The year is 2005. For six years, mankind has waged a Secret War against
an enemy from Beyond the Stars. The Nerima Wrecking Crew and their
families have been relocated to Seiran Mountain, XCOM headquarters for
the Far East. Finally, a mission is sent down for the newly militarized
Nerima Wrecking Crew, to cut their teeth against the Alien Menace. Now,
Operation Zebra unfolds amid the formerly quiet fields of a remote farm.


-----

The Road To Cydonia
Chapter VIII
Operation Zebra

-----

Written by:
Capn Chryssalid
jbraveboy@gmail.com

-----

They were a ghost: a sensor anomaly that went unidentified on the
screens of the national radar grid. They were a blip that registered for
a second, along an impossible vector, and then mysteriously disappeared.
They were a dark shape against a dark sky, moving without a sound in
excess of the speed of sound, no boom or roar informing the sleeping
world below of their presence. Anyone by chance looking up as they
passed overhead would see less than the silhouette of a circular shape
just above the tree line.

The ship was called the Lightning class, but while fast and deadly, it
was prized for its covert nature. It was an alien ship in all but name,
built of alien materials and using alien technologies, and even equipped
with an alien weapon. However, it was built by human hands, and piloted
by a human mind. If anything, this made it more dangerous than
otherwise.

"Ranma... this is all your fault. You know that, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've only said it like three times already."

"Well it is!" Ryouga groaned and shook his head. Despite the common
misconception, it really wasn't that often that he blamed Ranma for
problems, usually restricting his complaints to the Big Four: missing
the duel, stealing his bread (repeatedly), ruining his chances of
getting together with Akane, and being directly responsible for his
horrible Jyusenkyou curse. How the rumor ("You blame everything on Ran-
chan, she had said, on what basis he couldn't imagine) that he
considered Ranma the source of all his problems began he couldn't
imagine. Ranma was the source of most of his major problems. That was
all. Or that had been all.

Both team leaders were hunched over a small tank robot, called a 'Heavy
Weapons Platform.' It was a well-armored and heavily armed little
machine, only as tall as a man's waist but more than three meters wide
and long. All terrain capable, it was designed to provide a mobile
defensive fighting position in a mission, and be able to contribute
significant firepower as well. It could be used as a form of cover to
advance behind, or it could be used to try and pin down or distract the
enemy.

Unfortunately, neither of them had bothered to learn to use it.

"You said you'd read the manual!" Ryouga barked at his sort-of-
friend/mostly-hated-rival.

"I said 'I was reading the manual!' Present tense!" Ranma replied, and
the two stared down at the control panel for the HWP. For all its high
technology, XCOM had not yet developed an artificial intelligence, and
the mini-tank required that its behavior be calibrated beforehand, or
that it be operated manually, or both.

"They call this 'user friendly?'" The pigtailed one shook his head at
the exposed controls on the back of the HWP, revealed by sliding back an
armored plate. The hand held controller wasn't any better looking.

"You're the one with the Playstation," Ryouga commented, frowning at the
increasing probability that they'd have to do the mission without the
support of the tank.

"Does this look like a Playstation controller to you?!" Ranma held out a
black gauntlet that looked something like a powerglove on steroids.

Ryouga just shrugged.

"Forget it!" Ranma gave up; exasperated by the HWP and the two hundred
page manual they were trying to race through and 'get the gist of.'
"We'll just do the mission without it."

"Looks like we don't have a choice," Ryouga agreed. He could understand
how busy his counterpart had been, because he was in the same situation,
but Ranma had boasted that he'd learn how to do it, and then had put it
off. Now it was too late. Still, hopefully it wouldn't matter. Besides,
they weren't just an ordinary team, and they weren't trained for a
firefight, which was what the HWP was built to support. Their successes
hinged entirely on being able to close to within twenty, or at least
fifty, meters of the enemy, and make use of their martial arts training.

Looking at Ranma, Ryouga could tell that the other boy was thinking the
same thing. The HWP would have been nice, if only to have something to
hide behind that wouldn't be instantly disintegrated by alien weaponry,
but they'd do without. He looked around the large passenger compartment
that was, essentially, the entire internal volume of the man made flying
saucer they were flying in. Even the pilot sat in a chair in the room,
there not being a separate cockpit, navigating the craft through a
psionic interface based on that he'd seen on the alien ship just a few
weeks ago.

There was no inertia inside the ship, no sense of acceleration or
movement in comparison to the outside world. From the moment they'd
entered it, they hadn't felt so much as a slight lurch or a hint of
choppiness. It was convenient, in that no one needed to be strapped down
or otherwise restrained. From take off to landing, they could walk
around, get their equipment ready, or even read and review information
pertinent to the mission.

Ryouga saw that most of the former Nerima Wrecking Crew were busy making
sure their weapons and personal armor were in working order. He could
feel the anxiety in the air, mixed with an eagerness to get into combat,
where they were all much more at home. Shampoo and Mousse were standing
close to each other, and seeing them that way reminded the lost boy of
how they'd appeared to help Ranma and himself against Pantyhose Taro
after the jerk had kidnapped Akane. Regardless of their motives, they'd
found some comfort and familiarity in each other's presence in the
prelude to battle.

Kuno and Ryu were sitting in small flip out seats built into the walls,
psyching themselves up. Ryouga went over to check on their moods, and
Ryu greeted him with a nod. The poverty stricken Kumon heir had a
determined look to his eyes, and a professional demeanor. They didn't
exchange words; a simple nod said more than enough. Kuno looked
obviously eager to prove himself, and as he got close, Ryouga saw that
the master kendoist held two pictures cupped in his right hand.

"Kuno," Ryouga said, standing at the edge of the older boy's personal
space.

"Hibiki," Kuno's tone wasn't especially respectful, even to someone who
was technically his superior officer. The lost boy didn't care too much
about that. All he had ever asked of the swordsman and wannabe samurai
was that he took orders, and fought and killed the enemy. Years of being
captain of the Furinkan kendo squad meant that at least Kuno understood
what it meant to be part of a team, and to have a team based mentality,
even if he wasn't at the head of things.

Not surprisingly, the two pictures were of Akane Tendo and the
'mysterious pigtailed girl.' Ryouga didn't linger too long wondering if
Kuno actually 'loved' the two girls he hardly even knew. For a while,
he'd been torn between Akari and Akane, himself, but he liked to think
he'd gotten to know them better than Kuno knew either of his 'loves.'
And again, it didn't matter anymore. The only thing that mattered...

He clenched his fists till his knuckles burned white.

Strapping on the torso part of his personal armor, Ryouga observed the
rest of Ranma's group. Ranma and Konatsu were working out what they'd do
right after landing; Shampoo was still with Mousse, a little curious
about why he was wearing robes over his PASGT. And Ukyou... she sat by
herself, watching Ranma and Konatsu, only wearing the boots and leg
sections of her armor.

He wasn't sure why he walked over to her, or why he placed his
gauntleted hand on her slender shoulder. The PASGT was, on the inside,
like a body glove, so they all wore very light clothes under it. In
fact, his mentor had told him that most XCOM soldiers only wore their
underwear under the armor. Ukyou, like Shampoo, wore a white cotton
undershirt to preserve a little more of her dignity. She'd always been a
very attractive girl, (well, when she didn't dress like a boy) but that
wasn't why he'd worked with her before. It wasn't even as if her plans
had been that great.

Maybe it was because he recognized her loneliness.

Her isolation.

Her desperation.

Maybe it was because he had known, almost from the beginning, that she
was doomed to failure. He'd liked to tell himself, that first year, that
Akane hadn't liked Ranma in the least. She certainly didn't behave like
she had strong feelings for him, but when push came to shove; she was
always there, calling out his name. And Ranma, damn him, had always been
there to protect and save the girl he'd most wanted. Damn them both for
pretending to hate each other, and for giving false hope to those who
would have been better off without it.

'If you'd found him first, Ukyou...' he almost wanted to say, but
didn't. She wouldn't want to hear it, wouldn't like the defeatist tone,
wouldn't appreciate how it placed the blame on her. But she had been
late. Too late.

Ukyou looked up at him, briefly searching his features, before looking
back down at the torso section of the armor that lay between her feet.

"What do you want, Ryouga?" she asked, just then. She didn't sound glad
to see him, to have him near her, and he didn't blame her for that after
how he'd scared her the day before. At the same time, he had a feeling
that she wanted someone to stand next to her, to be near her as they
sped towards what was likely the most dangerous fight of their lives.
Ukyou didn't want to be alone, but she was. Even when he'd found
acceptance and affection in the arms of Akari, Ukyou had lived with
Konatsu, together but alone with someone she didn't love.

"We're miserable creatures, aren't we?" He asked quietly.

"You and me?" she asked in reply. "Or the entire human race?"

He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

"Put your armor on, Ukyou," he said, somberly. "We're almost there."

He'd wanted to say any number of things to her just then, give all
manner of advice, but he knew she wouldn't have reacted well to it. She
never did. She didn't like how he thought, she didn't like his
observations, and she didn't really trust him. Not anymore. They weren't
friends, they never had been, but they understood each other, and he
stood by her side while she dressed for war.

