incredulously.
"<Possibly isn't good enough, lieutenant! I want answers immediately, if not
sooner. Dispatch a GunShip with long range fighter escort to investigate!>"
The officer saluted hastily, and floated away with all haste to carry
out his orders.
Herb took a deep breath and thought hard about what he had been told.
How had the Furinkan Combine known about this place?
He snapped his fingers as the answer came to him. The Confederation
must have transmitted the coordinates of the system back to Capella, and
that treacherous Tendo regent, Nabiki, must have given them to Prince Kuno
as part of the surrender deal. That was terrible news, for if the Furinkan
Combine under the prince had come to Ryuugenzawa, then he would have his
entire fleet with him, including the dreaded battleship, _Imperator._
Possessing only a pair of broken down Star League-era destroyers in
his own fleet to face the Combine, he had one chance to win, he realized. He
had to launch an immediate and all-out attack against the Combine fleet with
his forces while the solar storms made detection efforts difficult. The
_Imperator,_ having engaged in open battle against the League of Five Nails
during the battle for Capra, was technically fair game as a target, but that
wouldn't have mattered to him. Every JumpShip in the Combine fleet had to be
destroyed if he was to take possession of the Ryuugenzawa System for the
Musk Dynasty.
"<Belay that order!>" he yelled to the officer. "<Convene a meeting of
all my senior staff officers in the Wardroom immediately.>"
He had an attack to plan, and little time in which to do it.
* * *
Black Rose Terror Regiment Flagship
Approaching the planet Ryuugenzawa
Ryuugenzawa System, the Magistracy of Canopus
14 June 3025
Kodachi Kuno cast her heavy-lidded gaze upon the sleeping form of her
lover, who curled up cozily by her side, his head settled in her lap. Pansuto
Tarou was an exquisite specimen of manhood, with a lean, sculpted body that
begged to be undressed, caressed, and possessed. More tempting to her than
his body though, was his essence, for he was in fact closer to her own secret
soul than she had imagined possible in a man.
He was arrogant, true, but she found his haughty and condescending
demeanor compelling. She was not accustomed to such behavior from her
servants and troops - would not suffer it from the rabble - but coming
from him it seemed to beg her indulgence. She enjoyed the company of a man
who held himself so high over others, and unlike her fulminating brother,
Tachi, Pansuto Tarou comported himself in such a manner as to suggest that
he had nothing to prove in his superiority.
He was also possessed of a moral flexibility that she approved of,
unpretentiously adopting that Nietzchean tenet that established the
superior class as being above such petty restraints. He was a man of
powerful ambition and surpassing appetite, and it did not matter to him
if someone got hurt in the process of fulfilling both these desires.
Tarou was also a hedonist of the first rank, though she had to draw
that part of his nature out of him one sweaty and feverish coupling at a
time. She sought to refine him now, and suitably encouraged by their
consuming passions, found him an apt pupil in the arts of pleasure seeking.
That his personal tastes mirrored closely those of her own made the task
as simple as it was personally fulfilling.
The door chime sounded as she lay in bed, dispelling her sense of
contentment.
"What is it, Sasuke?" she asked with mock sweetness over the intercom.
"Mistress, Captain Hayton wishes to report that we are ready to cast
off all DropShips," Sasuke replied.
Kodachi stroked Tarou's brow as her ninja manservant spoke. She had
decided to leave for the planet Ryuugenzawa ahead of her two JumpShips in
order to maximize the amount of time she would have to search for Akane
Tendo. The DropShips with their greater thrust potentials could reach the
planet far sooner on their own than they could be carried by the JumpShips,
and she needed every hour gained if she wanted to ensure that she could
find and kill the horrid Tendo girl before Tachi arrived.
Her personal DropShip _Thorn,_ was already outfitted for the trip.
All she and her handsome lover needed to do was transfer themselves over
from the regimental flagship.
"Very well, Sasuke," she said coolly. "What news of the system?"
There was a pause while her ninja formulated an answer.
"We continue to search in vain for the Confederation JumpShip,
Mistress," he began. "But with the solar flares and subsequent radiation
emmissions, it hasn't been easy."
"No excuses, Sasuke," she retorted. "Tell Hayton and his crew that
I expect results."
"Of course, Mistress," the ninja demurred.
"That will be all, Sasuke. We shall transfer to the _Thorn_ within
the hour." She cut out the intercom before he could acknowledge, and
leaned forward to nibble on Tarou's ear.
"Wake, my lover," she said in a low voice.
"I heard," Tarou grunted, turning his head to face her. His look of
disdain never failed to make her hot under the collar, but she restrained
herself this time. He could only be expected to perform so many times in
a day, after all, and she wanted him to be fresh later, after dinner.
She furrowed her brow and gave him a mock expression of disapproval.
"Eavesdropping, were we?" she teased.
"Enough to know that they haven't found the _Dragonfly,_" he replied.
"Does that fact upset you?"
He sat up and stretched. "You're the one who's interested in killing
Akane Tendo," he said flatly. "Not me."
"I see," she returned with a pout. "You have no interest in making me
happy, then?"
"I don't care one way or the other if the Tendo girl lives or dies,"
he replied, scratching at his chest and slipping off the pair of pantyhose
draped over his shoulder. "If you desire it, then so be it."
"How sweet of you," she said in a droll voice. "And what do *you*
desire, my lover?"
Tarou stretched out once more, popping his ribs and his back. "I want
what's hidden on Ryuugenzawa. You know that, as you know the reasons why I
want it."
"Ah yes," Kodachi chuckled. "Your dreams of destroying the Amazons
and the Cult of Azusa. Both are worthy pursuits, lover. I shall enjoy
assisting you in both of these endeavors."
He drew her face to his, kissing her deeply before releasing her.
"You realize that in order to kill the Tendo girl, you must first kill
Ranma Saotome. He'll never let you harm a hair on her head without a
fight."
She stiffened. Sasuke had been spreading his poison directly to her
beloved, apparently. All the more reason to be rid of him, and soon.
"He was a passing fancy of mine," she returned evenly. She was
consumed with Tarou now - Ranma Saotome was but a footnote in her memory.
He was handsome and gallant, but in their many conversations, Tarou had
made it clear where the pig-tailed mechwarrior stood in his devotions,
and that was firmly by the side of Akane Tendo. Though she thought it
was a waste, he would have to die if he dared to prevent her from having
her revenge on the Tendo witch. "He was nothing more than a fever dream
brought on by my injuries on Capra, anyway."
Chapter Three
Caretaker's Residence,
Test Region Four-North
Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System
14 June 3025
It took almost an hour to find the house once they reached the general
location, since Shinnosuke had no experience in navigating by air. The
Boomerang carrying him was piloted by Sayuri, as Genma had declined to no
one's surprise. Ranma made certain that the person occupying his right-hand
seat was none other than Akane.
The flight with her had been a quiet one. Both of them seemed content
with the other's company, and neither had felt the need to discuss what had
passed between them that morning. He certainly didn't want to be reminded
of what an idiot he had been.
As something of a peace offering, he had let Akane keep control over
the tiny plane for most of the flight. Given the simple nature of flying
a steady course, it was no real challenge for her, but she seemed to
appreciate his gesture a great deal anyway.
"I think I see a place where we can set down," Sayuri said abruptly
over the commo.
Ranma watched her make a gentle aileron roll and turn toward a low
hill shrouded in trees. He spied the clearing a moment later as he
followed her in. It was a small field, but the Boomerangs' short take-off
and landing requirements would serve them well enough. He let Sayuri land
first, making lazy circles overhead as she taxied to the edge of the
clearing to give him plenty of room to land.
It was going to be a good hike up the hill to Shinnosuke's house, but
the guy would hear nothing of being carried. He had his pushbroom for a
crutch, and too much pride to be treated like an invalid. Ranma had to
give him points for moxie.
They started up along a well-worn path, scattering a skittish covey
of small ground-dwelling birds before them. Shinnosuke used his pushbroom
for support, though it was of little comfort to his wounded leg as they
climbed.
"Need some help?" Ranma offered.
Shinnosuke gave him a pained look. "I can manage."
"It's no trouble."
"No, really," Shinnosuke said flatly. "Thanks anyway."
Ranma shrugged, his eyes flicking to meet Akane's for a moment. She
seemed troubled, but did not raise any objections.
"Suit yourself."
At the top of the hill, shrouded by trees, was the house. It was
quiet as they approached, but the smell of woodsmoke indicated that it
was occupied.
"Grandfather, I'm home!" Shinnosuke called to the house. He limped a
little closer as Ranma and the others waited for a response.
"Shin-boy!" a voice cried from within. They watched as a grizzled old
man clutching a laser rifle appeared in the open doorway. "You're alive!"
"Of course I'm alive, Grandfather!"
The old man took a hesistant step out. He recognized Akane, but the
man with the pigtail and the brown-haired girl who stood by his side were
mysteries.