Flipping back her hair, Ukyou lowered her helmet over her face, and in
her place stood a grim, faceless soldier of UNETCO, sworn to fight and
die in defense of humanity. That version of her he could deal with more
easily. Putting on his own helmet, he saw the others standing around in
much the same state.

Some were easier to distinguish than others. The personal armor was
unisex, but Shampoo, like Ukyou, had an obviously feminine figure for
the uniform to conform to. Mousse wore black robes over his armor, Kuno
had his sword strapped to his waist, and Ryu had the kanji for 'good
fortune' emblazoned on his helmet. Ryouga finished tying the last
bandanna to his left and right arm, and he too was ready.

"We'll be using channel 45.321.90," Ranma said, and then promptly
activated his external audio muffler. The others quickly keyed to the
right communications channel, where they could talk freely without being
overheard. Making sure their individual weapons were in place, standing
around and waiting, they never noticed when the ship landed.

"This is your Captain speaking," the one unfamiliar voice on the ship
spoke up, and all those assembled looked up from what they were doing in
his direction. "We have touched down. No enemy fire to report. Target is
just under one mile to the north, next to a two story farmhouse."

The sound of rifles being loaded suddenly seemed all the louder.

"I am activating my team's individual Black Boxes... now," Ryouga said,
breaking the brief silence. "This is India Squad. Commencing Operation
Zebra."

"Same here," Ranma added just a second later. "Black Boxes are all
active. Juliet Squad reporting - Operation Zebra is underway."


-----

Nabiki had read or heard somewhere that six in the morning was,
statistically speaking, the best time to see a UFO in July. She must
have heard that mentioned off hand in the news or something, but she'd
forgotten about it until now. It was half past five, and the reason she
was still awake wasn't to glimpse an unidentified flying object, but to
wait and see if her friends and associates came back from taking one out
of the air, permanently.

They hadn't been told of the mission, of course.

But the fact that they'd all been training especially hard, that they'd
had a more palatable sense of urgency to their words and actions, and
now that they were all suddenly missing in the middle of the night... it
didn't take a genius to guess that they were off doing their new job.
Ranma had gone to fight many times, and against some truly dangerous
opponents (like the Musk and the Phoenix Tribe), but this was different.
This was truly a life or death battle. Hell, it wasn't some martial arts
duel or battle, it was war: dirty and merciless and terrifying.

They were all awake, up and waiting, since the Saotomes had come over
and told them that Ranma was gone. How they'd even known that he'd left,
Nabiki wasn't sure. Nodoka had claimed that she'd had a bad premonition
as she went to sleep, and that when she'd opened the door to Ranma's
apartment, he'd been gone. She'd probably then tried to call Ryouga, or
maybe Ukyou or Shampoo, and when those leads never developed, she'd
called the Tendo family to check in.

'No, Auntie Saotome, your son is not over here having a midnight tryst
with my little sister,' Nabiki thought with a smirk, but it faded when
she saw the fretting state the older woman was in. She'd been quiet
since coming over, sitting with Kasumi at the table in what passed for
their living room, occasionally sipping her coffee to stay awake with a
fresh injection of caffeine. Akane was in her room across the hall, and
like Nabiki, checking her email client every few minutes for news.

The last time there had been an alert, and an "interception," they had
gotten a curt email about it, indicating that it had been a success.
With no clearance, they really couldn't expect more than that, but it
was a little lifeline to what was happening that they clung to
regardless. Genma and Nabiki's father seemed to be taking it in relative
stride, and the two had taken to a game of shogi to pass the time.

Nabiki sighed, and poured herself a fresh cup of rich, dark coffee.
Blowing on it, she ducked over into Kasumi's kitchen to dip an ice cube
into the liquid. She really wasn't in the mood to let it cool naturally,
and retrieving what she needed, she popped the little cube in and leaned
against a nearby counter. Kasumi kept her place neat and homey, and
Nabiki recognized a few things her sister had had delivered from their
old home.

The Tendo sisters all had apartments to themselves, finally, but they
still crossed the hall (or in her case, walked halfway down the hall) to
have dinner like a family in Kasumi's place. Her father had it easy: he
was right next-door. It was a nice little reprieve Nabiki wished she'd
been able to enjoy back in college. It was like the benefits of home,
and the privacy of living by yourself. Pity it took what it did to bring
things about.

Walking out of the kitchen and towards Auntie Saotome and Kasumi, Nabiki
sighed loudly. "I don't know why we're even worried about them. Those
maniacs are all but invincible. Not to mention that Ranma and Ryouga
managed to clear out an alien ship all by themselves before."

The two women looked up at her.

"I'm going back to my room," Nabiki quickly declared, before they could
form a response. "You'll all regret staying up instead of going back to
sleep when they come back the same as they left."

She took a sip of the cooled down coffee, and turned to leave.

"You didn't thank me for the coffee," Kasumi observed, and Nabiki just
knew her older sister was smiling.

"I'm not worried about them," the middle Tendo sister quickly clarified.
"I'm just interested in how things work out."

With that Parthian shot, Nabiki left and slowly walked down the hall
back to her apartment. She hadn't been lying before; she really wasn't
that worried (maybe just a little). But then it wasn't really in her
nature to worry about things. Whatever happened, she would react to it
as best she could. None of that kept her from hoping everyone came back
alive, even Ranma's more annoying and frustrating fiancees. And yes,
even Kuno.

"Nothing stops the Nerima Wrecking Crew," she muttered, and actually
found herself believing it. Then she remembered what else the Furinkan
students had muttered about their unusual peers. "Nothing can kill
them... except each other..."

-----

Konatsu felt his body go weightless, as the gravity lift lowered him to
the ground below the parked Lightning class UFO Transport. He crouched
low, like he'd practiced, and like he'd worked out beforehand, and
quickly scrambled for cover behind one of the ship's landing struts.
They were armored like the hull of the ship, and could well soak up
enemy fire if they had to.

The dark crop fields loomed threateningly in the dusk all around them,
but they were separated from the alien UFO by a small copse of trees in
the form of an orchard. It was pre-dawn still, and the world seemed to
have an eerie gloom to it, an unnatural and threatening ambiance that he
could feel through his environment insulated armor. Even to a ninja,
shadows seemed longer and more foreboding, and in the distance, behind
the trees, he could make out a soft and unearthly light just a little
too high in the air.

'This is it. This is them,' Konatsu thought, and the feeling from before
resurfaced. It was fear. Blinding fear. He'd never felt it as keenly as
he had that night in Nerima, when they had came. He'd told Ukyou that
he'd fallen back to a better location, but in truth, he'd ran. He
couldn't let any of the others know that, but he ran like a coward when
he'd had an inkling of what had invaded the district that long silent
night.

Ukyou would shun him if she knew, and while Ranma would probably say he
'understood,' Konatsu doubted that he really would. The others he didn't
know very well, but he didn't think they'd ever respect him if that fact
came to light. And now, despite the building terror inside him, he'd
agreed to be the first one of them out to scout the area. What sort of a
fool was he, he wondered, to make a commitment he didn't think he could
follow through with?

"Konatsu, are you ok?" That was Ranma's voice. How long had he been
crouched behind the landing strut?

Gritting his teeth, Konatsu replied, "Fine. Just getting ready."

"Ok. Good luck, man."

And then Ranma's voice left him, and Konatsu was alone in the dark
again.

'Everyone's watching. Everyone's waiting!' Konatsu took a deep breath,
and clapped his hands together soundlessly. "Kunoichi Ninpou: Rokubu
Ichitai!"

For a moment, before his senses acclimated and reoriented themselves, he
felt like he had twelve arms, and a dozen feet. The instant after using
the technique was the must vulnerable, and one of the secrets to
defeating it. Then, it was over, and he felt himself able to shuffle
between the 'fake' Konatsus he'd summoned into existence with his ki.
Not wasting any time, he began to crouch-run towards a small fenced off
part of the adjacent field. The other versions of him spread out in
other directions, making barely a sound as they slipped into a field of
wheat.

The biggest danger at the moment was the orchard. There was sure to be
something in it. Finding concealed positions on a hill, behind a ridge,
and behind a well-placed tree planted as a windbreaker, he began initial
ground reconnaissance. For his 'clones' this meant visual recon, but he
could use the electronics and equipment added onto his MSG-90 rifle and
integrated into his helmet HUD.

This was the AN/TRS-2 Platoon Advance Warning System or PAWS, consisting
of a battery (among other things) of night vision, thermo imaging, audio
sensors, pulse Doppler radar, and a special motion detector. Like all
XCOM equipment, it was smartlink capable, and patched into the hub on
the parked Lightning aircraft. From there, the information could be
accessed by anyone in the two combat teams that had been deployed, or
even in real time by Command and Control back at Seiran Mountain.

So it wasn't like there was any pressure or anything not to screw up.

It was at that thought, right then, that one of his clones saw something
hidden among the trees of the orchard. He quickly ordered it to duck
down, and he scanned the area with his PAWS. There was nothing on motion
detection, but... yes: with the night vision scope, he could see it. An
arm.

"Contact in the orchard, about sixty maybe seventy meters," he said,
over the secure frequency. "I see one, a Floater type creature, but
there's probably at least two."

"Do they see you?" Ranma asked.

"No," Konatsu replied, feeling the tension in his body ratchet up a
notch.

"Do they see the ship?" This was Ryouga's voice.

Konatsu briefly looked behind him, and then went back to fixing his eyes
on the alien's vague position. He gulped when he realized what he had to
say.

"Yes."

"It's ok. We planned for this," Ranma's voice came back, calm and in
control. "I'm coming out."

"We don't know if the Umisenken will work against these creatures,"
Ryouga replied, addressing the other group leader.

"It's worth a try. Ukyou. Shampoo. You two follow and come out after
sixty seconds. Konatsu and I will flush out the sniper in the trees, you
two will either advance to support us, or give fire on a highlighted
target if we're pinned down. Remember: advance on angles! Like we
practiced."

"Right!"

"You got it, Ran-chan!"

Ranma's audio shut off when he stopped speaking or otherwise making
noises of a certain volume, and everything became silent again. Konatsu
waited, feeling the strain of keeping his copy selves corporeal. He
could feel his control stretch, and start to slip, but still no word
from Ranma about being in position.

Konatsu was just starting to worry, when a shot rang out.

It hit like a runaway train, right in his gut. It burned, hot like the
fires of hell, hot like the surface of the sun; it cut straight through
his body and soul leaving only ash behind. For an instant, his heart
stopped.

For an instant, he died.

And then it was over. In truth, he hated the multiple body technique, no
matter how legendary and impressive it was. He hated it. Konatsu knew
which one of his copies had just been shot, and it felt like a piece of
him had withered and died with it. Only time would heal the wound in his
ki, but his memories, and that split second on the border of life and
death... that would be with him forever, lurking in the back of his mind
like a shadow at his back.

The next few seconds were a frantic blur, as he jumped from one body to
the next, moving them, remembering where he was, scurrying like an
animal in the middle of the road about to be run over. Where was Ranma?
Why didn't he hear anything? Why couldn't he say anything? Where was his
voice? He cried out, hoping to hear someone's voice, but it was in one
of his fake bodies, and the technique didn't replicate electronics.

"I'm... I'm taking fire!" Konatsu, now in his real body, had to bite
back the urge to tell that he'd been hit. It would only make the others
panic. But maybe, shouldn't they?

"I'm almost there! Head towards the orchard!" Ranma yelled, and Konatsu
and his copies picked up the pace, swooping towards the grove of trees.

Something round and bright flew through the air. It wasn't an alien
weapon, that fired green colored plasma, and it wasn't a ki attack. The
light pulsed yellow, but only during its most downward arc, and Konatsu
realized what it was: an electroflare. The enemy would know they were
there, but it would also hopefully blind them, throw them off, and
illuminate them.

"I see him!" Shampoo yelled into his ear, though she was by now half a
football field away. "I'm taking the shot!"

"Advancing!" Ukyou chimed in.

"Shit!" Ranma cursed.

Konatsu's second clone entered the trees, as did his first. There was
another bright light, green and terrible, and another of his selves got
hit, but from a different angle. The second alien! He wished he could
have heard friendly gunfire, but the MSG-90s were silenced, and he
jumped behind a tree. His concentration slipped, and another of his
selves dissipated like mist, the ninpou that held it together broken.

This wasn't how things were supposed to go! He peeked behind the tree,
and saw the alien - a hint of purple flesh beneath the dark cover of the
trees, a flash of bright red eyes. Behind him he heard an inhuman howl,
a sound utterly foreign and offensive to the ears of any earth born
creature. It hurt even to hear, but at the same time, it was almost
heaven sent. It meant that the other alien had been slain or at least
wounded.

"Konatsu, where are you?" Ranma yelled, his voice heavy and agitated. "I
can't see you!"

"I'm here! Here!" Konatsu ducked, as a barely audible snarl parted the
air. A green light splashed against the thick tree behind him, and
punched clean through it. He could feel the heat of it even through the
insulation of his personal armor. Spinning, acting purely on instinct,
he picked up a handful of throwing stars from his belt and unleashed
them single handed, seeing his attacker through the burning and blasted
crescent cut into the tree. Its tottering form creaked under the strain
and began to fall as the metal stars whizzed through the air.

True to his practiced aim, they struck the Floater in what would have
been its vital areas... vital if it had been human, anyway. Those that
hit the torso simply bounced off harmlessly, unable to penetrate the
alien metal that encapsulated the body, the other two that hit the
vulnerable junction between bicep and elbow produced no great fountain
of blood, and even the one that imbedded in the neck seemed to have no
great effect.

The tree hit the ground, tossing up leaves and dirt, and Konatsu jumped
back and away. He ordered his copies to throw their stars as well, and
his technique and concentration were up to the task. The stars were
really immaterial, but they could cut as well as sharpened steel. The
alien spun, presenting its back and pulling in its arms, and the pseudo-
stars disintegrated against the metal shell that covered most of its
rear surface area.

But Konatsu wasn't done. He still felt fear gripping his heart,
especially after seeing how a multi-body technique ninja-star
combination had proven ineffective, but there was a building desperation
fueled by that fear and by his anger as well. He wouldn't die here! Not
before he could get Ukyou to understand how he felt about her! Not
before she could learn to understand and reciprocate those feelings! For
so long, he'd had nothing, hoped for nothing but to get away from the
misery of his beaten down life, but now he had hopes! He had dreams! He
had someone he loved!

All three Konatsus leveled their Mk.23 SOCOMs at the creature as it
began to face him. Their sidearms were silenced just like their rifles,
but in Konatsu's mind each one erupted with a satisfying crack of
thunder. Even the fakes, drawing from his pool of ki, managed to operate
and replicate the weapon's effects. The Floater began to raise its own
alien plasma rifle, but never got the chance to fire, as the first of
twelve heavy .45 caliber hollow-point rounds hit its arms and face. A
few glanced off the armored torso in pyrotechnic flashes of light and
sparks, but for every one that did, another hit the creature in the
neck, or the head.

Unlike the ninja stars he had used before, and thrown with enough force
to imbed into solid concrete, the bullets both penetrated and did
substantial damage. The Floater's neck disappeared in a spray of gore,
and one of its cruel red eyes blacked out in a shower of purple blood.
It howled, baying like a rabid wolf at the moon, and crumpled like wet
papier-mache.

Only after it hit the ground and didn't move, only then did the genius
ninja allow himself to breathe. He had never killed before, despite his
evil sisters' plans to the contrary, and he found his state of mind torn
between disgust and elation. At least the fear wasn't all he felt
anymore; that was something to be glad for at least. Then, suddenly, the
exhaustion from maintaining his replications and projecting them as
weapons began to become stronger than the bloody-minded adrenalin
pumping through his veins.

"Good job, Konatsu," Ranma said, and to his surprise, the pigtailed one
was behind him. The communications link made it impossible to tell
distance from voice alone. He looked over his shoulder at the leader of
Juliet Squad, and his remaining duplicates evaporated.

"Good job," he reiterated, and reached over to ease down the male
kunoichi's hand, which still held his SOCOM pointed tensely at the alien
body. Konatsu nodded behind his helmet's faceplate just enough for Ranma
to see the motion, and his arm relaxed, lowering his weapon to his side.
Barely thinking about it, he holstered it, and saw Ukyou and Shampoo
approaching.

"Ukyou. Take Konatsu and fan to the right," Ranma spoke to them. "Secure
that area of the orchard. Shampoo. You're with me. We're going to find
you a tree to snipe from. Ryouga - you hear me?"

"I hear you," a voice came back that they all heard.

"The orchard is secure, but we can probably expect a counterattack.
We'll cover you while you take the hill to the east and advance to the
ship and the farmhouse."

"Got it. Who got a kill just now, besides Konatsu?"

"Why? You keeping count?" Ranma made a soft laughing sound that got cut
off by the audio threshold software that handled their comms. "It was
Shampoo. Shampoo got the kill. Clean between the eyes."

"Good job, Shampoo," Ryouga said. It was the first time they'd heard
such praise from him. "Good job, Konatsu."

"Good work, Shampoo!" Mousse echoed, more heartily. "We're counting on
you!"

"You, too, Konatsu-kun," Ukyou said, and slapped him on the back.

"You guys do know that Command and Control keeps a running tally on
kills, right?" Ryu added. "I'm just saying."

"Ok, let's go! And let's try and avoid this confusion next time?" Ranma
cut in, and motioned Ukyou and Konatsu to his left. The two black clad
figures quickly blended into the shadows and disappeared from all but
the sensitive eyes of their night vision equipment. Shampoo and Ranma
walked only a few feet, before they jumped straight up and into the
thickest branches of a nearby tree.