"I heard the worst news from the villagers," he said to Shinnosuke.
"They said some of Graham's men had been prowling around, and that there
had been a big fight." He noted the sling that Shinnosuke kept his arm in.
"Tell me, Shin-boy!" he cried, close to tears. "What happened to your arm?
Why are you walking with a limp?"
"Graham and his men were prowling around," Shinnosuke said quietly.
"They attacked us in the forest."
"But why?" the old man asked his grandson. "What were you doing so
close to the village?"
Shinnosuke blushed in embarrassment. "I was taking Akane to the
Orochi bunker."
The old man frowned. "I thought we already discussed that."
"Yes, Grandfather," Shinnosuke concurred sheepishly.
The old man then looked at Akane. "The villagers also said a
battlemech confronted them, looking for you, apparently."
"She was one of my troops," Akane admitted. "I hope she wasn't rude."
"That's difficult to say," the old man returned. "They don't like
strangers, and a battlemech is something out of old nightmares for them.
What happened to Graham and his men? I was told that at least three of
them were found dead."
"That was us," Akane replied quietly, gesturing to Ranma as well.
The old man nodded slowly, having suspected as much. "I suppose I
should invite you and your comrades inside," he said at length. "You're
welcome to stay for awhile."
"We can't stay for long," Akane returned. "We need to investigate
the bunker as we had planned to do yesterday. A fleet of JumpShips is
on its way to the system, and we need to find a way to transmit a warning
about the Orochi to them so they'll stay away."
"I see," he grunted. "Yes, I suppose that would be the right thing
to do." He looked at her sternly. "If you really are a Tendo, and the
daughter of the Grand Duke, do you think they'll listen? If you're in
danger here, won't they try to rescue you?"
"I don't know, sir," she replied. "But we have to try to warn them."
"If you could give us coordinates or something, we could fly there
in no time," Ranma added.
The old man looked him over. "Come inside. I think you'll appreciate
what I have to offer you."
Once the five of them were inside and seated around the firepit to
enjoy some freshly brewed tea, Shinnosuke's grandfather began to rummage
through several metal strongboxes. He produced a handful of notebooks,
and leafed through them absently.
"Aha!" he cried. "This will serve you well enough." He neatly tore a
page out of the notebook and handed it to Akane.
She looked at the paper for a moment, recognizing in the crabby
handwriting some information of vital importance.
"These are access codes and protocols for the GPS system and the
communications network," she gasped.
"We haven't had much use for them," the old man told her. "Shin-boy
and I know the forest like the backs of our hands, and there isn't much
call to go elsewhere."
"But they'd be great for flyers," Ranma observed.
"Once you patch in, you should be able to configure your Lostproof
systems with downloads of the planet's cartography," the old man said to
them. "Every SLDF facility at the time of Kerensky's exodus should be
listed, along with the ruined starport and colony town, and the individual
contractors' facilities. If there are any radio transmitters remaining that
might reach the Jump Points, you should be able to find them with this."
"How do you know about all this stuff?" Akane asked him.
"It's something that is passed on from one generation to the next,"
the old man replied. "I was planning on showing my grandson here all of
these things, since I'm getting to old to carry on my duties. He might as
well learn them now."
"You aren't that old, Grandfather," Shinnosuke protested.
"Nonsense," the old man spat. "I'll be seventy this winter. There
are no guarantees after that."
Ranma leaned over to Akane as Shinnosuke and his grandfather spoke.
"Now that we have this stuff, let's send for some people who might be able
to tell us what's going on at the control bunker, like Hinako and some of
her crew. They can meet us here first in the _Nymph,_ then we'll all fly
over together to the bunker."
Akane nodded her head. "Best idea I've heard all day," she said with
a smile. Things were definitely better when they weren't at each other's
throats.
* * *
Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds
Bunker Nine, Test Area North
Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System
14 June 3025
The bunker was a reinforced concrete box set almost entirely into the
side of a long windswept hill that sloped gently from north to south and
ended in the expanse of forest growth. A pair of parabolic dish antennae
and a slender radio array projected from a mossy pad of concrete set on the
top of the hill, and provided the bunker with its communications and data
links to the Orochi network. Trees and bushes had grown up around most of
the exposed face of the bunker, making it difficult to spot unless you knew
something was there.
"I'll wait here, if that's all right with everyone," Yuka declared.
She had piloted the _Nymph_ to the rendezvous at Shinnosuke's house,
delivering Captain Ninomiya and her Astrogator, Lieutenant Davidge.
"Are you sure?" Akane asked her.
She nodded, brushing back her short ponytail. "It's a nice day out,
and someone should probably keep an eye on the craft."
"Good idea," Ranama agreed. Though the tension between them had eased
from its peak on Tiber, he remained less than enthused with the idea of
having her around. Sayuri on the other hand, was actually being nice to him
now.
"Need some company?" Sayuri offered.
"I'm fine. Don't take too long."
Ranma turned back to Shinnosuke.
"It's all yours, ace."
The caretaker nodded in agreement, and turned to the doors with a grunt.
The armored doors of the facility were covered with moss and creeping vines,
though they opened easily at a prompt from the magnetically-encoded key he
carried on a chain around his neck.
"The place has power?" Ranma asked him as the doors sighed open.
Shinnosuke nodded. "The bunker has a dedicated fusion plant in the
basement to provide power and heat. It's been a reliable unit. Ever since
my family became the caretakers, no one has ever had to do more than the
most basic maintenance on it."
He stepped through the doors, and fluorescent lights flickered for
a moment, struggling to come on.
"I just wish the lights worked as well as the reactor," he lamented.
"I'd replace the ballasts, but I'm running out of spares."
Ranma and the others followed him inside. The first chamber was some
kind of security lobby, though in the many years of the place's abandonment,
it had become something of a refuse pile for broken equipment and a makeshift
storage room. The furniture was covered in a thin layer of dust, and the air
had a musty smell.
"This place was manned all the time once," Shinnosuke said, giving them
the tour. "Most of the bunker is sunk straight down into the ground. There's
a kitchen and dining area on the next level down, then a sleeping and living
area for twelve people, then finally the control room for the network."
He then went to a panel against the far wall, behind a desk that had
been used by the bunker's security staff at one time. The panel creaked open,
and he flipped a series of circuit breakers. Circulation fans kicked on,
though they sounded like they needed a little grease.
"Once the fans are on, the heating and cooling units should come up
automatically, but you never know," he remarked to them. "Anyway, once the
fans have had a chance to run, the air really cleans up."
"I hope so," Akane replied. "It's a little stuffy in here."
Hinako brushed at the silky strands of some local insect that stretched
across a doorway to the stairwell. "Why did they want to control the Orochi
network from a place way out in the middle of nowhere?" she asked him.
Shinnosuke tried to remember. "According to Grandfather, this was a
backup location for the primary control center, which was at the Starport.
That facility was obliterated over a hundred years ago." He slipped past
Akane and started down the stairs. "The elevator doesn't work," he added.
Ranma, Akane, Captain Ninomiya, and the others followed. Shinnosuke
skipped the habitation areas and went straight down to the control room.
The doors were locked as well, though Shinnosuke's key opened them with a
rusty *click* and a dry hiss of unequal air pressure.
The lights were already on as they stepped through. The entire room
was filled with computers, communications equipment, and numerous display
panels, most of which were busy putting out information for the benefit of
absolutely no one. There was no dust here, indicating that the chamber was
kept at a positive pressure and had working precipitators.
"This is it," Shinnosuke said proudly. "You'll find notebooks over on
that console that were compiled by my ancestors as they tried to figure out
a way to control the Orochi. I hope they'll do you more good than they've
done me."
"How many years did they try?" Akane asked him.
He was quiet for a moment. "A long time," he replied. "Grandfather
doesn't know this, but I like to come here and read the notebooks. Most of
it makes no sense to me, but I feel like I can get closer to my family this
way. One of my Great-grandfathers used to write in them like they were a
kind of journal, and that's how I know most of my history."
Akane smiled. "I think that's really neat, Shinnosuke. Don't worry,
we'll take good care of them."
Shinnosuke bowed for her in gratitude, and watched the others examine
the room. Ranma looked around, utterly lost. Akane seemed content to let
the others work. Sayuri ran her hands along a bank of monitors, pointing
out little details about each one. Only Captain Ninomiya and Lieutenant
Davidge seemed at home in the place.
He watched as the two began sifting through the notebooks. Davidge
went right to the various technical manuals, their pages yellowed and stiff
with age.
"It's going to take a few hours at the least to get a basic familiarity
with this equipment," he noted at length.
Hinako sat beside her Astrogator and began to prod at the controls to
the communications units.
"I'm sure I can get the satellite network to respond," she said in her
sultry voice. "We should contact the _Palomino_ and tell them that we have
arrived successfully."
"I'm gonna take a look around outside," Ranma announced, and stepped
back through the doors without another word. "Let me know if you find out
something interesting."