-----

India Squad moved in a much more coordinated fashion, advancing by twos,
and searching with the leveled aim of their rifles. Looking at them, an
observer from a month ago could hardly place them as Ranma's old foes
and foils from Nerima. Soon, they crested the hill, and came into easy
sight of the farmhouse.

It was a fairly simple, two story affair, but to Ryouga it seemed eerily
familiar. Was this what Akari's farmhouse would have looked like, had a
squad of heavily armed soldiers come to her aid? Or his? He motioned for
Mousse and Kuno behind him to pause, as they moved at an angle,
searching the windows and the roof. The UFO itself was parked right next
to the building, larger than the house, and far more ominous, the
smooth, cold, alien metal looming like an evil mountain in the darkness.

"There: one of the exits," Ryu said, and pointed to a flat face on the
lowest tier of the UFO.

"Good eye," Ryouga commented, but held up his hand and waved them over
to the right. The four moved quickly and efficiently towards the
farmhouse, moving past a creaking wooden gate to the fence, and up along
the side. A small flower garden lay untouched and untended, the bright
flowers a sharp contrast with the morning dusk, waiting for a sunrise
that seemed too long absent.

"Mousse. Ryu. Search the house. No explosives, no big attacks. There
could still be people inside," Ryouga explained, and advanced slightly
to a crouch facing the UFO's exit door. "Kuno and I will cover the UFO."

"Got it," Ryu said, and nodded.

"Right," Mousse seconded. The two headed around to the door on the
patio, and headed inside. Kuno grumbled something that didn't come out
clearly over the communications channel, but he crouched to Ryouga's
side and kept his rifle at the ready.

Inside the house, Mousse and Ryu lowered their MSG-90s, and strapped
them into place behind their backs. Any mission where civilians were
involved, high explosives were generally put aside in favor of precision
weaponry. From the beginning it had been XCOM's mandate that it use a
scalpel whenever it could, and a bludgeon only when necessary. Of
course, it was also XCOM's standard mandate to engage at long range, and
avoid close combat...

Not so for the Nerima recruits. Indoors, they felt more at ease, more
comfortable, safer. Or at least they did in theory. Quietly, both Mousse
and Ryu didn't feel much better inside than they did out in the open.
Ryu kept his arms up and at the ready, while Mousse kept his hands in
his sleeves, and his arsenal of weaponry there at the ready. Inside his
sleeves, however, hidden fingers moved anxiously, curling and uncurling.

They entered a living area from the patio. The room itself was tidy; the
center table was bear, and the silence overpowering. It seemed for all
intents and purposes like a normal home, a place for a family to huddle
together in cold winters, and sip lemonade together on warm spring
afternoons. It was easy to see into the kitchen, where the microwave
clock flashed 12:00, but another clock in the form of a black cat stared
out at them with motionless, empty eyes.

"I'm getting a bad feeling..." Mousse warned, as they turned from the
kitchen towards the stairs and the lower floor bedroom and bathroom.

"Just now?" Ryu replied, the night vision granted to him by his helmet
not fully assuaging his sense of there being something present, but
unseen. "I've had that feeling since we landed. Did you notice how there
are no animals on this farm?"

"Downstairs is clear," Mousse confirmed, heading back to the stairs.
"How many occupants were there on this farm?"

"Three." Surprisingly, it was Kuno who responded. "Two elderly persons,
the owners of this property, and their daughter in law."

"Stick boy's right," Shampoo chimed in. "Which means everyone look out
for flying pigs."

"I saw P-chan clear a good fifty feet in one leap," Ranma commented
blithely. "Does that count?"

"Ranma - how are things on your front?" Ryouga asked, changing the
topic. "You get to the other UFO exit yet?"

"Just about. We're movin' slow. No other contacts yet."

"Good," Ryouga then added, "Let's keep the chatter to a minimum."

"We're heading upstairs..." Mousse nodded to Ryu, and they started their
way up to the second floor. They were vulnerable here, and they both
knew it, and they hugged the wall to improve their field of vision. Both
teens reached the top, when suddenly their armor beeped a warning.

"What the...?" Ryu paused. "Psionic activity detected? That means I'm
being attacked, right?"

He didn't feel any different.

"Same thing here," Mousse said, a moment later. "Could be a scan,
though, remember? It doesn't mean we're under attack."

The top floor consisted of a short hallway, and a handful of doors
including one at the end of the hall. They knew how to handle this. One
of them watched the other doors, the other began searching them, but
they kept together to support the other. Mousse steadied himself against
the first door, readied his hands to unleash any number of weapons, and
knocked it open with his elbow, shattering the lock on the door.

What met him was an open field of long grass, waving slowly in the
breeze. In the distance, mountains rose to hold up the heavens. Mousse
froze, recognizing instantly where he was... this was China. This was
home. He saw shapes move past him: slumped figures with beaten down
postures, and wide conical hats to ward off the sun and the rain.

He stared, wide eyed, as the other men of the Amazon village passed him,
heading out into the fields to do the hard labor the warriors of the
Tribe considered beneath them. He reached for the sleeve of one of the
men, and marveled at how small his hand was. He pulled, just a little
harder, and the tall man turned to look down at Mousse, his gaunt face
more like a skeleton's than a human being.

Mousse recoiled, his breath caught in his throat.

And then something hit him from behind, and he lost his balance, falling
flat on his face. He could feel the dirt and the mud caked on his face,
and the blades of grass between his fingers. He heard laughter behind
him, and shook his head. What was happening? Why had he been hit? How
did he get back here?!

The feminine voice behind him chortled cruelly, and it was a sound
amplified and joined in by others like it. Tears came to Mousse's eyes
unbidden - tears of shame and self disgust and fear. Gone was the
confident Master of Hidden Weapons, and in his place a small child
cried, his fingers searching desperately in the grass for his glasses.

"Look at this one! This little Mouse. Do you think he'll find his eyes?"

Mousse felt something round and hard in reach, but a second later it
twisted out of his grasp. He started to push himself up, if only to
reach further in the right direction, but a second later something heavy
fell on his back, forcing him back into the mud.

"You've got mud on my shoe, little Mouse," the voice from above
commented cruelly. "I think you'd better apologize."

"That's not my name..." Mousse whispered.

"That didn't sound like an apology!" The mocking voice replied, and
Mousse felt something slip under him, and toss him over and onto his
back. He couldn't see his tormenter, though he knew her well. She and
her friends were all just a blur, a blur that blacked out the sun and
made him tremble like a leaf.

"You're weak. Like your mother. Like your father. The Matriarch had
hoped to breed out those rotten little eyes of yours, Mouse... but
watered down night soil doesn't smell any better, does it?"

"Stop," he pleaded, hating his words, hating his life, hating
everything. "Please."

"A puny male like yourself shouldn't be giving orders to an Amazon
warrior," the voice took on a haughty tone. He could see a flash of
pink, as the face of his oppressor licked her lips. A second later, he
saw another shape: the head of a spear, inching towards him.

"Come on. That's enough," another voice said, and chuckled. "Look. He's
wet himself."

"Just a moment more. I want to remind him of something," the other
voice, of the woman holding the spear to his throat, came back, louder
than before. "That I can kill him at any time I choose. That I can kill
him on a whim. He isn't like the others..."

"Not..." a little jab. "Just..." And another, drawing blood. "Yet."

"Don't kill me..." Mousse whispered, tears turning what was left of his
field of view into an impossible murky haze. "Don't kill me! Don't kill
me please! PLEASE!!"

Ryu could feel the house shaking, buckling under the power of his
father's blows. He knew abstractly what was happening, but he couldn't
do anything to stop it. His father was intent on mastering the
Yamasenken, even if the dilapidated Kumon Dojo wasn't up to taking the
abuse. He cried and screamed, but his father ignored him, and then
everything began to fall apart.

Beams of wood fell, and Ryu's muscles and honed body weren't there to
save him. He was just a boy, and his world was coming apart at the
seams. He howled in fear and grief, as a heavy plank of wood fell,
slamming into his father's right side. The man turned, his eyes glazed
over from a concussion, and Ryu caught only a glimpse of his face before
more rubble fell, and claimed him.

Ryu felt his small arms cover his head as he tucked into a little ball,
curled tight into a fetal position with his eyes closed. He felt things
hit him, and hit near him, and when he opened his eyes, he found only
darkness. A small hand reached out, terrified and alone, and scraped at
the debris that entombed him. He was buried... buried alive in the ruins
of his own home...

"Help me... help me... help me!"

He clawed away like an animal in a trap, breaking off his fingernails in
his frantic bid for freedom. "Someone HELP ME!!"

Mousse shook his head in horrified denial. This wasn't what was supposed
to happen. They were supposed to let him go! His hands, his child's
hands, were not up to the task of holding back the spearhead that now
impaled his throat. He could feel his lifeblood draining away and his
body turning cold. Everything seemed so dark, so far away, so
insignificant...

But it was wrong!

He hadn't died! She had arrived, and shamed the others into leaving him
alone. She had arrived, and in an act of kindness to a complete
stranger, had handed him his glasses and sparked the flames of love in
him for her. Where was she? Why wasn't she here?!