Akane watched him go, but said nothing. This wasn't within the range
of his abilities, and it was clear that he was already bored. Shinnosuke
approached her as the other three continued to inspect the equipment.
"Akane?" he asked pensively.
"What is it?" she returned.
"Can I speak to you for a moment?"
She sensed that something was troubling him. "Sure."
They were seated at one of the tables in the dining area on the first
sublevel. Shinnosuke kept ancient packets of instant hot beverages in one
of the cupboards, and as the bunker had its own well for potable water,
quickly produced two cups of tea for them.
Akane noted that the tea was a little flat, probably because foil-sealed
pouch or not, it was still over two-hundred years old.
"What did you want to talk to me about?" she asked him.
Shinnosuke sipped at his tea uncomfortably.
"It's hard for me to say this," he replied slowly. "But it's about
Ranma."
She brushed it off. "He is a little annoying at times. Don't let it
get to you."
"That's not it," Shinnosuke replied. "It's just that you and he seem
to be... well... More than friends, I guess." He fidgeted with his tea cup.
"I saw what passed between you two in Sickbay."
Akane realized what he was getting at, and cringed inwardly at the
idea that Shinnosuke was harboring a crush on her. She should have realized
it - the signs were there.
"He's my fiance," she replied softly.
He looked away. "Oh."
"I'm sorry, Shinnosuke," she added. "I had no idea that you might, you
know, be interested in me."
He blushed shamefully. "I knew it was too much to hope for." He turned
back to her. "Do you... I mean, are you two close?"
She nodded once. "I love him," she answered, marveling at how easy it
was for her to say it aloud now that she had told Ranma.
He remained silent, accepting what he knew she would say to him.
"I don't know what else I can say," she added, feeling terrible for not
recognizing his feelings a little sooner.
* * *
Ranma saw Yuka standing idly by the _Nymph,_ and considered ways to
avoid her. It wasn't that he was intimidated by the aerospace pilot - far
from it - it was just a matter of him wanting to keep the number of
conflicts raging at any one time to a minimum.
She turned her head at the sound of the doors closing behind him,
however, and looked him in the eyes.
"Is there a problem, Captain?" she asked as he approached her.
"No problem," he replied coolly. "I was just bored, that's all."
"And you came out to keep me company," she observed. "How sweet of
you."
He couldn't tell how sarcastic she was trying to be, so he decided
to let it pass for genuine.
"You looked a little lonely," he said uncomfortably. It was true,
she did look lonely standing there by the Ship's Boat. He never thought
he would feel anything other than animosity towards her, but it didn't
come. "I thought that maybe..." He looked her over, noting how taut her
body had become at his proximity. "Nevermind..."
His reply took her by surprise, and her eyes grew wide for a moment.
"Do you really mean that?" she asked him warily.
"Don't take it the wrong way," he replied. "I ain't trying to pull
your chain."
"Maybe," she sniffed, unconvinced.
He found himself drawn by her implied challenge to prove what he
had said. She watched him with that same wariness she had used to
challenge his sincerity.
"I never wanted to be your enemy, Yuka," he said to her.
She considered that for a moment. "You've done a pretty good job
of being one so far."
He bristled with frustration at this. So much for offering up the
peace pipe...
"Look, just forget it," he snorted. "You go back to hating me,
and I'll go back to hating you, okay? Is that what you really want,
Yuka? If it is, I'll be happy to oblige you."
She pursed her lips at him. "You're really trying to apologize,
aren't you?"
"Not apologize," he said. "It's too late for apologies."
"Then what's the big deal, Saotome? Why the look of contrition?"
He threw up his hands. "I was hopin' we could start over between us,
or something. Just forget about the last six months and start fresh." He
gave her a critical look. "If that ain't asking too much from you."
She gave that some thought.
"I see your point," she replied.
He thrust out his hand. "So how about it?"
She eyed his hand for a moment, then took it in hers. They shook
once, firmly, then let go of each other.
"Friends?" he asked.
"Don't push your luck, Saotome," she said, but she favored him
with a tiny grin as she said it, drawing a brief chuckle from both of
them before they lapsed back into an uncomfortable silence.
The two of them enjoyed a breeze that was pregnant with the promise
of rain looming on the horizon. Ranma studied the clouds for awhile, noting
that the storm would probably pass them to the south, just missing them. He
felt like he had just avoided a similar storm from the girl who stood next
to him.
"If you break her heart again, I'll kill you," Yuka said abruptly.
"You'll have to stand in line for that," he replied, thinking of
Ryouga.
Chapter Four
Star League Defense Force Proving Grounds
Bunker Nine, Test Area North
Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System
14 June 3025
"It's been eight hours now," Ranma groused. "Tell me this wasn't a
waste of time. There are some places around here I wanna go check out."
He had been examining the layout of the Proving Grounds ever since
Shinnosuke's grandfather turned it over to them, and there were places
listed that might still contain useful technology - maybe even working
battlemechs.
Hinako gave him a hard look but said nothing.
Lieutenant Davidge gestured to the displays. "We've got a unique
window on the system from here," he began. "The entire satellite network,
including the Orochi, can be monitored from this control room."
"But can you control it?" Ranma asked.
Davidge shook his head. "Not without the access codes, and there
doesn't seem to be any traces of them in these manuals, the vaults, or
in the databases."
"Terrific," Ranma snorted, and sat down in a rolling chair behind him.
"Isn't there some way you can bypass the codes?" Akane asked him.
"According to the tech manuals on the network, the Orochi was designed
to resist attempts by an enemy to subvert or control its function," Davidge
replied, rubbing his brow as he thumbed through a few crinkled pages. "Not
only is it protected by a long string of codes for access, but that code
transmission must also follow on a precise frequency-hopping schedule that
we also don't seem to have any trace of."
He sighed. "Basically, it's impossible for us to try and gain control
over the Orochi network remotely. The only conceivable means I can think of
to take control is to patch into the primary satellite locally, but you
can imagine how well protected it is against such intrusions."
"So what *do* we have in our favor?" Akane asked.
"Well, we can use each Orochi satellite plus the various observation
and weather satellites to see what's going on within about half a million
kilometers of the planet's surface. That will give us some warning in case
the transport fleet or maybe even the Commonwealth shows up. We now have
the ability to access the GPS and commo networks so we can all get around
and communicate better on the surface."
Ranma leaned over in his chair. "So could we use what we know about
where the Orochis are looking to let us sneak up into orbit to check out
that space station?"
Hinako's hard look melted into a smile for Ranma, as she had been
thinking about the space station and what it might hold for some time now.
Davidge gestured to the displays. "It can be done," he agreed. "From
what I can see of the seven lesser Orochi satellites, they are all
operating in a reduced capacity." He gestured to several of the monitors,
where various strings of red alphanumerics flashed. "This system
experiences some intense solar activity, and you can see where sensor
arrays and other components have been damaged. I'm sure that time has done
its share of damage as parts wore out. I've looked at some of the program
databases from the Orochi units as well, and they've got substantial amounts
of corruption in them - probably also because of solar radiation. With no
one left to upload a good database, they've progressively lost more and
more of their ability to function."
He pointed to another display, which showed their positions in orbit
above the planet. "It's possible to time a launch from the surface that
could reach the space station while one of the most heavily impaired units
was overhead. We know that they can coordinate their efforts, but if the
right Orochi units are overhead, it shouldn't matter."
Hinako called up a status report on several of the Orochi satellites.
"We have what could be a favorable window coming up in two days," she
declared, looking at Akane. "With your permission, Lady Akane, I'd like
to take the _Nymph_ up with a small crew and investigate the space station."
Akane gave this some thought.
"It's worth a try, Captain Ninomiya, but I don't want to send you
up just to have you stranded there for weeks on end waiting for another
opportunity to return to the surface."
Hinako would not be so easily put off. "I can make it to orbit in
four hours, and return in less than two. With an eight hour window, that
leaves me with two hours to explore, which is more than enough time to
investigate the drydock to see if there is a JumpShip we can use to flee
the system interred there." She brushed back her long dark brown hair
before continuing. "Besides, we've already seen how the Orochi network
could have blasted us after we abandoned the _Dragonfly,_ but for whatever
reason, chose not to. I believe that it wouldn't open fire on us even if
it could detect us - so long as we used the _Nymph._"
"It's probably part of the programming," Davidge threw in. "The Star
League was always concerned with minimizing casualties during battle. Once
the JumpShip itself was rendered incapable of operation, any life pods or
small craft fleeing it would be considered non-combatants. A DropShip and
fighter on the other hand wouldn't receive the same consideration."
Akane remained unconvinced. "I'll have to think about it. Begin the
preparations to go, but I reserve final judgement until later."
Hinako bowed in gratitude for her.
"Well this was great," Ranma said sourly. "I'm gettin' hungry. Anyone
else want to head back to the _Palomino_ with me?"