He couldn't cry her name, but his desperate mind reached for her,
yearned for her - and like that, she was there. Shampoo, adult and in
her full glory, stood as clear and radiant as the dawn against the murky
haze of the rest of the world. The others, the faces, turned on her with
obvious contempt. That, too, had never happened before.

Shampoo placed her hand gently on the shaft of the spear that impaled
him, and it dissolved. The faces of the others contorted in spite and
hate, spitting bile and hissing, eyes smoking and burning like embers.
Shampoo stood over him, between them and him, and offered him her hand.

Seeing her, feeling what was happening in his mind, Mousse realized what
had happened, and what was happening. A new anger suffused through him,
directed at those who would violate his mind and his memories so
cruelly, so callously. So efficiently. He reached up, and took Shampoo's
hand, and felt his Ego Barrier solidify around his consciousness. Then,
with his other hand, he directed his willpower and his hate at the alien
presence that wormed through his mind, pulling up his bleakest memories
to use against him.

"Get. Out," he snarled, throat repaired, and voice back to normal. "Of
my head!"

Ryu broke through the rubble, a tiny speck of light serving as his
guide. The remains of a table, a broken piece of splintered wood, a
little more tile, and he was free. Pushing his hand through the opening,
he could feel the open air, and with his arm he enlarged the hole. He
was determined not to give up, not to stop, until he had seen his
father. He would save him! He would save the Dojo! All by himself if he
had to!

Emerging from the wreckage like a cocoon, Ryu saw his father's arm and
part of his upper body, crushed under a support beam. His own fear from
being trapped now put aside, along with the pain in his hands, legs, and
arms, he walked slowly towards his father's still form. He felt
exhausted, weary to the bone, but he kept going, reaching for the only
parent he had ever known.

"Father... father wake up," he began to cry, finally close enough to
feel his father's limp hand. By the angle of it, he could see the arm
was broken at the elbow, a jagged white bone peeking out from ragged
flesh.

"The Yama... Yamasenken..." his father muttered, a trace of life still
in his battered body. "Master... must Master it... save the Dojo..."

"Father!" Ryu tentatively placed his hand on his father's brow. "Don't
move! I'll... I'll... go get help!"

"Ryu? My son...." And then, as a chill ran through the young boy's body,
Ryu realized something from this memory was odd. Wrong. His father began
to raise his head, his glazed over eyes now white and red; blood leaking
down his cheeks like tears. His face was gaunt, tight, drawn back, like
thin leathery skin pulled over a skull and tied with string in the back.

Lightning fast, his father's hand, in defiance of being attached to a
broken arm, lashed out and seized the boy by the neck. Strong fingers
enveloped his windpipe, and threatened to cave in his neck bones. Ryu
choked out a sobbing cry, but he couldn't escape the grip. He tried to
scream, but nothing came out from between his lips.

"You... want to kill me...?" Ryu tried to ask, disbelief slowly becoming
something else. His head lolled back, and for a few seconds, his
breathing slowed. Then, his arm also snapped out like a serpent. It was
not the arm of a child, but that of a man, laced with well-trained
muscle. His hand seized his faux father by the throat, and Ryu began to
laugh.

"I wouldn't let my own father kill me..." He faced the creature again,
and began to stand. His grip, his powerful legs, his power - that latter
attribute which dwarfed the abilities of the real father he knew -
served to haul this fake up and out of the debris it had been crushed
by. Ryu, taller than his actual father, held this doppelganger up in the
air, its toes barely touching the ground.

With a little more pressure, he felt the bones beneath his fingers
break.

"I wouldn't let my own father kill me," Ryu repeated, smirking now.
"What makes you think I'll let you have that honor? I'll live... and
rebuild the Kumon Dojo... no matter what it takes!"

His Ego Barrier in full force, rejecting the alien presence in his mind,
Ryu felt the power travel down his existential arm. The force of it blew
away the alien mind he held in his grip, searing it to the bones before
scattering it as ashes at his feet. Ryu breathed a sigh of relief, and
he felt the world around him, the ruins of his old home, the old Dojo,
fall apart like a sandcastle hit by a wave.

He was back in the farmhouse, wearing his personal armor. His eyes
darted down, and he saw the psionic warning indicator still flashing.
How long had he been blanked out? He whirled around, looking for Mousse,
and nearly stumbled at what he saw. Mousse was on the floor, unconscious
or dead, Ryu couldn't tell... and standing nearby was the source of it
all...

One of the Floater aliens hovered in arms reach. It was unarmed, but Ryu
wasn't about to pull his punches on account of that. The Floater turned
from Mousse's prone body towards him, red eyes glowing and fanged mouth
agape in some sort of alien mockery of laughter. Ryu pounced, lashing
out with a pivoting backhand.

To his surprise, the alien managed to block the strike to its neck,
raising one hand to deflect the strike, and bringing forward the other,
which now possessed ... a sword? Where the hell had it gotten a sword?!
Ryu barely avoided having his head halved. Using his backward motion
from dodging back and to the side, he reached up and grabbed the back of
the sword with his right hand, and the front with his left, in a version
of the famous butterfly technique. Twisting his grip, he pulled the
weapon out of the surprised hands of the alien, as well as bending the
metal into an unusable L shape.

The alien jumped back, hands coming together. It was a pose Ryu
recognized...

"Mousse?" he yelled.

The Floater landed softly, hovering just a half meter off the ground,
staring at him intently. The two locked eyes, and not moving any other
part of their bodies, looked to the side at the body on the floor. Sure
enough, it moved, holding an alien weapon neither martial artist was yet
certified or trained to use. It wasn't hard to see who it was aiming at,
as it floated up off the ground, visage shimmering like a mirage.

Ryu dove and tucked into a roll, as a bolt of blazing green plasma shot
through the air, disintegrating the wall and roof where it impacted, and
leaving a hole the size of a fist that led all the way to the early
morning sky. It tried to adjust its aim as it fired again, and Ryu could
just feel the heat from the blast that hit the wall to his right.

"Got ya, you..." Mousse began to say, and Ryu slapped down his hand to
stop his movement and spring back to his feet. He saw Mousse with his
hands out, chains having torn the weapon out of the alien's grip. The
Floater wasn't yet helpless, however, as it reached for a something at
its waist: a round object attached to its metal torso.

"Grenade!" Ryu hissed, but didn't react on impulse and try to escape.
Crossing his arms, he ran forward across the room, accelerating faster
than an Olympic sprinter. When in range, he unleashed the Moko Kaimon Ha
or 'Fierce Tiger Crashing Through Gates.' Spreading his arms wide, he
slapped open the alien's guard, and kept it from activating the alien
grenade that, he had no doubt, was probably strong enough to destroy
half the house and kill anyone nearby. Normally, he'd yell something to
distract the opponent before that part of the technique, but what did
one say to distract an alien?

No time to wonder; no time to care.

His opponent disarmed and open, Ryu lashed out with his most powerful
kick, right into the gut of the opponent. Only too late did he remember
just what he had chided Shampoo about forgetting, a few days ago: it was
almost pointless to hit the armored torso or lower body of a Floater!
Still, it was too late now to stop. Hit foot impacted the creature right
in its center, and the blow sent it flying back, crashing into and
through the wall.

"Ryu! Mousse!" Ryouga's voice came in clearly over the communications
channel. "What the hell was that?!"

"One moment," Mousse replied, and Ryu saw him move like a blur, running
past his side and leaping gracefully into the air like a bird of prey.
The Floater had already hit the ground, tumbling through a hedgerow,
battered but still very much alive. While Mousse took to the air, Ryu
saw the grounded creature raise another weapon, small like a pistol, and
try and take aim - at what, he couldn't tell.

In the end, it didn't matter.

"Takazumeken," Mousse said, barely loud enough to be heard. No sooner
had it been said, than two thin blades rained down, impaling the alien's
hands and staking them to the ground. A second later, the Hidden Weapons
Master's feet made contact with the Floater's face. The heavy alien bone
held for all of a millisecond, before shattering like glass from the
force of the Hawk Talon Blow. Even the ground itself shattered, a small
crater forming from the impact, and six long furrows cut into it, as if
by the raking claws of a titanic bird snatching its prey.

Without another word, Mousse jumped again, back flipped through the air,
and landed exactly where he had left a few seconds before. Both boys
paused to confirm that the fight was over, and then quickly took cover
away from the hole in the wall. The last thing they needed was to be
picked off because of post-victory cockiness.

"Psionic warning's gone off," Ryu said with no small amount of relief.

"I thought those purple Floater creatures didn't have psionic attacks!"
Mousse barked, with more lingering aggravation and anger than his
companion.

"The aliens coordinate using psionics," Ranma's voice explained. "If any
one of them sees you, then their leader sees you, and can attack you
mentally. We covered this, remember?"

Mousse was silent.

"Is the upper floor clear?" Ryouga asked, a little impatiently.

"One second. We're almost done." Ryu pointed to the door, and he and
Mousse moved back to the hall, and checked the next room, which happened
to be the master bedroom. The bedrolls were disturbed, and unmade, but
it was otherwise empty. The last door at the end of the hall was the
bathroom. Mousse checked the handle.

"It was locked," he confirmed, getting a close look at it, and
emphasizing the past tense. They'd all read how it was quite easy for a
psionically gifted alien to will open a locked door, and this one had
the trademarks of that procedure: it was unlocked and the screws were
loose, but otherwise intact. Inside the bathroom, a set of nightclothes
lay discarded on the tile.

"Nothing in this room either," Ryu confirmed, searching the last room.
"There is a cradle in here, though."

Ukyou's voice came in first at that. "Cradle?"

"Yeah," Ryu replied, walking over to the empty crib. "Let me check it on
thermal."

He leveled his rifle at the little bed, and flicked on the heat sensor.
Sure enough, it showed a ring of heat lingering where there had once
been a body. Cursing under his breath, and radioed it in.

"There was definitely something in this crib, and pretty recently too."

"Damnit," Ranma cursed. "We have to pick up the pace, then."

"We're headed back down," Mousse added, and he and Ryu headed for the
stairs.

"Ryouga!" Ranma continued. "We have to pick up the pace. Are you
listening, lost boy?"

"I am," Ryouga replied, finally, his tone calm despite the common barb
at his directional dysfunction. "The plan is still the same. Your team
do their job, and we'll do ours."

Ryu and Mousse emerged from the patio, and made their way back to Ryouga
and Kuno. Since hearing the news, a new layer of anxiousness had settled
on everyone, and it was palpable to even non-martial artists and the ki
insensitive that everyone was eager to storm the UFO itself. On the
horizon, the sun began to crest the tree line.

"We're almost in position..." Ranma came in, speaking for Julie Squad.

"The door!" Kuno suddenly interrupted, and the whole of India Squad,
caught milling about, jumped to face the UFO while Kuno drew his sword.

A second later, all hell broke loose.

"Aiya!" Shampoo yelped, as the sound of distant weapons fire erupted. At
the same time, a weapon fired from behind the cover of the UFO's hatch
on full auto, spraying green fire indiscriminately in the direction of
the farmhouse. Almost all of them ducked, and tried to find cover. Ryu
and Mousse threw themselves to the ground, finding a measure of defilade
in a shallow depression next to the flower garden. Ryouga cursed as he
ducked behind the side of the house.

Only Kuno stood his ground.

"Kuno! You idiot!" Ryouga roared. "Get down! Find cover!"

"Ran-chan! Ran-chan!" Ukyou yelled over the comm. "Konatsu!"

"KUNO!" Ryouga repeated, gritting his teeth. "What the fuck are you
doing?!"

It was then that the scion of House Kuno fell back, like a chopped tree,
his chest bubbling and burning like black oil. Without even thinking,
Ryouga scrambled out, the alien still firing wildly at them from behind
the cover of the doorway, and grabbed Kuno by the shoulder. Pulling him
through the dirt, and across the flowerbed, he grimaced at the sight.

"Man down!" He cried, and unstrapped the medikit behind his back. "Ryu:
do something!!"

"Heads up!" Ryu warned, and a second later a grenade exploded near the
UFO doorway. Further away, more hissing plasma blasts and the sound of
explosions punctuated the coming of the dawn. The hilt of a sword, the
guard half melted and the blade gone above that, lay abandoned in the
dirt.

"KUNO!!"

-----

Ukyou covered her head and rolled out of the way as a tree crashed to
the ground at her side, the lower end of it charred solid and pointed
enough to replant it in the ground. The leaves seemed to shake and
tumble in midair in slow motion as she moved, rolling back and onto the
soles of her feet in one smooth movement. From the moment they'd hit the
ground, the fighting hadn't been what she'd expected.

They'd trained against stationary targets, where they'd had time to line
up shots. The only times they'd used moving targets had been when the
Squads trained against each other, and that seemed a lifetime ago. She
could only see the aliens thanks to her night vision and the HUD built
into her helmet's visor, but she damn well knew she couldn't hit them
with her rifle. Two had appeared out of nowhere, firing from behind a
stone wall, and another had risen out of a seemingly undisturbed field
of ... of who knew what!

She didn't have special techniques like the rest, not ones suited for
this sort of fighting. She back flipped, and saw another green plasma
blast hit the ground, leaving a long, smooth black scorch mark and a
shallow crater big enough to swallow her hand. Other blasts had punched
holes through not just one tree, but two, and another had hit a rock and
blown it up just inches from her face. If not for the armor, she'd have
been lacerated.

So she pushed herself to her limit, and moved at top speed. She wasn't
the fastest of the martial artists gathered to fight, but she knew she
could damn well put ninety nine point nine percent of humanity to
absolute shame. She zipped behind a bush, popped out of a crouch, spun
in midair and tossed a duet of grenades.

So much for subtlety.

She'd learned soon after the fight began that the aliens were outside
the normal forty-meter range of a M61 grenade. Sure, she could throw it
further than that, but it would go off in midair. Luckily, she had taken
the precaution of picking out a more diverse arsenal of toys before they
left the ship. She watched, eagerly, as one of her little packages lit
up: it was a simple electroflare.

The other, however, was a M86X Proximity Detonated Mine. The original
version, designed for US Special Forces, was generally employed as a
trap that, after being set, expelled seven 6-meter long trip wires. The
improved UNETCO version used more accurate motion detectors and software
to arm, distinguish, and discriminate between friendly and unfriendly
objects in the vicinity. Of course, it was still generally meant to be
used as a rapidly deployed trap, but that didn't preclude a more
aggressive use of the device when appropriate.

Ideally, the flare would get the enemy's attention, and...

A thunderous explosion some distance beyond the stone wall gave her hope
that things had worked out as intended. She looked around quickly. Her
visor HUD had little arrows displaying where her teammates were, and she
found Shampoo first, leaning up against the side of a broken tree,
holding a weapon much larger than the MSG-90.

"I'm firing!" She yelled taking the opportunity Ukyou had given from the
rain of alien fire. The weapon began to bark, coughing up 40mm grenades
at full auto, the air bursting munitions from the Striker 40 devastating
the alien position.

"They're falling back!" Ranma yelled, from his position with Konatsu to
their left. "Ukyou! Swing around! Don't let them get back to the ship!
Shampoo! Cover fire!"

Ukyou started to run, when her armor beeped a warning. A green triangle
with a multi-pronged star in it flashed, and it was obvious what it
meant. There wasn't anything more solid than a tree to hide behind, so
she jumped and took to the air, and brought out her woman-sized spatula
to cover the side of her body. Another explosion leveled a quarter of
the orchard, uprooting trees and sending branches flying for well over a
mile. Alien grenades were almost entirely concussive; creating a massive
shockwave that could reduce an unshielded human target into bloody
jelly.

Ukyou landed on her feet, shaken but unhurt. She spun her mega-spatula
and raced over the open ground to cut off the alien retreat. To her
surprising reassurance, she saw Shampoo racing alongside her, holding
the nearly 20 kilogram auto-cannon in one hand as she ran. They were
inside the forty-meter mark, and both women quickly shifted tactics.

A handful of gleaming metal throwing spatulas glittered between Ukyou's
fingers. Shampoo strapped the autocannon back behind her back, and
brushed her hands past her upper thighs. When her hands came back up
both brandished Chinese butterfly knives. The side of the UFO loomed
nearby, closer and closer, and out of the smoke both girls could see
shapes rushing towards it.

"Moko Takabisha!"

A yellow sphere blasted into one of the bodies, that of a small bulbous
creature. It disappeared into the light, but a sick crunch filled the
air as the sound of it impacting the wall of the UFO made its fate all
too clear. Ukyou's arms went wide, and her flurry of bladed spatulas hit
the two leading creatures, both Floater types. Imbedding in flesh, but
not doing enough damage to kill, they forced the aliens to pause and try
and bring up their weapons to get a bead on the fast approaching martial
artists, but they were just a second too late.

Ukyou swung up with her megaspatula, aiming for an arm, but hitting the
main body, doing only superficial damage to what little exposed skin and
muscle existed there. The alien tried to bring down its weapon like a
bludgeon, but the movement was far too slow and predictable. Ukyou
blocked it with the shaft of her weapon, pivoted to get the narrow,
blunt end of it under the creature's armpit, and flipped it in the air
like a hot okonomiyaki on the grill, ready to be served. As it hit the
ground, she brought the sharpened end down in a merciless chop,
beheading the creature.

Shampoo, likewise, could feel the fighting turn in their favor as she
got in close. Her butterfly knifes, not her preferred weapons (bonbori
were her favorites, but they were a little unwieldy given how much she
had already agreed to carry, and how their foes were resilient to impact
over most of their body), still managed their deadly work with grim
efficiency. She cut up and slashed wide, and an alien hand flew through
the air, spurting purple blood and still clutching its rifle. Another
scissor strike, and it was over.