He was looking at Akane as he said it, but she remained aloof.
Realizing that he was on his own, he started for the door.
"Hello!" Davidge cried suddenly, halting him at the threshold. "The
network just shifted over to some kind of alert stage." Most of the boards
began flashing with activity, confirming his analysis.
"What's going on?" Hinako demanded.
Davidge consulted the myriad displays in search of an answer. "The
network seems to be reacting to sensory information directed towards the
system's primary." He tapped out a few commands, and was rewarded with
more information that nobody seemed to understand but him. "I'm detecting
two distinct sets of multiple spacecraft converging on the planet from a
distance of forty light-seconds."
"I thought that was out of the network's range?" Ranma asked him.
"The network is detecting radar and communications signals over the
noise of the solar storms," Davidge replied. "It's polling the various
Orochi units for capability and position to best respond to the incoming
ships."
"Two sets of ships," Akane breathed. "Could one of them be the
transport fleet? Are we too late?"
"We can transmit out to them," Hinako noted. "Our communication
system can reach the satellite relay, and from there, the Jump Points,
but the question is, do we transmit a warning before we know who they
are?"
Davidge continued to analyze the data. "I really need a sensor
tech to look at this stuff. Right now, the best I can do is go off what
the Orochi network thinks is going on. It looks like an ETA of sixty-five
hours, based on current velocity."
"Any guesses as to who they are?" Ranma asked him.
He shook his head. "Let me put up some of the voice transmissions
the network is receiving."
He tapped at the console and at once speakers clicked on. Over the
wash of static and warbling noise came the distinct sound of gruff male
voices speaking in an alien tongue.
"That sounds like Chinese," Ranma remarked, having heard enough of
it on Lightoller to last him a lifetime.
"The Commonwealth!" Akane gasped. "They must have had ships waiting
to journey to Ryuugenzawa the moment Shampoo's accomplice delivered the
system's location to them."
"Speaking of Shampoo," Ranma added. "Let's bring her here and get
her to translate for us. I'd like to know what the hell they're saying,
and if they're talking about us."
Akane gave him a dubious look. "I doubt she'll cooperate."
"It's worth a try," Ranma replied. He started for the door. "Call
the _Palomino_ and tell them to have her ready to go when I get there.
I'll fly her back here as fast as I can."
"Do you really think that's a bright idea, Ranma!" she called
after him. What was that dope thinking, knowing that he was going to
have Shampoo sitting next to him the entire flight back to the bunker.
"We'll send the _Nymph_ back instead!"
"Don't waste the fuel!" he yelled as his slippered feet slapped
against the stairs. "We don't know if Akari's crew can get that
processing station functional yet."
Akane grit her teeth and tried to remember that she loved the idiot.
The moment passed, and she turned back to the displays. "So far, all I
see are readouts for the seven minor Orochi satellites," she observed.
"Where is the big one right now, and what is it doing?"
Davidge called up some data. "Currently, it's parked on the far side
of the moon in what looks to be a stable synchronous orbit." He frowned.
"Odd, it seems to be mostly dormant."
Shinnosuke spoke up. "It usually is," he said to them. "When it wakes
up, it starts attacking the planet. Once it runs out of targets, it goes
dormant again."
Davidge called up a few more displays on the primary Orochi. What he
saw made him pale. "The thing's almost fully functional," he declared. "The
only serious problem I see with it right now is some corruption of some
of the ancillary databases." He flipped hastily through the tech manuals,
tearing some of the ancient pages in his haste. He compared what he read
in the books to what he saw on the screens. "Target discrimination, IFF
passcodes, and the failsafes..." he intoned, realizing what all of that
meant.
"Your friend here is right, Lady Akane. When the Orochi comes out of
dormancy mode, all hell is gonna break loose. The only things it won't shoot
at in space are the station, the commo and GPS sats, and the other Orochi
units. Anything else without the IFF passcode is fair game, and even then it
won't matter because the database telling it what the valid codes are is
shot. I don't see anything else limiting its attacks on the surface, either."
"How long do we have?" Hinako asked him.
"Within seventy hours," Davidge replied. "There's a countdown running
to full system activation." He pointed to the corner of one display, where
a countdown ran in bold red numbers.
"So we have seventy hours to get up to the station, hope a JumpShip
is there that can take us out of the system, and leave?" Akane asked.
Davidge shrugged nervously. "Essentially. Either that or we wait out
the Orochi's temper tantrum and hope for the best."
"It will probably attack those two groups of ships approaching the
planet first," Hinako pointed. "Perhaps their destruction will appease
its programming, and it will go back into dormancy mode."
"As long as one of them isn't the transport fleet from Capella, I
wouldn't mind seeing it happen," Akane agreed. "But until we know for
certain, I think we should consider the possibility of transmitting a
warning to stay away."
Hinako shook out her hair. It was going to be a long night of watching
the displays. "I suppose I should call the _Palomino_ and tell them what
to expect."
* * *
The DropShip _Palomino_
Ranma let the engine run on the Boomerang as he hopped out of the
cockpit and started towards the ship. Genma, Ryouga, and Doctor Tofu
were waiting for him, and with them was a sullen and shackled Shampoo.
"What's going on, boy?" Genma demanded to know. "What's so important
that you need Shampoo?"
"A Commonwealth fleet is on its way to the planet," he replied. "I
don't know much more than that, but we want Shampoo to translate what
they're saying for us."
Genma blanched. "A Commonwealth fleet? Are you serious, boy?"
Ranma nodded. "As a heart attack, Pop. We gotta start putting together
some kind of defense, cause we've got about two and a half days 'til they
get here." He pointed to Ryouga. "You're in charge of the defense of the
DropShip, man. I need you to work up some kinda plan in case we get attacked
from the ground or the air. If you need Ucchan's help, take her, but
otherwise I want her to come with me. If you can get Happousai to help
with things here, great."
"What about the salvage crew at the starport?" he asked, thinking
about his beloved Akari and her techs.
"I don't know if we have the resources to cover them too. They'll
probably have to wrap up what they're doing within the next day or so."
"You're probably right," Ryouga agreed, and saluted him, feeling a
little odd to be doing something like this to Ranma of all people. He
left to carry out his orders, knowing that Akari would not be happy about
having to leave the starport sooner than she had planned.
Doctor Tofu stepped forward. "I'll start putting together a triage,
but that's about the best I can do with the limited facilities on the ship."
"Do that for now, but know that I might need you in a 'mech, Doc,"
Ranma replied. "I've got a map of the old Proving Grounds, and there are
couple of places where there might be some useful hardware still around.
I want to check them out, but if I *do* find some 'mechs, we might need
you to help defend the ship."
Tofu nodded. He was not one to shirk his fighting duties if matters
came to that.
"Are you serious, boy?" Genma grunted. "Show me this map."
"I ain't got it on me," Ranma groused. "So don't get all greedy on
me. How much longer will the repairs take on the ship? We might need to
move it to a more defensible location."
"I'll get with Grant on it," Genma agreed. "But I want you to give
me a copy of the map. Two groups can cover more ground than one."
"As soon as I get a chance, Pop." Ranma said to his father.
"Hey, Ranchan!" Ukyou called to him from the ramp to the 'Mech Bay.
"You need me?"
"I need you to follow me in your 'mech," he replied. "Bring Konatsu
too." He then turned to Shampoo, who had watched all of this in hopeful
silence. "I'm giving you the chance to come quietly with me in the
Boomerang," he said to her. "Otherwise, you get to ride in the Hatchetman's
fist. What's it gonna be?"
Shampoo's violet eyes lit up. "Shampoo come quietly. Am very curious
to hear so-called Commonwealth message."
"Glad to hear it, Shampoo," he replied. "Come on."
She followed him towards the plane, pulling herself into the right
hand seat without the offered help from him. He knew she was shackled,
but the only thing that might prevent her from attacking him was knowing
that they would crash if she did.
He jumped into the cockpit as Ukyou climbed up into her Hatchetman.
Her battle-spatula tested the air with a few perfunctory swipes, then the
battlemech lurched forward towards the plane.
"Do I really want to know what you and Shampoo are doing in there,"
Ukyou called to him over the radio.
Shampoo gave him a feral look as he closed the canopy and goosed the
engine.
"Don't worry," Ranma returned. "She'll behave."
"Just tell her to keep her lips to herself this time," Ukyou sniffed.
Ranma released the brake, and the Boomerang surged forward and into
the air. "Will do."
Ukyou followed from the ground in her 'mech as they started off
towards the bunker. Ranma gave her the access codes so her 'mech could
use the GPS system and get a local map to work from. They'd have to do
that with all of their equipment if they wanted to take advantage of
the situation against any Commonwealth forces who managed to get past
the Orochi network to land on the planet. He called the crewman manning
the DropShip's radio and told him what to do about it. Eventually, Pop
would figure it out too, and stop hounding him.
Once that was accomplished, all he had left was survive his trip back
to the bunker with Shampoo. She remained quiet in the seat next to him,
her eyes looking hopeful. He supposed that she had a right to feel that
way, with the Commonwealth practically coming to her rescue.
"Since it's a moot point now," he said to her. "You mind telling me
how your accomplice got off the ship with the stolen database?"
She considered his question for a moment. "You and I not only ones
who have Jusenkyo bodies," she said to him. Ranma detected a hint of
loathing in her voice as she spoke to him.
"You don't still blame me for falling into one of the pools, do you?"
he asked.
"Not anymore," was her curt reply. "At one time, yes. Shampoo want to
kill you for what you do. Now Shampoo must kill to avenge honor of clan."
He checked her chains with a sharp glance of his eyes. "What did I
do to deserve that?"
She gave him a long cold look.
"No make joke to Shampoo. You break into secret lab. You escape from
Shampoo on Lightoller. You escape from Shampoo on Capra. Now Shampoo have
death sentence from clan elders. Only way to appease them is to kill you
and stupid panda father."
"It ain't gonna happen," he returned.
Her violet eyes flashed for an instant as she pondered proving him
wrong that very instant - even if it mean that she died in the crash that
would soon follow.
"Ranma think what he likes," she sniffed.
They continued on for some time, circling occasionaly to let Ukyou
catch up. One other question plagued Ranma about Shampoo, but he was
reluctant to bring it up. The silence between them grew more oppressive,
however, and he found himself saying it just to have something to say.
"So why did you kiss me?" he asked her.
She flinched slightly at the recollection of her ignominious defeat
on the _Dragonfly._
"Shampoo no want to talk about it."
"Uh-huh," he groused, figuring as much from her, and went back to his
flying.
Shampoo sighed absently. "You want know truth?"
"Are you going to tell me the truth?" he countered.
"Shampoo kiss because it Joketsuzoku law. Outsider who defeat member
of clan must marry defeated warrior. It how we get strong babies for clan.
Shampoo also hope kiss make Ranma have sympathy for her; help in escaping."
Ranma swallowed hard.
"Ranma no need worry," she added ruefully. "Shampoo not able to get
baby from him right now."
"Oh yeah?"
"Is true," she sighed. Her manacled hands patted her trim belly.
"Shampoo already have baby inside her. One she not want."
Ranma threw up his hands in protestation. "Don't look at me, I didn't
have nothin' to do with it!" He remembered now of Tofu mentioning at one
point that she was pregnant.
She had to smile at his naivety. "Shampoo know, stupid Ranma," she
scolded him gently. "You ask about accomplice. Accomplice name is Mousse;
Shampoo get baby from him."
Ranma thought about that for a moment, then put two and two together
and hoped it didn't make five. "So you're having this Mousse guy's baby,
then, right?"
Shampoo nodded silently.
"And you don't want it," Ranma continued.
She nodded once more. "Shampoo no like him. No want his baby, either."
"Why not?" he asked. "If you didn't like him, why did you, uh...
you know..." he began to sweat nervously.
"What you talking about?" she demanded, wishing that she had a
greater command over the Standard tongue.
"Well, you know," Ranma grunted. "Why did you sleep with him if
you didn't like him."
She bowed her head for a moment. "It, how you say... It complicated."
"I guess," Ranma snorted. "Though I can't imagine why anyone would,
well, have s-sex with someone that they didn't even like." His stammering
on the 's-word' was embarrassing, and he hoped that she hadn't noticed.
She gave him a penetrating look, understanding something about her
enemy at long last.
"You never make love to someone before," she pointed out smugly.
"Shampoo can tell. You still - what is word? - virgin. You still virgin.
Yes?"
Ranma did not reply. He let his red face and his steady gaze out of
the canopy speak for him.
"It no matter," she said to him at length. "Shampoo no mind being
first time for Ranma."
The Boomerang plummeted into a sharp dive as Ranma lost control of
the plane for a moment.
"S-Sorry!" he gasped, his hands clenched on the controls of the
aircraft in a death grip.
"You no do that!" Shampoo hissed worriedly.
"Everything okay up there?" Ukyou asked over the radio.
"Everything's fine," Ranma managed. "I just slipped off the controls
for a moment."
"Keep your hands to yourself, sugar," Ukyou warned him. "And that
goes double for that Amazon hussy you're carrying."
"I'm doing my best," Ranma returned. "*Believe me.*"
Shampoo sat back in the chair, looking pleased with herself.
* * *
The bunker was the first example of Star League construction that
Shampoo had seen on Ryuugenzawa, and she wondered at its purpose as she
was led down the stairs in the company of Ranma, the spatula-girl, and
the spatula-girl's lapdog kunoichi. It was undoubtedly a communications
center of some sort, but she expected more of a facility than what she
saw before her.
Once she arrived in the control room, she spied Captain Ninomiya,
who gave her a chilly look. At least she was in her adult body, Shampoo
noted gratefully. Her child form probably would have scooped her up and
started petting her - whether she was human or not.
The numerous displays and control consoles staggered her for a moment
as she was led to a seat next to the Astrogator - the man whose hand she
had rent in the process of stealing the database patch. At least two of
her claws had left thin white scars along the heel of his hand.
"Voice signal activity has since dropped off," she heard Davidge
say to Ranma as he and a wide-eyed Ukyou took up positions behind her.
"I do have some recordings for Shampoo to listen to."
He leaned over her and tapped at the console.
Static filled the air as she waited with trepidation for the sound
of her battle-sisters. They were coming to Ryuugenzawa. They would rescue
her from her captors, and she would become a hero to her people.
The voices over the speakers shattered any such dreams in an instant.
Her blood ran cold with the realization that her battle-sisters weren't
coming at all.
"I'm very curious to know why I haven't heard any female voices,"
Davidge observed aloud. "I thought most of the ship crews on Commonwealth
JumpShips were female."
Shampoo knew the answer to that. The ships they had detected were
not Commonwealth Ships any more than she was one of Empress Azusa's pets.
How? she asked herself. How had the Musk Dynasty known of this place?
She knew the answer though. There could be only one real explanation,
for although General Herb's spies were good, his arrival was too soon for
pure chance.
Mousse had betrayed her. He had joined General Herb and his Musk
Dynasty, and he had given them the database patch she had intended for
her great-grandmother. Of course, now that she considered it, his desire
to keep her in the dark about their mission was probably due to the fact
that he had been working for Herb from the very beginning.
The escape from her cell on Tau Ceti, the spyship that was waiting
for them at the starport, even the show-trial that had handed down its
death sentence - all of these things had been engineered by Herb for this
moment, and all of this was done with the help of Mousse, his able servant.
It was galling to think of how easily Mousse had deceived and betrayed her.
Of course, she had done nothing but deceive and betray him herself, so
perhaps there was a perverse sense of irony at work.
The most telling irony was that she was now pregnant with her
betrayer's child.
She slumped back in her chair as the voices grunted out orders in
their battle-language, a dialect of the Joketsuzoku's own version that
reflected their uniquely male perspective on matters.
"What is it, Shampoo?" Ranma asked her, his voice filled with concern.
"Do you know what they're saying or not?"
She understood a little of it, but that wasn't the point. Who they
were was far more important than what they were saying to each other.
"Shampoo understand little," she sighed. "It special battle-language."
"You're a mechwarrior," Akane pointed out. "You should understand any
battle-languages from the Commonwealth."
She shook her head. "Not this one," she returned. "These ships not
part of Jusenkyo Commonwealth."
"Huh?" Ranma grunted. "Then who the hell are they, and how'd they
get here?"
There was no point in withholding anything from them. They shared
a common enemy in General Herb.
"They Musk Dynasty," Shampoo replied, her violet eyes trembling with
dread for the days to come. Herb was probably bringing a full regiment of
battlemechs to Ryuugenzawa to secure the world and its secrets for himself.
"They want overthrow Elder Council, and put all mens in charge. They enemies
to Shampoo."
Akane stepped forward. "So how did they know how to reach this system?"
"I know how," Ranma remarked, and Shampoo turned in her seat to give
him a hot look of warning which he ignored. "Your friend Mousse, the guy
whose kid you're gonna have. He gave them the patch you stole from us."
Her eyes burned with loathing for Ranma, but she said nothing.
"He screwed you in more ways than just the usual," he continued smugly.
"He must've been working for these Musk guys on the side."
Shampoo lurched out of her chair to kill him, but was restrained by
the flash of a razor sharp blade from Konatsu at her throat. She hadn't
even seen the kunoichi in the dim lighting of the control room. Konatsu
leaned in close to her ear, whispering so softly that she had to strain
to hear the words.
"Remember this knife?" he asked her, applying a touch more pressure
to the blade against her pulsing jugular vein. "It's yours, Shampoo; the
knife you nearly killed me with. Remain quiet and still in this chair,
please, or I shall be compelled to give it back to you in a manner you
would find least pleasant." His soft, breathy falsetto was devoid of all
malice as he spoke, but Shampoo knew sincerity when she heard it.