Konatsu and Ranma blurred as they moved, faster than either of the
girls, overtaking the other creature that had been behind the Floaters.
It was carrying a larger weapon, more bulky and unwieldy than the
others. It never had a chance to do anything more than flinch before
Ranma stopped next to it, his left hand still extended. The Sectoid fell
to the ground, the strike faster than any of those present could
actually follow, its weapon flying up into the air, and landing in
Ranma's hand a second later.

Konatsu was on it a heartbeat later, jabbing a metal rod at the
misshapen creature's upper chest. It let out a high-pitched squeal and
its body thrashed for all of a second before going totally limp. Ranma
didn't even bother to look in that direction; he pointed right at the
door to the UFO.

"Ukyou, you're with me," he moved flat against the UFO, his eyes never
leaving the door. "Konatsu! Shampoo! Check the back fields once we head
inside!"

-----

The Sectoid screamed as Ryu's Kijin Raishu Dan cut clean through it
lengthways, the two halves peeling away from each other like the lips of
a banana. It joined two other alien corpses at the front of the UFO
door, as the creatures that had attempted to sally out had been cut down
in a vicious exchange of bladed weaponry, ki, and plasma fire.

"Kuno!"

Tatewaki Kuno, of the noble and ancient House of Kuno, felt like shit.
Groaning, he blinked his eyes as his vision slowly came back. The world
that greeted him was a shade of light green from the active night vision
in his helmet. Yes: that was it. He remembered it all now. For a moment,
he thought he'd eaten some of beautiful Akane's cooking (or those vile
noodles that the Cat Cafe had had once), but all that had happened was
getting shot at by some damnable space alien.

"I... live on!" Kuno tried to say, but winced, and amended himself.
Those other pains, even the ones from Akane's sweet mochi, had quickly
gone away, but this one wasn't. He wanted to see his body, see where it
hurt and why, but he couldn't with all his new armor on. How had the
wounded samurai done it, he wondered?

Looking forward, he saw a display bordered in red. That usually meant it
was important, though he didn't recall seeing this particular one before
in his training sessions. Perhaps he should have read that book that the
others had mentioned? As if he would! Instruction manuals were for
fools, not great men such as himself.

He stared at the red box, regardless. There was a picture of a man, with
his arms at his sides. Most of him was the color of onyx, but the parts
around the chest were red and yellow. Obviously, it was telling him
where he'd been hit. As if that was helpful!

Fool machine.

"My sword," Kuno managed to say, concentrating on what was important.
"Where is my sword?"

The closest member of his Squad, the violent wanderer named Ryouga
Hibiki, stood over him with a piece of equipment Kuno was sure he'd seen
before. Why was it so easy to remember some things, like the entire cast
of Shichinin no samurai, and not other things? It made no sense.

"Keep your head down, Kuno," Ryouga told him, and shook his head. "Your
sword's in worse shape than you are. The blast only penetrated the third
layer of your armor. Says here you've got some second degree burns, but
nothing critical."

Kuno felt tempted to follow that prognosis with a boast about his
invincibility, but the pain in his chest, and the sight of a jagged oval
hole in the armor right over his heart gave him pause. The black
exterior had been scored away by the alien weapon that had hit him,
exposing what looked like white foam and a broken lattice of blue and
copper wires. What would have happened without it, if being hit with
armor on had knocked the wind out of him like it had?

"Back!" Ryouga grabbed him, and tossed him to the side as a trio of
green blasts pinned them down.

"It's that bastard from before!" Ryu yelled, ducking his head as the arm
and its gun stuck out of the doorway and opened fire. There wasn't even
much of an opportunity to get up and advance at an angle and 'slice the
pie,' since the door slid up and down so quickly, acting as a shield.

Ryouga spared Kuno a quick look, and stood up, crossing his arms. When
they uncrossed a second later, two bandannas dangled from each hand.
Slowly, the lost boy began to move his wrists, and spin the pieces of
cloth. As the fire began to pick up again, he snapped one hand, and then
the other. The spinning yellow and black buzzsaws headed out away from
the UFO for about fifty paces, before sharply curving and heading back
in just the wrong direction. Instead of returning to their thrower, like
a proper boomerang, they careened way off course, and right into the
open UFO doorway.

An arm fell to the ground holding the offending plasma rifle, and a
blood-curdling scream echoed from inside the ship. Suddenly, it was
quiet. Suddenly, the sound of gunfire and life or death battle seemed
far away. There was only silence.

For a few seconds anyway.

"Ukyou, you're with me," Ranma's voice grated on Kuno's nerves, no
matter the situation. "Konatsu! Shampoo! Check the back fields once we
head inside!"

"Ranma," Ryouga said into his helmet. "Kuno's wounded, but we're still
good to go."

"I am not wounded!" Kuno corrected the man that, for some reason, had
been chosen instead of himself to lead India Squad. "Do not unman me by
spreading such falsehoods, Hibiki."

Ryouga shook his head. "Even if you weren't hurt, what are you going to
fight with?"

Kuno looked down, and saw the hilt of his family sword. The same attack
that had laid him out had also blasted clean through the priceless
heirloom. Lowering his head, he muttered a silent apology to his
ancestors. The others, mistaking the gesture, began to move towards the
door of the UFO, which kept opening and closing on account of the
severed arm in the way.

"Hold!" Kuno stopped them, and kneeling down he scooped up the remaining
upper two thirds of the katana. The parts near the severed end were
partly melted, but at least the top one half of what had been the sword
remained in useable condition. Clenching it tightly in his right hand,
he raised his head proudly.

The three other members of India Squad stared at him.

"Kuno, you're with Mousse. Ryu, with me." Ryouga turned, and walked
towards the door. The others smiled behind their helmets, and nodded.
Ryu went ahead of the lost boy, and the two were the first to enter the
alien vessel.

-----

"Ukyou and I are entering... now," Ranma said, as he pulled back his
hand, prompting the hatch in the alien Harvester to open. It was darker
inside than it was outside in the open air, and Ranma immediately
noticed firsthand the differences between this ship and the one he and
Ryouga had fought in before. He had thought that had been a terrible
enough sight... but this...

Everywhere inside the large room, the operation theater that had been
identified on the floor plans, were containers. They were literally
littered right and left, and each one overflowed with horrors. Parts of
creatures floated in varying states of digestion, lit from within by a
hellish electrical glow. Severed heads and animal skulls rested at the
bottom of fluid filled cylinders, alongside entrails and other select
organs that had been surgically removed.

Ranma remembered, just then, something his mentor had mentioned to him
about Harvester craft. How, on a mission to seize a Harvester two years
ago, he had seen an entire family put in one of those digestion
chambers, and how their remains were huddled together even after most of
them were already gone... Ranma shuddered.

"That's why they have to die, Ranma. That's why there's no room for
compromise." Captain Banks, a veteran of years of fighting against
Earth's visitors, still spoke with passion about what he had dedicated
his life to. "You can't see that sort of thing... without it changing
you. And sooner or later, you'll see it too. We all do."

"Ucchan..." Ranma began to say.

"You don't have to protect me, Ran-chan," Ukyou cut him off. He couldn't
see her face, but the slight strain in her voice told him all he needed.
She wanted to go, but she had to stay. She had to work through this.

"Alright," he settled on saying, and the two moved slowly from one
horror to the next. Finally, they came to the operating area itself,
where the still breathing body of a cow lay upside down, hooves splayed
wide. Arms and surgical devices curled around the sides and over the
open body of the animal, like the legs of a crushed spider in a final
embrace. Pools of fluids collected in vats nearby, and the sound of some
machine sucking or slurping made both teens want to vomit.

And that was without having to even smell the air.

"Ranma!" Ukyou saw something on the floor, and walked past Ranma towards
it. He kept one eye on her, and another on the dark and hidden spaces
that seemed to surround them. Ukyou held up something small: a tiny
shirt. He silently cursed.

"I don't hear any crying... do you think...?" Ukyou ventured to ask.

"Just keep your eyes open," he replied, hating how his attention was now
so terribly divided. They had to be careful and look for the enemy, but
they had to look for the baby, too. Unfortunately doing one meant doing
a disservice to the other.

"This is India Squad," Ryouga's voice interrupted Ranma's thoughts.
"We're on the second floor and splitting up."

Ranma was about to respond, when he saw a flash of movement.

"There!" He yelled, and raced after it. He ducked around another
digestion chamber, this one empty, and then a second, before he lost
track of the alien. Ranma scanned the holding area, but there were too
many misshapen and broken outlines. It was hard to distinguish anything.

"Ran-chan!"

"Ukyou! Stay back!"

"But... what's happening? I..." Ukyou's voice began to take on a frantic
edge. "Ran-chan! Ran-chan! Help me! Don't leave me!"

"Damnit!" Ranma jumped on top of one of the chambers, searching
desperately for the creature. Looking over his shoulder, he could see
Ukyou, her back pressed against the wall and her face in her hands. She
was hyperventilating now, and he could just feel the beginning of a
scream building up within her.

"Ranma!" Konatsu cried, hearing Ukyou's distress over the comm channel.
"Ukyou's..."