"It no matter," she said at length, easing back into her chair. The
blade was withdrawn wordlessly. "Musk Dynasty kill you all same."
"Maybe," Ranma admitted. "First they gotta get past the Orochi
network, but you probably got a point. Hey, at least you'll get reunited
with your boyfriend when they get here."
She tensed in the chair, wanting desperately to kill him, but seeing
no way in which she could do it before getting her own throat cut open by
Konatsu in the process.
"Careful, Ranchan," Ukyou remarked. "You aren't winning any points
for congeniality saying stuff like that to her."
"She brought it on herself," Ranma snorted. "Even if we all get
killed by this Musk Dynasty she's talking about, it might be worth it
to see the look on her face when her boyfriend shows up."
Chapter Five
The night sky above the bunker was filled with swirling bands of
luminous greens, blues, and violets that were bright enough for Ranma
and Akane to cast faint shadows from where they lay. The brilliant
auroral fireworks were courtesy of the intense solar storms bombarding
the planet's magnetosphere, something that neither of them had ever
had the opportunity to observe on any of the worlds they had travelled
before. Beyond the pretty lightshow, they knew, lay ships from the Musk
Dynasty, coming to lay siege to Ryuugenzawa and make it their own.
The Orochi network would attack them of course, and possibly even
wipe them out, but any survivors would likely remain their enemies. At
least until the main Orochi platform completed its return to normal
function from a unknown period of dormancy, anyway. At that point,
they were probably all as good as dead.
Ranma wanted to believe that they could escape, and if they
abandoned all of their technology to the Orochi's bombardment, they
probably would. They would become just like all the other humans living
on Ryuugenzawa, struggling to survive on a hostile planet with no hope
of ever returning to their former lives. He was a mechwarrior, not some
rustic farmer.
"What are you thinking about?" Akane asked him suddenly.
"Who says I was thinking about anything," he returned. There
was no real challenge in it, and she made none of her usual shows of
indignance.
"You were so quiet," she went on. "That's all."
He turned his head to where she lay next to him on the grassy
hilltop above the bunker. The lights of the aurora were reflected in
her eyes, and he was spellbound for a moment, just looking at her. It
was times like these that he understood how incredibly cute she could
be when she wanted to.
She smiled at him, realizing that he was staring at her, and why.
"Yes?" she asked him teasingly.
"I wasn't gonna say nothing," he returned lamely.
"Oh," she said with a pout that he knew was a put-on, and turned
back to look at the sky.
He lay back as well, watching the streamers of light silently
sway and curl above them. It was just the two of them together. Yuka
had flown Shampoo back to the _Palomino_ in the _Nymph,_ while Ukyou
and Konatsu walked home in her 'mech. Captain Ninomiya and her
Astrogator remained in the Control Room, while Sayuri took a reluctant
Shinnosuke home to await further instructions. The only thing keeping
him here was Akane, and when she was ready to go home, he would fly her
in the remaining Boomerang.
"Hey, Akane," he asked her.
"What is it, Ranma?"
"Do you mind if I, well..."
"Yes?"
"That is, can I, uh, hold your hand?"
She slipped her hand into his and gave him a squeeze. "You don't
have to ask me about something like that, Ranma... Just take my hand."
"O-Okay," he returned, his voice a little more tremulous for her
than he would have preferred. He could feel a blush starting on his
cheeks as he gazed fixedly at the display above them. Her hand was warm,
callused along the palm from years clutching her Warhammer's controls,
but surprisingly soft everywhere else. Without thinking about it, he
squeezed a little tighter, enjoying the comfortable closeness between
them.
She sighed in response, and snuggled a little closer against his
side. Encouraged, Ranma tried another squeeze, and was rewarded by
a little squeeze from her and a quiet giggle in return. Somewhere in
his mind, he had a niggling suspicion that there was something inane
about all of this, that he was being unutterably foolish, or maybe
even crazy. He thought back to earlier that day, his hands scrabbling
through blades of grass looking for a piece of junk. Yeah, crazy. He
squeezed her hand one more time. But this kind of crazy sure felt good,
he admitted to himself.
He turned his head to look at her again. She was watching him with
a tiny smile on her face, which widened slightly when their eyes met.
There was almost a challenging look in her eyes, twinkling through the
reflections of the torrid sky, reminding him of their first kiss, the
way she had dared him to kiss her. He hadn't been able to, he recalled
with some embarrassment, and then she had shown him up with a kiss of
her own.
She had always taken the initiative, he realized suddenly. From
their first kiss to their last, when they had steamed up the _Dragonfly's_
elevator, she had always been the one to express what they both were
feeling. Right now, he could see from the look in her eyes that they
were both thinking the same thing, and if he left it too long, she was
going to beat him to the punch - again.
He rolled to his side, propping his head up on a hand so he could
look down at her, and cleared his throat. "Um, Akane?"
She blinked prettily. "Yes, Ranma?" There was a note in her voice
that told him she knew exactly what he wanted to say, but was going to
make him say it for himself.
"Uh, well..." His voice sounded squeaky to his own ears, and he
coughed self-consciously. "So, like, do I hafta ask you if I, uh, if I
can kiss you?" That didn't come out quite as cool as he had hoped to be,
but it seemed to get the job done, from the way she tilted her head up
to his.
Their faces were only centimeters apart, but they seemed to be an
impassable chasm as he slowly dipped his head to hers, his heartbeat
pounding an accompaniment in his ears. When her cool lips finally
touched his, misted with a sigh, it was as if their trials and arguments,
ever since they had first met on Nerima, had only existed to bring about
this one moment. This was what he'd fought for, sacrificed for, bled
for - Akane, warm and sweet in his arms.
They parted briefly, breathlessly gazing into each other's eyes,
a look of affirmation passing between them before their lips joined
again. There was nothing tentative about this second kiss; it was warm
and tender, all-encompassing. Ranma felt his apprehension waning at
Akane's obvious willingness to keep on kissing him.
How long they lay there, kissing under the joyous night sky, he didn't
really know, though they paused often to breathe gaspingly, sometimes just
to look at one another with giddy smiles until their lips met again. What
he did know was that he was getting a crick in the neck - but that wasn't
any reason to stop kissing, he reasoned with himself, and regretfully
slipped his hand from her silky hair and eased it down to where he figured
the ground probably was - though the ground seemed awfully soft today...
Akane's muffled gasp against his lips startled him, and he glanced
down to see his hand on her breast. He quickly returned it to its warm,
safe nest in her hair. "S-sorry," he croaked, half-expecting her to hit
him after all.
She gazed up at him with a look in his eyes that he couldn't quite
figure out, except that it was intense and, somehow, inviting. At length,
she shifted slightly and smiled. "No need to apologize, Ranma," she said
in a soft, trembling voice, a whisper really. She turned her head slightly
to kiss his wrist, slowly returning her gaze to his, as if waiting...
for...
Swallowing nervously, he eased his hand out of its hiding place and
back down along her bare shoulder, the strap of her tank top... His breath
left him in a sigh - when had he started holding it? - as his hand curved
gently and cautiously around her breast again, realizing with quickening
pulse that she wasn't wearing a bra. Akane rewarded him with a faint smile,
her breath catching as their lips met again, teasing gently as he explored
this new and fascinating terrain.
There was something oddly intoxicating about the tiny, choked noises
she made in the back of her throat with each movement of his hands; he
found himself testing, trying to discover just which spots made her gasp
the most sharply, which made her arch her back and press herself more
firmly against his palm. Their kisses were frantic now, broken by gasps and
sighs; he found that kissing her chin made her giggle breathily, and
kissing the hollow of her throat made her sigh, and kissing her *there,*
just where the swell of her breast escaped the neckline of her tank top...
Akane's hands weren't exactly staying still, he realized fuzzily,
but were stroking gently over the satin of his shirt, testing the contours
of his chest and back, tracing delicately up his spine... When her cool
fingers slipped under the hem of his shirt to stroke at his back, the feel
of her hands on his naked flesh was electric, and he gasped despite himself,
pressing his forehead to her bare shoulder.
Akane kissed the top of his head teasingly, and he raised his head to
meet her laughing eyes. She raised her eyebrows as if in challenge, hands
stroking maddeningly just above his waistband, and Ranma found himself
smiling ferally in response, his fingers slipping under her shirt, across
her warm stomach... She was unbelievably warm and soft under his fingers,
and their lips met hungrily again. Her hands were bolder now, and his
hands... He tugged impatiently at the supportive lining of her top, the
elastic constricting his fingers as he made her gasp and shudder yet again,
though how he could tell over the sounds of his own pounding heart and ragged
breath he wasn't sure.
She shivered then, convulsively, and he snapped his eyes up to her face.
"You're cold," he said, his voice rough.
She started to shake her head in response, then smiled with a mix of
nervousness and daring. "I guess so."
They stared at each other for a long moment, disheveled and breathless,
his smile growing to match hers. Unspoken was the accord between them, the
mutual realization that a decision had been made somewhere in the tangle of
kisses and caresses. He felt giddy as he slowly reached out a hand to take
hers, helping her to her feet. They hugged then, trembling bodies pressing
close together in affirmation.
Akane led the way into the bunker, tiptoeing down the musty stairs with
Ranma's hand in hers - as if the few staff remaining in the communications
room would be listening for them. He followed her in something of a daze.
When she tripped on a step and fell against him, it only seemed natural to
take the opportunity to kiss; the next time she tripped it didn't seem to be
much of an accident, but he didn't complain. The third time, he found
himself pressing her up against the wall of the stairwell, kissing her
urgently until she wriggled away, teasingly dragging him down the last few
steps to the bunker's residential level.
Again by unspoken accord, they crept down the hall to the last of the
rooms, closing the door behind them silently. Ranma fiddled with shaking
hands at what he thought was probably a lock until it seemed to be engaged,
turning to face Akane.
She was staring at the bed - a single bed, blankets piled at the foot
of the bed as if the resident had just left for the day - or it would have
seemed so if it weren't for the thin layer of dust over everything. He
stepped up behind her, trembling, and slipped an arm around her waist; she
leaned back into him with a sigh. Ranma wondered with sudden apprehension
just what he was supposed to do next - the porno's Pop had shown him had
always skipped through this part. Did they just take off their clothes and
have at it? What did Akane want him to do?
"Let's make the bed," Akane said firmly.
Ranma frowned. That wasn't quite what he'd been expecting her to say.
"We don't need to make the bed... Do we?"
"Of course we need to make the bed. I'm not... I'm not sleeping on
all that dust." She cast him a hot look over her shoulder, her eyes
promising something more than sleep.
Ranma pressed closer against her. "But the blankets are just as dusty
as the bed," he insisted. "You'll get dusty, no matter what..." The nape
of her neck was enticing; he dipped his head to kiss it, only to meet empty
air as she shoved him away playfully.
"Barbarian," she said teasingly. "I'm making the bed." She shook out
a sheet from the pile of blankets, sending motes of dust into the air. As
she bent to tuck it around the mattress, she glanced back at him
thoughtfully. "While I'm busy with this," her low voice lilted, "you could
always get naked."
Ranma felt his face turning red, and for a moment he was at a loss for
words. There was something surreal and dreamlike about being in this small,
stuffy room, watching Akane make a bed in preparation for... for... And he
had never expected her to be so, well, bold. Wasn't he supposed to be the
one making all the moves now? Of course, he thought as he watched the
mesmerizing sway of her hips, he didn't really *mind* her being just a
little bit bold. It must have been part of that tomboy nature of hers... He
shook himself out of his reverie. She had turned her head to look at him
expectantly, the second sheet clutched in her hands; Ranma smiled back at
her deliberately. "Me?" he said lightly. "You're the one I'd like to see
getting naked."
Akane blinked at his riposte, a slow smile crawling across her face.
"Is that so..." she said quietly, feeling deliciously wanton. "In that case,
shouldn't you be doing something about it?"
He reached her in two steps, taking hold of her shoulders and leaning
in for a firm kiss. Akane felt her eyes flutter closed, a thrill of
satisfaction tingling up her spine. Doctor Tofu had been absolutely right,
she realized with an inward grin; it hadn't taken much for Ranma to come
around. The events of the past... hour? half hour?... were threatening to
overwhelm her - she wanted this, and wanted it badly, but at the same time
she couldn't help but feel a quiver of apprehension. There was no turning
back once she got in that bed, and while she knew intellectually what was
going to happen there, if their encounter so far was any indication, the
real experience was going to be far more intense than she could ever have
imagined...
His hands were tugging at the bottom of her tank top, and she stepped
back, lifting her arms to allow him to pull it off her. She watched his
face flush with wonder at the sight of her, and resisted the urge to shield
herself from the intensity of his gaze. He had seen her naked before, once,
but there was a world of difference between then and now, and she felt
suddenly vulnerable.
She ducked her head to hide her sudden blush, and stepped close to
unfasten the frogs of Ranma's shirt. His hands had come to rest reverently
on her shoulders, stroking slightly with his fingertips as his hot breath
rustled through her hair. She had seen him naked before as well, but the
revelation of his hard chest, centimeter by centimeter, was strangely
fascinating. Unable to meet his eyes just yet, she softly stroked his flat
stomach before pushing the shirt off his shoulders.
He seemed to be getting somewhat impatient, yanking his arms out of
the sleeves as quickly as he could and cursing under his breath when one
arm got caught; somehow, it made her feel more at ease, and she slid her
arms around his waist and pressed close, her cheek resting on his chest.
The feel of his naked chest against hers was unbelievable; she felt
she could lose herself in his warmth. Pressed this close, she could also
feel without a doubt how he felt about her right at this moment, and the
realization filled her with a strange sense of wisdom. She tilted her head
back for his kiss, reveling in the feel of his hands and body, and the
certain knowledge that he wanted her.
She reached down between them and unfastened her pants, letting them
drop to the floor and kicking them off her feet one by one, taking her shoes
with them. Ranma didn't seem to have noticed - his attention and his hands
being rather thoroughly occupied by other portions of her anatomy - and so
she pushed on, tugging at the drawstring of his trousers. That seemed to get
his attention, as he froze, waiting breathlessly as she slowly pulled them
down past his knees. As she rose, she played her hand up his thigh and
across the front of his boxers - drawing a gasp from him - and finally
resting her hand on his stomach, which lurched raggedly under her fingertips.
She wasn't prepared for him to scoop her up in his arms, and she let out
a sound halfway between a shriek and a giggle as he carried her the few
remaining steps to the bed, tenderly placing her in the middle. To her
surprise, he knelt down beside the bed, looking down at her hand as he
stroked it.
"What is it, Ranma?" she asked, her laughter fading at his serious
demeanor. He raised his head and fixed her with a penetrating look.
His voice was low and strained. "Are you sure about this, Akane?"
She gazed at him tenderly, knowing just what it must have cost him to
hold back at this of all moments. He wanted her - she had felt the proof
of that - but she could see by the look in his eyes that if she were to
change her mind, even now, he would let it go without an argument.
Not that she wanted him to.
"You idiot," she whispered, pulling him up onto the bed beside her.
He responded with a kiss filled with all the passion he had held in check.
For all of his passion, though, he wasn't yet entirely sure of
himself, and she found that she rather liked it that way; there was
something endearing about the way his hands paused before venturing
across her hips, carefully avoiding the soft cotton triangle of her
panties. As she considered this, he surprised her with a sudden kiss on
her hipbone, where she hadn't even known she was ticklish. He was kissing
her in all sorts of interesting places now, and she found herself simply
stroking his fine dark hair and his shoulders, laughing occasionally at
the brush of his bangs against her sides, or other places even more
unexpected.
They met face to face again, his hands stroking gently across her
stomach as he questioned with his eyes, fingers teasing nervously at her
navel. She kissed him fervently in response, feeling his hand dipping in
lower and lower circles until his fingertips rasped against cotton, and
then she couldn't think, could only clutch at his shoulders and press her
face into his chest until she nearly suffocated.
He was fumbling with the elastic of her panties then, and she dazedly
lifted her hips and wiggled as necessary until her panties were gone, and
he was touching her again, but this time... She listened to her own voice
muttering strange, inarticulate things interspersed with Ranma's name, and
kissed him over and over, not caring if what her lips touched was shoulder
or neck or his own soft lips, tense with effort.
It wasn't fair, she thought with sudden clarity, and then said it
aloud. "You... you need to be... you, too." Her voice was rough and
barely recognizable, but she knew what she wanted to say, and when he
paused for a moment she tugged at his boxers until, with a deep breath, he
slid them off his hips.
There was a moment of silence as each regarded the other, eyes filled
with wonder and desire and anticipation. She was the first to move,
gently curling her fingers around him, and he let out an agonized groan.
"Akane, don't..."
"Don't what?" she teased breathlessly, fingers teasing curiously.
In answer, Ranma slid up her body for yet another kiss, but there was
something reckless and rough about it that she found strangely exciting. She
couldn't stop smiling, even as they kissed raggedly, even as their hands
explored with clumsy abandon. This was the moment, she realized, and though
the moment itself took more fumbling and giggles and groans to commence,
it still seemed somehow sacred, consecrated.
She had known it would hurt, but even expecting it, the strangeness of
the pain took her by surprise, and she pushed at him instinctively. He
pulled back at her faint cry, an apology springing to his lips; before he
could utter it, she kissed him full and deep, pulling him back to her. The
pain would stop, she told herself, it would stop - and though it didn't
quite stop, with each moment it faded a bit more, replaced with something
just as intense, almost like pain, but something much more.