"I know!" Ranma yelled, the desperation in his own voice shutting up the
cross dressing ninja. Opening his right fist, a ball of ki grew from a
pinprick to the size of a baseball. It was red, tainted by his anger,
but he didn't plan to attack with it. Instead, he tossed it into the
air, and it cast a long red hue on everything nearby. The pigtailed
martial artist didn't blink, and he saw the small smooth body move from
behind one of the digestion chambers.

Too angry and focused to even speak, Ranma shot in that direction like a
bullet. The childlike figure was faster than it looked, and tried to
hide again, but Ranma was faster yet, and when he finally found it, he
lashed out with a vicious snap kick. The Sectoid pin wheeled through the
air, head snapping around a hundred and eighty degrees from the blow.

Ranma was about to turn, to run to check on Ukyou, when he saw something
else move within one of the chambers. Tensing, purely on instinct, he
deflated when he saw what it was. Together in an empty and unlocked
cylinder were the infant Ryu had found the crib for and an unconscious
woman Ranma assumed to be the child's mother. The baby was clearly
crying, but it was impossible to hear from the outside.

"Ukyou. Are you alright?" he asked, and looked in her general direction.
He couldn't see her clearly, though, with two of the digestion cylinders
standing in the way. There was a hiss, too, from something moving or
opening. "Ucchan?"

"I'm here... I'm ok..." her voice was wary, but recovering. And then,
suddenly, she screamed again, "Ran-chan!"

He heard the sound of her mini-spatulas being thrown, a sound not like
that of a ninja star or kunai, and ducked his head. No sooner had he
moved than a green light descended from above, missing him by mere
centimeters, grazing the side of the chamber with the two people in it,
and then hitting another chamber head on. This one literally exploded as
the superheated gasses within expanded too violently to be contained.

Ranma held up his hands, about to fire a wild ki blast up at his
attacker, when the body of a Floater fell to the ground just a few feet
away. Three mini-spats were lodged so deeply in its face as to be
literally buried in the purple flesh and bone. It still twitched, but
otherwise didn't move. Ukyou emerged leaning against one of the
cylinders, looking emotionally and physically spent.

"First floor, main chamber secure," Ranma said, with a sigh of relief.
"We found the kid and his mom, too."

-----

"Good to hear. Ryu and myself have the second floor secure. Mousse:
report?"

Mousse sighed. "We're at the engine room, but there's a little problem."

He and Kuno waited on either side of a typical retracting doorway. On
the opposite end of the small room they were currently in, a trio of
scorch marks adorned the wall.

"Problem?" Ryouga prompted.

"One of them is in there, right next to the reactor. Right behind it
actually," Mousse explained. He didn't need to add that alien anti-
matter reactors didn't react well to explosives or damage of any kind.
"We tried a flashbang, but it didn't work. Plus, it shoots at us the
second we open the door."

A few seconds passed, before Ranma interjected. "You need help, Mousse?"

The Chinese martial artist stared at Kuno, and the two shook their
heads.

"We'll take care of it," Mousse vowed.

"A fine thing to say... but what approach are we to take next?" Kuno
asked, still holding tight to the remains of his family sword. "Perhaps
it is time to throw subtlety to the wind, and charge the cowardly beast
head on."

"Was is really that much fun getting shot in the chest?" Mousse asked
dryly.

"True valor is an armor no mere jet of superheated plasma can
penetrate!" Kuno preened, and laughed heartily.

Mousse felt a bead of sweat one size too large dribble down his brow.

"In that case... perhaps we should," the amazon male actually found
himself sort of glad he was teamed up with Kuno.

"You see?" Kuno laughed again; glad someone acknowledged his superior
intellect and cunning. "The most complex problems oft have the simplest
answers!"

"Mousse," Ranma interrupted, sounding serious. "Do you want flowers or
sake on your grave?"

"No comments from the peanut gallery, if you please..." Mousse said with
a groan. "Kuno, you take the right, I'll take the left."

The swordsman nodded eagerly.

Mousse just sighed, and dipped his gauntleted hands in his sleeves. They
lined up next to the door, and gingerly, Kuno reached out to place his
palm against the door's surface. Pulling back it opened, and no sooner
did it do so than the alien engineer inside the engine room opened fire.
After the first three shots, and before the door could close, the two
martial artists jumped into the rectangular room.

Kuno immediately started moving along the wall to the right, but Mousse
stayed where he was. The alien was clever, using the first of the ship's
two reactor cores as cover, but Mousse had a little surprise in store
for him. Or her. Or it. Or whatever the hell it was.

'Hiding won't save you from this...' Mousse thought, and readied himself
to unleash the new technique. It was rather different from his normal
arsenal, and probably wouldn't even have been possible (or at least not
safe) without all the high tech materials at his disposal as an Agent of
UNETCO.

"NOW!" He saw the creature adjust its aim towards Kuno, which it seemed
to see as the bigger threat. "Ikkatsu Kakudo Hou!"

Thrusting his hands out, Mousse began to draw out one of his newest
weapons (Ranma had once called it 'hammerspace' for some reason), but
instead of a sword or polearm or bladed chain, a fine spray of dust
particles erupted from his sleeves. This dust was, in fact, a refined
thermobaric metal that reacted with the oxygen in the air. Mousse knew
he didn't even have to pause before snapping his fingers together,
rubbing the concealed pads he'd had added onto his gloves, producing a
few sparks that...

Instantly, everything in front of the Hidden Weapons Master became an
inferno, as the resulting chemical reaction burst into flame and
unleashed a jarring shockwave. Mousse could barely feel the intense heat
inside the personal armor. After all, it was designed to protect against
alien plasma weaponry, which burned hotter than the surface of the sun.
Compared to that, protecting against a little homegrown chemical fire
was child's play.

Of course, without the armor, the 'Enraged Male Phoenix Roar' technique
was essentially suicidal. Even if the shock wave didn't disorient you or
destroy your ears, the heat would flash fry you like a thin skinned
wonton. And that was only from the backlash. Anything on the receiving
end of the technique without serious protection was in for a most
unfortunate experience.

Mousse squinted his eyes; he couldn't see his target through all the
fire, but at least he was sure Kuno was far away enough not to get hurt.
Not that he would, what with the armor he had, but Mousse had seen that
it was damaged and he didn't want to take the chance if it could be
avoided. For a few seconds, he stood there, and then the flames
instantly extinguished, their fuel supply exhausted completely.

Next to the undamaged reactor, the charred body of the Floater alien
still hovered unsteadily, its rifle pointing roughly in Mousse's
direction. The Chinese boy returned his hands to his sleeves, and
smirked confidently.

"How do you like that?" Mousse asked, though of course the creature
couldn't have heard him even if it was alive. He was about to add
something witty about being able to make the technique even stronger,
when the formerly - or supposedly - lifeless alien body began to move,
raising its weapon higher until it was level with Mousse's chest.

"W... what?"

Mousse couldn't believe it, could barely bring himself to even try and
dodge, when a shape glided behind the creature. Kuno, unable to sheath
his sword, none-the-less snapped it to the side, flicking a bit of blood
from the edge to clean it. The alien's arm trembled before falling apart
into two pieces. A second after those hit the ground, the head slid
forward from its position between the shoulders. The rest of the body
followed in short order.

"A fine technique," Kuno commented. "However, you forget the nature of
our foe."

Mousse had forgotten, and he frowned. Floaters weren't just encased in
alien metal; their lower bodies were entirely replaced. Virtually all
their major organs, except the brain, were replaced by cybernetic
equivalents. The most a fire could do to them was burn the thick hide
and muscle, and there had remained enough of the latter in this case to
still move, albeit slowly and probably painfully. A normal creature
would have instantly gone into hypovolemic shock, or would at least be
so traumatized by pain and horror that it would be unable to mount any
further offense or defense.

"Quite," Mousse settled on saying, simply. His opinion of Kuno, however,
went up a notch (to one notch). "Engine Room secure."

-----

"Things look clear out here, too," Konatsu stood perched on the top of a
tree.

-----

"The sun's coming up," Shampoo commented from further away, next to a
fence.

-----

"Then we're heading upstairs to end this," Ryouga said, and nodded to
Ryu. "If you lose communication with us, counterattack as soon as you're
able. Mousse, you'll take command of India Squad."

"Let's go!" Ryu had to lead, of course, and they opened the door to the
first room with a lift up to the third floor. Ryouga waited there, while
Ryu headed back, went down the hall in the second floor, and arrived at
the other room.

"Three," Ryouga began.

"Two," they said at the same time. "One!"

Both martial artists emerged in empty antechambers to the alien command
and control room. They didn't waste time any extra time or momentum, and
opened the final two doors in parallel. No sooner did they step into the
main room than their personal armor sensor systems blared a psionic
attack warning. Standing alone in the center of the command room was a
humanoid shape in titian robes.

WAITING

The thought hit their minds like a crack of thunder.

FOR

Ryu felt blood drip down over his lower lip.

YOU

-----

"Ryouga? Ryu? Come in! Respond! RESPOND!!"

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