He was gasping into her shoulder, his back tense and face contorted
with effort; she almost wanted to laugh at his expression, it was just so
odd - but the urgent, spastic rhythm of his movements and the incredible
sensations she was beginning to feel distracted her from that thought before
she even finished thinking it, and she simply held him tight.
"Akane," he gritted out through his teeth, and she met his fevered eyes,
expectant. "I... I can't..." In a rush, she realized what he was trying to
tell her, and the knowledge filled her with a strange, womanly wisdom; she
smiled, and pressed his head to her breast.
"Don't," she said softly. "It... It's okay."
Before she was even done speaking, he was crying out, his hands
convulsing on her shoulders. She clutched him closer, feeling with every
muscle and nerve the tremors that wracked him, feeling her smile grow with
the barely-coherent knowledge that she had done this to him, that she had
brought him to this point. When he collapsed atop her, sweaty and heaving
with release, she stroked damp locks of hair back from his face, murmuring
little meaningless endearments into the near-silence of the room.
"I'm sorry."
Ranma's voice summoned Akane back from the reverie she'd been drifting
through, thinking he was asleep but unwilling to let him go just yet. Her
hands stilled their motions on his brow, and she glanced in surprise at his
serious expression.
"What... what for?" she asked in confusion. She was pretty sure she'd
made it plain to him that this was exactly what she wanted, hadn't she?
"I... well, dammit, I couldn't... This wasn't how things were supposed
to end, okay?" His eyes were filled with self-loathing, and she blinked as he
rolled off of her, lying on his back beside her.
"But, Ranma, I thought... What's wrong with ending up in bed together?"
If he thought she was going to let him off the hook now...
"No, not in bed... What I mean is, you didn't... You were supposed to...
Look, don't tell me you got what you were supposed to get out of this!"
Akane pressed her lips together grumpily. "An orgasm, you mean?" Her
voice was clipped and a bit surly, but if he couldn't get to the damn point,
she wasn't going to cut him any slack.
Ranma seemed to deflate a little, rolling his eyes slightly. "Uh, yeah.
An orgasm."
She shifted onto her side, propping her head up on a fist and glaring
down at him. "No, I didn't have an orgasm." His guilty look intensified.
"BUT," she said firmly, poking him in the chest, "that doesn't mean I didn't
have a damn good time. You were... you were really wonderful. I can't even
explain how much."
"I was wonderful?" He looked at her dubiously.
"Yes, you were." Akane leaned down and kissed him on the cheek. "Now,
I'm not saying there isn't room for improvement, but if you'd like to...
look, I love you, and I'm willing to give you another chance to do things
right." She gave him a smoldering look. "Soon."
Ranma's eyes filled with relief, and he relaxed towards her, eyeing
her mouth like a piece of candy. "How soon?"
Akane smiled wickedly, dipping her head down until her lips were bare
millimeters from his. "As soon as you're ready," she breathed. "How soon
can that be?"
As it turned out, much to Akane's satisfaction, that was very soon
indeed.
* * *
Orochi Network Primary Status Display
Auxillary Control Bunker
Planet Ryuugenzawa, Ryuugenzawa System
15 June 3025
Lieutenant Davidge drowsed at his chair, his head tilted back over
the headrest, and a snore rolling up from the depths of his throat.
Captain Ninomiya, having reverted to her child-body in the interim, lay
sprawled in her own chair, a snot bubble expanding and contracting from
her nostril as she slept. They had been working non-stop on a way to
subvert control over the primary Orochi unit without success, and even
if they had been awake when Ranma and Akane fumbled their way giggling
down the stairwell, they would not have noticed them.
The main display suddenly jumped, characters dancing across the
screen as telemetry information was received from space. Davidge groaned,
but did not stir as other displays mirrored the main.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SLDF AUTOMATED ORBITAL BATTLESTATION PROTOTYPE EVALUATION
ROUTINE FOR YAMATO-NO-OROCHI CLASS, PRIMARY UNIT
-Rev 4.2.13- 08/29/2782
currentpos: Ryuugenzawa L4 Lagrange Point/76.20mym
********************************************interrupt//.00&FF/stackdump
//7AFF80&FF
//5B339A&FF
//221CC4&FA
//
//>query/commandcom/node1/status:execute
//interrupt//awk...50012D&3F
//
//wait...
//
//report/commandcom/node1/peripherals/autointellection-OK
//report/commandcom/node1/peripherals/autoassessmentfunc-OK
//report/commandcom/node1/peripherals/threatassessmentlogic-OK
//report/commandcom/node1/sensors/passiveEMSarrays-OK
//report/commandcom/node1/sensors/activeradar-OK
//report/commandcom/node1/sensors/activelidar-OK
//report/commandcom/node1/commo/telemetryfunc-OK
//report/commandcom/node1/commo/nodecommarray-OK
//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/maindrive-56%[rising]
//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/auxdrive-44%[rising]
//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/reactioncontrolsys-30%[rising]
//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/regenheatexchanger-30%[rising]
//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/nonregenheatexchanger-50%[rising]
//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/RXcontrolsys-OK
//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/RXcontrolcom-OK
//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/RXpowerindication-10%[thermal]
//report/commandcom/node1/engineering/turbogeneratorcap-04%
//
//>changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute-allnodes
//
//commandcom/ack/node2/ ->ACK/changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute
//commandcom/ack/node3/ ->ACK/changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute
//commandcom/ack/node4/ ->ACK/changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute
//commandcom/ack/node5/ ->ACK/changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute
//commandcom/ack/node6/ ->ACK/changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute
//commandcom/ack/node7/ ->**MALF/commlost-error/000000&00//reply not valid//
//commandcom/ack/node8/ ->ACK/changestate/sensors/radar/mode/RWS:execute
//
//report/node1/statuschange/ACTIVE RADAR SET TO RANGE-WHILE-SEARCH MODE
//
//interrupt//commandcom/sensors/555FFA&BE
//
//wait...
//
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0001;brg:213+02/rng:6.23lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0002;brg:213+02/rng:6.23lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0003;brg:213+02/rng:6.22lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0004;brg:210-01/rng:6.44lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0005;brg:210-01/rng:6.44lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0006;brg:209+00/rng:6.40lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0007;brg:209+00/rng:6.39lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0008;brg:211+04/rng:6.50lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0009;brg:211+04/rng:6.50lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0010;brg:250+05/rng:7.15lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0011;brg:252+05/rng:7.15lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0012;brg:276+06/rng:8.38lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0013;brg:275+06/rng:8.39lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0014;brg:275+06/rng:8.39lightsec
//report/sensors/detect/newcontact-0015;brg:280+04/rng:3.03lightsec
//
//>query/warbook/classify/newcontact-all:execute
//
//wait...
//
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0001:LEOPARD-III/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0002:LEOPARD-III/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0003:LEOPARD-IV/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0004:UNION-I/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0005:UNION-II/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0006:OVERLORD-III/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0007:HUNTER-II/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0008:INVADER-VI/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0009:INVADER-VI/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0010:ESSEX-III/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0011:ESSEX-II/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0012:STARLORD-I/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0013:INVADER-VI/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0014:INVADER-V/IFF-NEG!
//report/warbook/classify/newcontact-0015:BALAO-V/IFF-NEG!
//
//>changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute-allnodes
//
//commandcom/ack/node2/ ->ACK/>changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute
//commandcom/ack/node3/ ->ACK/>changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute
//commandcom/ack/node4/ ->ACK/>changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute
//commandcom/ack/node5/ ->ACK/>changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute
//commandcom/ack/node6/ ->ACK/>changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute
//commandcom/ack/node7/ ->**MALF/commlost-error/000000&00//reply not valid//
//commandcom/ack/node8/ ->ACK/>changestate/THREATCON/THREATCON-DELTA:execute
//
//>queryclock/node1/opcommandcom/dormancy/revive
//
//wait...
//
//report/node1/OPERATIONAL COUNTDOWN: 056h59m32.78s
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
END OF PART TWENTY-SIX
Author's Notes
1. Okay, Ranma and Akane finally get to have hot sex. It only took about
2,500K of story to get them to this point... Many thanks to my wonderful
wife Bridget, who wrote the lemon scene (with some minor tweaking and
suggestions from me) in Chapter Five.
2. I'm on course to finish this in 28 parts (lies! all lies! he doesn't
know what he's talking about!) I'd like to finish this before the new
year, but who knows.
3. Now for some shameless plugola. My wife has completed the core of an
anime catgirl original art site known as "The Wilde Home for Wayward
Catgirls." For those of you who haven't already noticed the links on our
webpage, I'll post it here. Come visit and tell us what you think!
http://www.bewildered-art.com/catgirls/index.html
Free The Nukes!